On the Road with Austin & Santino

This show is delightful! The episodes I've seen involve the two most outrageous Project Runway designers shopping in small towns for fabric to create dresses for women who normally are way too busy raising kids, pulling down a paycheck, or putting deer meat on the table to wear a dress. It becomes a chronicle of the various ways in which women "wear the pants"--literally--around the country, doing various jobs where a dress would get in the way.

It is indeed charming, and whoppingly sentimental (dad's eyes tear up as he sees his 30-year-old little girl all dolled up), but really delightful, too. It is a paean to "real people" and small communities, the kind where the only yardage in any store is quilting fabric. Austin and Santino are fish out of water and it is clear that they are learning a lot, too. They bring to it such warmth and zest--and humor and love of their work--that it is a pleasure to watch them.