NEEDLES AT DAWN

We met a cool, diverse bunch of designers on Project Runway NZ this week. But one stood out — and not just because he was the winner of the first episode.

Promising to bring the drama is 23-year-old Benjamin Alexander, who quipped about self-assured Karen Walker protege Kerry Ranginui, “you can’t learn taste”, before taking out the week’s competition with style.

“Coming into the first challenge, everyone is your biggest competition. What I said about Kerry was more of a general statement overall because it is literally something you can’t learn. You’ve either got it or you don’t. It’s just like singing — yes, you can be coached to a certain extent, but you can either sing or you can’t,” he tells Spy.

Fellow Karen Walker alumni Caitlin Crisp is a definite friend, says Alexander, and all three are in Spy’s top four most promising designers. Our fourth is Judy Gao and Alexander can smell the “sewing threat”.

“Judy is an incredible gown designer. If there’s a challenge to make a gown, then Judy would definitely be my biggest competition. Although, in saying that, I’m my biggest competition. I’m never 100 per cent satisfied with my work, so I’m continually trying to do better than previous collections and looks,” says Alexander.

“There is certainly drama to come throughout the season. We’re all working under pressure and on top of the stress in the workroom, we’re all living together, which certainly adds another layer of drama. People get up in arms about models, particularly when other designers try to steal my model Gracie Lambert. There’s crying, arguing, people getting sick, people falling over and everything you could imagine might happen, will happen. There are many triumphs and many disasters and each episode gets better and better.”

In August Alexander’s designs were featured at T Galleria alongside Harman Grubisa, Stolen Girlfriends Club, Zambesi, Salasai, Maaike, Knuefermann, Kathryn Wilson and Wynn Hamlyn. Jessica Grubisa was guest judge this week and it turns out she and Alexander are friends in real life, although he would not spill on who from the fashion fraternity would be judging in coming weeks. But Spy hears the avant-garde designer has quite some looks to come.

Should he win, Alexander, who graduated from Whitecliffe College with an MFA last year, will work towards a life long dream of creating his own business. He is currently working on a limitededition summer collection of shirts and sunhats.