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Hi there,

Project Runway All Stars (which premiered October 24) airs Thursdays at 9pm ET on Lifetime. If you haven’t checked it out yet, a group of designers compete against each other to create beautiful and artistic clothes in the hopes of becoming the next big name in the industry. But first, they must get past the judges. For his third season, one of our favorite fashion designers, Isaac Mizrahi, is serving as a judge. 

To add to the excitement, QVC was honored by being asked to supply the Accessory Wall and send Program Host Lisa Robertson as a guest judge for one of the challenges. I spoke with Isaac and Lisa about the show, their experiences, and what it was like working with each other outside of QVC Studio Park.

To start off, I wanted to know what they enjoyed most about working on Project Runway All Stars. “Honestly, my favorite part is opening up to this new experience of young designers,” Isaac shared. “They really do have their own perspective and it’s great for me to check in with that. I love connecting with them and trying to help them in some real way.” Lisa expressed her excitement about the memorable experience by telling me, “It was so much fun! Those designers are so talented. They’re making these amazing dresses out of nothing! I don’t know how they do it, but it was so educational. To spend time with people who are that good at what they do is inspiring.”

I next asked them what they find most challenging about judging. Lisa didn’t hesitate as she said, “The hardest part was the judging itself. I was looking at the designs as a regular person, not as a designer with a professional point-of-view.” Isaac agreed that judging can be difficult. “The most challenging thing is breaking it to someone that I’m not necessarily mad about what they’ve done. Personally, I know how devastating it is after weeks of preparation for a fashion show to get a bad review. So when I’m talking with the designers, it’s important that I make it clear what caused me to give them more criticism than praise—and that’s never easy. But the hardest part is eliminating someone. That’s horrible every week.”

Isaac and Lisa have worked together countless times at QVC, but I was curious about how they worked together on the set of Project Runway All Stars. According to Isaac, “It was incredible! At first, I was nervous because I feel like Lisa is part of my family—like a sister. But I think she was one of the best guest judges we’ve had. Her perspective is multi-level. It comes from her heart, which is like the heart of a consumer, but she also has a professional perspective that caused the designers to appreciate everything she said. She came across as extremely smart, caring, and savvy.”

Lisa jumped in, “It was so much fun! And it made me feel more comfortable having Isaac there. If I had been in that situation and Isaac hadn’t been there, it would have seemed much more intimidating.”

What else is there about the show that fans may not already know? According to Lisa, “It was interesting to see how large the crew is that works on Project Runway All Stars. The people at QVC have to multi-task more because that’s how this industry has grown up, but a crew for traditional television is usually going to be more people. It really takes quite a large village.”

“As far as the drama that goes on in the design room, the judges don’t get to see that,” Isaac added. “We’re just judging from our own perspective of what clothes look like, but a lot of times our take on what gets eliminated or what wins a prize tends to correlate with the story line. It’s a weird energy and you can almost feel the drama that happened behind the scenes. It’s a funny thing! But in all honesty, the drama of Project Runway All Stars lies in the creative process. The judges aren’t the stars of the show. The talent is the star of the show.”

Project Runway All Stars concludes January 9. The season winner will appear on QVC’s Red Carpet Style – Live from LA (February 28) and will create a collection to be sold on QVC. For more behind-the-scenes stories, check out Lisa’s Facebook page.  And to see the latest challenge, shop items seen on the QVC Accessory Wall, and more, visit QVC.com/ProjectRunwayAllStars. 

Happy trails!

Troy

Editor, InsideQ magazine

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