{"id":64470,"date":"2015-11-10T01:59:38","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T07:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=64470"},"modified":"2015-11-10T01:59:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T07:59:38","slug":"teen-fashionistas-on-project-runway-junior-make-it-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/11\/10\/teen-fashionistas-on-project-runway-junior-make-it-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen fashionistas on \u2018Project Runway Junior\u2019 make it work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tim<\/a>
Tim Gunn (Photo from Gunn’s official Twitter account<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2013 Tim Gunn said he was apprehensive about participating in a bite-size version of \u201cProject Runway\u201d featuring teen designers as young as 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought,\u201d he recalled in a recent interview, \u201cwill I have to soft-pedal my critiques? Is it all going to be watered down? Are they going to be emotional wrecks and very fragile?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunn was pleasantly surprised by the freshman class on \u201cProject Runway Junior,\u201d which premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on Lifetime. And yes, he DOES employ his signature catchphrase: \u201cMake it work!\u201d<\/p>\n

The mentor, former educator at the Parsons design school and adult wrangler on the long-running \u201cProject Runway\u201d called the new show\u2019s young contestants lovable, sweet to each other and respectful of the process swirling around them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s saying a lot, considering the age range \u2013 13 to 17 \u2013 among the 12 contestants from around the country.<\/p>\n

Gunn saw bits of his younger self in them all, as did his co-host, model Hannah Davis, and two of the three judges, Christian Siriano and Kelly Osbourne. Aya Kanai, the executive fashion editor at Cosmopolitan and Seventeen magazines, rounds out the judges\u2019 crew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese young people… are all loners. There\u2019s no one like them who comes home from school and plays with a sewing machine,\u201d Osbourne said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been put in a room of their peers, with kids just like them, for the first time in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunn agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the boys on the show, you know they were the picked upon, bullied, odd people out in their schools, and yeah, I was that kid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 62-year-old Gunn recalled his own miserable childhood. Growing up in Washington, D.C., he had a debilitating stutter that went untreated until he was 19. It was a time in his life when he was \u201ccoming to terms with the importance of being a responsible citizen of the world and not fleeing it, which is what I spent almost the first 20 years of my life doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He saw none of that in the kids on the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompared to the designers on a regular season of \u2018Runway,\u2019 these teens… accept responsibility for their actions,\u201d Gunn said. \u201cThere\u2019s never any factor that comes into their interaction with the judges or with me about why this isn\u2019t going as well as they had wanted it to go, versus regular \u2018Runway\u2019 when there\u2019s nothing but excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entire cast got a high-level treat. The Dec. 10 episode will feature a video appearance by first lady Michelle Obama to announce a challenge supporting education for girls.<\/p>\n

Bella Thorne is a guest judge for the final challenge.<\/p>\n

Siriano, Osbourne and Davis didn\u2019t put in the work room time with the kids like Gunn did and were shocked to learn they, like adult \u2018Runway\u2019 contestants, had no help, did the work themselves and produced designs quickly, over a tight span of 10 hours for some challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost cooler working with kids than adults because they were figuring it all out along the way,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n

Siriano added: \u201cWe were told to give them real criticism like they would get if they were presenting to an editor or to anyone else in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food TV and other networks have spun off adult competitions into kid versions with mixed results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think kids could just be a big flop,\u201d Gunn said. \u201cThere has to be some substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

They saw an abundance of that in the youngest contestant, 13-year-old Maya from Maumee, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s amazing,\u201d Siriano said. \u201cEverything she makes on the show is unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cast through open auditions, the contestants competed for a full scholarship to one of the country’s top design schools, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, and other prizes.<\/p>\n

Getting to a winner was gut-wrenching for the judges, considering children are involved. When they got down to the final six, emotions ran extra high, Gunn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judges and I didn\u2019t want to eliminate anyone at that point and said, \u2018Can we just send all six of them forward to the finale? Please? Please!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Producers nixed that idea, as they did Gunn\u2019s Plan B of trimming the final six to four by letting the two kids cut leave together, hand in hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the grown-ups on \u2018Runway,\u2019\u201d Gunn said, \u201cit\u2019s like, \u2018Don\u2019t let the door hit you on the way out!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 Tim Gunn said he was apprehensive about participating in a bite-size version of \u201cProject Runway\u201d featuring teen …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":64471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-64470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fashion-and-beauty","tag-original","mauthors-leanne-italie","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}