VANESSA RATNAVICH

Vanessa who is of Thai and Phillipino descent was born in Bangkok, Thailand. She moved to Southern California at age 2. Growing up in San Diego, Vanessa loved the beach and playing sports. When the chance to pursue a modelling career presented itself she quickly moved to Los Angeles and signed with her mother agency, Nous model management. She immediately began traveling for work and ended up spending the next couple of years in Asia.

While living in Asia Vanessa built her portfolio. She began acting in television commercials, and walking in high profile fashion shows. With that experience under her belt Vanessa returned to the United States and ultimately settled in New York city. She currently resides in lower Manhattan and is represented by Wilhelmina models.

http://www.thefugitivesquad.com/vanessa/

Episode 1: AND SEW IT BEGINS

I wanted to write about the first episode just from our point of view but than i realized we are not always there when the cameras are rolling so i will have to mix my own experiences with what i saw when the episode aired and also what Tim Gunn had to say on his facebook video blog.

The first day of shooting I arrived all excited and nervous in the same time. Let me tell you: Since i have recovered from leukemia i did couple of modeling jobs but no runway or any tv so it was all new and nerve wrecking for me.
It was quite a relief when i found out that i know some girls already. During the day I started to talk to the the most of the other girls and I have to say there wasn't anyone i would not like. Of course there were some moments when someone was getting on my nerves later on as I'm pretty sure that I must have been getting on the nerves of most of the people around me. Especially since I can talk anyone's ear off :)

For the first episode we were randomly paired with one of the designers. I remember while i walked in the room and searched for my designer I could feel my face burning. When I later looked in the mirror i realized that I'm red like a tomato. I guess that's why you cannot see me at all in the tv during our first fitting :-D
Thank God my designer turned out to be the nicest guy ever - Michael Costello. I cannot describe it but from the first moment i felt like we clicked right away and we created a truly unbreakable connection. I really liked the outfit which he created for the first episode. I mean 5 hours to create an outfit? From someone elses clothes? I think they all deserved the respect for being able to pull thru..

During the time when we were doing our fittings, make ups in L'oreal room and hair in Garnier salon I had a chance to have a glimpse of some of the designer personalities. 
Goth inspired April who i liked instantly for her laid back and friendly personality, Ivy who famously said on tv that she thinks that Project Runway is officially The Ivy show and who reminded me of the bunny from Duracell commercials coming from the fact she would never stop running around, funny Casanova who some of the people disliked at some blogs but if any of them met him they would all know what a sweetheart he is (No Casanova... New Jork won't eat you, YOU WILL EAT NEW JORK :), strange looking Jason who is trying to intimidate other designers with a bowler hat like native americans with their mohawks (ehm...it might scare some preschool kids but that's about it ) and Gretchen who at first glance seemed like a cool hippie and urban girl...

After we finished our make-ups, hair and dressing we were sent to runway. I didnt realize that poor Sarae - Casanovas model - wasn't even dressed when we were about to hit elevator. Thank god for the tv :-)

And there it was: the new shiny runway with the famous wall where you can see the silhouette of the model as she comes out on the stage!! We all got the chance to try the runway before we start shooting. The first girl comes out with all the graciousness and....whooops....her foot slips and she so so manages to hold her balance. Whats wrong with the stage? It feels like an ice rink... They should have given us a skates instead of high heels.. In the backstage we tried everything...even spraying the bottom of the shoes with hair spray which is a common modeling trick but even that didn't work. The crew tried everything but time was passing and we were shooting for way too long so we all decided to deal with it and just walk really reaaaaaally slow. So yeah dear bloggers we did look like we walk slow and careful with a fear in our eyes....you cant WORK the CATWALK when you can't WALK :-)

After the runway we usually wait around until the decision about top 3 and bottom 3 is made. They usually tell us who goes back on the stage but we have no idea who is the top and bottom. This time i was really confused. I couldn't figure which 3 are actually the top since most of them didn't really impress me. Later i found out that there was only one top and the rest were bottoms...
Let me just talk about these 6 designs. If i try to talk about all 17 I would probably go crazy...

THE WINNER:

Gretchen Jones and her model Alexandra Palmer

Some people disagreed with this garment as a winner. I didn't really mind it as a winner. It was definitely something i would wear. Very New York if you ask me. But did i think that it was so good that nothing even came close as the judges thought? Not really.. There were some other pretty good designs which came really close! Specially Andy's... How in the world did he managed to saw all that in just 5 hours?

BOTTOM 5:

Nicholas D'Aurizio and his model Julia

Nicholas is such a sweetheart so it breaks my heart to say that it really wasn't a nice outfit. His model has this amazing body (i called her a human barbie since she has this unbelievable long legs, tiny waist and big boobs) and it got all lost in this garment.

Ivy Higa and her model Ekaterina Py

I actually liked the top. Wouldn't wear it myself but i could see it selling somewhere in Macy's. The pants made were just not my cup of tea. Ivy than mouthed off way too much when she was trying to defend herself in front of the judges. I personally don't mind. It makes it more fun to watch. I just think she might have put herself in a danger zone going against the judges.

April Johnston and her model Millana Snow, Jason Troisi and his model Dre Davis

I didn't think April's garment was that bad. It wasn't one of the best but for the fact that they only had five hours i think it was alright!

Jason Jason...oh my... Do i even have to make a comment about him? That guy didn't design anything, he didn't saw anything either. He just stapled the kimono and presented it as a new design. Three year old could saw better!!! I was so sure he is going home... I mean just look at it all together: His bad design, horrible styling, the bowler hat and the totally inappropriate comments about Dre's boobs (to make sure that we all know that he is straight). Just a pure mess!!!

McKell Maddox and her model Vanessa Ratnavich

Well it wasn't my favorite. I thought it would be in the bottom. But did McKell deserve to go home over Jason? Hell NO!!! As Tim Gunn said in his video blog: What are the judges smoking?
I really liked McKell's portfolio and i felt like she could have shown us soooo much more. But that we will never know. At least she didn't have to be apart from her baby for too long...

I was also upset about the fact that there was no elimination of the models. I guess since McKell wasn't "officially" on the show her model got aufed automatically as well but that is purely just my speculation. Maybe I should be glad because that way I wasn't in danger to get eliminated but to tell you the truth I'm always for a fair game and sending Vanessa home just wasn't fair. I know Vanessa from waaaaaaayyyy back when we met in Bangkok. She is really an amazing girl who helped me to start up my career again  and I was just really sad that I didn't have the chance to get to hang out with her during the show more...

Post about Vanessa including her bio and modeling pictures will follow up shortly so don't forget to check back soon!!!!

All the photos courtesy of My lifetime 
http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway 

Party to celebrate the premiere of Project runway!

I dont even know where this idea originally started but at certain point we all felt like it would be really great to get together for the screening of the first episode of Project runway.
Thankfully Millana Snow took the initiative to organize the event. Her friends provided the venue: Eight Bond street eightbond.com. Ekateriny Py managed to get us catering from Mari Vanna restaurant. And all the drinks were provided by Chairman's rum!
Unfortunately not all of us could make it and they were all missed dearly!! It was an amazing evening with the girls, their friends and families!!
Thanks to all who made this event happen!!!

Sarae Cart, Alexandra Palmer, Millana Snow, Rose Cook, Tina Marie Clark, Lenka Dayrit, Cassie Dzienny, Ekatarina Py, Amare Tk and Zhanna Ved

Ekatarina Py, Sarae Cart and Cassie Dzienny

Ekatarina and Michael Hartz

Eyen Chorm, Andrew Sotomayor (our celebrity mua from the show) and Ekaterina Py

Chairman's rum sponsorship :) Thank you

Millana, Cassie, Alexandra and Ekaterina

Mari Vanna restaurant catering

Ekaterina, Alexandra, Tina Marie, Sarae and Cassie

A LITTLE ABOUT ME

My name is Lenka Dayrit and I’m originally from Czech republic. I remember having a lot of dreams about my future job when I was a kid. I wanted to be a stewardess, nurse or figure skater but never a model. One day my mum came home, opened a newspaper with a pictures of girls competing for a Miss Junior and said: “if they can do it you can do it as well” and that was it… I went for the pageant, met a bunch of photographers and got introduced to agencies. Quickly I learned that the pageants has nothing to do with real modeling so I dropped my mom’s dream of having a future Miss Czech republic at home and started to travel.

Me on the left at "Miss Rose Bud"

First test shoot - 14 years old :)

I enjoyed myself modeling in Europe but something was still missing and I found out what it was when I went to Asia for the first time … I completely fell in love with Asian cultures and decided to stick around. The business was always good for me.  Ironically, while I was considered sick looking due to my pale skin in Europe I was celebrated for its fairness in Asia. I soon realized that the concept of beauty varies all around the world.

Malaysia

 Unexpectedly when I wasn’t looking for love I have met the men of my life Jemy. We still kept on traveling together through Asia for a while but in the end we decided to settle in one place and what a better place than New York city? Half of year later we got married in Las Vegas and were anxiously awaiting a new adventures coming our way.

Well adventure did come our way but lets just say it wasn’t anything we were expecting… After getting really tired and bruised up I decided to get a doctor check up and I was diagnosed with Leukemia. I remember till today how I felt like when the doctor gave me the news. I kept on staring at him with my eyes wide open, trying not to cry in front of him. Once he left the room I broke down crying hysterically.  I kept on crying for the next hour but than I finally realized that if I want to survive than I can’t be sorry for myself. I realized that only if I toughen up and be positive I will survive and ever since than I haven’t cry for my stupid sickness again. I shaved my head – I mean who wants to see all their hair falling all over the place after the chemo anyways? And I sent my hair to Locks of love. I think those little babies need the hair more than me. I could live with my baldhead. You know in the end it was kind of fun not to have to wash my hair anyways.

Posing? What's that?

I went thru six chemotherapies. It was a hell on earth. You go thru pain, nausea and despair without knowing when its going to be over but you pull thru and every each day you feel better and stronger. This February it was exactly one year since I’m in remission and although I’m always going to be more prone to get sick due to my damaged immune system and be tired faster than other people in my age, I AM ALIVE AND KICKING !!

I took my time to go back to modeling. Lot of people think this job is as easy as walk in the park and sometimes it's true. But a lot of the times its working never ending hours under a lot of pressure. Finally as a one year anniversary approached and my hair grew to a length i was loving I decided its time to jump back in the business. I was lucky enough to sign with one of the most renowned agencies Wilhelmina models and finally started to rebuild my book and run to the castings...

 Couple of months ago i got the message that i have been requested for Project runway season 8 casting. Although I knew there will be hundred of other girls I got the tingling feeling that its gonna happen for me. I always loved this show = it's not just a reality show about bunch of confused kids who other than the perfect ability to down 10 shot in one hour don't posses any other talent. This show is about real talented and artistic people. People who have a big dreams and enough courage to follow them! Not to even mention that i myself sometimes create some piece of clothing when i have the vision of certain look but fail to find it in any of my favorites stores so therefore i could always learn some more from the talented designers on the show.. One week later i got the call that i have been casted. It was a destiny :-)

As by now you all probably know that there is officially no Models of the runway show anymore. Since I have become one of the models on the newest season of Project runway (8) I have heard a lot of people asking why there is no more of Models of the runway show. Most of the people liked the inside on the Project runway from the other side = our side. The show gave them the chance to see how it really felt like wearing those outfits and who of the designers were really nice or not when the camera wasn't focusing on them. While i cannot answer you why the show doesn't exist anymore I can at least try to give you some of the inside info.

I will try to write a post as each episode will air. But I'm in advance saying that i won't spill any info about future episodes. Some of the inside info have to remain mystery as well. I don't do it because of any contract. I just know that there had been a lot of money invested in and more importantly a lot of amazing people have put all their energy and sometimes even sacrificed their personal lives for the show and therefore i would never do anything what would hurt either the show or any of this great people.. You wouldn't want me to spoil the fun for you anyways.. I mean who likes when someone tells them the ending of the movie which they haven't seen yet?

I also wanna make sure that you all understand that this all is my personal point of view and it doesn't necessarily express the opinions of the other models, designers or people on the show!!!

I will approach other models from the show to write about themselves and the stories from Project runway so keep on reading :)