Project Reality
If one more person tells me I should go on Project Runway, I will jump kick–Auf Wiedersehen–their ass out of my face.
I get it. The show has made fashion dreams tangible for any couch potato–despite the fact that their “exposure” to fashion is bedazzling a couple of t-shirts for their high school pep rally. They see couture gowns made with lettuce and tampons and start sewing up a bunch of twizzlers all the way to Versace.
The show has really painted a false picture of what it really is to design and start a clothing line. I really do give credit to the contestants for coming up with a decent product within 24 hours and how they do everything from pattern making, sewing, and beading. But it takes a little more than Tim Gunn’s advice of “make it work” to actually make it in the real world.
The fact that a bunch of winners from the show never even achieve the “it” status level–throws the show’s credibility out. Unlike American Idol where the winners become successful mega zillionaires, but Project Runway winners simply disappear. Yes, there are QVC deals and Target capsule releases, but that would be equivalent to a recorded tape of Kelly Clarkson singing in her bedroom. The winners only appear when it’s time to pass the crown like a sad burnt-out beauty queen.
Fashion insiders don’t care about the winners of Fashion or Modeling competitions. It can actually work against you. A bunch of “America’s Next Top Models” come through to castings but I could never bring myself to hire them because I couldn’t shake out the images of them vogue-ing through laser lights in cat suits, butchering beauty commercials in kimonos, or participating in a 3-way make-out on top of an igloo. None of which were great images for my brand. Fundamentally, they aren’t very good models, they just made good TV.
Anybody who wants to break into the fashion industry, your best bet is to intern and learn the crafts in the “Project Real World” and leave this reality TV pipe-dream to drama queens.
I did support the contestants in the beginning, but not so much now.
Chloe Dao's dress during the Project Runway
5 month pregnant Mama in Chloe Dao's Dress
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