Project Runway curve model Liris Crosse is addressing her eyebrow-raising drama surrounding her appearance in the Thursday, August 20, episode.
“First, I want to say thank you to everyone who has sent me messages of love, support, people who talked about how great I am as a model and what I mean to the culture, what I mean to fashion,” Liris, 47, said in a YouTube video shared Monday, August 24. “I really, really appreciate it. With that said, I will say for this season, and even the past couple of seasons, it has been quite disappointing that I have ended in the bottom or sometimes lucking up and being safe.”
She continued, “I always want my designer to win, no matter who it is, because I just feel like it reflects good on me. … I always want them to win. Even if the outfit isn’t good, I want them to at least be safe. I always try my best and give my all as well.”
Liris was paired with designer Bryan Barrientos on Thursday’s episode for the famed unconventional materials challenge. During their fitting, Bryan, 38, planned to make Liris a gown entirely out of bubble wrap until mentor Christian Siriano and the fellow competitors steered him to make a gown that would flatter Liris’ body type more. Instead, Bryan wove a gown out of orange wires.
“I walk into the room. I see the bubble tape that he has on the mannequin, and I was just looking at it,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Hm, OK, so what’s going to go under that and how are we going to be able to show the body in a beautiful way?’ I just didn’t feel like this bubble wrap, you’re not going to be able to cinch it and make it give it structure for the body. So, I was glad when Christian told him like, ‘Nah.’”
After Bryan reimagined his look, Liris outspokenly questioned whether the concept would flatter her body, which ultimately did not change the design.
“I was disappointed,” she acknowledged. “I put it on, and I’m looking at it like, ‘I don’t know about this.’ Let me be very, very clear to everybody that is watching: It is a rule of mine [that] I do not offer advice to a designer unless they ask or unless it feels like it is really going to put me in a very uncomfortable situation or a bad light. And so, um, the fact that he made that piece and he was just going to have me go out there in my bra [and] panties, I was perplexed. I was confused. ‘How is this a design?’”
Liris added, “I’m pretty much one of the most well-known models in Project Runway history. I am known for my prowess on the runway, and I’m thankful for that, and I love the fans for that, so it just felt thoughtless. It felt like he just had no idea. It felt careless, it felt lazy, and my spirit, in that moment, was broken.”
After Liris once again expressed her concerns, Bryan decided to wrap her body in tape beneath the cords.
“A lot of people said it looked like brown licorice or like a bunch of tentacles just hanging,” she said. “It didn’t feel intentional … at all, and that grieved my soul. So with that happening and feeling the weight of the outfit, the look of the outfit, seeing all the other ladies in the workroom looking interesting and fab, their designs look intentional, fun, everything was hitting me hard. I had never ever felt like this on a job, and so I was feeling myself about to cry. I stepped out of the workroom, I went into the hallway off to the side and I was literally trying to push my tear ducts back.”
While Liris admittedly felt her “heart sank,” she pushed her emotions aside to walk down the runway.
“Some people said I looked grumpy on the runway or I wasn’t happy. That was because I was crying,” she stated. “For a while I could not stop crying because I just felt so defeated, and the reason why I felt defeated is because I know that there are a lot of women who watch the show because of me because they want to see somebody do a design on a fuller body. I represent for them.”
Liris added, “I also represent for change in the fashion industry, and so the fact that it felt like these designers weren’t getting it right as far as making something for me … I felt like I was letting plus-sized women down.”
While Bryan’s look was in the bottom, he had immunity due to his previous challenge win.
New episodes of Project Runway air on Freeform Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET.
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