Bravo’s Project Runway returns with a slate of 16 fresh designers
The long-running Bravo series will launch its 19th season on Thursday, Oct. 14, at 9 p.m.
Bravo is ready for us to meet the next slate of designers vying to join last season’s winner, Geoffrey Mac, in the pantheon of the longstanding hit competition series. The sixteen competitors in Project Runway‘s 19th season will have their work cut out for them as the first to compete in the wake of the pandemic, charged with helping “revitalize the fashion industry.”
In the season premiere, airing Thursday, Oct. 14, at 9 p.m., the aspiring designers are instructed not merely to make it work, in the immortal words of the show’s former mentor Tim Gunn, but to do more: the bolder, the better.
“The time is now for bold, bright, don’t-hold-back, in-your-face color,” they’re told. Furthermore, they’ll be divided into two teams and focused on creating “cohesive collections of monochromatic high fashion looks celebrating color.”
Season four winner Christian Siriano returns as mentor, joined by judges Nina Garcia, Brandon Maxwell, and Elaine Welteroth. Guest judges for the new season will include actors Billy Porter and Taraji P. Henson, supermodels Karlie Kloss and Gigi Hadid, designers Jason Wu and Christopher John Rogers, model and TikTok creator Wisdom Kaye, and Bravo chief Andy Cohen.
The winning designer will receive a grand prize of $250,000 furnished by FriXion Erasable Pens, while Maybelline New York and TRESemmé return as exclusive makeup and hair care partners.
The designers will compete in 90-minute episodes with challenges including producing a “hauntingly” chic look, an avant-garde look from faux fur, an unconventional cocktail dress with a twist, and — new this year — the ultimate Real Housewives reunion outfit for women from The Real Housewives of Orange County, The Real Housewives of New York City, and The Real Housewives of Potomac.
The season’s runway shows will be set at Lincoln Center and the hidden gardens at Rockefeller Center, all before the finalists make their debut presenting a collection during New York Fashion Week.
This year’s designers are Octavio Aguilar from Miami, Darren Apolonio from New York, Kenneth Barlis from San Diego, Caycee Black and Bones Jones from Brooklyn, Coral Castillo from Los Angeles, Meg Ferguson from Tulsa, Prajjé Oscar Jean-Baptiste from Philadelphia, Kristina Karlashkina from New York, Katie Kortman from Japan, Shantall Lacayo from Miami, Aaron Michael from Mississippi, Chastity Sereal from Houston, Zayden Skipper from Atlanta, Sabrina Spanta from Michigan, and Anna Yinan Zhou from San Francisco.
New episodes of Project Runway air every Thursday beginning October 14, at 9 p.m., on Bravo, and are available the following day on Peacock. Visit www.bravotv.com/project-runway.
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