- Title: USA: First "Project Runway" winner makes documentary
- Date: 11th February 2009
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 10, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAY MCCARROLL SAYING: "The fashion industry in New York is very... you have to play a game, really. I mean look at the industry. You have Stella McCartney whose father was one of the Beatles. I didn't have that. I came from like a concrete family in the middle of Pennsylvania. So it was a challenge."
- Embargoed: 27th February 2009 12:13
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA9FWHDF186X3VVQFYT1NNWN9EZ
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: The winner of the first "Project Runway" makes documentary that takes viewers behind the glamorous stage of New York's Bryant Park.
As New York fashion week gears up, a documentary about the travails of staging a show in front of the world's most critical audience is set to be released. The film called "Eleven Minutes" stars Jay McCarroll, the winner of the first season of "Project Runway", a reality television show hosted by Heidi Klum that puts aspiring designers through a series of challenges.
"I was under a microscope. I am announced on national television as the next great designer but I had no infrastructure. I was just let out into the ocean of fashion and everyone expected a collection in two months.
That is impossible and very full of pressure," said McCarroll.
The movie follows Carroll as he sketches designs, casts his models and puts on a show in the tents at Bryant Park in front of New York's press and fashion editors. McCaroll, who is from Pennsylvania attended London College of Fashion and worked as a designer before he decided on a whim to respond to the casting call for "Project Runway". The appearance on the show was both a blessing and curse. On the one hand - it gave him the publicity most young designers salivate over, on the other hand he had to prove himself even more to the New York fashion scene who viewed him primarily as a tv personality, not a designer. It also didn't help that he didn't have many connections.
"The fashion industry in New York is very...you have to play a game, really. I mean look at the industry. You have Stella McCartney whose father was one of the Beatles. I didn't have that. I came from like a concrete family in the middle of Pennsylvania. So it was a challenge."
It was a challenge that Carroll has no desire of taking on again anytime soon. He said the amount of work and stress that goes into the whole process does not justify the outcome.
"This is my message to the fashion world - there's a much bigger world out there," he said.
"Eleven Minutes" is being released on February 20th. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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