Heidi Klum Says the Project Runway Designers 'Weren't Too Happy' About Dressing Models of All Sizes
in a leopard print suit from her upcoming Lidl collection (the whole outfit costs under $60!), paired with black pointed pumps at America's Got Talent in L.A.
Project Runway is making a big change this season by including models of all sizes, but Heidi Klum says the designers weren’t all thrilled.
“They kind of went like this, ‘Ah?’ ” Klum, 44, tells Entertainment Tonight, while making a displeased face. “A lot of them actually weren’t too happy about it.”
The supermodel and host points out that the designers need to be realistic about who they’re dressing.
“This is the real world. Not everyone is, you know, runway figure or what the runway figure used to be,” she says. “You have to dress real people, and real people come in different sizes: short, tall, more voluptuous, skinny. There is many of us, and so a real designer needs to know how to do that. So get with it.”
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And Klum says she’s been wanting to include models of different sizes on the show.
“I believe we should have done [it] already years and years and years ago. So I’m happy though that now this season, we’re starting,” she says.
While Project Runway hasn’t required all of the designers to use models of different sizes before, the season 14 winner, Ashley Nell Tipton, designed her final collection for curvy women.
“This was the opportunity that I was given to showcase who I really am as a designer,” Tipton told PEOPLE at the time. “I had to show that this is what I design, and this is what I know.”
The 16th season of Project Runway premieres Aug. 17 on Lifetime.
