History YMMV / ProjectRunway

** Anthony Ryan in the All Stars 2 season. It's thought that the judges made him win most of the challenges to give him the prize, although there were more deserving wins for some of the challenges and Anthony's elimination in his original season was widely considered a CrackDefeat, so some viewers considered it Anthony being VindicatedByHistory. Recappers Tom and Lorenzo also predicted his win early on for this reason. To be fair, his final collection of 7 is actually decent despite having only 4 days......If you just don't compare it to (mostly) Uli's.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duVg6GNNnNs Santino's music compilation]] for Season 2's reunion, highlighting "Light up, It's just Fashion", ''"Tim Gunn, Tim Gunn, when he calls your name you're done. [[RunningGag What happened to Andrae-]]"'' and "Daniel Franco, Where did you go?" featuring Nick.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Widely offered for the reason why four finalists got to compete for the top prize in season 9. Anya's sample collection was poorly designed and poorly made, but [[EliminationHoudini she got put through anyway.]] Most people attribute this to her "story" making for better television.
** This have been in play in the Bravo days. The show had experimented with ''not'' eliminating a contestant on the final challenge and letting four designers create collections.
*** The first time (season 3), all four were allowed to compete for the final prize. The second time around (season 4) four designers created collections, with the knowledge that the bottom two would have to compete against each other for the third spot. Either way, before season 5, winning the final challenge ensured a designer's place at Fashion Week.
*** The last challenge of Season 5 did not feature an elimination and was won by Jerell Scott (who while had a strong run during late season, he tends to often walked the line between PimpedOutDress and ImpossiblyTackyClothes). However, this time, all four designers were subjected to another surprise challenge, during which Jerell was eliminated.
** Michael Costello, who won season 8's last challenge, lost a spot at Fashion Week under the same circumstances. Beginning with Costello's season, the show has been notably vague about naming the last challenge's best-performing designer a "winner" onscreen, possibly to leave the door open for the inclusion of designers with better "stories" or to prevent the ascent of an EliminationHoudini (season 1's Wendy Pepper being the most notable example).
** Any time a challenge involves creating an outfit for a client, expect the contestants in the bottom to receive the critique "You didn't listen to your client and just designed a dress you like" or "You followed your client's instructions, but we can't see your style in this dress", depending on who the producers need to go home.

* InterfaceSpoiler: When Fashion Week arrive and all the contestants show their collection, notice the order of the collection shown. [[spoiler: When the collection is shown at the later phase, the chances are that the contestant may be a finalist]].

* WhatAnIdiot:
** In Season 14 Episode 5, Candice gets to pick her first teammate. Instead of picking Ashley, who had already won two challenges and with whom she had won a team challenge in episode 3, she picks Amanda, who spent the last three consecutive challenges in the bottom.
** In Season 16 Claire using a retractable tape ruler and tape measure outside the work room, and admitting it on camera while working. Michael and Margarita are already annoyed with her "borrowing" one of Margarita's designs and tell Tim after Michael does a dramatic walk off the runway following Claire winning a challenge in Episode 9. As Tim puts it, "“But if Claire used a measuring tape or other tools outside the workroom, that is absolutely against the rules and there will be consequences.” She ends up disqualified and eliminated after she's forced to admit she broke the rules. It says something that the eliminated contestant of the episode, Batani, didn't look worried at all after being told she was out; she knew very well that Claire would go in her place.
* WhatTheHellHero: In this case, the audience had [[CriticalDissonance very vocal disagreements with the judges]].
** The judges crowing the win to Jeffrey (Season 3) and Gretchen (Season 8), both whom are disliked by the fanbase.
*** Definitely a BrokenBase as far as Jeffrey goes, since many fans found his collection based on Japanese ghost stories absolutely stunning and extremely avant-garde, but a number of people liked Uli's collection better. Unsurprisingly, Uli was the runner-up.
** In Season 14 Episode 4, Blake won the challenge over Candice or Swapnil for being conceptually innovative despite the obvious crappy construction. Candice and Swapnil's preserved stellar execution at the same time with innovation. Not only that, the judges eliminated Gabrielle for [[{{Hypocrite}} crappy construction, despite the design's conceptual potential]].

* FoeYay: Quite a few viewers see this between Gunner and Chris of Season 10. As reviewers Tom and Lorenzo [[http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2012/07/pr-candy-on-the-street-theres-nothing-better.html called them]]:
-->[They are] two hissing mirror-image queens who desperately need to fuck so they can shut up about hating each other.

--> ''As for Christopher and Gunnar, clearly, Sonjia grabbed them both by their neckbeards and hissed “Go suck each other off in the men’s room if you have to, but I am NOT having you two bitchy white boys with crazy hair fuck up this challenge for me!” It’s the only explanation that made any sense.''

* WhatMightHaveBeen: Maya not dropping out in Season 7.
** Jack not having to drop out of Season 4 due to health reasons, especially since he won a challenge before his departure and was never in the bottom 3.

** Timothy in season 12 from the first two episodes alone due to his holier-than-thou "eco friendly" platform, which he never shuts up about despite the fact that the judges have rightly pummeled him for CompletelyMissingThePoint of the show in general and being a massive {{Hypocrite}} for doing things like forcing his model to go barefoot while he wears sparkly (women's) shoes on the runway next to her. Compare and contrast with Gretchen, who was also a sustainable designer and still managed to produce great work when she wants to and never tried to push "sustainable design" or anything.

* BigNameFan: Tom and Lorenzo, creators of [[http://tomandlorenzo.com/ Tom+Lorenzo]] and [[http://projectrungay.blogspot.com/ Project Rungay]].

** Bert of Season 9. As the season went on he relaxed, became better friends with some of his competitors, started telling [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar sly jokes about his time at Studio 54]], and eventually evolved into CoolOldGuy status. By the time of [[spoiler:his elimination, significant portions of the fandom were enraged that he was auf'ed before Laura or Josh M.]]

** Ashley of Season 14. Bullied when she was younger for her weight (and also feeling that she couldn't fit because of her size and dyslexia), she had a hard time dealing with being chosen last in the fifth challenge. Then when she finds out that her team planned on throwing her under the bus if they lost, it's heartbreaking. [[spoiler: Luckily the plan backfires on them and Amanda is sent home instead, but Ashley flat-out states that she learned that she can't trust anyone.]] It's one of the biggest {{Tearjerker}}s in the season so far.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic / EarWorm:

* BaseBreaker: The designs from the contestants themselves, due to fashion opinions are extremely subjective in nature.
** This often happens in-universe between the judges as well, one particularly stand-out example would be the Season 12 athletic challenge for judge Heidi in which Alexandria creates a pair of drop-crotch pants. Heidi ''loved'' them and told Alexandria so during her walkthrough, however the other judges outright ''despised'' the pants (Michael Kors going as far as to say it looked like someone took a shit in their pants). In the end, though, they agree they pretty much have to declare Alexandria safe, as really what was she supposed to do when one the judges tells her they loved the design before the runway?
** Season 14 had an episode where the judges declared no top or bottom looks after the runway show because each one invoked a 50/50 love it or hate it split amongst the judges. In the end the winning dress was one half the judges weren't keen on simply because it was "boring", but fit the criteria it was given and the other judges loved because it could easily be mass produced per the challenge. The more design heavy outfits invoked a lot more debate.

* CounterpartComparison: A gay male Mexican-American designer with flawless construction skills and strong sense of personal style suffers [[CrackDefeat crack defeats]] because the judges seem to favor far more controversial personalities? While Viktor Luna and Mondo Guerra are quite different as designers, and somewhat ironically [[spoiler:shot themselves in the foot in exactly opposite ways during the finales of their respective seasons]], the parallels between them haven't gone unnoticed.
** In fact, it's popularly believed that Viktor [[spoiler:was placed third]] specifically to avert comparisons to Mondo, whose second-place finish a season earlier enraged the audience.

** During the competition, Michael Costello was picked on by the other competitors [[AllTheOtherReindeer because many didn't agree with his wins]], often commenting between them that he should be leaving soon. Then his backstory was revealed on interviews: He was raised in a very conservative family, had to obey his parents into an arranged marriage, from which he fathered two children, but only got to keep Giovanni because his ex-wife took his daughter and haven't been in contact ever since. Then he came out as gay, prompting his family to disown him until he got casted into the show. The moment when he lost his spot in the final three was his HeroicBSOD, crying and mumbling that [[WellDoneSonGuy he wanted to make his parents proud again]].
** Mondo, see Tearjerker.
** Korto Mormolu, being so close to winning a season, ''THRICE''

* AwesomeMusic / EarWorm:

* TheWoobie: As of Week 5, Michael Costello for season 8, for some.

* SeasonalRot: The less said about [[HollywoodCalifornia Los Ang-]][[FanonDiscontinuity What're you talking about? They've never done a season in Los Angeles! Lies!]]

** From Season 1: "I didn't take the bitch's dye!!"
** From Season 2: "WHERE THE HELL IS MY CHIFFON?!!"[[note]]More context: It's still a mystery who yelled it. And also it was said in the middle of a big fight in the workroom. Good MoodWhiplash.[[/note]]