Tom Lenk Teaches You How to Make It Work With #LenkLewkForLess

Lifetime recently announced that Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn will be “making it work” for at least four more cycles of Project Runway, re-upping the series through Season 18. While that’s great news for the would-be Christian Sirianos of the world, if you ask us, the most addictively fashion-forward runway show around is happening on Twitter and Instagram. That’s where Tom Lenk is hosting #LenkLewkForLess, a series of photos and videos in which the actor and geek icon recreates high-concept celebrity red carpet and magazine looks (as well as striking cinematic fashions) out of ordinary household items. Expertly reconstructing outfits modeled by everyone from Zooey Deschanel to Rihanna, Lenk’s fashion parade, which can be followed at his official Twitter account or his Instagram page, is an Internet rabbit hole leading to a glorious Wonderland of bold outfits and surprise celebrity guests. True fashionistas will want to binge the entire feed, but here are five of our favorite #LenkLewkForLess looks.

Winter Is Coming
Lenk’s television resume includes appearances on such popular shows as Six Feet Under and Transparent. But for most avid TV fans, he’ll always be demon-summoner Andrew Wells. That’s the role he originated on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, joining the notorious Trio who bedeviled the Scooby Gang during Season 6. While his fellow Big Bads paid the price of messing with the Slayer with their lives, Andrew survived and even became a friend of the Scoobies and Slayerettes alike during the seventh and final season.

That’s where he got to know Eliza Dushku, who returned to the series to reprise her role as Buffy’s Slayer successor (and onetime rival), Faith. Their friendship clearly endured, because the actress plays the icy Emily Blunt to Lenk’s fiery Charlize Theron in #LenkLewkForLess’s homage to the recent box office bomb, The Huntsman: Winter’s War. The mini peanut butter cups glued to his crown are a perfect crafty touch.

(Lenk has also separately modeled the third female star of Winter’s War, Jessica Chastain.)

K-Stew? More Like T-Lenk
If they ever decide to reboot the Twilight franchise, here’s your new Bella. Lenk’s wig game is on point, and he perfectly captures Stewart’s red carpet ‘tude, which vacillates between annoyance and bemusement. Using Steven Alan tote bags, mesh laundry bags, and a non-slip rug pad, Lenk transported us to Stewart’s recent red carpet walk at Cannes.

Proving his resourcefulness, T-Lenk also recreated one of K-Stew’s more casual Cannes ensemble with a folded-up T-shirt, an Altoid tin tattoo, and a polo shirt doubling as a skirt.

What a Way to Make a Living
Lenk and his actress pals Alicia Hannah and Anel Lopez Gorham go ‘80s vintage, stepping into the outfits worn by the power trio of working women played by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton in the comedy favorite 9 to 5.

While Lenk relies on a shredded Swiffer and silver bead strand earrings to capture Fonda’s bespectacled secretary, Gorham (who is married to one-time Buffy guest star Christopher Gorham) and Hannah model blouses from their own closets as Parton and Tomlin respectively. As Lenk helpfully points out in his Instagram post: “You don’t need a 9 to 5 when you can work LESS, and WERK more with #LenkLewkForLess.”

Going Outlandish
Outlander star Caitriona Balfe models the very best in 18th century fashions on the hit Starz series, which Lenk describes as “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman meets Braveheart meets Back to the Future, but like sexy, erotic Back to the Future where they’re allowed to show nips.”

And Balfe is equally captivating in 21st century clothes, as Lenk demonstrates in this recreation of an outfit the Irish actress recently wore in Cannes. Using only a trash bag and Swiffer pads, Lenk looks Riviera-ready. Wonder how he’d recreate Claire’s world-famous red dress?

Noodlehead
Move over Sarah Jessica Parker. You’ve been replaced in our hearts by Sarah Jessica Pasta. That’s the name that Lenk bestows upon his interpretation of the Sex and the City star’s Met Gala appearance. And it’s not just the penne, rigatoni, and ziti locks that are edible!

SJP’s delicious look is further complemented by a rice cake brooch attached to a Fruit Loop necklace, a flour tortilla top, and Oreo cookie eyeliner. Let’s face it: working the red carpet works up an appetite! You owe it to yourself to bring your own snacks.

Follow #LenkLewkForLess on Twitter and Instagram