Project Runway Season 6: Meet Nicolas Putvinski

Posted on Aug 11, 2009 in Fashion

Ooh, we smell trouble on this one.

Nicolas Putvinski
Age: 27
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
Current Home: New York, NY
Favorite Designer: Olivier Theyskens
Style Icon: Marlene Dietrich
Favorite Past Project Runway Designer: Rami Kashou, Season 4

Nicolas realized his designer potential at age 15 when he made a pleather tube top dress for his 12 year old sister. An immigrant from Russia, Nicolas spent most of his childhood in San Diego, CA, and had only three weeks to learn English before starting school in America. Nicolas went on to study design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and received further training at Izquierdo Studio in New York. Nicolas has had a number of works commissioned by W Magazine and Vogue, and some of his greatest fashion achievements include designing a dress for Marchesa and serving as the lead assistant to the costumer who makes the famous angel wings for Victoria’s Secret. This past February, Nicolas created a gown for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscars Design Challenge.

Why he’ll win?
Nicolas believes he will win because he is innovative, a master at fabric manipulation, works well under time constraints and has a fabulous personality to boot!

Tim Gunn: “If you have such a bad taste in your mouth about American fashion, [Gunn has wondered about the F.I.T. grad] why are you here?”

TimSpeak: You shut your whore mouth and sew, Ivan.

Honestly, he comes off fine in the videos, but that quote from Tim is awfully ominous, wouldn’t you say? Tim’s not the type to throw shade like that. Guess we’ll have to ~~watch what ha~~–see how it all turns out.

As for the portfolio…

The ghost of Chris March lingers. He certainly seems to have the technical skills down pat, but we’re not really seeing anything that goes past “costume.”

Here’s something interesting: since he designed the angel wings for the Victoria’s Secret runway shows, that means that he’s the first designer to appear on the show who designed something Heidi wore in her professional life. We wonder what the dynamic will be like with that little bit of trivia.

Anyway, go check out his page on myLifetime.com and try to figure out if we’re jumping the gun(n) on this one.

Tim Gunn’s Quotes: Meet Project Runway’s Newest Designers! [People]
[Photos: myLifetime.com/vmagazine.com/Getty Images - Videos: myLifetime.com]