Project Runway Winner Embarks on Fashion Career
By the All Art Schools career research team—Your source for Art School news, trends and programs.
Project Runway Helps Winner Start a Fashion Design Career
Forget the usual path to success in the fashion industry—that is, going to design school, researching information on fashion design as a career, and networking like crazy. If you're Project Runway's Irina Shabayeva, it's enough simply to win top honors in Season 6 of the fashion design reality competition. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Shabayeva attended the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York, but the prizes granted to the winner of Project Runway are sure to provide a major boost to the career of this up-and-coming young fashion designer.
In the season's final episode, Shabayeva edged past fellow finalists Althea Harper and Carol Hannah Whitfield with her daringly monochromatic set of "urban warrior woman" looks. Though her competitive attitude turned off some fellow contenders—and viewers—her attention to detail and craftsmanship may have been the factor that swayed the judges in her favor.
Among the prizes bestowed on the winner are a $100,000 cash prize, a trip to Paris and a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine. It's the cash prize, Shabayeva said in a recent interview with ETOnline.com, that excites her the most, because she's going to use it to jump-start her career in New York City.
"I am going to get a showroom in the Manhattan garment district, get a studio space going and start building with building blocks—and maybe even have a shop in the city," she told ETOnline.com.
Project Runway provides a unique glimpse into the working process of promising and creative designers like Shabayeva. It also gives those looking for information on fashion design as a career an idea of the competitive nature of the field, and the type of grit and determination that can give aspiring designers a leg up in the industry. If you're thinking about a fashion career, though, you'll want to do more than simply watch television. Researching your educational options and pinpointing a fashion design college that fits your goals will be the blueprint—or the pattern—for success.
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