The Ace: In All Stars 4. He won Season 10, and though it takes him 8 episodes to actually win a challenge (much like his own season, in which he didn't win until Episode 9), he is never in the bottom two and only once in the bottom three. He makes it into the finale with a dress that more than one judge calls the best thing they've ever seen on Allstars. It's no shock that he walks away with the prize for the second time.
Ambiguously Bi: Maybe? He seems to show interest in men on occasion, but he also makes comments about "the way [Heidi] moves". He never makes any spoken indication of what he is or is not attracted to, so who knows.
Even more so in All-Stars Season 4, he seems to actively tease about the ambiguity. In the "Love Life" episode, he very pointedly avoids discussing his orientation, unlike most of the other male designers. And when he says that he is single, he also mentions that he thinks he's ready to "meet the perfect... person."
Deadpan Snarker: Endlessly, especially in All Stars. He started off quieter in Season 10, but threw quite a bit of shade then too.
Double Entendre: In the "love life" episode of All-Stars, as his dress walks the runway.
Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Referring to Ven as a "one-way monkey" when he meant to say "one-trick pony."
Only Sane Man: Of Team 6 in episode 5. Repeatedly cuts through screeching fits in an attempt to keep the team on track.
Real Men Wear Pink: Before becoming a designer, he was a professional dancer. Also, he occasionally wears pink.
The Stoic: Comes with the territory being from Belarus.
Not So Stoic: Loses it a bit when forced to work with Elena, and again when he gets a video from his father in Belarus.
Take That!: To designers who are scared of Nina when she shows up as a guest judge for an episode of All Stars 4.
Dmitry: You know who doesn't love Nina? People who suck.
Tall, Dark, and Snarky: He's one of the few designers not dwarfed by his high-heeled model on the runway, has dark hair, and is incredibly snarky.
Technician Versus Performer: Very much the technician in both of his seasons, contrasting most obviously with Fabio in Season 10 and then with Sonjia in All Stars 4.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: He was distraught that his father wouldn't be able to watch his collection because he was in Belarus. He also teared up when his friend showed him a video message from his father, in which he expressed pride in Dmitry's work and congratulated him.
Fabio Costa
Dumpster Dive: He mentions in his demo reel that he doesn't shop for groceries. He just goes to the market's back alley and takes the discarded cans, defining himself as a "Freegan".
My Greatest Second Chance: Placed 2nd in his original season. Subverted in All-Stars Season 4, he placed 5th.
Nice Guy: Fabio may not always agree with other designers, but he is invariably kind. If placed at the bottom during team challenges, he refuses to disparage his teammates; when forced to choose whether Melissa's or Ven's work is weaker after a poorly executed mini-collection, Fabio makes a point of saying he only chooses Ven because he is personally closer to Melissa.
Real Men Wear Pink: Wears what are essentially dresses several times, leading to Michael Kors joking during the real women challenge that it took a boy in a dress to get his female client to wear a dress, and at one point wears a crown of pink flowers.
He's also the only one who had any idea of how to deal with the babies in episode 11, and says that when he first came to New York did a lot of babysitting, much to the other contestants' amusement.
Technician Versus Performer: A performer type in both of his seasons, contrasting most obviously with Dmitry. It served him better in Season 10 than in All-Stars.
Author Appeal: Most of his pieces are black, and when she uses color, are traditional goth ones (deep blue, purples and red)
My Greatest Second Chance: Placed 3rd in her season. Then subverted in All-Stars Season 3 as she was the third eliminated with all her looks being in the bottom.
Perky Goth: Most of her designs and wardrobe is black, but her personality is generally upbeat.
Christopher Palu
Bigot vs. Bigot: He and Gunnar. Both were equally as catty and whiny.
Broken Pedestal: At the beginning of the Lexus challenge, he was thrilled to be paired with Andrea, whom he considered a Cool Teacher. By the end of the challenge, he was close to crying because of how poorly they worked together and how blase she was about her mistakes.
My Greatest Second Chance: Eliminated right before the finale in her season, in All-Stars Season 4 she wins multiple challenges and makes it all the way to the end in this one. Subverted when Dmitry takes the season once again.
Only Sane Man: When forced to work with Christopher and Gunnar, who despise each other. Recappers Tom & Lorenzo theorized that she took them aside and read them their rights, which kept the drama from boiling over.
Sore Loser: In the reunion episode after All Stars Season 4, she gets pretty sour about Dmitry's win and says it's unfair for former winners to be in All Stars.
Technician Versus Performer: A very classic performer type in both of her seasons. She doesn't even sketch, has multiple crises based in having no plan and no idea what to do, and yet manages to pull fantastic things out of thin air with shocking regularity. Her most dramatic contrast is to Dmitry, especially in All Stars.
Elena Slivnyak
Drama Queen: In the unconventional materials challenge, she called in EMTs for a hot glue burn. Crafters everywhere laughed themselves silly.
Hot-Blooded: She had bursts of anger during Season 10. In All-Stars Season 3 she was more in control.
In Vino Veritas: When the designers go out for a fancy dinner, Elena apologizes to Dmitry for her hostility earlier in the season. He theorizes that "wine is working".
The Ace: Pulls off the nigh-impossible feat of winning two challenges in a row.
Broken Ace: ... only to very nearly get eliminated in episode 6, and even closer in episode 9, with him finally being eliminated for real in Episode 10.
Author Appeal: By his own admission, really likes the color red, as the tour of his apartment shows.
Digging Yourself Deeper: In episode 6, he completely fails to grasp that he shouldn't be saying things implying that his client is "fat", like mentioning that he doesn't have a belt in the right size. He also repeatedly refers to her as "a plus size", says she has no shape, and laughs while telling Tim that Terri is "like a size 14" (which isn't even plus size).
Humiliation Conga: From episode 6 onwards things go downhill very fast.
Manipulative Editing: Venomously claimed that his controversial behavior in season 10 episode 6, in which he called his client "plus-size" and "big" and eventually leading her to tears, was subject to this. Tim Gunn, on the other hand, claims what the audience saw of Ven was the "nice version" of his atrocious behavior.
Jerkass: In episode 6, Ven constantly complained about his client's figure. The other designers were horrified. See Digging Yourself Deeper above.
Never My Fault: Even after the show, Ven still tweeted how the show set him up with that client, showing he didn't learn anything.
Jerkass Has a Point: However, Tom & Lorenzo did seem to give credence to Ven's claim that the show set him up with that particular client, either to see how he would handle going out of his comfort zone or even expecting him to have a problem with it. However, even if production expected problems from him, Ven didn't have to be such a jerk to his client. He could have taken a lesson from Gunnar, who may also have been set up with his client by production in hopes of seeing him act like a jerk but was very nice to his client instead.
No Social Skills / Lack of Empathy: See above, since he honestly doesn't seem to get why his behavior is a problem. In fact, his complete failure to communicate with his client very nearly gets him eliminated.
Signature Style: The judges remark that it's very easy to spot his pieces, and he winds up using the same technique so often that Heidi explicitly warns him that if he uses it again he'll probably get eliminated.
It should be noted that many of his pieces were sleeveless and/or strapless, and contains rose patterns in some way.
Not So Stoic: One of the rare emotional moments from him is when his sister visits the room, along with the other designers' relatives, and Ven shed some tears of joy.
Expository Hairstyle Change: In Season 9, he had his hair longer and brown. By this season he dyed half his hair blond, got a new haircut, and grew out more his neckbeard.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Has one-half of his bangs dyed blond while the other is his natural color.
Hidden Depths: Despite his earlier behavior, episode 6 shows that he honestly cares about his client and builds a great relationship with her. He also went out of his way to be nice to Ven's client Terri, according to Terri herself.
Keet: To the point of making Season 9's Anthony Ryan look calm in comparison.
My Greatest Second Chance: He got selected again after being eliminated in the pre-selection in season 9.
Subverted in All-Stars Season 4, he placed 9th.
Nice Guy: At least that was his image during the Season 9 selection. He was one of the four first to go home before the first challenge, and accepted the decision very gracefully. This contrast led the viewers to see him as he...
Took a Level in Jerkass: Right at the very first episode of Season 10, he started to act more bitchy. Some people suggest that he was playing it for the camera.
Took a Level in Kindness: He zigzagged with the above since he occasionally showed he could still be nice to his clients and fellow competitors.
Sitcom Archnemesis: He seems to be deliberately cultivating a rivalry between himself and Christopher for a while, but they make up during the print challenge. Sadly, Gunnar is eliminated at the end of the same episode.
Smug Snake: Initially acted like this until around episode 6.
Alicia Hardesty
Author Appeal: Her design aesthetic reflects her own tomboyish style, featuring plenty of jumpers and overalls.
Hide Your Lesbians: Averted (a welcome change from Season 2, when the producers edited out any mention of Zulema's wife). Alicia openly presented her girlfriend to the viewers in the demo reel tour of her home.
Only Sane Woman: In episode 8, she gets trapped in a team challenge with Dmitry and Elena, who despise each other and take every opportunity to snipe. Alicia pays for the drama.
Tomboy: See Author Appeal above; her own clothing is very reminiscent of the designs she sends down the runway.
Nice Guy: Mostly seems to just go about his business in the background and avoid personal drama.
Raul Osorio
Jerkass: When he returned to the competition, he was constantly complaining during the team challenge and bickering with Elena.
During his second elimination, after giving everyone a goodbye, he outright insulted Elena and said to her "I hate you".
Hypocrite: During the team challenge, he complained about how everyone in the group was being selfish, while he was only worried about saving his own ass and punching the others before they did it to him.
Never My Fault: In both his eliminations he refused to recognize he didn't do great during the competition and left saying the show wasn't his thing.
Not Quite Saved Enough: Gets brought back into the competition after Andrea and Kooan leave, and while he wasn't eliminated that week, he gets eliminated the following week.
Sore Loser: The first time around, he said his elimination was a mistake by the judges. By his second elimination, although he thanked the judges for the opportunity, he insulted Elena and said to the Confession Cam that the show wasn't his thing anyway.
Buffi Jashanmal
Cloudcuckoolander: Her quirky style and personality make her a lot of fun to watch.
Impossibly Tacky Clothes: She proudly admits it's her signature style, combining glitter, animal prints, sequins and neon colors, all in one outfit.
Nice Girl: At least tries to get along with everyone despite snark aimed at her, and is a genuinely sweet person in real life.
Kooan Kosukenote This contestant died on 2020 from a viral brain inflamation
Break the Cutie: Started as a Genki Boy, but his put in the Bottom 3 broke his competitive spirit.
Cool Teacher: She is a professor at a University. Subverted since Christopher started with expectations of her being this until she ended up not taking the challenges seriously.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the events of Episode 3, she leaves the apartment in the middle of the night. According to the producers, she refused to get out of her apartment.
Lantie Foster
Fantastic Time Management: heavily averted during the second challenge. She begins her (heavily ambitious) project, but ditches it partway through which leads to....
Too Dumb to Live: It's by now well known that any designers who go for cloth-like fabrics in the unconventional materials challenge are painting a target on their backs for the judges, so what does she do? Make a dress that's almost entirely made out of fabric with a few pieces of candy thrown on for posterity. Not helping her case was the fact that a few other contestants used clothlike materials but made a heck of a lot more effort than she did and were saved by their innovation and efforts to actually make something wearable and (in most cases) fashionable from candynote Buffi made the top, Dmitry made the hand-beaded skirt and Andrea had a candy dot apron[. The judges were not amused and she was unsurprisingly auf'd.
