While we patiently await publication of The World According to Santino Rice, Project Runway finalist Daniel Vosovic is joining Tim Gunn and Nina Garcia in parlaying his appearance on the Bravo reality show into a book. Between honing his skills working for established designers and creating uniforms for staffers at a new line of chain hotels, Vosovic found time to write Fashion Inside Out (pictured at left), which is set to be released in late October. It includes a forward by Gunn and is chock full of photos by Michael Turek. Publisher Watson-Guptill describes the book as "combin[ing] practical information on fashion design with an intimate look at the fashion scene today," including "a detailed overview of the design process, plus insightful advice on connecting with the right people, promoting and selling, and much, much more." As for the cover, we get the Chanel-esque treatment of "Daniel," but we're getting a strange vodka branding vibe from the rest of it. Meanwhile, we hear that last year's Project Runway winner, Christian Siriano, has also got a book in the works. The topic? How to be fierce, of course.

Bravo's Shear Genius, a Project Runway for hairstylists, is back for its second season. Heavy on the "cut"-related wordplay, the show puts vaguely menacing Danish hairstylist René Fris (who we could swear we once saw in a Mentos commercial) in the Tim Gunn role and is hosted by actress/Kmartist Jaclyn Smith. Shear Genius celebrated its season premiere on Tuesday with a pop-up salon in New York's Times Square and recruited students from the School of Visual Arts, under the guidance of SVA 3D Design Program chairperson Kevin O'Callaghan, to design the temporary salon as well as ten salon chairs that Bravo's "The Dish" blog describes as "pretty damn amazing."

Among the wacky hair chairs is the trio pictured above. Created by Sarah Nguyen, the "DJ" chair (at far right) is a stack of hair-themed record albums ready for playing on its giant turntable base while Kathleen Ugurlu's "Jock" (center) is for the hirsute baseball fan (we think the batting helmet is a nice touch). But we find ourselves unable to resist the garden gnome-accessorized "Backyard" chair designed by Kaori Sakai in a bold palette of green, red, and yellow. It comes with a grass-tufted seat backed by a garden gate, a hose, cooler, and a full grill setup, complete with ketchup, mustard, and corn on the cob. Check out all of the chairs and vote for your favorite here. The winner gets a $5,000 prize, which we're hoping is payable in cash rather than hair products.

In Sunday's New York Times magazine, Alex Witchel looked at the AMC network's retro hit Mad Men, which begins its second season on July 27. We confess that we watch each episode twice, once with the sound on and then again on mute, so as to better contemplate the stellar sets, vintage props, and bold-hued womenswear (kudos, costume designer Janie Bryant). But we're not sure if series creator Matthew Weiner would approve of our approach. "The design is not the star of the show," he tells Witchel. "I don't want to be distracted by it."

Witchel's piece examines how Mad Men depicts the advertising world of the early 1960s, psychoanalyzes Weiner (perhaps he eschews on-the-nose writing because of "the lack of direct communication with his parents"?), and surveys some Madison Avenue veterans on how life at Sterling Cooper (the show's fictional ad agency) measures up to the reality as they remember it. Famed art director George Lois is not amused. Read on for his wrath.

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As for the relevant winners of last night's cringe-inducing Bravo A-List Awards, the always gracious Anna Sui was named A-List fashion designer, while Nintendo's Wii Fit earned some sort of design innovation award sponsored by Chrysler.

Presenting the fashion design award was model Jessica Stam, who described the four nominees in a drowsy, Olsen twin-like cadence. Zac Posen was lauded for his "aggressive boldness" and the Proenza Schouler boys were noted for their "calculated bravado." OK, but how to explain the descriptions penned for the female nominees, Tory Burch and Sui? "Subtle timelessness" was a poor fit for characterizing Burch's bold, David Hicks-influenced designs, while Stam was teleprompted to say that Sui's signature is her "unwavering austerity." Rock n' roll-inspired, bohemian, and folkloric, Sui's designs are the opposite of austere. Someone should have recruited Project Runway's Tim Gunn or presenter and writer Simon Doonan to proof the show's script.

Meanwhile, the Wii Fit's award was quickly dispatched with the help of the delightful Doonan, a taped segment featuring Top Design judge and Elle Decor editor Margaret Russell, and a guy with a skateboard. Doonan succeeding in summing up the entire evening when, after struggling with the apparently unadjustable microphone, he swiftly read his lines before giving the audience an exasperated glance and saying, "TAPE!" Cue the below video to see for yourself.

Last night saw the broadcast of the first—and perhaps last—Bravo A-List Awards, the fizzy cable network's mashup of honors for "food, fashion, beauty, design, and pop culture" punctuated by the shameless comedic stylings of self-proclaimed D-Lister Kathy Griffin. Opening with a solo number penned for Griffin by music man/wordsmith Marc Shaiman and ending with a runway show featuring celebrities clad in designs whipped up by eight Project Runway all-stars (none of whom, alas, were Santino Rice) and destined for the auction block to support UNICEF's relief efforts in Myanmar, the show appeared to embarass most of those in attendance, with the possible exception of Tila Tequila, who took home the award for "A-List Drama Queen."

Lured by the mention of fashion, design, and Jonathan Adler-designed statuettes that resembled metal-dipped wig stands, we were disappointed by the event's awkward E!/VH1-style raunchiness where Bravo's usual cleverness should have prevailed. In short, we wanted more Tim (Gunn) and less Tila. When the reality show contestant-packed crowd began chanting the name of Jerry Springer (a co-presenter of the award for...A-List Chef?), we had no doubt why the likes of Project Runway judge Michael Kors and Top Design arbiters Margaret Russell of Elle Decor and designer Kelly Wearstler were nowhere in sight, although Russell did say a few words in a taped segment.

Last month, a whopping 18 world swimming records were bested. Coincidence or Speedo? Many are attributing the record rampage to the latter -- that is, the new superengineered swimsuits that the sport's world governing body recently affirmed are legal for competition. The full-body performance suits, developed and manufactured by such companies as Speedo and TYR (and yours for approximately $600), improve upon the flawed hydrodynamics of human skin with body-squeezing "laser panels" and water-repellant materials such as urethane. In yesterday's design-themed episode of CBS Sunday Morning (video below), Daniel Sieberg highlighted some of the technological innovations that have allowed competitive swimmers to accelerate to new levels, but did he really need to open and close the segment from the pool? Judge for yourself:

As a sizable chunk of the design community comes together to talk trends and compare chairs during the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City, CBS News is taking its sunny Sunday Morning on the road for the show's annual "Design Issue." Charles Osgood, he of the soothing voice and omnipresent bow tie, will anchor the show from Berlin this Sunday morning (9:00-10:30am on CBS) and visit such sites as Charlottenburg Palace, the Berlin Zoo, and Brandenburg Gate. Meanwhile, correspondents scattered about the globe will cover everything from architect David Hertz and the beachfront eco-mansion of actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus to bento boxes, cutting-edge competitive swimsuits, and the rent-by-the-hour bicycles that are all the rage in Paris. A CBS press release also tempts with the promise of a segment in which London correspondent Mark Phillips "explains what's replaced the stalwart umbrella as a must-have for the well-dressed Briton." Hmm. We're guessing endless wads of cash? A shady uncle who was bullish on Gazprom?

Over at Nerve.com, they've assembled a list of the "50 greatest commercial parodies of all time," most of them drawn from the post-monologue slot on Saturday Night Live. The list includes many of our favorites, including the SNL spots for Crystal Gravy (#16) and Calvin Klein "Compulsion" (#29), but where is the classic Grayson Moorhead Securities parody? Dan Akroyd shilling for the Bass-o-matic takes the #1 ranking, and we're pleased to see that this ad for the First CityWide Change Bank came in at a respectable #7.

Artist, designer, blogger, and AIGA/NY Fresh Dialogue speaker Andrew Kuo was on Charlie Rose earlier this year, and while that show isn't available online, Mr. Rose's website offers up the below pre-show interview with Kuo, filmed at his recent exhibition at 33 Bond Gallery in New York City. In the video, Kuo talks about art, living in his studio, blogging, and getting over the fear of feedback. Among our favorite "Kuotes": "In high school school, one of my art school teachers thought I was colorblind, but I was just lazy. I just didn't want to mix colors, because I felt like as soon as I started mixing colors I would lose control." Makes us think about Mondrian's psyche in a whole new way.

We know, we know, you're still coming down from Christian Siriano's well-deserved Project Runway victory (our verdict on his extraordinary final collection: very Rodarte-meets-Riccardo Tisci!) and wondering why Bravo didn't just give Real Housewi[fe] of New York City LuAnn de Lesseps her own show. But a new season of the cable network's Top Design is now officially underway, our sister blog, FishbowlLA has just reported. While they didn't get close enough to detect the presence (or absence) of season one judge Kelly Wearstler or whether host Todd Oldham is still reading his lines like a nursery rhyme, they do have the scoop on where the show has been filming since Tuesday: the L.A. loft space location of last year's Top Design finale.

Did you and/or your design nemesis heed the season two casting call we posted here? Do tell: unbeige AT mediabistro.com