Project Runway is the show that brought the world of fashion design into living rooms everywhere and has popularized many now-popular brands. The show has been on TV since 2004, a staggering achievement for any television show. Especially for one that caters to a rather niche market.
Project Runway | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images\
Now, with season 18 of Project Runway set to premiere in fall 2019, fans are looking ahead to future episodes. They are also speaking out on what they would most like to see when the iconic series hits the small screen once again.
What is ‘Project Runway’ about?
The world of fashion design has traditionally been viewed as very exclusive. For that reason, it felt out of reach for most average consumers. That is until Project Runway premiered on Bravo in 2004. An elimination-style reality show, each season of Project Runway features twelve or more up and coming fashion designers who must compete in various challenges as the show progresses.
Ultimately, the final few contestants are tasked with creating a collection that will be presented at New York Fashion Week. Their collection must perfectly represent their style as designers while still speaking to a larger audience, and, of course, be considered ripe for commercial development.
The winner of the final challenge receives the ultimate prize — a spread in a popular magazine and $100,000 in order to start their own design line. Needless to say, the designers get fiercely competitive over the prize. Watching them square off against each other while cultivating their artistic side in order to make fabulous clothes makes for very entertaining television.
The judging panel of Project Runway is another draw as well – usually including top names in modeling, design, and fashion. The most famous (and longest-lasting) show judge was model Heidi Klum. But, personalities such as Michael Kors, Zac Posen, and Nina Garcia have also been judges over the years.
Fans want to see more male models on ‘Project Runway’
The 17th season of Project Runway, which ended in mid-June, got very positive reviews from both critics and fans. The season seemed like a true return to form for the long-running show, with more drama and cool clothes than ever before. Still, there are some very definite suggestions that viewers have spoken up about following the season finale.
One suggestion that seems to be getting a lot of traction online is the idea of featuring male models to wear the designer’s clothes. While the current show setup does feature some male models, they are all tall, fit, and perfectly chiseled. With the show moving towards acceptance of all body types and sizes, it seems only natural to want to extend that acceptance to the males on the show as well as the female models.
Viewers want to buy the clothes featured
Season 17 of Project Runway debuted a new show segment called the “flash sale challenge.” This challenge allowed viewers to vote on different looks from an episode and the top-rated designs would then be made available to purchase online. Ultimately, only a few of the episodes featured this challenge, which disappointed a number of fans, who wanted to rep their favorite show’s wares.
For season 18, it would certainly add an interesting component of viewer interaction to keep the flash sale challenge and to allow even more pieces to be up for sale. While the pieces would still have to be limited-edition, and many viewers would certainly end up missing out, it would be quite a rush for fans to rush and try to score the latest piece.
Of course, fans absolutely loved seeing some of the show’s celeb alumni making guest appearances on the show in season 17. This means having even more of them in the next season could only boost ratings.