Daniel In Detroit (cont.)

Then it was time for questions and answers. Someone asked about the filming of PR and he explained how it went. The whole season was filmed over 26 days, they were designing an outfit almost every other day, and by the time he got to Iman's dress, he could care less if it represented his final collection, he was just emotionally and mentally and physically drained. He said they take away all cell phones, and there is no television or radio, so there is no way to have environmental inspiration. They were in bed by 2am and up by 7am every day. They were told when to change clothes or brush your hair so that it looked like a different day. He also explains that these circumstances may be the reason why it seemed that so many catfights (to quote him, "with all this going on, if someone takes your chiffon, what would you do?" this garnered a lot of laughs in the audience.) He said that while the representation of the designers is real, its not their whole beings, it is a very small fraction. He also mentioned that most of the time he felt like he was on a documentary, not a TV show. The only part that felt TV show-ish was the finale, and the surprise 13th look for their collection. Santino, Chloe and Daniel were devastated by that announcement, they had already proven that they could design with crazy time constraints and a budget. But having said all that, Daniel loved his 13th piece. I did too!!

Someone else asked him, what or who inspires him? While he likes the work of Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balencagia and Alexander McQueen, Daniel finds most of his inspiration of everyday life. He described a woman he saw on the street, who was taking a drag off a cigarette, and doing so very sensually like no one was watching. This inspired him to think about who this woman is, and what she wears out, and what she wears to work. Things like that in every day life inspire him. He later mentioned Narcisco Rodriguez and clean lines as the ultimates of what kind of look he would like to achieve in future collections.

An interesting tidbit. When he auditioned for PR, he was in the process of graduating from FIT. He was also an RA in his dorm, so he had to graduate, find a place to live in New York City, get roommates, and get all the 25 kids out of his dorm. When he moved into his apartment and got the box of muslin for the first project, he didn't have a sewing machine or a dress form or a worktable , or any furniture for that matter. So he said that he would sew late at night, and use his own body as a dress form, and use the reflection in the windows from the city lights to see the progress of his dress. How dedicated is that! He mentioned he was much happier to arrive at the Parsons workroom and have a work table and a real mannequin, and a fantastic model in Rebecca. He also has set Rebecca up romantically with his photographer, and they are a "happy photogenic" couple.

Another question was about Tim Gunn and his fabulous podcasts. Yes, he is just that fabulous in real life! Daniel remains good friends with Tim, and they just had coffee last week. Daniel looks to Tim as a mentor, for guidance in his budding career. He is as honest and sincere a man as you will ever come across. He is preaching to the choir on this one...I love Tim Gunn!!

After he was done, we all clapped and he invited us to come talk to him and take pictures. So we did. Someone else got the idea for him to take a picture with his parents, so I just followed their lead. We waited around, talked to Michelle and a couple of other fans (we met Alanna from UofM, she said she is a huge fan of Blogging Project Runway) and then Daniel came over. He apologized for making us wait, can you believe that? I have to say, I was a little nervous at first (but I didn't piddle my pants!) and he is just so easy to talk to, I felt like I had known him forever. When he talks to you, he talks to YOU. Looks you in the eyes, and is listening, not like he was wishing he was somewhere else. My roommate and I told him how we called that he was from Michigan before we even knew that he was. It was definitely his Detroit-rocker hair and his vintage relaxed style combined with his super laidback attitude. We asked him about Andrae, and told him how much we miss his shining personality in our lives. WE MISS YOU ANDRAE!

I'm not sure how we got on the subject, but we talked extensively about never underestimating the power of being nice. His personality on the show, how nice he was to everyone, has paid off so much. Designers and those in the small small fashion industry have come to his aid in every single way to help him, doing whatever they can. Photographers, models, fellow designers. Also, I loved how casually he mentioned that he was at a Sharon Stone cocktail party. While there, someone came up to him and was like "you wore a Le Tigre shirt on Project Runway!" He was like, yea I did. That fan turned out to be the owner of Le Tigre, invited Daniel to his shop and gave him all this free swag and showed him his design room! Opportunities all over the place, just from being nice. You can tell it's not just a front though.

Sadly, by the time we were done talking with him and taking pictures there was just us and his family left. So we said our goodbye's so that he could spend some time with his family. As we left, we gave Michelle our contact information and promised to help her promote the FGI anyway we could. It seems to be a fabulous organization.



Thanks Tiffany!