Hive Q&A: Latest Project Runway Castoff Dishes On What Went Wrong

While the premiere episode marked a revival of the old, the second episode of the hit show Project Runway explored something new. At first, the challenge seemed easy enough: Design a cocktail dress with your model as your client. However, it wouldn't be Project Runway without some twists. Firstly, the materials had to be eco-friendly, and secondly, the models, not the designers, would be purchasing the fabrics- cue the panic! While the models struggled to determine how long a yard is, the designers stressed over what they'd be forced to work with. Some were pleasantly surprised, while others were forced to push their creativity thresholds to the limit to make it work. To determine how well the designers could appeal to the young and fabulous, it was only fitting that one of the most glamorous young stars out there was the guest judge- actress/Vegan shoe designer Natalie Portman.

In the end, Suede scored the big win, wowing the judges with his innovation and creativity, and Wesley was out got the boot on account of sloppy construction and poor fit. I just spoke to the ousted designer for his take on what went down. Read on for his regrets, his take on jufge's critiques, and what's up next for him.

Stylehive: What were your thoughts on this challenge?
Wesley: I was nervous going into it from the start because I don't like to not have control or some sort of say in like fabric choice and stuff like that. Especially when it's something like this- it's very important that you do well, so it was rough to have someone else in control of that.

Stylehive: What was your reaction to Natalie Portman coming in as a guest judge?
Wesley: I was really excited that she was gonna be the guest judge. I think she's a beautiful young actress and I would love to dress her one day, obviously not in the dress that I made yesterday, but I just think she has a great style and she's very classic and. beautiful, so I was excited.

Stylehive: The judges were pretty harsh on you, what was going through your mind when you were standing up there listening to their critiques?
Wesley: To be honest, I had a lot of the same issues and thoughts going into it, and I knew I was gonna be on the bottom so I kind of prepared myself for that. I mean I could see where I went wrong with the design, but you just get to a certain point when you're working on it where you don't have a lot of leeway with fabric and you have a limited amount of yardage and you just have to commit to the design- I just had to finish it to show something, I couldn't just not show anything. I mean it was hard to hear them put my thoughts into words and hear it from someone else. But I mean they're people with opinions and everyone makes mistakes- but like I said, I had some of the same issues going into it before they even said anything.

Stylehive: If you could go back, what would you do differently?
Wesley: If I could go back I would have done just a safe, simple silhouette with minimal seaming. When you look at the episode, you see that there are two other people who have the same exact fabric and same exact color as me, so I was kind of competing with them as well. We already had Joe who was doing a very simple silhouette, so I didn't want to do that and have us be too similar, but I didn't wanna go in Leanne's direction- she was trying to be drastically different from Joe. So I was trying to find a middle place and I just messed up, you know? If I could go back I would have just done something safe rather than worry about being too similar to Joe, that would have been less of an issue than getting kicked off.

Stylehive:Both you and Leanne received similar feedback from the judges- why do you think you were the one to go?
Wesley: Well to be honest, with my fit- it didn't fit very well and Leanne's was impeccably sewn so I think that that;s why I went home and she didn't.

Stylehive: What's next for you?
Wesley: Well I'm definitely gonna use this to my advantage- it's better to be talked about than not talked about at all- I believe it was Oscar Wilde who said that. I mean I went from no one knowing me as a designer to everyone that watches the show kind of recognizing me as a designer , so I want to use that to my advantage. I'm looking to start my own line with Daniel- one of the other contestants form the show- we're planning on working together. So it's all very up in the air right now, but hopefully something will work out.

Sidenote: Last night on Watch What Happens: After the Sew Wesley revealed that he and Daniel are now an item! Aww! Click here to check it out!