'Runway's' Flashy Fashions Don't Mean Fame

Nov. 14, 2007 — -- Tonight, Bravo will premiere the fourth season of its successful reality show "Project Runway" starring supermodel Heidi Klum, fashion editor Nina Garcia and a host of new contestants desperate to be America's next big designer … or so they think.

The fresh faces will be asked to do things like make a ball gown from cardboard boxes or construct a bathing suit from the clothes off their backs. One by one contestants will be eliminated until America's next big designer is crowned, having passed each test with flying (and usually bright or unique) colors.

But what happens when the winner is let loose in the world of fashion and entertainment with no editors to cut out the parts that aren't so glamorous?

There aren't any Tim Gunns or Heidi Klums to help out in the real world, according to both Jay McCarroll and Chloe Dao, the winners of Seasons 1 and 2 of "Project Runway."

"I guess I thought there was going to be more assistance but … I was a story. I was turned into a product," said the outspoken and never-camera (or tape recorder)-shy McCarroll.

He says he basically partied for a year after his big win.

"I just tried to network and meet people and figure out what the hell I wanted out of it," McCarroll said.

Fair enough, but wasn't he supposed to be America's next Ralph Lauren? Maybe not.

McCarroll is doing plenty now: He just finished a documentary about the design process and he's working on a fashion line for QVC. But when he showed his line at Bryant Park during New York's Fashion Week, he didn't exactly make a splash. In fact, in his words it was simply "a blip."

But McCarroll doesn't seem resentful.

"I now just want to put out products, but I don't want to do it in a fashion show format. I just want to get it to the customer."

No fashion shows? For the "Project Runway" winner? It seems the expected path post-reality success just wasn't for him.

The story is similar with Season 2. After winning, Dao went back to Houston, back to the boutique Lot 8 that she owned before the show. Her prize money is still in the bank because, she says, her store was already doing well.

Though she says "the show pretty much changed my life," her life doesn't seem to have changed all that much. Not surprisingly, her sales soared in the year after her win, but after that she says things died down.

She is, however, also doing a line for QVC, which she acknowledges wouldn't have happened were it not for the show. After, as McCarroll pointed out, "the customer that watches QVC is the customer that watches 'Project Runway.'"

"I'm thankful for my 15 minutes of fame, but I had my power before," Dao said.

She, too, has found a niche and is successful in the fashion business. But America's next great designer she is not.