13 surprising things you lot probably didn't know about 'Projection Runway'

project runway

"Project Runway" has been running for 18 seasons.
Getty Images/Dimitrios Kambouris
  • Bravo's "Projection Runway" is on its 19th flavor, but fans might non know everything about it.
  • Contestants usually motion-picture show for xviii hours a mean solar day, and the judging process can take up to seven hours.
  • Contestants don't go home immediately subsequently elimination so there aren't any spoilers.

The cast doesn't take access to things like the cyberspace or television while filming.

Erin Robertson won season 15 of "Project Runway."
Bravo

According to a 2013 interview with The AV Order, producer Sara Rea said contestants don't accept access to the internet during filming.

"We want all their inspiration to come up from the things we leave for them and what they can see. We don't want any outside influence to sway what they're being inspired by or what their emotional state is," she said

She went on to say that while driving around New York City, contestants can see news on billboards or hear of current events, but the producers "try to residual information technology and then it doesn't affect them in a negative fashion."

Mood Fabrics closes to the public when the designers store there on the show.

The designers shop at Mood Fabrics in New York City.
screenshot/INSIDER

In the same interview with The AV Club, Rea shared that the pop material store closes for the contestants.

"We have a very close, long-term working human relationship with [Mood] and we brand certain we're posted on their schedule then they don't shut too early," she said. "We tell them, 'Hey, we'll be there in xxx minutes,' and they first closing down the store for u.s.."

Tim Gunn said he hated season 14 of the bear witness, and he chosen information technology "lackluster."

Tim Gunn was a mentor on "Projection Rails" for 16 seasons.
Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Tim Gunn was a mentor and producer on "Project Rail" for many years, and he has a least-favorite season.

In a 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gunn said, "I'm telling you — and I oasis't said this very much — I hated season 14. I hated it. I felt that other than a couple of designers, they weren't working up to their potential. The whole thing was lackluster."

He went on to say that he felt flavor 14's contestants were not hungry enough and that the judges didn't offer valuable, effective feedback to the designers.

A filming day on "Project Runway" can concluding up to 18 hours.

Jhoan "Sebastian" Grey competed on, and won, season 17.
Barbara Nitke/Bravo/NBCU Photo Banking company/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

If yous think the designers are existence snippy with one another, it's mayhap because of the difficult schedule and constant filming throughout the product of a season.

Season-two contestant Diana Eng told New York magazine'south The Cut in 2009 that the designers are filmed for 18 hours a day and are often woken up with camera crews looming over them.

Rea confirmed in her interview with The AV Society that the shooting and work schedule for "Project Rail" is as grueling as it sounds. She said that the designers work until around 11 p.grand. or 12 a.grand., and near of them are up and working before five a.grand.

A few people who have worked on "Project Runway" said that winning doesn't necessarily make designers famous in the way industry.

Jack Mackenroth competed on season four of "Project Rail."
Barbara Nitke/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

In a 2015 interview with Paper mag, season-four designer Jack Mackenroth said that despite the show'due south public reputation as a driving forcefulness in the fashion industry, most of the contestants don't go on to exist successful designers.

"Almost people just go back to their old careers and continue to struggle. Fashion design is a cutthroat business. Well-established designers become bankrupt correct and left. And quite honestly the mode manufacture frowns on 'Project Runway' and doesn't take the designers very seriously," he said.

Sometime guest judge Teri Agins also expressed that the "Project Runway" winners don't really get a leg up in the style industry after the show.

She told The Washington Post in 2014, "One of the reasons [the show] petered was information technology failed to do what it claimed it would."

Gunn said he wasn't paid for the outset two seasons of "Projection Rail."

Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum on "Project Runway."
Keith Bedford/Reuters

Despite existence considered 1 of the best parts of the prove, Gunn said he didn't go paid to be a mentor on the first two seasons of "Project Runway."

Per Oprah.com, Gunn said in an interview with the "So Money" podcast, "The commencement 2 seasons I wasn't paid at all and I didn't know that people were paid for reality telly."

He added that it wasn't until someone approached him about representation at the GLAAD Media Awards that he realized "Project Track" should be paying him.

Sometimes the show auctions off designs, even if they're not completed.

Sometimes the designers' dress are auctioned off subsequently the show.
Lee Celano/Reuters

Some of the clothes designed on the series stop up being sold on the Project Runway website.

Season-seven winner Seth Aaron Henderson said at a Way Week El Paso press conference in 201 that clothes produced by contestants "get up for auction immediately later on the show."

"It's clearly stated that these may or may not be finished," joked season nine runner-upwardly Joshua McKinley Cook.

Per New York Daily News, in the past, some of the designs from the show have gone up for auction "as is."

To ensure their creations are totally original, the designers aren't allowed to use any sewing patterns on the show.

Brandon Maxwell, Karlie Kloss, Christian Siriano, Nina Garcia, and Elaine Welteroth on "Project Runway."
Miller Mobley/Bravo/NBCU Photo Banking company via Getty Images

Rea told The AV Club that the show limits the designers' supplies to assist ensure everything created is original.

"We don't desire them relying on other people's designs or other materials, and we don't want anyone to have an unfair advantage so we limit their resources to what the necessities are with their apparel forms and their pair of scissors and their sewing kits," she said.

She continued, "We desire them to create from what they know, not from a blueprint book. Information technology doesn't help them and it could also be derivative, [and this rule] puts everyone on the same playing field."

The runway show and judging process can accept half dozen or 7 hours to film.

Each episode merely airs snippets of the judging process.
Getty Images/Larry Busacca

Although the runway show, judging, and elimination typically only take around ten minutes of each episode, the entire process takes much longer, according to Rea.

The producer told The AV Club, "From runway testify to elimination is about six or vii hours. There are breaks in between to move cameras and stuff, merely it takes near 7 hours."

A lot of idea goes into the supplies offered during the show's unconventional materials challenges.

The designers sometimes have to utilise anarchistic supplies to complete their looks.
Getty Images/Frazer Harrison

I "Project Rails" episode that fans wait forward to each season is the unconventional-materials challenge, during which the contestants must create stunning designs using items that otherwise wouldn't be used to create clothing.

Rea told The AV Order that there is a squad defended to curating the unusual materials for these challenges.

"Nosotros have a team of people whose main chore is to sit effectually and come upwardly with ideas, and they bring them to us and we effort to visualize all the different materials," Rea said.

She continued, "I always like it when they present it to us as a list of what'south in that shop. Similar, what's in a hardware store? Information technology helps you lot say, 'Well, what would I practise? What could they use to brand something?' And then we go with what we call back would be the most fun and we try to make it different from a previous flavour."

Heidi Klum and Gunn left "Project Runway" afterward 16 seasons considering they said they were being held back creatively.

They now have their own Amazon reality competition series called "Making the Cut."
Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters

In 2018, host Heidi Klum and mentor Gunn chose to leave "Project Runway" together to create a new design competition show with Amazon called "Making the Cut."

Per The Wrap, at Amazon'south Telly Critics Association panel before this year, the pair opened up about their decision to get out.

They cited budgetary restrictions and the show's unchanging format as primary reasons why they chose to pursue some other series.

"When y'all do a evidence, someone e'er has to pay for it, and other people want y'all to exercise sure things, so you can't take the artistic liberty," Klum said.

Gunn spoke about the show's format saying, "We were in a lockstep in a manner, in a formula that had been determined in season 1. And information technology perpetuated further into season three, and then eventually into seasons x through 16, and we couldn't break out of it."

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