Project Runway Junior

lifestyle WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2015 Features Teen fashionistas on ‘Project Runway Junior’ make it work im Gunn said he was apprehensive about participating in a bite-size version of T“Project Runway” featuring teen designers as young as 13. “I thought,” he recalled in a recent interview, “will I have to soft-pedal my cri- tiques? Is it all going to be watered down? Are they going to be emotional wrecks and very fragile?” Gunn was pleasantly surprised by the freshman class on “Project Runway Junior,” which premieres Thursday at 9 pm EST on Lifetime. And yes, he DOES employ his signature catchphrase: “Make it work!” The mentor, former educator at the Parsons design school and adult wrangler on the long-running “Project Runway” called the new show’s young contestants lov- able, sweet to each other and respectful of the ‘Table-Chair-Stool,’ foreground, and ‘Serpentine Floor Lamp,’ part of the Wendell Castle Remastered exhibit, are displayed at the Museum of Art and Design, in New York. The process swirling around them. museum show explores the recent work of Wendell Castle, 83, sometimes called the father (or grandfather) of the American art furniture movement for pieces that are both That’s saying a lot, considering the age range sculpture and furniture. — AP photos - 13 to 17 - among the 12 contestants from around the country. Gunn saw bits of his younger self in them all, as did his co-host, mod- el Hannah Davis, and two of the three judges, Wendell Castle Christian Siriano and Kelly Osbourne. Aya Kanai, the executive fashion editor at Cosmopolitan and Seventeen magazines, rounds out the judges’ crew. “These young people ... are all lon- ers. There’s no one like them who comes home new collection from school and plays with a sewing machine,” Osbourne said. “They’ve been put in a room of their peers, with kids just like them, for the first orn in Kansas in 1932, Wendell Castle received Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, (MA); Museum of Fine time in their life.” Gunn agreed. a B.F.A. from the University of Kansas in Arts, Houston (TX); Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, BIndustrial Design in 1958 and an M.F.A. in (KS); Philadelphia Museum of Art (PA); Renwick Accept responsibility sculpture, graduating in 1961. He moved to Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; (Washington, DC); “For the boys on the show, you know they Rochester, New York to teach at the School of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. were the picked upon, bullied, odd people out American Craftsmen and established a permanent Castle has been the recipient of many honors in their schools, and yeah, I was that kid,” he said. studio in the area, which is where he still works and awards, including four National Endowment for The 62-year-old Gunn recalled his own miser- today. Wendell Castle’s work can be found in the the Arts grants, three honorary degrees, a able childhood. Growing up in Washington, DC, permanent collections of more than 40 museums Visionaries of the American Craft Movement Award he had a debilitating stutter that went untreated Visitors view part the Wendell Castle Remastered exhibit, including and cultural institutions worldwide, including: Art from the American Craft Museum (1994), the until he was 19. It was a time in his life when he “High Hopes,” foreground, at the Museum of Art and Design, in New Institute of Chicago, (IL); Los Angeles County American Craft Council Gold Medal (1997), Master of was “coming to terms with the importance of York. Museum of Art, (CA); the Metropolitan Museum of the Medium Award from The James Renwick being a responsible citizen of the world and not Art (New York, NY); Museum of Modern Art (New Alliance of National Museum of American Art, fleeing it, which is what I spent almost the first York, NY); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, (MN); MusÈe (1999), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the 20 years of my life doing.” He saw none of that in des beaux-arts de MontrÈal (Quebec, Canada); Brooklyn Museum of Art (2007). — AP the kids on the show. Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY); “Compared to the designers on a regular sea- son of ‘Runway,’ these teens ... accept responsibility for their actions,” Gunn said. “There’s never any factor that comes into their interaction with the judges or with me about why this isn’t going as well as they had wanted it to go, versus regular ‘Runway’ when there’s nothing but excuses.” The entire cast got a high-level treat. The Dec. 10 episode will feature a video appearance by first lady Michelle Obama to announce a challenge supporting education for girls. Bella Thorne is a guest judge for the final Dining Table,” part of the Wendell Castle Remastered exhibit. challenge. Siriano, Osbourne and Davis didn’t put in the work room time with the kids like Gunn did and were shocked to learn they, like adult ‘Runway’ contestants, had no help, did the work themselves and produced designs quickly, over a tight span of 10 hours for some chal- lenges. A display of the artist’s creative process, is installed as part of the Wendell Castle Remastered exhibit. Mixed results “It’s almost cooler working with kids than adults because they were figuring it all out along the way,” Davis said. Siriano added: “We were told to give them real criticism like they would get if they were presenting to an editor or to anyone else in the industry.” Food TV and other networks have spun off adult competi- tions into kid versions with mixed results. “I think kids could just be a big flop,” Gunn said. Examples of ‘Cloud Shelf’ and ‘Benny,’ part of the Wendell Castle “There has to be some substance.” They saw an Remastered exhibit. abundance of that in the youngest contestant, 13-year-old Maya from Maumee, Ohio. “She’s amazing,” Siriano said. “Everything she makes on the show is unreal.” Cast through open auditions, the contestants competed for a full scholarship to one of the country’s top design schools, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, and other prizes. Getting to a winner was gut-wrenching for the judges, considering children are involved. When they got down to the final six, emotions ran extra high, Gunn said. “The judges and I didn’t want to eliminate anyone at that point and said, ‘Runaway,’ left, and ‘Like a Dream,’ part of the Photo shows ‘Walnut Sculpture,’ ‘Scribe’s Stool,’ and ‘Can we just send all six of them forward to the Wendell Castle Remastered exhibit. ‘Stool,’ from left, part of the Wendell Castle finale? Please? Please!’” Producers nixed that Remastered exhibit, are displayed. idea, as they did Gunn’s Plan B of trimming the final six to four by letting the two kids cut leave together, hand in hand. “With the grown-ups on ‘Runway,’” Gunn said, “it’s like, ‘Don’t let the door ‘Remembering You,’ part of the Wendell Castle Remastered exhibit. hit you on the way out!’” — AP In this Saturday, Sept 12, 2015, file photo, designer Christian Siriano acknowledges the audience after his Spring 2016 collection show during Fashion Week in New York. — AP “Suspended Disbelief,” right, part of the Wendell Castle Remastered exhibit..

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