History Series / ProjectRunway

* AwesomeMcCoolname: "Gunnar Deatherage" from Season 10.

-->-'''Tim Gunn'''

** This trope was [[TropesAreNotBad used for good]] in Season 9, with an episode focused on designs from students at Harlem School of the Arts. The institution had nearly shut down due to financial difficulties the year before.

* EpicFail: Episode 8 of season 11 has the designers make new outfits for the "Thunder Down Under" troupe of male dancers, but the results are so bad that the judges ''do not declare a winner'', and this is the first time this has ever happened on the show.

* GenderEqualEnsemble: Averted for All-Stars 3, where we have 11 contestants: 6 men, 5 women (one of whom was {{Transsexual}}).

** ''Project Runway: Fashion Startup'': ''Project Runway'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Series/SharkTank''.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Seems to be the point of the ''After The Runway'' special after the show in recent seasons, with designers giving these to each other to "clear the air."

The show has had sixteen seasons and four ''All Stars'' seasons [[MyGreatestSecondChance made of eliminated designers from other seasons]]. Previous winners are Jay [=McCarroll=], Chloe Dao, Jeffrey Sebelia, Christian Siriano, Leanne Marshall, Irina Shabayeva, Seth Aaron Henderson, Gretchen Jones, Anya Ayoung-Chee, Dmitry Sholokhov, Michelle Lesniak Franklin and Dom Streater. Mondo Guerra won the first ''All Stars'' season, while Anthony Ryan Auld won the second, Seth Aaron Henderson won the third, and [[spoiler: Dmitry Sholokhov won the fourth.]]

* SpinOff: OnTheRoadWithAustinAndSantino, ''Tim Gunn's Guide to Style'', ''Models of the Runway'', ''Project Accessory'' and ''Project Runway: All Stars'', which features a different mentor and set of judges.

* NonGameplayElimination: Keith from season 3, Jack from season 4, Maya from season 7, and Cecilia from season 9, Andrea and Kooan from Season 10, [[spoiler: Jake from Season 14]],not to mention many of the models.

The show has had fourteen seasons and four ''All Stars'' seasons [[MyGreatestSecondChance made of eliminated designers from other seasons]]. Previous winners are Jay [=McCarroll=], Chloe Dao, Jeffrey Sebelia, Christian Siriano, Leanne Marshall, Irina Shabayeva, Seth Aaron Henderson, Gretchen Jones, Anya Ayoung-Chee, Dmitry Sholokhov, Michelle Lesniak Franklin and Dom Streater. Mondo Guerra won the first ''All Stars'' season, while Anthony Ryan Auld won the second, Seth Aaron Henderson won the third, and [[spoiler: Dmitry Sholokhov won the fourth.]]

The challenges are very diverse, testing different aspects of a designer's aesthetic and abilities. There is usually one challenge featuring unusual materials -- such as plants, edibles, apartment furnishings, and recycled goods -- per season.id Occasionally, the designers must create an outfit for a celebrity (or quasi-celebrity), including Miss USA Tara O'Connor, actress Brooke Shields, entertainment reporter Nancy O'Dell, and figure skater Sasha Cohen. Most of the other challenges fall into one of three categories: provide new pieces for an already existing line (like Sarah Jessica Parker's "Bitten" or Diane von Furstenberg), work around a given theme (such as bridal, cocktail, or prom), or "Inspiration" basically either sending the designers out with cameras or assigning them a style icon, and having that be the inspiration for their designs.

Each challenge lasts 1-2 days; the first two-thirds of the show show the behind-the-scenes work the actual construction, the {{catfight}}s and visits by [[TheMentor Tim Gunn]], who is unbelievably badass awesome for an old gay guy in a suit. The latter third of the show is devoted to the runway show. Host Heidi Klum, designer Michael Kors, and fashion magazine editor Nina Garcia make up the panel of regular judges, and there is typically a guest judge each week, generally a celebrity, designer, or fashion insider. The judges deem six (until there are six or fewer contestants left) designers "their favorites and least favorites" and question them more closely about their design. In the end, there is one winner and one designer gets sent home, with an "Auf Wiedersehen" and cheek-kiss from Heidi.

* BowtiesAreCool: The male designers are frequently seen wearing them.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Many of the designers with particularly eccentric personalities are written off only to end up winning challenges and lasting longer than anyone expected. For example, Season 14's Merline annoyed everyone in the workroom by singing the words "make it work" over and over, speaking in hashtags, and had to be corrected by Tim Gunn over producing muslin as Muslim. She made it to the top five and had some of the strongest designs of the season.

* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: On the contrary, there have been a few challenges involving children over the course of the show's run, and they often humanize the designers. No matter how much tension exists in the workroom, or how sassy/bitchy a given designer is, they [[WouldntHurtAChild tend to be on their best behavior with kids]].
** A great example was Viktor Luna during Season 9's avant-garde challenge, in which the designers were paired with student artists; in the ConfessionCam at the beginning of the episode he expressed reluctance about working with kids, but then proceeded to be good-humored, respectful and patient while his endearingly bossy 12-year-old partner gave him an earful on what he needed to do differently with his design.
** And episode 11 of season 10 plays this straight by forcing the designers to take care of baby dolls that cry (the type given to high schoolers in ScareEmStraight sex ed classes) while the actual babies are more cooperative, even though Dmitry's falls asleep and has to be carried by his mom while "walking" the runway.
** They've also had to work with dogs, such as in the Lassie mini-challenge in All-Stars 4. The dogs do cooperate with having clothes put on, but they do bark a lot and one [[UrineTrouble pees on the red carpet.]]

* OneJudgeToRuleThemAll: Ostensibly averted, but Nina Garcia is widely regarded as the key to the judging panel (Since one of the prizes is a magazine spread that's worked by her). It's definitely ''not'' Heidi, as evinced by her passionate but ultimately futile advocacy for Mondo Guerra to win Season 8.

* ColorBlindConfusion: On season 9 Anthony Ryan Auld, a fashion designer featured as a contestant, is color blind, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DisBkOLmxxw talks about it]] during his audition video and during the season, explaining that he both can't see some colors and perceives others differently and has both red-green and blue-yellow colorblindness. Also qualifies as DeafComposer since the judges would frequently laud his color choices on garments and acknowledge that they weren't sure how they looked to him but they found them praiseworthy.

** A common reaction during All Stars seasons to the arrival of Nina Garcia as a guest judge. She celebrates excellent work, but she will ''not'' pull her punches when pointing out mistakes. Especially because of her high expectations of All Stars designers.

* OhCrap: The universal reaction among the designers whenever the dreaded Button Bag makes an appearance.

-->''[[{{Catchphrase}} Make it work!]]''
--->-'''Tim Gunn'''

-->-'''Tim Gunn'''

''Project Runway'' is a fashion design RealityShow hosted by Heidi Klum, originally on Bravo but now airing on Creator/{{Lifetime}} "in search of the next great fashion designer." Twelve to sixteen or so designers compete in weekly design challenges, and in each episode, one designer is knocked off until reaching the final three (or four, in two seasons). These last three then get $8000 and twelve weeks to go home and make a twelve-piece collection, which they then show at Bryant Park during New York Fashion Week. After this, the winner is selected and receives prizes that vary from season to season, but always include $100,000 to help kickstart their own line.

** Ashley's final collection in Season 14, which featured designs focused on [[BigBeautifulWoman plus-sized women]] was very obviously near and dear to her heart (as a plus-sized woman herself who has struggled with her self-image and self-esteem).

* NonGameplayElimination: Keith from season 3, Jack from season 4, Maya from season 7, and Cecilia from season 9, Andrea and Kooan from Season 10, not to mention many of the models.

* ShockingElimination: Bounds to happen.
** Austin Scarlett (Season 1), Shirin Askari (Season 6), and April Johnston (Season 8). Also from Season 8, many consider [=McKell=]'s elimination as one of these, as fans seem to agree that [=McKell=]'s dress was not the worst of the bunch and felt she deserved to stay over at least 3 others who were saved. When she had to go, Tim assured her he stood by his statement that he found the dress adorable.
** Daniel Franco in season 2. He led a team that produced a beautiful set of well-constructed lingerie that was nonetheless felt to be "boring" by the judges, while Santino was guilty of some very poor construction in the other team's taste-challenged and {{Stripperiffic}} designs, which the judges felt to be edgier and therefore more interesting.
** There are some cases where viewers thought that the some decoy collections can be strong contenders to win the show.
*** One of the best example is in Season 2: Most fashion critics (including Fern Mallis) thought that Kara Janx (Who finished 4th) had it in the bag with her collection. She is also the reason why the show started to publicize decoy collections.
*** Another example: Season 7's Jay Nicolas Sario collection was very well-received, causing many fashion journalists to peg him as the favorite to win the season. In reality, he and fellow designer Mila Hermanovski had a head-to-head competition that determine which of them would advance to the third spot in the finals and came up short in 4th, which would be aired 2 months later.
*** Another example: Season 13, where fans consider Fade, Sandhaya and Korina collections neck & neck with Sean and Amanda.
** In season 9 there were ''many'' {{Big NO}}s during the Piper Lime challenge, when fan favorite Anthony Ryan was eliminated instead of SmugSnake Joshua M. Twitter practically exploded when that happened.
*** Viktor Luna placing '''third''' in the Season 9 finale caused an uproar.
** Rami's elimination in the All-Stars season, against Austin's design that was considered dated by many people.

** This is arguably one of the reasons Chris March was eliminated right before the Season 4 finale, although his runway collection was more interesting than fellow contestant Rami Kashou's, it incorporated rather bizarre materials like safety pins and ''human hair''! While quite edgy and avant garde, it was not a commercially-realistic collection.

The show has had twelve seasons and two ''All Stars'' seasons [[MyGreatestSecondChance made of eliminated designers from other seasons]]. Previous winners are Jay [=McCarroll=], Chloe Dao, Jeffrey Sebelia, Christian Siriano, Leanne Marshall, Irina Shabayeva, Seth Aaron Henderson, Gretchen Jones, Anya Ayoung-Chee, Dmitry Sholokhov, Michelle Lesniak Franklin and Dom Streater. Mondo Guerra won the first ''All Stars'' season, while Anthony Ryan Auld won the second, Seth Aaron Henderson won the third, and [[spoiler: Dmitry Sholokhov won the fourth.]]