Exclusive Interview: James-Paul from Bravo’s The Fashion Show

SeenON! caught up with designer James-Paul Ancheta last week to talk The Fashion Show finale! Ultimately, America just wasn’t buying James-Paul’s final collection, as he received the least amount of votes among the final three designers. But he’s not going to let a third place finish get him down. Read on to hear James-Paul stand by his work and capture the show experience as he saw it.

SO!: Did you agree with the final three? Who else do you think should have had the chance to be voted on by America?

I agreed with the final three. It represented different markets and demographics in fashion. However, I do not think that the voting strategy was aimed to cover all three.  I think the final four should have been voted on by the public.  It created a false hope for one of the contestants and it was a tragic feeling for him.

SO!: You won the Week 1 challenge. At what point in the competition did you realize you could make it to the end?        

I have great training by the designers at Vivienne Westwood Studios. I’ve also worked with pattern makers and haute couture specialists who have taught me everything I know. I trained in a professional setting, which  none of the other designers had the opportunity to do.  I have worked on the Vivienne Westwood Japanese Red label and I learned what sells in that particular market and its demographic. It’s where I also got my Japanese aesthetic merged with the British and Vivienne Westwood aesthetic, which I think is a unique hybrid.  None of the contestants even knew that I worked on the patterns for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Vivienne Westwood wedding dress on Sex and the City: The Movie. I believed in my training.

SO!: The competition came down to you, Daniella and Anna. Did you see these two as your biggest threats throughout the course of the show?  

Anna was very commercial.  Anna did what a fashion merchandiser would do and not what a fashion designer would do.  Her collection is aimed at the “Missy Market” - the market of people who fit the demographic and watch the show on a Thursday night. Her practice does not really fit the character of fashion, which is always ahead of its time.  Daniella created a trend-oriented collection, a derivative of McQueen, and tomorrow it will already be out of style.  I made the collection with my brand in mind - it had excellent patterns, great cuts and my own theories in practice.  Most of these designers had traced a basic block to create them.  Mine are very well advanced.

SO!: How did you feel when the judges said that your winning look was the highest-selling winning look throughout the course of the show?

The dress was given an opportunity to be seen by the audience, which I believe was consumed visually by all of Bravo’s market.  It fits the company’s objective to advance the green movement. I think the show did not capture all the demographics when it came to the final vote. The Rubik’s Cube dress is the most memorable out of all the clothes that were produced and I had the consumer in mind when I created it. 

SO!: What’s next for you as a designer? What opportunities have you had since the show?

I am moving forward as a designer, and I am ready to do my next collection. I am happy to participate in this new movement in fashion where media and fashion merge.  It is an exciting future, I think. 

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