Sew Good: Project Runway Returns!

Qristyl Frazier (bottom row, third from left) and Gordana Gelhausen (top row, far right) are among tonight's Project Runway competitors.

Rejoice, fashionistas — our long wait is over! Deprived of our TV couture fix since October ’08 due to internetwork legal wrangling, we can now resume our roles as armchair judges as Project Runway returns for its sixth season tonight with Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn in a new city (Los Angeles), on a new network (Lifetime), with a new crop of designers vying for line-launching cash and priceless exposure. This time, there are two women in their 40s to root for.

Qristyl Frazier, 42, missed the Runway cut four times, but the St. Louis-born, Brooklyn, NY-based maker of fashions for the “plus sexy” didn’t take no for an answer. “‘I’m determined and passionate,” says Frazier, who began sewing at 16, moved to New York City 15 years ago, and runs her business online at Qristyl.com. She’s designed for Queen Latifah, Angie Stone and Wendy Williams, but has lacked the resources to reach the next level that a Runway win could provide. “I’m praying that it will catapult me,” she says, hoping to fill a niche designing for curvy women who can’t find fashionable clothes. “I’m grateful because I worked hard for it and never gave up. And I’m glad I didn’t.”

Always a fan of vibrant color, Frazier is taking inspiration from some of the younger Runway designers in experimenting with gray, black and reddish brown these days, always choosing figure-forgiving fabrics like ribbed cotton and Ponte double-knit. “Women’s curves are what inspire me,” says Frazier, for whom great style means “owning your body type and wearing what feels good and looks good.”

Another contender, Gordana Gelhausen, 45, personifies the American dream. Arriving here 18 years ago from the former Yugoslavia not speaking English, she got her first fashion break when the head-turning clothes she made for her kids (now teens) launched a business. She later opened a boutique, Goga (her nickname), in Charleston, SC, but looked to Runway as a showcase for her design skills, to inspire others, and make her native country proud. Cutthroat competition notwithstanding, she endeavored to “still be a human who cares and appreciates and is humble,” she says. “When I look in the mirror I want to respect the person that I see.”

Gelhausen, who now runs a larger boutique in San Diego and sells online at ShopGoga.com, recommends owning two pairs of dark-wash jeans, one hemmed for flats and the other for high heels. “Make sure the heel is covered — it will add inches to your legs and make you look 10 pounds lighter,” she says. She also loves tops that expose the neck, not the cleavage, belted tunics over a skirt or jeans, and cardigans: “Wear it backwards and belt it over a dress,” she suggests. “Choose clothes you can combine with what you have in your closet to make it fresh and different. We have to do that in this economy.”

We love reading about inspiring women — it motivates us to go after what we want, too! Do you have a success story you want to share? Click here and tell us more.

Photo credit: Mike Yarish/Lifetime

Tags: Angie Stone, Brooklyn, Charleston, Gordana Gelhausen, Heidi Klum, Latifah, Los Angeles, Mike Yarish, New York, New York City, Project Runway, Qristyl Frazier, Queen, San Diego, Series, South Carolina, St. Louis, Television, Tim Gunn, Wendy Williams, Yugoslavia