MELBOURNE: Whitehouse Fashion Design student Alison Davis has the dubious honour of being the first designer to be booted from new reality television show Project Runway Australia. Judges on the series, which made its debut on pay TV network Arena last night (July 7), voted to get rid of 21-year-old Alison Davis after she was named as the worst performing designer in the program's first challenge to design an evening dress reflecting each contestant's personality.
Judges on last night's show, which included high-end designer Jayson Brunsdon, buyer Sarah Gale, host Kristy Hinze and guest judge L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) festival director Karen Webster, criticised Davis for her poor choice of fabric and for failing to meet the eveningwear brief.
Eleven contestants remain in the running to win the event - which offers the season one winner a Fiat car, a six page spread in Madison magazine, a $100,000 cash injection to invest in their own label and the opportunity to show at LMFF 2009.
The contestants are Mark Antonio (NSW), Shane Garland (NSW), Juli Grbac (QLD), Sophie Spalding (SA), Leigh Buchanan (QLD), Brent Gary Zaicek (NSW), Lui Hon (VIC), Deborah Pak (NSW), Petrova Hammond (VIC), Oren Nuri (NSW) and Helen Manuell (VIC).
The show is filmed at Whitehouse Design's new Victorian campus in Melbourne.