Project Runway and Modest Fashions in Modest Religions
The latest season of Project Runway, season 19, has been really good and very different for a number of reasons. Not only has the show had the necessity to tackle topics such as racial tensions and white fragility, it also is the first season within my own memory that the designers seem actually pretty evenly matched. Normally, there are clear front runners and clear laggers-behind, but after just a few episodes, things have evened out and the show is properly showcasing some amazing talent from people who truly deserve to have their talent seen and appreciated.
But then, episode nine happened. Haitian designer Prajjé was eliminated after the unconventional materials challenge. And during this episode, I became suddenly very aware of how Project Runway has a whole show has treated religion, and in particular religions which stress the need for modest dress.
There may have been earlier instances, but I’m going to start in season 12 with Justin LeBlanc. During the “real women” challenge, where designers have to work with women who are not necessarily built like models and who have their own thoughts and opinions on what they were. Justin was paired with a Mormon woman, who stressed to him the importance to her of modest dress. But we only learned about this in passing conversation — the need for modesty was not stressed, not given as a conversation point, and his ability to present a beautiful, well-fitting dress that seemed personalised to his client while still staying modest didn’t give him the win (though he did get high points for it, to be fair). At the time, I assumed the lack of conversation around the clients’ Mormon modesty was simply due to Justin being a mature and capable designer who wasn’t at all bothered by the notion of designing modestly.
This continued to be my assumption when season 16 happened, who had designer Ayana Ife — a Muslim designer who specialised in modest clothing for her typically Muslim clientele. The show, at this point, spent a lot of time in the season dedicated to discussing Ayana’s Muslim identity and the importance of modest dress for Muslim women. They demonstrated how even feminist left-wing women Muslims in the United States may still wish to dress modestly and follow their cultural conventions of attire. Perhaps the amount of time spent on it throughout the season was due to how long Ayana was in the competition — finishing in second.
This current season began to present more questions in regards to Project Runway’s presentation of religious modesty in fashion, however. In this season, designer Katie was known for flashy prints but modest fashion. At several points in the show, we see designers and new mentor Christian Siriano try to push her out of her modest comfort-zone, encouraging her to cut dresses to shorter lengths, or show more skin more generally. As a viewer, I could see how visibly uncomfortable this made Katie. In one of her interviews, Katie discusses her Mormon background and religious beliefs, and suddenly everything clicked for me: she was a modest designer following her religious beliefs of modesty just as much as Ayana was, and just as much as Justin’s client. However, the show did not spend a lot of time illustrating this point, nor did they feel it necessary to communicate to judges and mentor Christian. It was discussed once — not even in relation to her modesty — and then ignored for the reason of her time on the show.
And this brings us to Prajjé. On the runway when being critiqued for the dress that would send him home, Prajjé explained to the judges that in Haiti, women dress more modestly than the judges may be used to. “If they show chest, they cover the back,” he says, “and if they show the back, they cover the chest.”
Although the judges acknowledged this — and I would honestly say that I think there were more problems with that dress than just the modesty — Prajjé was still eliminated.
By looking at these various instances of modest fashion on Project Runway, we can illicit more understandings about the way the show treats different religions and cultures. The fact that the ones in question at the moment are ones surrounding modesty are only clear because the show surrounds fashion — and fashion choices in regards to modesty are far more easy to see that more implicit and structural biases. The treatment of Mormonism is profoundly different than the treatment of Islam.
The way the storytelling is constructed in Project Runway is particular to types of reality competition shows. There is the arc of individual episodes: the challenge is presented, participants present their initial ideas, and we follow the pitfalls and the triumphs until the final product. This episodic story structure only becomes a full season-long narrative when the participants have their own character growth. We see how they handle the pitfalls differently as the seasons go on, or how they gain confidence as the challenges continue. Sometimes, we see the character arcs go differently: an individual gains confidence so quickly that it becomes their downfall. The participants’ backgrounds are always painted as an inherently important aspect of understanding their character growths. If they come from a background of being a self-taught designer and lack confidence at the beginning, then their sudden rise into confidence, whether they win or lose, is an important full story.
Another aspect of the storylines is how the background of the participants, and the character growth they experience, is impacted by the garment. Each outfit they create is given strong important — not just for the success or failure of the episode’s challenge, but also for the individual’s own personal narrative.
This is how the position of Ayana Muslim identity was presented: it was an intricate aspect of who she is, and how the garments unfold. Each challenge came with the question of how to approach the challenge without compromising her religious morality. Her own personal narrative was intricately connected to her identity as a Muslim woman, and each garment told that story.
I think Katie also had this story unfolding in her narrative, but the religious connotations behind her choices were not as present as that of Ayana. This may be due to the way the individuals presented their stories, or it could be because of the production’s way of constructing the narratives. A story about someone whose LDS is not considered as interesting as a Muslim — not because the experiences of each religion is inherently presented on TV, but because being Muslim is inherently seen as different.
Prajjé was also given many opportunities to discuss his background in Haiti, and how it impacted his experiences and fashion. Because this is considered different. LDS, on the other hand, is considered not special, not different, and therefore not worthy of the same level of discussion.
Essentially, Project Runway’s storytelling has set up the continued Otherness of Islam by directing which religions are given focus and which are not. By presenting so much attention to the role of modesty in Islam, the production has further Othered Islam by spending time showing the audience how it is so vastly different, primarily by focusing on the religion’s typical modesty. The downplaying of the presence and importance of modesty in other religions — especially religions that are primarily white, such as Mormonism — helps to paint Islam as the cultural Other. The invisibility of the modesty in Mormonism is not about erasing the presence of Mormonism, but rather about stressing Otherness where production sees Otherness.
