Working the runway: out designer Michael Kors tells it like it is to would-be fashionistas on Bravo's Project Runway.

Take 12 amateur clothing designers challenge them to create stunning catwalk-worthy fashions, have them judged by industry heavyweights, and promise numerous rewards, including a chance to display their work at Fall Fashion Week in New York City, and you've got one thing: drama! Welcome to Bravo's Project Runway, airing through February 16, where the stakes are high and style mavens of all sexual orientations are flocking to check out the action.

"Fashion people are, by nature, an entertaining lot, so you don't have to work hard to make great television," observes Michael Kors, laughing. The openly gay designer--along with Runway's creator, supermodel Heidi Klum, and Elle magazine fashion director Nina Garcia--is one of Project Runway's regular judges. Each week they score contestants on how well the would-be couturiers execute a theme with the materials provided. In some cases these challenges may seem outlandish--such as when all the supplies had to come from a grocery store--but Kors attests that "a lot of people think, I'll sketch a dress and be a designer. But the plain, simple truth is that in real life they're going to end up having to do things in their own businesses that are every bit as complicated."

Even before Runway premiered, the buzz was hot. "You've got a combination of the creative process and all the angst that goes into that, and extremely talented and interesting personalities," says Frances Berwick, senior vice president of programming and production for Bravo. "You really are rooting for them, and there is a huge payoff when you see what they've created."

While this cast includes the over-the-top designers that one would expect in the fashion world--like fur-wrapped, fast-talking Jay McCarroll or the flamboyant Austin Scarlett, who could pass as Lypsinka's twin brother--Kors cautions against buying into stereotypes. "The people who don't look as groovy can sometimes surprise you and actually come up with very groovy ideas," he says.

For Bravo, the network behind such shows as Gay Weddings and the Queer Eye franchise, Kors was a perfect match. "He's had his own label for 20-plus years, has been a role model to these designers, and is still a young guy who can speak very frankly about the business," says Berwick. "He can be direct and quite forceful in his criticism, but it's always constructive. And he's also incredibly funny in a way that's great for television."

That doesn't mean we'll see Kors doing his impression of American Idol's Simon Cowell; Kors is more about educating than tearing down. "I think this show will open people's eyes," he says. "It's going to teach people that this is not only a glamour business but that there is sweat behind the glamour."

Andreoli is the editor of Mondo Homo (Alyson Books).