Strict Rules Project Runway Contestants Are Forced To Follow

In the fashion world, rules are abundant. There are long-held guidelines about what does and doesn't go together, color seasons, what is and isn't appropriate for a specific event, and more. Even the royal family is expected to follow a dress code. And, of course, fashion and rules really join forces on the long-running design competition "Project Runway." Between sleeping hours, limited internet access, and not being able to leave the production without permission, contestants on the reality show have to remember more rules than a newly minted motorist hitting the highway for the first time.

"We don't want them relying on other people's designs or other materials," show producer Sara Rea told The A.V. Club in 2013. "[A]nd we don't want anyone to have an unfair advantage so we limit their resources," she added. "You have your sewing kit and your creative minds: Go to work." So, whether you think that these restrictions help the contestants make jaw-dropping designs or the designers would benefit from being given some more time to tinker during a challenge, here are the strict rules that all "Project Runway" contestants are forced to follow.

Thanks to Jeffrey Sebelia's Season 3 controversy, viewers were made very aware of the show's stance on enlisting outside help. To put it simply, getting help from someone of "Project Runway" is strictly prohibited. In fact, it's considered cheating and very against the rules of the show. 

On the season finale, it initially seemed Sebelia, who has been dubbed one of the biggest villains of "Project Runway," was way behind the other contestants with his final collection. However, he still managed to get his garments finished in time for the final runway, which prompted another designer accuse him of getting outside help with sewing. Longtime mentor on the show, Tim Gunn, began to worry things might not be totally above board when it was revealed that Sebelia was missing receipts and had gone over budget. "We took the accusation very seriously, and we did a very intense and thorough investigation," said the Emmy-winning fashion expert, who appeared on every season of "Project Runway between one and 16, during the controversy (as per New York Magazine).

Sebelia denied the claims and was found not guilty of outsourcing his work. Subsequently, he went on to win the show, the feature in Elle magazine, and the $100,000 prize. But the whole furor shows how serious the claims of outside help are taken by the rule enforcers of "Project Runway."  

Getting outside help is not the only form of cheating that is not tolerated on "Project Runway." Season 16 contestant Claire Buitendorp found that out the hard way. Firstly, Buitendorp's peers on the show, Michael Brambila and Margarita Alvarez, revealed they believed their fellow contestant had been doing something deeply against the rules: She was using a retractable ruler at the hotel. Well, and ripping off designs she'd brought from home. The smoking gun? Well, ​​Buitendorp literally admitted to it.

It was all revealed when Buitendorp was confronted by the other contestants. As she explained, she brought a tape measure and had been measuring garments in her hotel room to use as a reference for her designs on the show. As Tim Gunn explained on Episode 9 of "Project Runway" Season 16, "If Claire used a measuring tape or other tools outside the workroom, then that is absolutely against the rules, and there will be consequences." It's such a flagrant rule violation that Buitendorp was sent home.

"Claire's possession of the measuring tape in her hotel room, and the fact that she used it to measure clothes that she owns and make specifications is what is against the rules here," added Gunn in another to-camera debrief. So, if you're planning on going on "Project Runway," make sure you keep your tape measure at home.

In the same way you can't bring an air fryer on "Survivor" or store-bought confectionery on "The Great British Baking Show," on "Project Runway" you can't bring your pattern-making books. "We want them to create from what they know, not from a pattern book," producer Sara Rea added in her aforementioned interview with The A.V. Club. "It doesn't help them and it could also be derivative, [and the rule] puts everyone on the same playing field." However, some have evidently attempted to make the playing field less level.

In Season 3, that's exactly what contestant Keith Michael did and he was subsequently kicked off the show for having pattern-making and fashion how-to books in his dorm. There aren't many bigger rules you can break on "Project Runway" than bringing in a pre-made pattern book. Yet, Michael saw it a little differently. "These pattern books were not the kind that you would be able to use for practical purposes on the show," he told Andy Cohen after he was booted (via People). "One of the books was the most detailed pattern book you would ever see about menswear that had nothing to do with anything on the show," he added. Regardless, rules are rules, and (according to the "Project Runway" team) Michael broke 'em.

That's not the only rule Michael broke. In fact, he's responsible for one of the biggest scandals in "Project Runway" history. But more on those other transgressions later.

According to an investigation by Business of Fashion, it was not uncommon for budding fashion designers at the esteemed Antwerp Academy fashion school to sleep between one and four hours a night. Thankfully, on "Project Runway," the contestant designers are required to get six hours of sleep. That doesn't seem like much, but in the fashion world, that's basically hibernation. "It's not mandatory from anyone but ['Project Runway' producers]," producer Sara Rea said in her 2013 interview with The A.V. Club. "[B]ut we've decided that we have to have a minimum six hours for the designers to sleep. And that's minimum." Thankfully, the same rules apply to the crew. For a show within an industry (television), and about an industry (fashion), so famed for a lack of good night's sleep, this is one rule we're glad "Project Runway" has put in place.

However, some fans think these rest rules could be even stricter. "The challenges are exhausting and grueling. We've seen people collapse from health issues," wrote one user on Reddit. "We are not seeing the designer's best work, in their best mental state," they added. "Why can't they afford as long of a production time as a f****** baking show?" Another user on the thread added, "'Project Runway' should really just be about the fashion. If it was, they'd let them rest and put their best foot forward every time."

There are some galling stories about the fashion industry out there. Whether it's 18-hour days on the clock to hurt assistants hurting new interns, they make the scenes at Runway Magazine from "The Devil Wears Prada" look like a positively healthy working environment. Thankfully, when the "Project Runway" studio lights shut off, so do the contestants. Therefore, when they're tucked up in bed and getting ready for their minimum of six hours of sleep, they cannot be sewing under the covers with a headlamp like a precocious child.

When asked about why the contestants can't choose to give themselves homework, producer Sara Rea revealed it has a lot to do with their rules about sleep. "It's really more about the sleep, to be honest, because we've had seasons where they didn't get as much sleep and we've had ambulances," she told The A.V. Club. "In season eight they were exhausted mentally and physically, and it's so intense emotionally and creatively that it wears them out," she added. "By episode eight, we always have someone breaking down because they're burned out." Thanks to this rule, hopefully the contestants aren't suffering the kind of burnout that those who work in the fashion industry do.

From using candy as the base for a killer look to repurposing newspapers to creating outfits from goods found at the pet store, the brief is always the center of any "Project Runway" episode, and it's of the utmost importance that the contestants meet it. But if they don't, whether they've missed the directions or made outfits that simply don't work, they'll be sure to hear about it from the judges.

Take, for example, Season 11's task to make Chippendales-style clothing, which ended up with contestants cobbling together half-made suits as opposed to cheeky chic get-ups. As Heidi Klum put it during the critiques on that particular episode of "Project Runway," "I think we should wrap the show early and I think you're all out." Before adding, when speaking to one of the brief-failing teams, "You're lucky you're good-looking because surely your clothes are not." Although not everyone got evicted, obviously, it should be a lesson to anyone going to the show: don't miss the judges' brief. 

Of course, understanding the assignment doesn't guarantee a successful design. Whether they met the criteria or not, here are some of the worst "Project Runway" looks of all time.

Even if they need to do extra stitching or fix a hem, once the "Project Runway" crew calls time, the contestants are officially out of time. In the world of the Heidi Klum-fronted show, time is perhaps more precious than a tape measure or good quality fabric because of how little they have of it. Like, you can't exactly go to Mood Fabrics to get more time.

So, in the frantic rush to finish their garments but also make them up to the high standard of Klum, Zac Posen, Law Roach, or any of the other rotating cast of judges on the show, we can understand why contestants would be keen to tinker with their looks between finishing their outfits and seeing them on the models walking down the runway. However, while the crew is setting up that runway to show the outfits in their final form, the contestants are not allowed to touch their designs during the break. Instead, the contestants need a level of sartorial stoicism. They will reap what they sow, or have sewn, so to speak.

Fancy a doom scroll after a stressful day? Need to fire up a streamer and watch several episodes of a show to take your mind off work? Did you think of a funny TikTok you want to send a friend? Well, you'd have trouble doing so as a "Project Runway" contestant. Throughout the duration of the show, the designers are not allowed to go on the internet, watch television, or use their phone.

"We want all their inspiration to come from the things we leave for them and what they can see," said Sara Rea in her enlightening interview with The A.V. Club. "We don't want any outside influence to sway what they're being inspired by or what their emotional state is," she added. "We like to be very careful about not disrupting their focus. We don't want to be cavalier about the information that they get." With these kinds of restrictions put in place, the best chance they'd have at finding out about what's going on in the outside world is through messages sent by carrier pigeons or smoke signals. Heck, that might not even work. "They literally block the windows," ​​Season 9 contestant ​​Bert Keeter revealed at Fashion Week El Paseo 2013, as reported by Palm Springs Life. "They don't want you looking outside."

But some contestants have still been able to circumvent the confiscations. In fact, it's another rule the aforementioned "Project Runway" enfant terrible Keith Michael broke when he used the internet on Season 3 of the show.

The contestants on "Project Runway" aren't allowed to leave the production without permission from the show's top bosses. Something that, you guessed it, Keith Michael also did before he got ejected. But one thing you might not expect is that the contestants have to stick around after they've been booted off the show. It's probably the last thing you'd wanna do after losing out on $200,000, a mentorship that could be a boon for your career, and a feature in a major fashion magazine. "They don't let you go home," Bert Keeter said at the 2013 Fashion Week El Paseo in Palm Desert, as reported by Palm Springs Life. "They basically keep you sequestered. You all travel in a pack even if you are the first person voted off, you're there five or six weeks."

For budding "Project Runway" winners who have failed in their mission, having to be stuck watching your colleagues slowly become more successful is the kind of purgatory you wouldn't wish upon your worst fashion enemy. "They separate you and you go down to the basement and stay down there for 12 to 14 hours. So the people who watch the show can't tell who is off the show," Keeter revealed. "It's torture." Torture, indeed. That's just one thing that the cameras don't show you on "Project Runway."

"[W]e do have mandatory lunch breaks," "Project Runway" producer Sara Rea dished in her The A.V. Club tell-all. "We've learned that we have to make [the contestants] eat because they'll get so focused that they won't eat, and that's not good for them or us or anyone," she added. "We just do rotations so that everyone eats at different times within the same hour block."

We're glad to hear it, because from what we know about being a designer on "Project Runway," it's hungry and thirsty work. As former judge Michael Kors put it when speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, "Fashion is not for sissies." The contestants are known to undergo grueling 18-hour shooting days within an extremely demanding schedule, so apt sustenance is vital to get those gowns sewn up and designs delivered in time. According to WellBe, not eating can weaken the immune system, increase tiredness while depleting energy levels, and even have a detrimental effect on mental health.

In fact, the mandatory lunch breaks on the show are better than some of the conditions in the actual fashion industry. As Season 4 winner and now-mentor on the show Christian Siriano said in a clip from "Project Runway" (via Reddit), "I don't eat for three days when I am making a collection."

You wouldn't be the first to wonder what really happens to the "Project Runway" designs after the show ends. You might think that by following all the rules noted on this list that the contestants get to keep the clothes they put blood, sweat, and tears into. However, the designers actually don't have much choice when it comes to the fate of the designs they made on the show.

"The garments that we see created each week are auctioned off by a site that sells products from TV and film," Today dished in a reality TV Q&A back in September 2006. "The garments from each show go up for auction after that episode airs." Former contestant Seth Aaron echoed this statement at Fashion Week El Paseo 2013 in Palm Desert. "Everything is auctioned off immediately," he said, per Palm Springs Life. "The clothes that are produced by us go up for auction immediately after the show." So, somewhere, scattered around the world are the best fashion moments in "Project Runway" history. 

But, on the other hand, some of the worst looks are collecting dust somewhere. Heck, some looks from the show's "All Star" spin-off are even being resold on eBay, including Season 7 star Jasper Garvida's white lacy look and Stanley Hudson's Season 6 sleeveless lime dress (both for under $100). So, if you're looking to get yourself an archive "Project Runway" 'fit, there are options you can make work. But, as Season 9 contestant Joshua McKinley Cook joked in 2013, per Palm Springs Life, "It's clearly stated that these may or may not be finished."