Kelly Osbourne used to be the punk princess.

We all remember the pink hair, heavy make-up and lots and lots of black (this princess was, after all, the daughter of the Prince of Darkness).

I was in middle school (ed note from Abby: I just fell off my chair while reading that phrase from my lovely intern. Holy crap am I old!) when she covered Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach and am not ashamed to say that I danced to it in friends’ rooms and at school dances.

We liked that she wasn’t some twiglet and embraced her and all her many quirks, both style and otherwise.

Though Fern Mallis, senior vice president of IMG, is one of the most important figures in fashion (she is basically who we have to thank for that little thing called Fashion Week), many people don’t actually know her know her.

So we thought we’d share this short, rare interview she did with Bravo in promotion for her role as a judge on Bravo’s new Project Runway replacement called The Fashion Show, for which Isaac Mizrahi is also a judge, so everyone can get to know the lovely Fern a bit better.

Learn that she used to wear only American designers while director of the CFDA, that her style is “international,” that Donna Karan sometimes “gets fats, gets skinny,” and that Fern is much nicer than most people seem to think she is.

The show premiers May 7th - more info on Bravo’s site.

A teeny sentence in this morning’s WWD confirms a story that was floating around during Fashion Week, and so was subsequently ignored.

Gossip Girl has inspired a reality show.

Bravo - the network behind Project Runway, The Fashion Show and Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style - has started filming a show, which may or may not be called NY Prep, that follows around real-life UES private school kids, to see if anyone really lives a life like Chuck Bass.

Obviously, we’re just curious if anyone actually shows up to 8am geometry with Gisele hair and Celine, but we’ll know soon enough - the show hits small screens everywhere this fall.

Everybody’s looking for ways to drum up cash these days, and camera crew-toting stylists are no exception:

Next Thursday (March 26), the Decades Two in Los Angeles is hosting an in-store shopping event for 50 - 100 pieces of contemporary costume jewelry from Rachel Zoe’s personal collection, handpicked by one of the store’s owners. A portion of the proceeds will benefit a charity of Ms. Zoe’s choosing.

Unsurprisingly, you can’t go unless you’re invited. But here’s the flip side: Jewelry that makes it past the first night will end up on DecadesTwo.com and on the store’s eBay page the very next day, meaning you can click yourself silly with your friends while making all the bananas references you want in the privacy of your own home.

Though LA party girls, beware: The event will be taped for the Rachel Zoe Project, meaning you could end up on Bravo shopping Rachel’s cast-offs. We think the website might be the way to go.

We’re endlessly fascinated with the meeting of “real,” “reality” and “fashion” on television these days, and the way it endlessly fascinates us despite our constant stream of questions and concerns. Like:

1. Doesn’t Diane von Furstenberg (as in, the real DVF, not some character of herself she plays on MTV) care that the entire world has now watched her discuss Whitney Port’s love life on prime time?

2. Doesn’t Whitney Port care that the only time she actually got to talk to the real DVF (who, let’s face it, is always present with her on-screen self) was during a work party where she spewed about her boyfriend instead of about wanting to do more with her job?

3. Also, don’t the producers care that DVF just repeated the same advice we’ve heard her give several times?

Please, discuss this moment in true tele-reality. Because when Diane started playing with her hair and asking legitimate questions about Jay, we lost too many brain cells to think on this any further.

If the mere existence of The City didn’t make this one obvious, allow the cold hard facts to stand alone:

Lauren Conrad is leaving The Hills after season five, which premieres March 30th.

No word on exactly what the show will become without its north star, but here’s the better question - what exactly is Lauren going to do with her life after being (arguably) reality TV’s best known experiment?

Our best guesses:

Looks like Allie from The City really is a model - here she is in Tracy Feith’s line for Target.

News flash:

Looks like a reality stint on the CW can actually land you a real job at ELLE. Plenty of people thought that Stylista couldn’t possibly result in an actual job at one of the world’s top magazines, even after others swore it really would.

But now, Johanna, the show’s only-season winner, is blogging for ELLE.com - check out her interview with Rad Hourani - which means she must actually have a real, paid job with the Hachette glossy.

She’s says she’s been working very closely with linebacker Stewart Bradley. How’s that for a reality check?

When we first heard about Bravo’s Project Runway replacement, Fashion House, we chalked it up to being a desperate move and a show that probably no one would watch.

Consider our tune changed: Bravo’s just announced the show’s judges, and they’re none other than Isaac Mizrahi (whom we wish we could carry around in our pocket for running commentary all day) and IMG’s Fern Mallis! (Oh, um, also Kelly Rowland, but let’s just skip over that part.)

The show airs sometime later this year, and pits professional designers against each other in a series of challenges for the chance to have their line available for sale in a “major retail outlet” (which we’re sure will be a major help to whichever department store signed on for this).

But back to what’s important: If Isaac can somehow work Sketches & Answers into this - maybe while the credits roll? - we’re hooked.

Update: Bravo’s changed the show’s name to The Fashion Show. Very descriptive.

While you wait for The September Issue to finally hit A&E, there’s another fashion documentary making the rounds: Eleven Minutes.

The documentary follows Project Runway Season 1 winner, Jay McCarroll, for a full year while he tries to ready his first independent collection for New York Fashion Week.

Sure, that sounds a little like Unzipped without Naomi, but we think it’ll be a good balance for the overly wrought fashion television shows currently messing with the definition of “reality.”

The movie hits screens February 20th, and you can expect tons of zingers: The IMDB character list includes Kelly Cutrone.

In case anyone else sort of came around on The City after Olivia shut down Whitney over talking about her friends’ hook up situation in the DVF offices (“Whitney, you’re an adult. You’re what, 23 years old? You’re not in high school”), take note:

MTV’s picked up the show for a second season, which could mean more fun quotes from Olivia, but definitely more cameras at Fashion Week.

Not exactly win-win, but maybe Diane will show up on camera again?

Good news if you’re a fan of Nina Garcia on Project Runway, and Stylista on the CW. Bad news if you think ELLE should lay off cable-related publicity:

ELLE has just hired on Creative Artists Agency as a consultant.

Why?

Because they need someone to look for “TV shows and film properties that can elevate ELLE’s brand among potential readers,” and they’re so serious they need someone to do that full-time.

Meaning?

Get ready for more ELLE on TV, which is sure to compete with Marie Claire’s Running in Heels.

In the meantime, we’re just waiting for someone to announce they’ll host live podcasts of editorial meetings and interns packing clothes. Can’t. Wait.

If you happen to know Kate Bartle, Starworks’ Director of Accessories, then you may or may not already know this:

Kate’s left her PR job at Starworks as of yesterday.

Her mega destination? Working in the PR department of DVF.

Which, I’m sure you’ve all put together by now, means she’s Whitney Port’s newest co-worker (and confidante?) and our favorite new pick for reality show cast member.

And now you know.

During the last couple Fashion Weeks, you were like to spot either Tyson Beckford or Niki Taylor with a camera crew in tow, since they were filming Bravo’s Make Me a Supermodel.

Now, you can add Nicole Trunfio to that list, since she’s just been brought on by the show as “a mentor to the female models.” The Bravo press release also says you can count Catherine Malandrino in as a judge, whom you might remember from an earlier episode of Project Runway.

We’re a little surprised Nicole took this gig - We wouldn’t have pegged the skateboarder and summer housemate of Gemma Ward as the reality TV type, but hey, does anyone on television surprise you anymore?

“Uptown is represented by a fantastically detestable office rival of Whitney’s, Olivia Palermo, who has provided the show’s single greatest contribution to the nomenclature of reality TV by referring to herself not as a socialite but as a “social.” This has the benefit of confirming for whoever might actually be wondering that she is in no position to unseat Anne Bass. If you ask me, Olivia is the only reason the cameras ever ought to be in the DVF headquarters, given how little appears to go on there beyond pointless staff meetings underscoring the urgency of fashion week.

Olivia is the uptown not of Brearley and Yale but of ostentatious dressing and dumb luck. She transmits her ding-dong thoughts in imperious glares, and reeks of the insecurities of entitlement. She wants to make sure Whitney understands who she is, though we are given no idea of where in the world the Palermo name is supposed to resonate. At a press event for Manolo Blahnik, she tells Whitney she got her first pair of the designer’s heels for her coming-out party, then says it again after she has claimed that Manolo himself is a family friend even as he barely appears to recognize her.

The City is not the advertisement for New York that The Hills, with its dreamily shot opening-credit sequence, is for Los Angeles. There seems to be West Coast bias at play because Manhattan is made to look boxy and claustrophobic and, so far at least, is evoked primarily by images of the meatpacking district at night. In only one shot, of Whitney and Jay together, does New York seem like a place of possibility and does The City look as it should, like a Woody Allen movie for people who might stumble on a copy of The New York Review of Books and wonder why there are no ads for Chanel.” - The New York Times, on The City, and the city.

In keeping with sacred internet tradition, we give you the first of Fashionista’s end-of-year lists: Who Should Have Judged Project Runway?

Britt:

1. Isaac Mizrahi: Because, duh.

2. Behati Prinsloo: Because having a model challenge would be genius and Behati’s witty, smart, young and if they need a more commercial angle, she’s the face of Pink. Actually, they should have Behati and Coco do it together. I hardly watch the show anymore, but I’d find a TV for them.

3. Chris Benz: Because he might be the closest thing our generation has to Isaac Mizrahi (I know, but Zac guest judged during Season 4).

Natalie:

1. Isaac Mizrahi: Because this man should have a camera and a stenographer following him at all times.

2. Madonna: Because no one could tear young hopefuls down as thoroughly as Madge, and isn’t that what reality fashion television is all about?

3. Meredith Melling-Burke: Because as arguably one of the most powerful market editors on the planet, she could actually give the contestants useful criticism/information. And she’s really pretty, too (good TV).

And yours?

From a conversation last night:

Us: “No, but I think Whitney actually does work there. People saw her at he DVF show in September, like organizing models backstage with a clipboard.”

Girl: “Hm, weird, because she kind of doesn’t.”

Us: “Hm?”

Girl: “Well, she just goes into the office to shoot scenes like she works there, like what they did on The Hills. Actually, it’s kind of sad. When they film her spots, they make the girls that actually work there move from their desks and into some cubicles in another part of the floor, because they’re actually working, but the camera people want Whitney and her on-screen work friend to look like they have real desks.”

Us: “They make the people who really work there give up their desks in the middle of the day so The City can shoot?”

Girl: “Yeah. And when the scenes are done, Whitney leaves. She doesn’t really work there.”

At this point, we had a pretty shocked look on our face. Though looking back, we have no idea why…

Is it too early to D - I - E ?

Because the LA Times says the Rachel Zoe Project will in fact be back for a second season, airing sometime in the middle of next year.

So don’t fret - not all reality television tied to fashion is horrible.

And it won’t be totally sad if you continue to speak in Zoe-isms to your co-workers.

Thank goodness.

Remember back when the letters “MTV” actually meant what they stood for, and music was the entertainment of choice, rather than broadcasting the crushing of people’s lives? Don’t you wish you could have it back?

Well, don’t hold your breath. MTV’s just announced yet another reality show, this time having to do with fashion, which apparently is unrelated to their modeling reality show, Model Makers, which we’re still hoping never makes it on air.

The new show doesn’t have a name yet, but it calls for “all artists, designers, tastemakers, trend spotters, and anyone who thinks they know the fashion industry like the back of their hand” but who “don’t yet have on-the-job experience in fashion, but an understanding of what the public wants and how to give it to them” to apply for the chance to “work directly with a world-renowned fashion designer, entertainment mogul and street icon” to eventually “participate in the creation of a fashion line.”

Which may as well read: “If you’re completely out of your mind, have a vague idea that you want to work in something called “fashion” and are downright enthusiastic about making an ass of yourself with other equally delusional people on national television only to cut your blurry dreams short by giving everyone an unshakable, reality TV reference of yourself which will always stand in place for what should be your actual reputation, please, sign up.”

Interested parties can e-mail MTVcasting4fash…@gmail.com, parties who just want a little laugh with their lunch can read the full release after the jump.

PS. Does anyone not think the mogul in question is Puff Daddy?

Maybe it’s because I’ve just returned from a long weekend in the country, or maybe it’s because I’m particularly eagle-eyed when it comes to hair, but did anyone else notice last night’s prime time hair switch?

First, I watched Blair Waldorf help save a young girl from 1 Oak sporting a side braid more reminiscent of Lauren Conrad’s cool-California girl style than her usual UES stiff. And that was funny and fine.

But then I noticed Lauren Conrad sporting a black headband (and was that a bow on it? Tilted to the side?) more reminiscent of Blair Waldorf’s uppity signature look, which always makes me think of Shannon Doherty in Heathers.

An intentional Monday night hair swap? Or an East Coast / West Coast hip-hair rivalry?

You know we doubt it’s either, but it’s just so fun to say shit like that.