Tuesday, August 07, 2012

L'étoile Magazine Interviews Raul Osorio

Photo: Ellen Dahl Lawson / The Minneapoline 

Minneapolis-based L'étoile Magazine features this interview with Project Runway Season 10 designer, Raul Osorio.

A preview:  


TO’: I know you’ve done tons of menswear and tons of womenswear. Which is harder do you think?

RO: To me, though I think it’s womenswear; menswear comes very naturally to me. 

I really, really enjoy doing menswear. I could say that I am my own muse when I do menswear because I understand the man’s body better. When I do womenswear, I’m always trying to figure out their body. I’m trying to figure out who this client is. But you know there’s so much for women out there and there’s nothing for men.

 And I go to bed sometimes and I dream about menswear, I dream about designs, I dream about things I want to wear constantly you know so I do think that womenswear is harder, at least for me. 

 TO’: And like I forget who said it, but there are a ton of designers who basically design for themselves.  

RO: Right. 

 TO’: What made you decide to audition for Project Runway? 

 RO: The casting director from Project Runway sent me e-mails for the last three years inviting me to apply for the show. And I never wanted to do it, because I didn’t know what was going to come out of it. It’s a little scary. Also, I didn’t know how people were gonna perceive me as a designer, you know?

 I worked so hard in Minneapolis to create a name, a brand, and people understood who I am as a designer. A lot of them support my work and being exposed to so many people and then you know having haters or I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t ready to deal with that part of it; I wasn’t ready to deal with people to be rude and mean, because, you know, it’s happening! 

There’s a lot of people that are in love with my work, but there’s a lot of people that are hating it. And that’s because I mean you can’t please everyone you know? But this time I decided to do it because I felt more comfortable – it was like I’ve been doing this for a couple of years, I feel that I have a big portfolio, and it’s this or nothing. I mean I feel that I have accomplished almost everything in Minneapolis when it comes down to being a designer that I just don’t feel there’s just much more to do. And I’m not taking Minneapolis for granted, it’s just that I don’t think, you know, I’ve done every show that happened in the last years. I’ve been in different local magazines and I want to grow. I want exposure. So this was the perfect way for me to get there, just get exposed and not just Minneapolis – I needed more than that.

Click here for the full interview.