What Project Runway Winner Anya Ayoung-Chee Can Teach You About Competition
A graduate of Parsons School of Design and Central St. Martins School of Art and Design, Anya Ayoung-Chee is no stranger to the world of design. And yet, during auditions for Season 9 of Project Runway, Anya admitted that she had only been sewing for four months. Throughout the competition, she was a mess–she pulled her looks together at the last minute and became the first project runway contestant to lose her money while shopping for fabric. During the finale judging, Michael Kors said this about her competitor’s collection: “Was there more design to them? More tailoring, more work, more thought? Absolutely. There was. No question.” So how did Anya score the win (and pocket $100,000)?
Season 9 Winner, Anya Ayoung-Chee
Anya won because she didn’t waste time trying to manipulate, sabotage, analyze or denigrate her competitors. Instead, she tailored her brand to meet the needs of the real stakeholders of the competition: the viewers, the network, the show franchise, and (of course) the judges. Her primary competitor, Josh, spent a lot of time on the show worrying about his competitors. He gained a reputation for snide comments, temper tantrums, and emotional sabotage. He was so focused on what his competitors were doing that he failed to correctly identify the real point of the competition. He thought Project Runway was about who could make the best clothes. He was wrong. If the competition had been about making the best clothes, he would have won.
Season 9 Runner-Up, Josh Mckinley
So what did Anya understand about Project Runway that her competitors didn’t, and what can this teach us about competition in the workplace?
1. Don’t let others tell your story.
Anya Ayoung-Chee could have had a dramatically different persona on the show. A former beauty pageant winner, the victim of a sex tape scandal, and a graduate of two fancy design schools, she probably didn’t scream “fan favorite” during the casting call. But then she revealed in the very first episode that she had only been sewing for four months. The judges (and viewers) were astounded, and perversely curious to see how she would fare in Project Runway’s grueling challenges. As Anya turned out masterpiece after masterpiece, no one discussed her extensive design education (“no wonder she’s so talented”) or her sordid past (“do I really want my teenage daughter idolizing her?”) or her beauty pageant experience (“who likes beauty queens?”). We were all too busy marveling at how she was able to create extraordinary clothes with so little sewing training. Anya didn’t wait for the network (or viewers, or her competitors) to tell her story. She came up with her own narrative early and told it as often and as loudly as she could until it became what everyone else was talking about too.
Have you thought about your own narrative? Why should people root for you? Why should people care whether or not you succeed? For great advice about how to do this, check out Penelope Trunk’s posts about resume writing.
One of Anya's designs, worn later by Heidi Klum.
2. Don’t assume your boss is your only stakeholder.
Many designers go into the Project Runway competition assuming that the judges are the only stakeholders, and that making the best clothes is the point of the competition. But in reality, the network often has more say in who stays and who goes than Nina, Michael, and Heidi. For the majority of the challenges, the network’s primary interest is keeping contestants who attract viewers. Contestants can do this in one of three ways. They can make interesting clothes, or they can become the contestant that viewers love to love, or love to hate. Anya and the other finalists understood that they needed to become the protagonists of the show for the network–let alone the judges–to stay interested. Their success in gaining viewer affection kept them in the running, even when their clothes fell flat.
Joshua Christensen left the competition early because he failed to interest viewers with his ready-to-wear clothing.
Who else is a stakeholder in your success? Who, besides your boss, can help you get to where you want to go (or learn what you want to learn?) For a great post about the concept of stakeholders and how to approach them in business and in career management, check out this post by management consultant Phil Miller.
3. Don’t assume that what stakeholders say they want and what they really need match up.
Most of the finalists did a good job of understanding the network’s needs throughout the competition. Kimberly, Victor, Josh, and Anya all consistently made interesting clothes…which kept them in the competition even when “interesting” wasn’t exactly fabulous. But when it came to selecting an actual winner, only Anya realized that the network’s needs had changed. Now, the network needed a winner who would continue to make them look good years after the season was over…though of course, they can’t say that outright on a show that is advertised to be about talent.
Even though the judges felt Josh’s collection was stronger, Michael Kors admitted that he could “picture what an Anya bag, an Anya shoe, an Anya piece of jewelry might look like. And that tells me that she has the potential to have a serious business with serious following.” Anya had the viewers rooting for her (see #1), the network drooling for her…and, well, the judges thought she was okay. Not exactly a hat trick, but it was enough to get her the win (and the $100,000 prize.)
So how can you get a handle on the unwritten rules governing your workplace? If you’ve got some time to dive into some solid reading material, download this free PDF research report called “Unwritten Rules: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Your Career,” sponsored by Dupont, IBM, Time Warner, and other Fortune 500 companies. It is geared toward women and minorities, but there is good stuff here for everyone.
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8 Comments on "What Project Runway Winner Anya Ayoung-Chee Can Teach You About Competition"
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[...] If you’ll just give me a moment to geek out about Project Runway, I was both shocked and secretly happy that Anya won the whole thing. (Listen, if you didn’t already know that she won, you don’t watch the show anyway.) While I agree that it’s not called Project Seamstress, I was still a little shocked that someone who never sent a working sleeve down the runway won. Still, Anya such a bright spirit that I couldn’t help but smile when they announced her as the winner. So I was pleasantly surprised to see Gears and Shifts publish What Project Runway Winner Anya Ayoung-Chee Can Teach You About Competition [...]
As a Trini, I feel very pleased about the manner in which Anya handled the challenges throughout. She was focussed, warm, humble…and was a far more mature person than the others.
She had several advantages. She is a trained designer, she is from a a well-to-do background. As a Trinidadian beauty queen, she is also well trained in etiquette, diplomacy, projection.
But her basic persona and talent are hers ALONE. Unique.
She comes from a country, my country, which has a very old Sewing tradition, and we invented d Carnival that has been copied the world over. So Costuming is our thing. Trini women & men are stylish and sophisticated. So, now the world knows. Anya proved it.
Big up to her, nuff Respect. Blessings. Joanne Schmidhammer, Maracas Valley, Trinidad
Hello Joanne! Thanks for stopping by. I agree with you–Anya did have a lot of advantages. But, as you say, her real advantage was her “basic persona and talent.” It was her personality (humility, kindness, focus) that helped her navigate the competition with grace.
As a person who has followed fashion all my life, I can tell you that there are few things that you overlooked in the judging. Though all your points are true, that the “how can you not vote for Anya” feel was very present, Anya won because of the following reasons.
She had three of the four judges rooting for her whole heartedly. Nina and Michael were all about Anya — she is sweet, attentive, brilliant. It is like having your favorite student stumble just a little if she did. What would you say or do? “Well, she was having a bad day.” “Well, the entire season she’s been shining.”
Her voice is unique. The last time I saw dresses like that was never. Joshua was very Balenciaga, Balmain, Hussein Chalayan. It has been done — even the plastic. Those are not original ideas.
The hispanic guy’s collection was definitely soft Gucci, mainstream, Balenciaga again, very “done already”.
You cannot say the same about Anya.
The fact that she has a clear voice, she is so good with prints and talented in so many ways, done so well the whole season, says a lot about why she won.
And also — please check your facts before you write. She went to Parson and St. Martins for graphic design not fashion design. Two ENTIRELY different things. If you go to music school, it doesn’t mean you can play an instrument very well. A lot of people do musicology and composition — please be smart about what you write.
Terrible fact-finding.
Hello Vincent! Thank you for stopping by, and your points are well taken. I was aware that Anya did not graduate from a fashion design program, although I admit that the way I worded the initial sentence seemed to imply that was the case. I have revised for clarity, although as you can see I did not remove my assertion that Anya’s design education helped her in the competition. Even though her background was not in fashion, I believe her time at Parsons gave her important exposure to the world of fashion, the principles of design, and the disciplined use of imagination to create a product. Perhaps we can agree to disagree?
Yes, but overall, the points you made about Anya/competition pertaining to the work place is very very significant.
I was just annoyed that people think Joshua and the Mexican guy — he’s so forgettable — are so original.
They weren’t. Their voices like Anthony Ryan’s are completely borrowed. Everything Anthony Ryan has done that is “good” was all borrowed from Givenchy when McQueen was head, and McQueen’s own line. So obvious to a fashion surveyor…
You’re so right, Vincent. I’m not a fashion guru, but even I could see that the other competitors were very influenced by existing designers. Anya was the only one who managed to create a look all her own.
Emotional intelligence often eclipses experience! It didn’t hurt that her name was Anya and not Earlene (no offense to the Earlene’s out there). That Anya purse just sounds like something you probably are going to want to buy.