Lifetime Sets 'Project Accessory' Team

Lifetime has finalized its Project Accessory team. The Project Runway spinoff will be hosted by actress/model Molly Sims while Vivre CEO Eva Lorenzotti will serve as the contestant’s mentor and Kenneth Cole and InStyle editor Ariel Foxman will sit in the judges chairs.

Cole was a guest judge on last week’s episode of Project Runway, which is currently in its ninth season.

Lifetime has ordered eight one-hour episodes of Project Accessory, which will likely bow in November along with Project Runway All Stars. The spinoffs mark the network’s latest effort to capitalize on its biggest reality hit after an earlier attempt, Models of the Runway, failed to connect with viewers.

The remaining nine Runway finalists from the current season, which premiered last July, will present their collections at New York’s Fashion Week on Friday. But only the true finalists will have their collections shown during the finale, which airs later this fall. And Lifetime will use Runway to launch All Stars and Project Accessory, said Rob Sharenow, executive vp of programming at Lifetime.

“This is really the first cycle [of Project Runway] where we’ve had other fashion specific programming in development to compliment it,” Sharenow told The Hollywood Reporter during a recent interview. “This is the first time we’ve really crystallized the strategy.”

Lifetime is keeping the identity of the 12 Project Accessory contestants under wraps for now. But the series began production in New York last month. The format of the show will follow that of Project Runway, but competing designers will be creating accessories including shoes, handbags, jewelry and hair pieces.

Project Accessory is produced by The Weinstein Company and Goodbye Pictures. Executive producers include TWC’s Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, Meryl Poster and Barbara Schneeweiss with Rich Bye and Fred Pichel for Goodbye Pictures, Sarah Emanuel and Sharenow, Gena McCarthy, David Hillman and Kim Chessler for Lifetime.