"Project Runway"'s Blayne Walsh tans his own way

AE: What was your favorite challenge?
BW: My favorite challenge was the New York Inspiration/ Nightlife Challenge, and also the Diane Von Furstenberg one. I felt that challenge was the most me and who I am as a designer.

Diane Von Furstenberg and Blayne's design for that challenge

AE: What was your least favorite challenge?
BW: My least favorite was probably the car parts. I'm not a mechanic. I was surprised how many challenges this season were unconventional. It was just very different. There were like four challenges where we went shopping for real fabric to make real dresses. A lot of the other ones were just so out of the ordinary that I think it was hard for people to really see who we were as designers. So many of the challenges were pretty far-fetched and out of the blue.

AE: Do you feel like you were able to represent yourself as a designer on the show?
BW: It's kind of a 50/50 thing. With every challenge I wanted to push myself as a designer, do something different and really learn from the experience. I'm a streetwear designer and I'm not going to send down a hoodie and jeans on the runway. It just wouldn't fly. So I was constantly trying to push myself and do something different, out of my own box. It was funny to hear the judges keep saying, "You do the same thing. We want to see you outside of your box." I was like, "Okay?" [Laughs] "I wish you only knew"

AE: What did you think of the judges? Do you think they were fair?
BW: Yeah... Of all of them, Nina was the one I respected the most because she sees new designers and new stuff coming in and out so I think she has the most up-to-date understanding of innovation and fresh fashion. I would always take what she had to say with the highest respect. With Michael and Heidi, well, it's the Michael and Heidi Show, so whatever they said went through one ear and out the other. 

Michael Kors, Heidi Klum

AE: Did you have a favorite guest judge?
BW: I really liked Sandra Bernhard even though I didn't get to talk to her at all because I made it through on that challenge. All the judges were cool, but when you're not up on the chopping block you don't get to see them. 

 

AE: Some of the comments you got on that last challenge were pretty harsh. I think Michael [Kors] said it looked like your model [pictured right] was pooping fabric. We talked to Keith last week after his elimination and he talked about how the judging got to him. You seem like the happy-go-lucky type, but did the critiques ever get to you? How were you feeling at that point?
BW: The critiques never got to me. I'm not that kind of person. If somebody says their opinion to me or what they feel, I'm not going to start crying. I don't do that. You have to be confident in who you are.

I don't know Keith in a super deep way, but I'm one hundred percent confident in who I am as a person, and that reflects into everything you do. If I'm going to be critiqued on something I produce, you have to be a hundred percent behind it before anyone else is. I'm not going to break down because someone says "Your first garment looks like she's wearing a diaper and this one looks like she's pooping fabric."

Really? Really? You have nothing else to say? I don't consider stuff like that a critique. I want constructive criticism. It would be different if the judges said "The reason we're reacting this was is because we feel you should have pinned this in more or done this or that." That would have made more sense to me, not just cracking a joke about pooping fabric. You just wasted all of our time by saying something like that. I mean, it's also TV so I get that's the whole dramatic deal