On this week’s episode of Project Runway, the designers were asked to make prom dresses for a group of high school girls. What seemed like a fairly simple task proved to be one of the most difficult the contestants have faced. Strong designers like Christian Siriano and Rami Kashou ended up in the bottom along with Kevin Christiana. When Kevin was eliminated, fans were outraged as he has been a strong designer throughout the season, landing in the top on four consecutive episodes. Though he doesn’t believe he should have been eliminated, he refrains from say anything negative about his fellow designers. Yesterday, he spoke to BuddyTV about what went wrong and life after Project Runway.
Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview.
Hey everybody. This is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I’m talking to Kevin from Project Runway. Now, you were the only straight guy in the competition, right?
Absolutely.
What is that like for you to be a straight guy in the fashion world? It is pretty rare to find someone who’s into fashion design who also likes the ladies.
I love it, I think it’s hilarious. I like being different, you know what I mean? It’s actually not different, but I’m the guy who goes out with gay guys and I’ll go to gay bars, I don’t really care. I’m totally okay with all of it. I thought it was fun as hell, and I was surprised because in past seasons there was a couple of straight guys. I was surprised that I was the only one, but at the same time I’m like at least if people don’t remember my name, they’re gonna say like, ‘You know the guy Kevin from Project Runway?’ ‘Who?’ And they’re gonna be like, ‘The straight guy!’ I think now there’s more straight designers, but yeah, it’s not common, but it’s totally cool.
Is that something that you were always interested in growing up?
Not growing up, no. My brothers are really good artists, and my mom’s an artist, and I have a huge Sicilian family. A lot of seamstresses, a lot of tailors, my uncle owns a factory in New Jersey, a manufacturing factory, and his daughter Susannah Monaco, who is my first cousin, has her own line, so I kind of fell into the business in a way.
I was so bummed to see you go last night because you’re one of my favorite designers. What do you think went wrong?
I just think as a whole, the whole challenge was just hard to work with as far as non-developed young girls, and at that point everyone was kind of exhausted, so I feel it was the worst display for everybody. I shouldn’t have gone last night, but if there’s a way to go at least it’s a way like this, when the fans know it and everyone knows it, so I’m okay with it.
Were you surprised that other strong designers like Rami and Christian ended up in the bottom as well?
I’m not surprised, because I have to say I didn’t think it was going to be so hard designing for high school kids. But you have your body form that you work with, we get used to our models, and we have these like little young girls. The thing is, clothes look so much — like on the runway, the reason why we have models on the runway is that they’re tall, it’s just so much flattering for TV, and runway shows have taller people, so I think that everyone was just like, “Oh God, how are we going to do this?” Like I said before, as a whole I think everyone didn’t execute it as well as they usually do.
Now I believe it was Chris last night who said he thought you should have hemmed the dress. Did he say that to you, or was that just his opinion that he kept to himself?
No, he did, he did mention it to me. I do ask him for advice often because he’s right behind me. Basically the whole thing with hemming the dress is if you don’t have this machine, it’s a baby handkerchief merrill machine for a fabric like silk georgette, it’ll pucker like crazy if you try to fold it and stitch it. I cut it on a bias, mainly to make sure, you know, if you cut something on a bias you and you make it raw, it won’t fray, especially the silk georgette. At least on the runway, you know? It would have been more of a disaster if I folded it under and finished it, because it was like flared out and it would have turned. Silk has its own way of working. To me, it was like I’m not messing with that.
Did you think that you should have gone home last night, or was there someone else whose design you felt was weaker than yours?
I definitely don’t feel like I should have went home last night, and since day one I’ve never said anything negative about any of the designers. It’s just obvious, if you read every single blog that’s written right now, the obvious person is being spoken about.
Which designers this season have really been impressing you?
I would say that Jillian and Christian have impressed the hell out of me.
And what’s the plan for you now? Are you planning on launching your own line?
I’m launching a few different versions, a few different lines. I’m doing a menswear dress shirt line. I’m also working on a very tight, specific collection for womanswear, because the market is just saturated. I’m basically finding out what’s missing, what the need is, I’m talking to my sales reps, and we’re doing a small, tight collection at an affordable price point for real people. On top of that, I’m doing some work with Rachael Ray as well, because I work on her show and she’s put me under her wing, and she talks about me on her show a lot, and she helped me out as well. There’s a lot going forward.
Do you have a website where fans can check out what you’re up to?
My website’s under construction, but my MySpace page is like my portfolio.
Well that’s great, we’ll definitely check it out. I just wanted to thank you for your time Kevin, and wish you good luck.
Thank you.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of Bravo)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
