Fashion is very subjective, and there’s always a lot of room for interpretation. The same outfit can be seen as a bold statement by one person, the height of fashion by another, and an absolute nightmare by the other. And yet there have been some looks on Project Runway that made everyone collectively think “Nope, absolutely not.”
Project Runway first aired in 2004 and has been running ever since. This show thrives on risk. Designers are expected to create something outrageous, push the envelope, shock and amaze with their creations. And sometimes this produces absolutely incredible results, and other times it makes us cringe. Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable ones.
Emilio Sosa’s hardware-store almost-swimsuit
Project Runway loves to challenge the designers to create fashionable pieces out of materials that were never meant to become clothes. So when Emilio Sosa had to create something out of hardware store materials, we knew it was going to be tough. He ended up using a pink cord and washers to create a sort of chainmail-adjacent bikini that seemed to be held together by Emilio’s hopes and dreams. The judges decided that it barely counted as fashion or even an outfit at all, it was flimsy, undersigned, and oversexed. Basically, a wardrobe accident waiting to happen.
Blayne Walsh and Stella Zotis’ zodiac catastrophe
Team challenges are famously hard because when each person has a vision they’re trying to push, it’s really hard to compromise. Blayne Walsh and Stella Zotis were supposed to create a zodiac-themed outfit, but what they actually made looked more like a weird cosmic nightmare. The outfit didn’t look cohesive at all, it looked like a few bad ideas strung together with belts. Michael Kors famously criticized the colorful scraps of fabric that covered half of the model as “making it look like she’s pooping fabric.” There’s no coming back from that.
Sandro Masmanidi’s playsuit malfunction waiting to happen
People on the show are pressed for time and have to come up with an idea and make it come to life in a matter of hours, so sometimes the garments end up badly designed, poorly constructed, or just not very tasteful. However, Sandro managed to tick all three of those mistakes at once with his parachute playsuit creation. The item of clothing looked weird, fitted badly, and was so poorly constructed that it resulted in the models’ nether regions being squeezed to the point of popping out. It was a literal wardrobe malfunction in the making.
A.J. Thouvenot’s party dress featured a poorly placed bead design
Unlike the example above, A.J.Thouvenot didn’t expose his model. All the bits that needed covering up were covered. However, his chosen method of covering up ultimately caused more harm than good. He chose to drape a lot of beads in the crotch area, thus drawing the eye to that spot. The judges all said that was a disastrous move. One of the judges compared the look to performance art about venereal disease. Now that’s a description that sticks.
Hester Sunshine’s pasties experiment
Hester Sunshine was once one of the most talented designers on Project Runway. But even geniuses make mistakes sometimes. In the case of Hester’s party dress, it really underdelivered. When she introduced the dress, she said that there’s nothing more elegant than going topless, so her model had some pasties on her breasts and a long mint-colored silk skirt. What also didn’t help was the fact that the pasties were made to look weirdly puckered, and the color didn’t do anyone any favors. Thankfully, Hester had immunity that week, so it was a safe time to make a bold choice, even if it missed the mark.
Carlos Casanova’s fascinatingly awful dress
In the Season 8 premiere Carlos made a dress that truly confused the judges. It looks like a mishmash of ideas that didn’t work together. The dress managed to be too revealing, almost vulgar, but also conservative at the same time. Michael Kors compared the model, saying she looked like a mother of the bride who’s a belly dancer. Everyone chucked it up to questionable taste.
Ping Wu’s burlap dress with the accidental rear-view situation
Sometimes Project Runway creates such difficult challenges that it looks like they’re setting up all the contestants for failure. When everyone was challenged to create a look out of a burlap sack, it definitely felt cruel. And Ping Wu tried her best to create something edgy and cool out of what she was given. But unfortunately, Pig Wu didn’t account for the length of that burlap sack, so that back slit went up way too high on the model and exposed her backside. As you can imagine, that didn’t go over well with the judges.
Santino Rice’s lederhosen lingerie fever dream
Santino Rice’s lingerie creations made history. They were hilariously entertaining but completely missed the mark. The idea Santino had was to honor Heidi Klum’s heritage and create looks inspired by German lederhosen. But the result was so horrifically wrong it was hard not to laugh. What was even funnier was that when judges tried to remind him that lingerie was supposed to be delicate, he quipped back that he believed lingerie was sexy and was supposed to come off. Not to mention that it didn’t even look like lederhosen, the models needed up looking like gingerbread cookies decorated by children.
Kara Saun’s challenge-winning look that still felt a bit like a costume
Kara Saun’s military-themed look wasn’t a failure on the show, in fact, it won the “Envy” challenge that week. But the public argued over this specific look for ages afterwards. Kara was one of the most talented designers on Project Runway, there’s no doubt about it, and the execution of this look was amazing, but it still felt kind of inappropriate. The low cut, the capt, the mesh fabric, the khaki color—it was giving more military-themed sexy Halloween costume than a fashionable look. Could we have seen something similarly styled on the runway in the early 2000s? Absolutely. But then again, early 2000s fashion was a strange time for everyone involved.
