This Week's Eliminated Project Runway Castoff to Movieline: 'It was Really Unfair, Honestly.'

You've said that before Project Runway, you didn't consider yourself a fashion designer so much as a printmaker. Do you come out of the experience with a different handle on your abilities and aspirations?

I think after the experience of Project Runway, I have fewer labels on what I consider myself to be. I was really surprised by what I could accomplish, and I feel as though when I'm making something, the medium might change, but my relationship to my work and sort of the vision that I have for what I want to exist in the world is the same. So for that reason, I think that I wouldn't define myself now as only a fashion designer or only a printmaker or, you know, only someone who loves a job as a creative person in general.

We interviewed Jesus Estrada last week, and he made the claim -- while defending his final dress -- that your dress was "held together by a pin" and that Heidi noticed it. Is that true?

Well, that is untrue. I don't know if I need to feel myself against Jesus, but in order to clarify what he was referring to, I know that Heidi had a chance to look at the clothes backstage before they came out on the runway. Many, very many of our pieces were either sewn together at the last minute or pinned together in such a way that they would hang the way we want them to. Because there were some fit issues with my dress and because I was working on a men's suit mannequin instead of a female mannequin, I think that I made some decisions about how the top part fit that were very last-minute. Unfortunately you don't get that in the episode at all, but the kind of dress form that I had to work on was completely wrong for working on. There were definitely some last-minute decisions that I stand by.

You worked on a male form? That's weird.

It was really weird, and honestly, it was because the staff was unprepared to handle our needs in terms of the equipment. A couple of the designers asked for a larger-sized female mannequin to work on, and they had just run out by the time that I had asked.

That seems unfair.

It was really unfair, honestly. I think for that reason I'm pretty proud that I could pull it together as well as I did.

Were there types of challenges you really wanted to experience? Did five episodes of prompts provide enough of a fix?

With each challenge that came up, I had to think about it in a way that was oriented around what I would do if I were offered the opportunity to take on that challenge. But I'm really satisfied with the ones I completed, and I especially liked the second episode, the burlap challenge, because as someone who is sort of an artist primarily, and growing into these different areas of focus, I feel comfortable with the very blank slate. I felt like the raw material, the raw burlap, was very exciting. There were so many possibilities.

Back to Fashion Week -- who most impressed you?

I was expecting to be really impressed by Jay and Emilio, and I was. I was really surprised by Amy, and not because I doubted her ability in any way, but because I thought her collection was exceptional. And obviously I was really excited by how she used the print too. Her past work that I've seen is limited just to a few pieces, so I was really excited by how she maintained her point of view through ten looks. And actually, I was really excited by Ben's too. I thought his use of color was really sophisticated. I could really understand how he was approaching the work.

Who impressed you during the season?

I really enjoyed Jonathan's use of color and the way that he usually manipulates the surface of his fabric. The attention focuses on every detail of the garment he makes, including not settling with a pure piece of fabric and instead creating something that's completely original. I think for some of the challenges, he definitely accomplished that. In terms of printing, there wasn't a huge opportunity to do it while we were in New York this summer because of the time constraints.

Last question: When we interviewed Pamela Ptak, the second eliminated contestant, she said she would've voted off herself just for being so drama-free. You were similarly drama-free on the show, and you treated your competitors with consideration. Do you think that affected how long you were kept on the show?

I definitely made an effort to present myself very consciously. I knew that there were so many people that I loved and respected who would be watching the show. For that reason I wanted to represent myself consistently with, like, the rest of my life and how I represent myself. But I definitely thought that even though people can be dramatic -- and that's part of the reason the show is really entertaining and stuff -- it just wouldn't fit with me to treat people differently than I would in daily life. For that reason I'm really proud of maintaining my integrity that I was dealing with other people, and in a certain way, it was something I kind of focused on. It was easy to feel very exposed with the way the cameras were everywhere, and we knew that every slip or comment or weird stitch we made would be viewed by millions of people. I tried to safeguard myself. Whether or not that that affected things in the end, I can never be sure. But I'm totally proud of everything I did on the show, including the way I treated other people.

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