Making It Work
Wilton Manors Fashion Designer Jhoan “Sebastian” Grey Wins “Project Runway”
It’s no exaggeration to say that fashion designer Jhoan “Sebastian” Grey is living the dream.
After winning season 17 of “Project Runway,” Bravo’s fashion-design competition series, the Wilton Manors resident used a chunk of his $300,000 in prize money to open a studio. He’s been working on new ideas, including a collection for New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2020, where he had two shows last month.
“I have now the capacity to reach more people with my work,” says Grey, who out-stitched 15 other contestants to win the popular fashion challenge in June. “I have the opportunity to make more amazing things. Sketch, pattern, sewing, concept – everything is made with these hands, this head.”
Grey, 33, was persuaded by his husband, Matthew, to apply for “Project Runway.” Competing for nine months and living with fellow contestants in New York was “extremely intense,” he says.
“It’s just work, work, work. I learned a lot about myself and my aesthetic as a designer. It was the most crazy and amazing experience I’ve had so far in my life.”
Born in Cali, Colombia, Grey impressed the “Project Runway” judges, including fashion nobility Diane von Furstenberg, with a collection of women’s dresses, pants and jackets in colors inspired by his homeland and featuring woven leather details. The collection, Reminiscence, is available on his website and elsewhere online.
“I love to see women in very feminine, very elegant, very effortless clothes,” he says.
Grey has always loved creative pursuits. He attended ballet school for two years and became fascinated with the dancers’ costumes. When he graduated, he decided he’d rather design clothes, so he enrolled in The Academy of Professional Drawing in Cali and majored in fashion design.
He later got a scholarship to the Istituto Marangoni, an Italian fashion, art and design school with a Miami location, where he’s now working on a master’s degree in luxury brand management. Grey hopes to open stores in major cities worldwide and empower others with his clothes.
“I want to make people more proud and happy of who they are,” he says. “I want to make them feel comfortable.” O
Photo by Bravo Media/Miller Mobley