Lifetime has revealed the identities of the 20 fashion designers competing on Project Runway's ninth season, which will premiere Thursday, July 28 at 9PM ET/PT and continue to feature an expanded 90-minute episode format.
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Like the show's last two seasons, Project Runway's ninth season was filmed in New York City, the home of the show's first five seasons. The season's finale runway show is scheduled to film at New York Fashion Week in September.
However in a Project Runway first, the ninth season will begin with 20 designers attempting to convince host Heidi Klum, mentor Tim Gunn and judges Michael Kors and Nina Garcia why they deserve one of the 16 spots in the competition.
Christina Ricci will serve as a guest judge for the season's premiere, and additional ninth-season Project Runway guest judges will include Kim Kardashian, Zoe Saldana and Malin Akerman.
Similar to prior seasons, Season 9's winning designer will receive a grand-prize package featuring an editorial feature in an upcoming issue of Marie Claire magazine, the opportunity to sell their exclusive collection on Piperlime.com, a $50,000 HP and Intel technology suite to help them run a business, and a cash prize of $100,000 to help them start a fashion line.
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The model paired with Project Runway's winner will also appear in the designer's Marie Claire editorial feature and receive $25,000.
The 20 ninth-season designers are:
- Amanda Perna, a 25-year-old from Ft. Lauderdale, FL who currently resides in New York, NY
- Anthony Ryan Auld, a 28-year-old from Linden, TX who currently resides in Baton Rouge, LA
- Anya Ayoung-Chee, a 29-year-old from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
- Becky Ross, a 38-year-old from Calumet, MI who currently resides in Portland, OR
- Bert Keeter, a 57-year-old from Washington, D.C. who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA
- Bryce Black, a 26-year-old from Twin Falls, ID who currently resides in Portland, OR
- Cecilia Motwani, a 34-year-old from Cordoba, Argentina who currently resides in Woodside, NY
- Danielle Everine, a 26-year-old from Minneapolis, MN who currently resides in Minneapolis, MN
- David Chum, a 29-year-old from Merong, Battaan, Philippines who currently resides in Boston, MA
- Fallene Wells, a 29-year-old from Las Vegas, NV who currently resides in Denver, CO
- Gunnar Deatherage, a 21-year-old from La Grange, KY who currently resides in Louisville, KY
- Joshua McKinley, a 25-year-old from Cleveland, OH who currently resides in New York, NY
- Joshua Christensen, a 29-year-old from Snohomish, WA who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA
- Julie Tierney, a 35-year-old from Baton Rouge, LA who currently resides in Grand Junction, CO
- Kimberly Goldson, a 35-year-old from Brooklyn, NY who currently resides in White Plains, MD
- Laura Kathleen , a 26-year-old from St. Louis, MO who currently resides in St. Louis, MO
- Olivier Green, a 22-year-old who currently resides in New York, NY
- Rafael Cox, a 27-year-old from Alamogordo, NM who currently resides in Atlanta, GA
- Serena da Conceicao, a 31-year-old from Kingston, NY who currently resides in Brooklyn, NY
- Viktor Luna, a 30-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico who currently resides in New York, NY
About The Author: Steven Rogers