Lessons Learned on PRC 2

Another round, another designer. Project Runway Canada continues the elimination process of who Canada's next top designer will be. This week, the teary eyed Christie Clayton from Vancouver, BC is the Project Runway exit designer. We had a little chat this morning about her experience on the show.

CF: Hey Christie, How do you feel after watching yourself on the show? Are you sad to be out of the competition?
CC: Yes, Of course I am but I’m also really happy to be home and working on my label Carny Love. I really was missing my business. It was definitely interesting to be there and to now watch it. I was really worried about how I would get edited but I felt fine about it. I think I was myself and hopefully other people saw that and saw the lesson that I learnt and hopefully they don’t have to learn that lesson themselves now.

CF: Let's go back to the beginning, Can you explain the thought process behind your first challenge dress?
CC: Well basically what was going on with that was that when we were there I usually am a colorful designer and I was working with the scrambler skirt that I make this season. It’s actually really crazy patterns and I actually sold quite a few of them, so when I saw that fabric I was like oh I can make that skirt! Then they tell you what the challenge is and they tell you, you have to be groundbreaking right, so when I got to the studio I thought okay what breaks the ground, I’m like a lightning bolt! Then I was like okay well then, I’ll make the lightning bolt break into four pleats and then add novelty representation of groundbreaking because usually my design aesthetics are quite fun and playful. Then I sort of realized it had to be in a war museum and you know you make your decision and you have to stick with it, you’ve got half an hour to decide what you are going to do. You have to stick with it. You just have to make it work for you.

CF: What went wrong with your final entry in the competition?
CC: I didn’t trust my own judgment and follow my heart on my design aesthetic.

CF: Do you feel like you could have done anything differently to advance in the show?
CC: Oh sure but I haven’t spent too much time thinking about that. I find the universe wanted that to happen so I’m just really happy for the lesson that I have learnt which was a really major lesson and I’m moving on.

CF: Who do you think has the potential to win the competition?
CC: I think Sunny is definitely a major contender for that title.

CF: What are you up to right now?
CC: Right now I’m organizing my PR and preparing Spring Summer 2009 my Fairground Fantasy season.Hey you know I come and do Portobello West, I’m coming back in May!! It’s so much fun and there is a definite Carny Love girl in Calgary it’s great!

CF: Tell us about your label Carny Love
CC: Carny Love is going to be 2 years old in March. It’s a women’s Lolita street chic clothing label. I’m just getting into water proof jackets and there’s usually one cute dress and bikini’s.

There’s bikini’s for the spring season with all my own prints. It’s really more of an art based label which is inspired by the book Geek Love which is written by Catherine Dunn and it just really always has something to do with the circus.

CF: What has the response to Carny love been like?
CC: It’s been great! I think the show definitely gave me a lot of confidence, because out of over 1000 people there are only 14 people that are picked, you have to always remember that. So it has given me a lot of confidence and also a lot of drive to just improve. I really haven’t been in the industry for very long and I’ve had a lot of really big opportunities and sometimes trying to build that expectation can be really tough.

CF: Do you feel you have had to grow a tougher skin?
CC: I don’t know I mean in my own life I am a really sensitive person. That was a really hard competition for me, fashion means a lot to me and I really wanted to do my best. The environment just didn’t work with the way that I design. It’s a really tough challenge and it’s really psychological it’s not just about designing it’s really psychological, it’s just a crazy environment, so it was really hard to have creative thoughts there...It was interesting and I learnt a lot about myself and I’m really glad that I made it as far as I did. I met some great people I’m really happy about the whole experience and I think my message got across and they represented me really well. I’m okay with that.

CF: What was Iman Like?
She was super hot man, she’s really intimidating, she’s a really great woman, I’m really stoked I met her.

CF: How was working with Rita Silvan?
CC: Rita is great and like a portal to Elle magazine right, but it’s really tough because I have never designed for a woman like Rita so I got really confused by that. I’m used to designing for a specific market and then to realize I’m not designing for my market anymore I’m designing for Rita...that sort of played a factor there, she has her opinion for sure but I just don’t know if I design for her...Maybe I can someday but just not right now, my art isn’t working in that direction.

CF: Was Brian Bailey a lot of help for you?
CC: I think Brian is a really established designer. I think he has a role and I think that what I learnt from Brian is that even though Brian may have questioned some of the stuff, maybe I should have just been like 'whatever Brian!' and trusted my own judgment because I think that they test you on that because you know they don’t want a designer that’s going to win a contest that questions themselves all the time. I don’t have dresses in my head that I know have worked in the past for those types of people so it was really hard to be confident about what I was making when I had never done it before because a lot of the times I think that confidence comes from experience, so I think confidence is a really important thing about being a designer.

Links.

Carny Love Website

Photos courtesy of Canwest Media and Carny Love.