Amazon Prime’s foray into the world of reality competition shows brought the welcome return of “Project Runway” Emmy-winners Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum in “Making the Cut.” The 10-episode series also revealed that Naomi Campbell may be the best judge on television and that if you have an organic tie into a fashion show money can be made (more on that later). But after stops in Paris, Tokyo and New York, the glossy series finally has a winner.
READ MORE: Tim Gunn reveals Netflix almost had “Making the Cut” [Interview]
[And spoilers below if you aren’t interested in finding out who that designer is yet]
After a dramatic finale where both Berlin’s Esther Perbandt and Los Angeles’ Jonny Cota showed their collections, the latter took the crown and $1 million cash prize. Don’t cry for the runner up, however, because it turns out Amazon is also rewarding her with a collection through their fashion division. First, some interesting facts that weren’t revealed in the finale.
Ratings or viewership of the series has been kept quiet, but according to Amazon, and anyone trying to snag an episode’s winning look, the weekly winning looks sold out within days if not hours. Moreover, the profits from these sales went back to the designers helping these small business owners at a moment when they need it more than ever. Five different competitors won a challenge during the run of the show.
As the inaugural winner, Cota gets $1 million, a year-long mentorship with Amazon Fashion (which begins in September) and a collection to be sold exclusively in Amazon Fashion’s store. Cota’s 27-item collection for both men and women is already available online and half the items have sold out less than 24 hours from launch (including some unisex coats that cost up to $300).
In a surprise, Perbrandt will soon have a collection available on Shopbop.com and The Shop by Shopbop on Amazon’s Store. This will not be a consumer version of her final runway on the show.
After a long night celebrating with his husband, Cota jumped on the phone Friday morning to discuss his impressive win.
____
The Playlist: When did you shoot this, how long was the production, and, most importantly, how hard has it been for you to be quiet about your win this entire time?
Jonny Cota: We wrapped filming at the end of summer last year, and I guess since I made it all the way to the end, New York, Paris, Tokyo altogether, it was about three months. Hey, when I went on this show I packed for two weeks. I didn’t think I was going to get that far, so I’m wearing the same outfits over and over. But yeah, so the whole thing took about three months. I’ve had to kind of keep the secret to myself. My siblings didn’t even know. My coworkers didn’t even know until last night. It has been a huge secret to keep, and I’m so happy everyone knows now.
But wait, wasn’t your family at the runway show?
Yes and no, my parents and my brother who was there and my husband Frank, obviously, but I have seven siblings. None of the rest of them knew. None of my coworkers know. None of the people who produce my clothing know. I kept the secret very tight.
This is confusing. The store with your entire collection is up on Amazon right now. The consumer versions are fantastic. I actually even ordered two things.
Awesome.
How did you move forward making all those clothes without letting the people you work with at your regular company even know the reason why?
Well, essentially, they knew I was on a show and I was going to launch Jonny Cota [the label] and get to work. They didn’t know I won. You know, it’s like, just like all the other designers. Everyone who’s on this show has maximized this opportunity. You know, Esther’s releasing things every day. Sander’s releasing things every day. We all went on the show to get exposure and for that to hopefully turn into sales for our brand. It kind of was disguised under the guise of that. Like, “Hey, if this big thing’s coming up. We’re going to launch this thing.” But nobody knew the outcome of the competition.
In terms of the show itself, what surprised you most about the day-to-day production?
I’ve been in fashion for 15 years and fashion can be grueling, but [this] was the most grueling, demanding experience of my life. You know, it’s hard to be creative ever, but to be creative with 10 cameras around you and waking up at 5:00 AM in the morning and working 12 hour days, that really puts a toll on you. Also for me, when I’m creative, I have a glass of wine. I have Bjork playing. I’m in my element. But to do it when everyone’s mic’d and you’re sewing and you’re stressed and there’s no music and there are no vices…It really stripped away all the distractions and it was just work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work. It gave me a new sense of a creative experience that I honestly don’t want to go back to.
Was there one challenge that you thought was the toughest or you thought, you know, “This is it, I’m going home?”
The toughest challenge for me was streetwear because I knew all eyes were on me. That’s what I do, streetwear, and I really wanted to excel. My dream going on to the show was to get some sort of collaboration with a brand like Puma. That pressure was almost crushing and I think I definitely shed some tears in the process of getting that collection together. But the time that I thought I was going to go home most was episode eight when Megan [Smith] and I were pitted against each other. One of us was going to make it into the final three. I know I had had a great season, I had a great run, but I knew I was weak that week, that runway. I think that the judges were really torn and I think it probably came down to my speech and convincing them that I’m a strong entrepreneur and that they want to see more.
Through most of the series, it didn’t seem that the designers were that competitive with each other. Did incidents happen or were there tensions between the competitors that maybe weren’t captured by the cameras
I think the general energy in the workroom was that we were all in competition with ourselves, because there’s a unique format and “Making the Cut” where they didn’t have to send someone home, and they could send home two people, so it wasn’t just about being better than the worst person. It’s about constantly entrusting. So, I think that took away some of the bitchy competition guys that have been in a lot of other shows. Of course, there were relationships that were stronger, relationships that were negative, and eye rolls in the workroom, but I don’t think that anyone wanted to see anyone else fail. When anyone gets voted off the hugs were super genuine when they left. There were tears amongst the cast, amongst the judge’s like, yes, there can only be one winner, but we never really reveled in people getting sent home. It was kind of devastating at the time.
When you went into the show you had an established aesthetic, and I’m sure you were willing to modify it based on the challenges in front of you. That being said, did it ever become apparent to you that the judges were looking for designs that matched a certain customer as opposed to an aesthetic they liked?
When I went on the show none of us really knew what to expect. And every single critique I heard the judges say, “Wearable, wearable, wearable. Would the Amazon customer like this?” And the Amazon customer is very varied and it’s huge. So, it seems they like a lot of different things, but all I kept hearing was, “Make it wearable, make it wearable, make it wearable.” And I think there were some incredible, incredible designers that went home too early because they couldn’t make the wearable versions of their vision. So, even though I explored a lot of design language, I did not arrive on the show thinking I was going to do. I didn’t think I was going to be doing striped prairie dresses and stuff like that. I quickly realized that I was not going to make it to the end being a one-trick pony. I needed to how range, I needed to show my ability to adapt.
What was the breakdown for actually doing a challenge like the pop up in episode 9? Do the producers give you a budget beforehand? Can you spend more? How does that work? And then also in terms of showing up for the popup itself, I know that they had the same person in charge of building all of them for you, Esther and Sander, but what did that entail?
Amazon did something really cool with this. They gave us a budget and 30 days, and they said, “In the end, you need to have a runway collection and a store, so you be a business person and you budget it.” I could spend a lot of my budget on the popup if I wanted to. I split it evenly between the runway show and the popup store. Then for weeks, we worked with the art department sending in sketches and sourcing fixtures, sourcing furniture, and he would say, “Well what’s your budget? And I’d say, “Here’s how much I need to spend.” He’s like, “O.K., well your plan is impossible for that, so let’s find a cheaper way to make that wall look like cement.” We got to work together to get it within budget, but they gave us the flexibility to really control how we wanted to spend it, and I loved that. Actually, something they didn’t necessarily touch upon in the whole season, is that’s also how we bought our fabrics. They said, “We’re not giving you a budget for each challenge. We’ll give you a budget for the whole season. If you want to expend big one episode, you can, and then you have to budget tightly for the next one.” They really treated us like professionals that all run our own businesses and know what we’re doing, and that was awesome. I really appreciated that.
For the pop up did you know who the customers were who came in to browse and were you concerned about who they were going to pick? Because it sounded like, at least when you’re watching the show, that they were partially going to judge you based on who was buying your stuff and you’re doing a pop-up shop and you don’t know who’s coming in. Did that worry you at all?
Yeah, it totally worried me. It worried me a great deal. Is it a super fashion-loving crowd or is it a very common crowd that is not as excited about fashion? Are they going to be gravitating to avant-garde designs or really commercially accessible design? That was all up in the air and none of us knew. To be honest, I didn’t realize I was going to be working my pop up shop until they said, “Customers are coming in. Stay in your shop.” I’m like, “Oh, wait. I’m working it?” I thought we were going to watch it on the screen from the back like we did with all of the runway shows. So as soon as people started coming in, I started to panic, but the moment the first customer stepped into my store, I just went into salesman mode. I’ve had a brick and mortar for 10 years and I was like, “Oh wait, I’ve got this, I’ve got this. I can charm people, I can excite people. Let’s all have a party together. No pressure on buying.” And I know that people feeling comfortable, people feeling calm, people relaxing and spending more time in your store [means they are] buying more. So, to be honest, as soon as they opened the doors and customers were in, I was like, “I got this.”
Well, knowing that the show treated you like true professionals, when did you find out you had to do a freaking PowerPoint presentation and what was your reaction?
Oh, Jesus. That was the worst, most stressful part of the whole finale. They had notified us halfway through our collection making, getting ready to come to the finale. I mean, my head started spinning. I was more nervous about presenting to President of Amazon Fashion Christine Beauchamp than I was every single time in front of Naomi.
You got some criticism for your final from the judges while they deliberated during the runway and privately afterward. What was your reaction to those points after seeing them in the final episode now?
Well, Naomi gave me tough love the entire season, so anything that comes out of her mouth doesn’t trigger me. I was a little surprised by the critiques I got during the finale because I know the outcome, but in the end, I’m grateful that, hey, Esther’s become one of my best friends on this show. I wanted her to win as much as I wanted to win. I won the prize, but she was really championed and held on a pedestal the whole entire episode, which I think maybe led to a shocking moment when I won. But for her, it’s like to get such praise in her episodes, I think it’s going to help launch and continue the momentum of her brand being a huge, huge, huge brand. So I was okay with it. I was okay with it, but I developed pretty thick skin on the show.
It’s also good TV, but did having Heidi and Naomi not vote for you and Naomi switching her vote freak you out at the time? Or was it just like, “O.K., this is the game, this is how you play it” sort of thing?
I mean, I really wanted Naomi’s vote. You know, of course, I wanted to win, but it would have meant a lot to me if I got it. It would’ve been the full circle, the full redemption with Naomi. Those first two votes kind of were by very outspoken judges and my heart sank like, “Oh wow, I thought I just killed it tonight and maybe I’m delusional. I’m about to lose.” Then the reality played out exactly how it did on the show. First Joseph [Altuzarra], then Chiara [Ferragni], and then the longest pause of any of our lives and then Nicole [Richie] cast the final deciding vote. I almost blacked out. I can barely even remember it, but watching it last night was like, “Oh wow, O.K. Now I remember.” Yeah. [Laughs.]
What do you think it says about fashion today that two “streetwear” designers won both “Making the Cut” and this last season of “Project Runway”?
I think, in general, fashion is having a streetwear moment and I think people are liking comfortable, accessible items. And that gave me a great advantage on “Making the Cut.” Also, as the winner of “Project Runway,” [Geoffrey Mac], I’ve been compared to him a lot recently on Twitter and I actually think it’s more of a coincidence. I focus more on, “Wow, isn’t it crazy that two dark, kind of gothy designers made it to the final two of ‘Making the Cut.’ Esther and myself on an Amazon competition [show].” That to me is almost more surprising and exciting. I also think that that was not necessarily the vision or plan from the get-go, but I think that we just fought the hardest and our designs stood out, and they were celebrated by the judges and we all had this privileged position of being in the top.
“Making the Cut” season one is available on Amazon Prime Video.