Austin Scarlett’s Project Runway Collection Was Inspired by Hasidic Fashion

Although I didn’t agree with all the choices on the recent season of Project Runway: All-Stars (Jerell overstaying the hell out of his welcome, Angela Lindvall being a robot), I have loved Austin Scarlett ever since his season and was thrilled when he made it to the finale. His collection was inspired by “a vampire who lives in Williamsburg and sometimes borrows clothes from her Hasidic dandy friend,” which makes no sense to anyone who isn’t Austin but was certainly more interesting than just “rich skinny ladies.” These images are a few of the outfits from his collection. To me, the most obvious signifier of Hasidic Jews wasn’t the clothes, it was the tightly curled hair that were designed to resemble payos.

Spoiler alert: Austin didn’t win, but these clothes sure were interesting, and I’m happy I had a reason to write about the show.