A New Interview with Project Runway Season 11 Champion, Michelle Lesniak Franklin

Novelist Kendra L. Saunders chats with Project Runway Season 11 winner Michelle Lesniak Franklin about the ongoing lone wolf theme in her life, great earrings, 80s hair metal, steampunk, and who she’d take with her to a desert island. 

Here’s a short transcript of part of the interview, but make sure to listen in for all of the rest!

 Q: As a woman I was especially touched that you chose an inspiration that I don’t see a lot of females draw from- a lone wolf. Have you always felt like a lone wolf? 

 A: I haven’t. You know, it was being on the show and going through what I was going through that made me feel that way. I came from an artist background, I went to school for fine arts and you come to making a project or making art or a thesis with a theme- and my theme was really how I was feeling. When I go into fashion, it’s really about my emotion.

 Q: I noticed you used that color that you have in your kitchen, in your final collection. Has that color been with you a long time? 

 A: You know… chartreuse and green… I’m from the Pacific Northwest so I take a lot of my inspiration from nature, and green is a huge part of it. And I was born in the '70s so these '70s color palettes are really important to me. It’s really grungy; it’s really dirty and haunting, so yeah, it’s definitely my color palette. 

 Q: You have some of the most fabulous earrings of anyone I’ve ever seen. Do you make a lot of your own accessories too or do you just find really great things? 

A: I make a lot of them. I’m really into natural elements- wood, bone. Some of them I made and some of them are made by local artists here in Portland. I really like to support what’s happening in Portland, so I buy a lot of local.

Thank you Kendra!