Jay nicolas sario designer
•
Project Runway's Post
•
Sario fitting his model on Project Runway
UH degree: Studied fashion technology ’99–’04, Honolulu
Roots: The Philippines, Mililani High School
Career: Visual merchandiser and lead stylist in the kids division
Favorite color: Green
Favorite designer: Alexander McQueen
Fashion necessities: Pairs of expensive, great-fitting jeans and big sunglasses
Hobbies: Furniture hunting, shopping for clothes and shoes
Season 7 marked the second time Jay Nicolas Sario auditioned for the Lifetime Television show Project Runway. Called on his birthday with news that he was in, Sario screamed.
His Honolulu Community College Fashion Technology instructors aren’t surprised. They recognized early his passion, persistence, talent, creativity and ability to make do with the materials at hand.
A model struts down the runway in Jay Michael Sario’s dress
Given the choice, Sario likes to work with wool, tweed, denim, leather—anything that can give structure, texture and three-dimensionality. Witness the tweedy skirt with flower-like ruffles at the hip that advanced him past the first round. So perhaps he was a natural to win the round two burlap-potato-bag-as-dress-material challenge Jan. 21.
His former professors fully expect him to survive
•
Jay Nicolas Sario on Touchy-Feely Strangers, Project Runway + Discarded to Divine
Over coffee at Four Barrel just hours before the Project Runway season finale, we found San Francisco’s Jay Nicolas Sario to be both exceedingly down-to-earth as he talked about his time in the reality television spotlight and genuinely upbeat, despite being the last designer cut from the show before the selection of the final trio. These days, the NoPa resident tells us he’s continuing his nine-year run in visual merchandising for Gap while working on his spring 2011 collection, which he hopes to show in the Bay Area next fall, and lending his time to charitable causes such as tomorrow night’s Discarded to Divine fashion event and auction highlighting recycled fashions in support of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco’s many social services programs.
Read on for Sario’s thoughts on pursuing fashion in San Francisco, Mila (yes, we had to ask) and what not to do if you spot this local celebrity strolling the city streets.
What are you working on these days?
I’m putting together my spring collection for 2011. Right now, it’s still in the concept process, nothing has been sewn yet, there’s a few sketches. I’m going to keep sketching until I’m satisfied. It’s probably going