Competitive reality shows put contestants to the test, whether they compete in food, modeling or talent. Not everyone gets it right.
“Project Runway” is a perfect example, as it tests designers’ creativity with new weekly challenges.
However, one challenge left a Black model “crying” after she became the butt of many jokes.
Season 22 designer Bryan Barrientos recently lost favor with viewers and judges. His controversial design appeared in the Aug. 20 “Battle of the Seasons” episode.
The challenge was to make looks out of unconventional materials. Barrientos did that by using electrical cord and a garbage bag to make a dress.
But it was clear he missed the mark.
Even his model, Liris Crosse, was unhappy.
On Aug. 25, Crosse finally came clean about why she was disappointed with Barrientos’ look and how it made her emotional.
She told People, “My heart was broken that day, but it has been filled by so many of the Project Runway viewers who have backed me up and shown so much love with their messages of support.”
Barrientos originally planned a bubble-wrap dress. But after getting notes from mentor Christian Siriano, he scrapped it and went back to the drawing board.
He ended up using electrical cords and a trash bag, which he spray-painted for the final look.
Crosse said she’s seen plenty of “lackluster designs” throughout the season. But Barrientos’ dress “hit a cord, no pun intended,” with viewers because it read as “thoughtless, unintentional, and lazy.
Crosse, a plus-size model, said Barrientos ignored his model’s needs and designed what he wanted instead.
She added, “It also struck up a conversation about how all designers should be able to find the inspiration and design for a fuller body as well, no matter the challenge. If not, are you really a designer?”
In her Aug. 24 YouTube video, Crosse further expressed her disappointment in Barrientos, explaining she thought would be a designer who would consider her curves in his look because he is a “fuller man.”
But as she learned after the challenge, “all thick folk ain’t kin folk.”
Crosse said she was initially happy that Siriano redirected Barrientos when he had the bubble dress. She couldn’t see how the outfit would flatter her body.
Barrientos struggled to find materials after the other contestants had used much of them before eventually spotting electrical cords.
“So he starts to play with the cords, trying to figure out what he wants to do with it. Then he says he’s going to do some technique,” she said.
Crosse couldn’t recall the cultural technique, but said the dress ultimately looked like a simple halter—“almost like a noose around my neck.”
She said she told Barrientos she wasn’t sure it would work. Yet, he claimed he would adjust the dress overnight. But that didn’t quite happen.
“I come back the next day,” said Crosse, “and I’m seeing what I pretty much saw the day. It’s just more of them knotted on it.”
Barrientos initially wanted Crosse to walk in her bra and underwear with the cords layered over them. She refused, forcing him to pivot.
She had an emotional moment and later advised Barrientos to style the cords to look like a Herve Leger-inspired dress. That French fashion house is known for bandage dresses.
Meanwhile, he struggled to figure out what to put underneath because he thought the challenge rules prohibited fabric.
From there, the look got worse as Barrientos pulled a trash bag as makeshift material for fabric. But it was where he got the bag that made Crosse upset.
She recently found out. “The plastic garbage bag he taped around me was off the floor … I had no clue.”
In response to fans saying she looked “grumpy” while walking down the runway, Crosse confessed, “That was because I was crying.”
One fan reacting to Crosse’s video wrote, “To me it felt disrespectful. Disrespectful to you as a model, disrespectful to his fellow contestants, disrespectful to the competition itself.”
A second typed, “Bryan’s self importance is mind blowing. What he ‘created’ for you, was a disgrace.”
A third commented, “The fact that he said he thought he did a GOOD JOB BAFFLES ME.”
The judges also did not hold back on their criticism of Barrientos’ look. Even supermodel Heidi Klum warned him, “You’re lucky that you had immunity this week,” or he could have gone home.
Crosse has been a model for the show since 2015 and even became the first plus-size model to win the model portion.
She’s also the author of the book “Make the World Your Runway: Top Model Secrets for Everyday Confidence and Success.”
