Project Runway Girls Night Out Party

Every girl loves fashion, food, friendship and fun. Put all of those into a 1 night event and you have a recipe for a memorable occassion. I have a girlfriend who is one of the most creative and fun people I know. She is a wonderful friend and is always extremely generous and thoughtful to her many girlfriends. She threw a girls night out party last weekend which turned out to be such a hoot, I had to share it. The theme and general idea was very clever and it could be adjusted to work great for a teenage party, a bachelorette party, or any special birthday ages 16-75! She was inspired by Heidi Klum's Project Runway, and my friend being a fashionista herself had a ball throwing a party with a fashion theme. We had no information about what the party would be about, but were told to dress trendy and we were picked up by a party bus.

Our first stop was a local strip mall that had a grocery store, pharmacy and few random shops. First she acknowleged 2 of the women's recent birthdays and presented them with a bag of supplies. They each got 2 partners and were told to use the items in the bag - $15 and supplies (scissors, velcro, safety pins, etc) to create a "fashionable and durable" birthday hat. They had 15 minutes while the bus drove the rest of us to a nearby restaurant where she had a table in the bar ready for us. While we ordered our cocktails, the bus left to retrieve the hat group. Our hostess solicited 3 guys from the bar (very good sports) to be the judges. The girls returned and presented their hats while the judges contemplated the contestants and gave a funny and descriptive presentation of the winner. They had to wear their hats all night.

While we enjoyed cocktails and appetizers, she passed around a bag of bracelets (1 each) and a name tag of a fashion designer we were to wear. I was Nanette Lapore. The rule was that if anyone used real names and not your fashion designer name, you took their bracelet. I lost mine right away, got one back a few times, but was not as clever as "Ralph Lauren" who captured many bracelets as you see here-

The bracelet contest went on all night. Our next stop on the party bus was a discount t-shirt store that sold all kinds of inexpensive clothing. The teams were given a bag of supplies again, including $30 and told to create an outfit they needed to modify in some way (cut, sew, pin together) as well as a list of criteria that must be kept in mind including a theme or inspiration. The assembly was to be done later. We had 15 minutes to do this, and when it wasn't your group's turn, you got to enjoy a little gourmet meal on the bus.

Our next stop was the local mall. We had an envelope with instructions to go into a specific department store to find 5 items (shoe, necklace, pj's, hat, dress) that she had printed a clear picture of each exact item. Your group needed to take a photo of the 5 items including all members of your group. This was a timed test and the team with the shortest time was the winner. Seeing us run through the parking lot you would have thought we were running from a fire! From there we went to a nice restaurant and sat in the piano bar. One by one, each of the 4 groups went into the bathroom and altered their outfits, then presented them to the rest of us. A few groups got the piano player to modify his tunes to go with the presentation. It was very funny to see how different the 4 outfits turned out, none of which would have made real designers proud!

We finished the night off there, enjoying the music and each other until the bus returned us home. She even had "Project Runway 2008" hats made for us! It was a blast and so cleverly planned which made it all the more fun. What a treat!