Project Runway to go more mass market for Lifetime?

As word trickles in that Nina Garcia is starting to settle in to her new post as fashion director at Marie Claire, the rumor that the magazine will replace Elle as partner for Project Runway is gaining momentum.

Sources have said that Garcia’s requests for high-fashion items for Marie Claire fashion spreads are increasingly at odds with the magazine’s more mass-market sensibility. This would also seem true of the partnership with Project Runway.

Between the move to L.A., the switch to Lifetime, and the addition of Marie Claire, will Project Runway continue be the fashion juggernaut we’ve all come to love? At least all the stars – Garcia, Michael Kors, Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum - have signed on to jump networks with the program.