You may be a devoted follower of Leanne or Christian or Jeffrey, but if you're a real Project Runway devotee, you were there at the beginning, with Jay. Jay McCarroll was Project Runway's first winner, and since being crowned "the next great American designer" by Heidi Klum and Bravo, he's been working to find his place in a high-fashion world that he never particularly wanted to be a part of.
Now part of that journey has been documented in Eleven Minutes, a film that documents the lead-up to his Bryant Park runway show at Fashion Week in fall 2007. Where the design and manufacturing process is shown in slick montages on Project Runway, Eleven Minutes shows all the infuriating details, from sending out invites to fashion editors to figuring out how much of the sewing to export to China. In the middle of it all is McCarroll, whose outsized personality and way with words haven't changed at all since we first met him on television in 2005.
Below is my exclusive interview with McCarroll, who spoke to me by phone from home in Pennsylvania. He had been in New York at the same time as Fashion Week, but aside from attending the Project Runway show, he wasn't planning to set foot in Bryant Park. Find out why below.
After spending so much time on camera on Project Runway and in Project Jay, what made you want to do it all again?
I'm really self-absorbed. [Laughs] I basically did it again as a reaction to what people thought I was capable of on Project Runway. By watching it you think that people can make clothes out of garbage, and do it very quickly. While that's true, I wanted to show more of the in-depth process of how you make clothes, and putting a line out there, and all the nonsense that happens behind the scenes. Like Isaac Mizrahi's Unzipped. It was more about him, and him being a fashion designer. I really just wanted to show how clothes get made and the creative side.
How do you feel about what wound up in the film?
I was very comfortable with what Michael and Rob were going to do with the film. I had no say in the editing process. I'm a designer, and I was living that part that was my life. And they took it and made it into the film. I didn't have any say in what they were doing. I'm not kind of a regretful person. I don't really look back usually. This whole process has been kind of hard for me. That happened a thousand years ago for me. There were tons of moments that didn't make it, but there were tons of moments on Project Runway [that didn't make it].
Did you act any differently in front of the cameras this time?
I just am who I am wherever I am. I'm probably more-- I'm exactly who I am. [...] Even Project Runway, I didn't know what it was. I was on the first season, so by the time you got to later seasons of Project Runway, those people knew everything. Or what kind of character they knew they were going to turn them into.
You seem to have stepped back from the high fashion world entirely. Would you ever want to go back to it?
I do not care about high fashion, and I never have. I really didn't. After the show, I was never a high-end person. All I ever wanted to make sportswear. Going into Project Runway I only made sportswear. People have a narrow vision of what they think fashion is. I get asked to do commentary all the time, I don't do it, I don't really care. If Angelina Jolie wanted to wear a sweatshirt of mine, [great] but Rebecca in fucking Toledo can wear it too and be happy.
And you're intentionally designing for larger women as well. Is that a political thing or just your own aesthetic?
I'm a big girl. My sisters have giant breasts. I didn't come from that. I find those women unrelatable. I was in New York this morning, and all these models were coming through [the hotel lobby], and they looked sick. They didn't even look like human beings at this point. They look emaciated. That's why the QVC thing I thought was awesome, beacuse I could outfit any kind of body shape or size. [McCarroll designed a line of clothing sold exclusively on QVC last year] And frankly a lot of those women are the people who watch Project Runway. I was happy for that to be able to happen. It's something I definitely want to include moving forward-- not only shape and size, but ethnicity. It's so funny when you read fashion magazines, [featuring] the one African-American girl. It's 2009, we have a black president! [High fashion is] like it's own little gross place.
Is that an attitude you've always had, or has it developed since you became more prominent in fashion?
I've always felt that way. In fact, my show at Bryant Park I think had too many white peole in it. I had PR peole whispering in my ear, she's too fat ,and she's too old. I did use older models, and an ethnically diverse group of people, but they all were thin. I've used all sorts of people in the past. And I love that. Because all that kind of stuff is beautiful. I've always been an oddball. If I do do it again, I'll do it again.
Will you do another show in Bryant Park, or another runway show at all?
I'll never do a Bryant Park show. It's too much, too stressful, too many eyes on me. I was stressed out beyond belief. And it's not fun. I'm not doing it to be pressured an dstressed out. I'm 34-- I'm over it. I'm not like a kid who's like boundless energy. Christian Siriano is showing again this week, and he' 23. I'm concentrated on trying to grow a busness. now. Betsey Johnson can do it year and year and year, but she also started in fashion at a very different time. I think now is a strange time to be in this profession.
Why is that?
There's such a mixture of high and low. The eceonomy's crappy, people are still buying $3,200 bags but can't afford their rent. There's Alexander McQueen for Target. It's just kind of a strange place. I can understand the elitism of it, that's kind of when I got into it in the 90s. That's what's interesting about fashion, there's such a social aspect to it. It was much more interesting to me when I was looking at it from the outside in. Now that I've gone to the inside, the games people have to play, and the asses you have to kiss...
Do you regret doing the Bryant Park show?
I went through it, and I was happy I went through it. I have proof of it now with the film, all those people who say I haven't done anything since Project Runway. That's hard to read too. Because I was doing [work] the whole time.
The work you're selling right now is very affordable, even though it's designer clothing. How do you afford to sell it for so little?
I grew up middle class. My idea of fashion was the Gap sale rack. That's where I went. It's never going to be outrageous. That's not my style. We do it at a level that can totally be affordable and sustainable. I don't like putting people out. None of my friends shop that way. I don't want a friend of mine to be like, I love this sweater, I can't even afford it.
Do you think going on Project Runway is a good way for a designer to get started?
There are many many different ways. There are people who just jump in it, there are people who are born into it. I think Project Runway is awesome. It's a really great thing. I never would have ever had this experience [otherwise]. What you do with it is a different story. There's different ways to do it. My path is my path.
What can you say to make people want to see the film?
Go see it. I think it's awesome for people who have an interest in fashion, or don't. People who didn't know who I was who can identify with the creative process. It wasn't about me so much as it was about just showing that it does take a lot of time and a lot of energy and people and a village to build a collection. It's not just my name in the back of a shirt.
