Lifetime has announced that season five of Project Runway All Stars will debut on 11 February, featuring, most notably, 2013 season 12 winner Dom Streater. As a fan of Dom and her designs, I’m pleased – but her inclusion, and the regular return of former winners to the All Stars lineup, raises some questions. Project Runway is supposed to be a launching pad for the “next great American fashion designer”, as one of the show’s taglines insists. So if season 12 did what it was supposed to and turned Dom into America’s next great American fashion designer, what is she doing on reality television?
Alas, the truth is that Project Runway has only really fulfilled its remit once: Christian Siriano, the winner of season four way back in 2007, has become a bona fide fashion superstar. His eponymous line launched in 2008 has made millions, and he dresses everyone from Sarah Jessica Parker to Victoria Beckham and Taylor Swift. He’s returned to Project Runway too – not as a contestant, but as the regular celebrity judge on the Junior spin-off show.
The existence of All Stars underlines the fact that most Project Runway contestants – and yes, most Project Runway winners – haven’t reached that level, despite the show’s prize money (typically $100,000) and professional opportunities. Fashion is an upscale endeavor, built on wealthier clients and critical cred; American Idol winners can convert television exposure into album sales at $10 a pop, but the move from celebrity to income is a lot trickier for designers.
Just because it’s trickier doesn’t mean there’s no way to do it though. Project Runway hasn’t launched many top, celebrated, legends-in-their-own-time designers. But it has given many designers a leg up, or helped them establish themselves in various niches throughout the industry. Chloe Dao, the winner of season two in 2005, was able to scale up her Houston boutique after her victory; a decade later, her store is still successful and she’s still designing. Austin Scarlett, a popular season one contestant (and a finalist on All Stars season one), was hired as creative director for Amsale’s luxury gown collection from 2006-2009, and has his own bridal collection now. Emilio Sosa, a season seven finalist in 2010 (who came back for All Stars season two), designs for theater and was nominated for a Tony for his costumes. Mila Hermanovski, also a finalist in season seven (and a season one All Star), had her own line for a while but has mainly worked as a designer for film; she made costumes for Tron: Legacy and Star Trek: Into Darkness. Daniel Vosovic (season two finalist) designs regularly for Emma Stone; Michael Costello (season eight, and a season one All Star finalist) designs for Beyoncé. Valerie Mayen of season eight, who is appearing on the new All Stars season, has a successful online business. None of them is at Siriano’s level, but they’re all working.
Admittedly, it’s not entirely clear that they’re working because of Project Runway. The show tends to downplay the extent to which many of its contestants are more or less established before they come on the show; Hermanovski and Sosa were both costume designers before they competed, for example, and Costello was designing for celebrity clients before his season. One of PR’s most successful high fashion alumni, womenswear and menswear designer Malan Breton, was unaccountably eliminated on the second challenge of season three – his Wikipedia page doesn’t even mention he was on the show. Project Runway was a blip in his career, not a launching pad.
Project Runway likes to present itself as a magical process for transforming unknowns into superstars. In fact, though, it’s something more interesting – a lens for seeing the broad range of options for working artists who aren’t nobodies but aren’t necessarily the most, most important somebodies either. Media representations tend to present the arts as an all-or-nothing proposition. Hollywood focuses on superstar successes – with biopics of James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Basquiat – or on people winning their international niche, a la the Pitch Perfect films.
Looking at Project Runway alums, on the other hand, offers a different perspective – a vision of the arts as day job. Project Runway isn’t the one, shining, ticket to becoming Alexander McQueen for the designers who appear on it. Instead, it’s a career strategy for working artists that can generate contacts, visibility and (if you’re very lucky) some investment capital.
That’s presumably the calculus for Dom Streater. Her business seems to be doing quite nicely, if the number of sold-out pieces is any indication, but she has obviously decided another infusion of publicity and/or cash wouldn’t hurt. Project Runway didn’t exactly make her the next great American fashion designer, and Project Runway All Stars probably won’t either. But she, and lots of other talented, creative folks who appear on the show, have managed to find a way to make their careers work, as Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn might say. The best thing about Project Runway isn’t its seasonal coronations. It’s the way it shows, despite itself, that the arts aren’t a competition, and that you don’t need to be a superstar to make a living doing what you love.
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