For 14 weeks, the fledgling designers on Bravo’s hit TV show “Project Runway” are fashion idols. Their creations–stitched together in just a few hours, including meltdowns–are studied by 3 million viewers as if they were the work of Karl Lagerfeld himself.
They endure whiny models and broken sewing machines, insults from Nina Garcia of “Elle” magazine and designer Michael Kors, humiliating challenges that have them making gowns out of groceries or the clothes off their backs. And still, they produce some surprisingly intelligent, creative work.
Beginning Wednesday, fans will be focused on the cast for Season 3 and one has to wonder about the frock stars past. Where are they now? Have they fallen off the runway, off the radar?
Many of them can tell you the pain doesn’t end with host Heidi Klum’s “auf wiedersehen.”
Last month, Santino Rice, who was known for his outsize ego and scruffy military jackets, could be found autographing DVDs at Vidiots in Santa Monica, Calif. He was promoting the “Project Runway” Season 2 DVD.
Rice has an impressive resume, having graduated from L.A.’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and worked for Tony Duquette as well as doing stints with L.A. labels Pegah Anvarian and Single. Still, he hasn’t been able to get a clothing line off the ground.
“Even when the show was on, I had e-mails flooding in from people wanting me to design everything from wedding gowns to the dresses they’d seen on the show,” he said. “But first I had to figure out who was serious about collaborating and who just saw me as a TV personality.”
While he’s still dreaming of a ready-to-wear line, Rice is doing custom work for private clients, just like he did before the show.
“I’ve had several meetings,” he said, “but things are still up in the air.”
Producers of the show, which last week was nominated for three Emmys, don’t do much to dispel the chew ’em up and spit ’em out mentality.
“I don’t know that we have career advice to give,” said Shari Levine, the show’s vice president and executive producer. “We are in the TV business, not the fashion business.”
Although the show’s producers don’t offer much guidance, “Runway” den mother Tim Gunn has taken on the role of mentor.
“He’s always been the one person on the show whose interest is in the designers,” said Kara Saun, a runner-up on the first season. She showed her sophisticated eveningwear line at L.A. Fashion Week in March and it was recently picked up by a couple of stores. She also continues to do costume design on the side.
Gunn, chair of the Parsons School of Design Fashion Department, said Saun and the other grads “are like my alumni association.”
“Because of the way they are received by the world while the shows are airing and after, they sometimes have an inflated expectation about what the fashion world will do to embrace them,” he said. “And depending on their level of experience, that varies a great deal.”
Season 2 contestant Andrae Gonzalo launched his own label in 2003 but has put it aside to write a book on “taking the fascism out of fashion.”
“I thought honestly that it would open more fashion doors,” he said. “The fashion industry was tough when I went on the show, and it’s still tough. … People talk about the show as a way to break into the fashion industry, but it’s a lot more about breaking into the television industry.”
Which may be why Daniel Franco, 31, who was eliminated the first season only to come back for the second, is pitching a TV show about himself, in addition to designing clothing out of his parents’ dining room. Although he doesn’t have a backer or a showroom representative, he has sold a few pieces to Iconology, where they will hang next to Karl Lagerfeld and Oscar de la Renta.
“If I design for friends and insiders and they know I do good work, that’s one thing,” Franco said. “But promoting it, getting it out there is important. I’m trying to get to a benchmark where I’m not going to be the best TV designer or the best L.A. designer. I want to match up to the greats.”
Try it on, try it out
“Road to the Runway,” chronicling the audition process in L.A., Chicago, Miami and New York, and the selection of 15 contenders from thousands of wannabes, airs at 8 p.m. Wednesday on Bravo, just before the new season premieres.
