Transcript of Keith's Exit Interview - Continued

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I feel bad about the reaction. I think that we’re all under a lot of stress and wind up sort of finding a scapegoat sometimes. Everyone’s seen me working in the workroom and they know I don’t use books to help me get my pieces together. They’ve seen me drape, and it’s been a real experience for me because I’ve never seen me drape, so it’s been an exciting sort of run here because I learned a lot and I expected to go the long haul, and I think everyone else did as well and I’m not really sure on how my teammates are going to feel about the fact that I’m gone tomorrow, but it will be a fact.

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__________ with them this evening and I told them what was going on. They seemed to be comfortable with the fact that, you know, I approached them and talked to them about it. I think some of my friends were more concerned about the fact that I got to sort of take a field trip today while we were working. I was a little upset because Vincent and a couple other people were kind of yelling at me about whether or not I had an unfair advantage because I had books. So, it kind of freaked me out and I needed to take a little walk which sort of broke the rules of the agreement here at Project Runway that I kind of stick to the grounds of Parsons and where we live. But I break rules a lot of times.

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I think I presented a very smart proposal and I think that part of the reason why it was a successful presentation was because of its simplicity. And I think because it is a simple design, and if it’s well executed, it will go off well. And if that’s the case that’ll be another feather in my cap even though I’m not around.

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I’m sure that a million things will come to mind in the weeks to come when I have a little bit more time to think about it, but it’s been an interesting experiment when you put people together that aren’t exactly alike. So what I’ll take out of the experience? Is maybe perhaps a better understanding of how to deal with difficult situations, how to be creative on the fly.

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What I’ll do now? I’ll go back to what I’ve been doing ... making really cool clothes. With an exception – there’ll be a women’s wear line as well. I’m very excited about the work that I’ve done here and it’s inspired me to do more, which is a good thing.

Keith’s Exit Interview, Part II

The Macy’s pitch. I was pleased again that I was selected as a team leader. Very happy about that. Very happy. I think that just because I’ve worked in the industry, briefly, but I have, I worked with merchandisers and Macy’s is a major merchandiser. I knew what Macy’s would be looking for and I could have done a million and one beautiful sketches and ideas and outfits but for Macy’s cost is a factor, marketability is a factor, and I took those things into consideration. And so I figured if I took the things into consideration that I already knew, they would take into consideration, and I had a good chance of winning that challenge. So I wasn’t surprised that I was picked. I was surprised that Angela was picked. I figured it was going to be Rob, me, and Alison. Rob has beautiful sketches, he sketches beautifully, and he works at a large company where merchandising is taken into consideration, so I knew he got the concept of that. Though he’s a little extravagant sometimes. But I thought that he would make a very good presentation, and I think he did, and that’s why he was chosen. I think that Alison just makes a good presentation herself, personally. Just herself, she wears her style, and she wears it so well it’s hard to say no to her. You know you look at her and you go, “Right on. I get it. Beautiful.” So I didn’t think there’d be any problem. As far as Jeff is concerned – talented designer, but he’s a little, his edge is a little hard and his lines are a little complicated sometimes, and so you know I thought talented, but probably not going to pick him just because it’s not exactly what they were looking for. And then the rest ... the rest, whatever.

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There are many, I think, strengths that I have, design-wise. I think I understand what needs to be done to make something and make it look great. I think that sometimes my communication level is not where it should be, and sometimes I strain to communicate. And I’d like not to have to strain to communicate. Just, it’d be nice if communication came very easily to me. Nevertheless I do communicate, it just takes a while. Blah blah blah.

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When you’re not clear man, it’ll come back and bit you in the ass. So I’m not really sure, I think communication is something we all learn how to do, being social people. And you know everything’s a learning process. I have a company right now that consists of one person, me, so I don’t delegate responsibility all that often. I know how to delegate it but it’s not something that I do on a daily basis, so if I delegated on a daily basis I’d probably be even better at it. It’s just practice.

Keith’s Exit Interview, Part III

This competition is strange in the sense that it’s not quite reality because designers rely on a lot of different things to get to where they need to go as far as design is concerned. There’s a lot of inspiration shopping that’s done, there’s a lot of studying, a lot of research, there’s a lot of playing with fabric on your own, a lot of talking with friends. All those things that kind of are taken away from you because it’s a competition. So you kind of have to just start from scratch which is why the competition was exciting. Coming in here, it was just going to be a learning process for me because I do men’s wear, and I’ve been wanting to do women’s wear but I just never got around to doing it. And draping it – it’s just something that is just a natural thing that you pick up the cloth and you start draping. And it’s different from patternmaking. And I knew that I had to switch gears and I was excited about that and a little concerned but after the first challenge I was just like, “Oh I can do this. This is cool.”

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I was excited to do something different. As much as design is a creative outlet and a creative outlet, when you’re running a business and you’re designing there are so many people to take into consideration that sometimes design gets taken out of your hands. So the concept of coming on to the show was something that really really excited me because I thought you know, this is going to be a chance where I don’t have to think about so much, cost effectiveness, or paying bills, or talking to clients, or worrying about sales, or anything like that. This was just an experience for me to do what I wanted and I was very excited about that prospect.

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You know, honestly I thought that I definitely had a talent level that was towards the top of the group and you know just because I think that’s the way even the contestants are picked. There are some really great ones and some good ones and not so good ones and you put them all together and see what happens and some surprising things do happen. So I wasn’t surprised but yeah I thought I was one of the better ones and I was really excited about that because I felt like I could take some risks and do some fun things and I’d still be around. So I felt a little safe. But I also was worried because it’s been a while since I had to actually sit down at my own sewing machine and sew. So I thought that there was competition all the way around. Some people definitely sucked but there was a lot of competition and I was happy to be a part of it.

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Well you know the thing is that when it comes to like for instance, the first competition. One thing I was pleased with was the fact that, there were a lot of good ideas on the stage, there was a lot of good concepts on the stage, but there wasn’t any good execution on the stage except for mine. And I think it was really clear. And it made me feel good, I was like, I did something that was very very beautiful and I’m very happy about that and I was really pleased to see that my work didn’t look remedial. And I didn’t expect it to, but to see it on stage with a bunch of other people, some of whom are very talented, and still mine would be the piece that didn’t look remedial was very very cool. And I thought, “Ok, this is good. I have what it takes.”

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So with the dog challenge I just was very, I took a chance because I had to dress a dog, and I feel like I outfitted a dog, and I didn’t 100% live up to the requirements of the competition. And I felt like I took a chance by doing what I thought was right as opposed to ... you know, because there’s what you think is right, and then there’s what is required of you. And in the industry, usually what is what’s required of you is what wins. It doesn’t matter what you want. So I really was concerned that I may have lost that challenge just because it didn’t live up to the requirements of what they wanted.

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I’m excited to see who wins. Very excited about that. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to watch the show. I can’t wait to see who wins. I hope it’s um ... I hope people that make it to the end are people that really deserve to win. It’ll be really exciting to see that and I’ll be really happy. And my faith would be restored a little bit. So I’m excited to see who makes it. It’ll be cool. And go to all the parties.

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I did surprise myself. I was really really really happy with the work I did on the show. And it really really bummed me out that I had to leave because I was living past my own expectations and I was really excited about that. I was excited to see what I could do. I’ve spent like, ever since I’ve left the show I’ve just spent time basically doing exactly what we’ve done during the show. Just sitting with fabric on the model form and just working. Because it’s an amazing way to work and I’ve never worked that way before. I’ve only worked with patterns and this was the first time that I’ve only worked draping, and it was amazing.

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I officially proved myself as a front-runner. I did a beautiful job every time. And I’m very happy about that. And for all the sadness that I feel about the show I’m very happy I did a good job. And that I proved myself as a good designer. That was probably the best I did.



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