Laura Bennett

Laura Eugenia Bennett (born August 2, 1963), also named Laura Bennett Shelton, is an American architect and fashion designer. She was one of the four finalists for the third season of a competitive reality television series Project Runway, which originally aired on Bravo network.

Early life and education Bennett was raised in Metairie, Louisiana; there, she graduated from Ecole Classique High School. She then attended a few semesters of Tulane University, traveled around Europe, and moved with her parents to Houston, Texas. She then earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Houston and a degree from a graduate program of Columbia University—both degrees in architecture. However, she had not gone to a fashion school but grown interested in fashion when she watched Project Runway. When the season premiered, she was the oldest female contestant of the whole cast. and by Kara G. Morrison of The Detroit News as that to actress Marcia Cross. Morrison further wrote that Bennett "dresses like Carolina Herrera." She also became an early favorite of DiLuna, who named her a "contender to the crown"; She, like each of other finalists, received an $8,000 budget for her own collection. As noted by the Fashion Wire Daily, the collection included also "outhful details like ostrich feathers and jewel toned accents", contrary to her tasteful "overly mature and conservative designs" she had done throughout the season. Before the Fashion Week, Kim Crow of The Plain Dealer previewed Bennett's collection as "the strongest, most commercially viable" per "ord on the street". In the season finale, Part Two of the Finale, the producers did not find proof to support her claim, so they cleared Sebelia from any wrongdoing.

At the Fashion Week, the judges found Bennett's collection "exquisitely crafted [...] but too limited." She became the second runner-up to crowned winner Sebelia. Michelle Greppi of the TelevisionWeek magazine thought that Bennett or Uli Herzner should have won instead of Sebelia. Greppi further predicted that Herzner's and Bennett's collections "would sell out at high-end department stores throughout the country". Ramin Setoodeh of Newsweek in February 2008 found Bennett "robbed of the Runway crown".

Post-Project Runway activities Bennett's design, based on a Peanuts character Pig-Pen, was modeled for the very first "MetLife Snoopy in Fashion" runway show in the New York Fashion Week of September 2007. Throughout the following month, October 2007, the dress was auctioned off via eBay for charity alongside other Peanuts-inspired clothes done by other designers, including Isaac Mizrahi, Betsey Johnson, and Kristin Chenoweth. The starting bid for each dress was US$9.99. Sales of the dresses, including Bennett's, were donated to the Dress for Success organization.

From February 6, 2008, Bennett appeared in six QVC programs selling womenswear, including an under-$150 satin trench coat, a $60 skirt, a $65 blouse, and a $70 pants. She also served as a guest judge in an episode of the fifth season of Project Runway. She also was an MSNBC fashion commentator; wrote a book Didn't I Feed You Yesterday? in 2009 about motherhood, which was published by Ballantine Books on April 6, 2010, the following year; and wrote a blog for The Daily Beast. She wrote her second book Handmade Chic about fashion design, which was released in 2012.

Personal life Bennett has a daughter from her previous marriage and four sons with the late architect Peter L. Shelton, whom she married in 1995 or 1996 when Shelton was aged fifty at the time and whose New York City design firm she worked part-time for. The sixth child was born in Manhattan on December 1, 2006, and named Finn.

Bennett's son Pierson Shelton modeled one of her designs for a fashion show held by the Child magazine on February 2–9, 2007.