Sonya Kasparian, Project Runway designer, wants to continue to push boundaries

Sonya Kasparian brought her vast and varied design experience to this season’s Project Runway. Going forward, she continues to push design boundaries.

During this season’s Project Runway, Sonya Kasparian was one of the more experienced designers cast for the show. With a long, varied fashion background, Kasparian brought a very different perspective to this season’s competition. While her voice might not have been the loudest this season, her looks will be remembered.

One of the caveats of the revamped Project Runway was to bring a new perspective to the design competition. Bringing experienced designers to the competition looked to show the balance between design aesthetics.

Kasparian is a Portland based designer. Similar to Project Runway alums like Michelle Lesniak, winner of the recent Project Runway All Stars season, Kasparian has a very successful design business in the Northwest. After designing for Nike sportswear and making custom gowns, she has many talents in her sewing kit.

Still, this competition is unlike designing in her own studio. Little things can make simple processes more difficult.

“The hardest part was using machinery so different than my own at home,” Kasparian says. “It’s like going to race in the Indy 500, and finding out you’re going to be driving an entirely different kind of car.”

Still, Kasparian was able to produce some amazing designs, but she didn’t win immunity in any episode. It seems that sometimes immunity is a huge advantage for some designers.

“Winning immunity would definitely have allowed me in my own mind to take additional risks. I played it safe a couple times in this challenge, where I wouldn’t have ordinarily,” she says.

Additionally, the flash sales have had a huge impact on the competition. In a way, it seems that these challenges are impacting the designers’ looks.

“I took the flash sale challenge into account when designing my look for our first challenge where I designed a Coco Channel inspired black and white matte Jersey set. I made pieces that would be easily wearable, and also easily producible,” Kasparian says.

Kasparian was eliminated in the elegance episode, and it’s understandable that in today’s world of fashion, elegance can be defined in many ways.

“I define elegance as a timeless sophistication,” Kasparian shares. “Elegance is well constructed, beautifully executed, and has an intelligence about it. I believe elegance is also a bit understated. It’s not something that screams ‘notice me’ but commands attention by elevating the wearer. It has an intelligence about it. Elegance is something you wear. It doesn’t wear you.”

Looking at her looks throughout this season, many of those characteristics seem to come into play. Unlike some of the younger designers, her looks didn’t scream for attention. They invited you in and made you look. That concept is different.

It could be from her experience or her design approach, but Kasparian always seemed to highlight her models and try to make them feel confident. It didn’t matter if the model was tall, short or curvy.

Kasparian’s approach in her own design company does exactly this concept. That is the idea of bespoke couture.

“All my clients are different shapes and sizes,” she tells us. “Each piece is custom designed for not only their body type, but also who they intrinsically are. I think it’s fantastic that fashion is finally acknowledging that women come in all shapes, sizes, types, and nationalities, and is not only addressing that in product offerings, but even more importantly in their advertising and marketing.”

Beyond embracing all women, Kasparian thinks that the concept could be expanded.

“To put a singular message out there for so very long of such exclusivity was really detrimental. I am beyond overjoyed to not only see this, but also start to see that inclusivity and open-mindedness extended to people who identify as different gender and gender fluid stereotypes.”

In a way, a designer can open a conversation to topics that might be uncomfortable. Kasparian embraces that idea and says, “fashion — at its best and highest use — can break down barriers rather than continuing to perpetuate them. It’s a fantastic way of reaching a broad audience to change narrative and shine a light.”

Now that her time on Project Runway is over, Sonya Kasparian has a lot on her plate. Her purpose for being on the show was to “be able to expose my brand to a broader audience.” Beyond that exposure, she looks forward to working with her clients, both current and future. Her goals include having her “clients wearing more of my work to red carpet events, The Met Gala and such” while pushing “the boundaries of what art I can create.”

Project Runway airs on Bravo Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET.

What was your favorite look from Sonya this season? Did she leave the competition too early? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!