Jeanne Beker and Coco Rocha Voice Their Visions for PROJECT RUNWAY CANADA: ‘Be Good at What You Do’

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede   Jeanne Beker came up with the perfect words for the competitors on PROJECT RUNWAY CANADA, and also for anyone else hoping to make it in the highly volatile fashion industry. “You have to build a bit of a suit of armour around yourself,” Beker said. Figuratively, it is assumed! Nonetheless, every different genre of fashion imaginable will be on display on PROJECT RUNWAY CANADA, which premieres Friday, Nov. 14, only on Crave. Fashion media icon Beker is one of the judges, alongside Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha (who also hosts), and award-winning designer Spencer Badu, while industry visionary Aurora James is mentor to the competing designers. “I’ve tried to maintain this my whole life, in that you try to be as sensitive as possible, because when you lose that, who are you? How are you communicating appropriately with people?” Beker said, when asked about her judging strategy. “Yet at the same time, you’ve got to be tough, especially to make it in fashion, which is such a fickle business, probably the most fickle business around. The only constant is change, and you’ve just got to be up to snuff. So hopefully, as we deal with these aspiring designers, we’ll be able to do it in a way that will help them on their journey, even if they do get kicked off the show.” When Beker said that, she chuckled, in a way that was both kind, and slightly intimidating. The competitors clearly will have to bring their best stuff, right from the start! PROJECT RUNWAY CANADA is the new Canadian adaptation of the globally renowned fashion competition series. Over 10 episodes, 12 of the country’s most exciting designers will compete in a captivating series of challenges, with many surprises and twists along the way. “If you’re a designer, and you say you’re good at what you do, then prove it to me – be good at what you do,” Rocha said. “I’ll let you know if I don’t think it’s good, not from a perspective of, like, style wise, or if I think it’s pretty or not, but more just like, did you execute it? Is this actually worth manufacturing? Will people wear it? That’s my style of thinking. I think Jeanne and I will be very similar in terms of, we both bring smiles to the room, but no funny business.” Rocha pointed out, however, that because the three judges come from such different corners of the fashion industry, there obviously will be times when they disagree. “We’re also doing this with Spencer (Badu), who is coming from another perspective, being that he’s a young designer,” Rocha said. “He’s up and coming, he self-taught for a few years, then he went into schooling. Jeanne comes from journalism, and I come from modeling. So I think it’s great how we’re going to all come with a different opinion. I’m going to talk about the perspective of, well, I have to wear this piece, so how do I feel about it? So I think it’s kind of fantastic that we’re not all designers, we’re not all writers, we’re not all models. There’s that range that will really help.” Both Rocha and Beker gave fascinating responses when asked about the current state of the Canadian fashion industry. “Would I like to see it be much further along than it is now? Yeah, absolutely,” Beker said. “I think there are platforms now for Canadian designers that they didn’t have before, with shows such as this, and in the social media world. When I started covering fashion, back in the 1980s, and even into the 1990s, they didn’t really have a way of marketing themselves, and promoting themselves, so it was harder to make their voices heard. The quality has always been there. There’s still an incredible amount of talent in Canada. But the business is tougher than ever. Competition is just fierce.” Rocha added, “I think a big thing is, the industry only moves depending on people’s purse strings. So if you’re buying, what are you buying? If you are really, really adamant that there should be better Canadian fashion out there, why are you buying something from maybe Europe or America? Well, maybe because it’s trendy. But why isn’t Canadian stuff more trendy? I just think there’s a lot of talking, not so much just doing. And a lot of people think, well, it’s our problem, the models and the designers. Like, we need to fix it. The designers and the models can’t really fix it. We need to showcase our own stuff in Canada more, and people need to put their money where their mouth is.” And perhaps with that goal in mind, PROJECT RUNWAY CANADA has a role to play at a key moment. “Because of what’s going on in the world right now economically, for better or worse, there’s a new spirit of Canadian patriotism that’s creeping into the fray, which is quite wonderful, really,” Beker said. “That’s yet another reason why the timing for this show is so good.” Any last-minute advice for the competing designers? “Something that I always tell models to live by, but it also applies for designers, is, ‘don’t be a second-rate version of someone else,’” Rocha said. “Don’t copy something that works for someone else, and assume it’s going to work for you as well, because that’s already out there. So why don’t you just be you. As cliché and motherly as that sounds, it’s true.” Beker added, “just have a point of view and stick to it. There’s a lot of noise out there. You’ve got to dream, believe, don’t be afraid, never give up.”   billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv