Why Fabio Costa Keeps Coming Back

“Project Runway All Stars” season 20 debuts Thursday on Bravo — and it will see Brazilian designer Fabio Costa returning to the show for a record fourth time.

Costa debuted in the “Project Runway” franchise, finishing as a runner-up in season 10, which aired in 2012. “I felt creatively ready but not necessarily skilled, in the way that I would see the ideas in my head and be able to execute them flawlessly because I do have this thing of perfectionism,” he told WWD. “I was honestly really surprised that I made it so far into the competition.”

He returned to the show for “All Stars” season four in 2014, finishing in fifth, and reinforced his fan-favorite status in “All Stars” season six in 2016, when he once again got the second-best medal.

Competing for more than a decade now, Costa has evolved his style to be more body-conscious and gender-inclusive. He credits his first experience on the show for helping him rethink fashion.

Related Articles

“I felt like, creatively, I was starting conversations as far as gender, starting conversations as far as silhouettes and all of these things that you know, 10 years ago, they were kind of niche and today are considered to be, you know, mainstream,” he said.

Costa created his own fashion, NotEqual, in which he explores every lesson learned on “Project Runway,” while also incorporating elements from his motherland, Brazil. For season 20, the designer promised to bring some of “this Brazilian flavor” without “being Carmen Miranda,” he explained, dodging stereotypes.

“This was the biggest hiatus between me and the ‘Project’ for me,” Costa said. “So I felt not only had I changed as a person and as a designer, I had changed because I went more into the technical side of fashion. I went to work for costume design, costume shops and all of that. So I feel like all these techniques, all these things that I’ve learned, have put me at a different platform to compete as I was previously.”

The designer confessed that he keeps coming back to the competition to “exercise” his creativity inside the “pressure cooker.” “It forces you to be extremely creative and to make decisions that, normally in your day-to-day life, you don’t have,” Costa said.

The “Project Runway” veteran also revealed that season 20 won’t disappoint in terms of drama. “I’m assuming you’ve seen the cast. It’s people that not only are very talented but they work on their brand. So everyone is actually trained and skilled to come into this sort of structure of competition. So there will be drama because there’s a lot of ego,” he said.

Besides Costa, “Project Runway All Stars” season 20 will bring back Brittany Allen (season 18), Prajje Oscar Jean Baptiste (season 19). Laurence Basse (season 15), Bishme Cromartie (season 17), Jonathan Kayne Gillaspie (season three), Mila Hermanovski (season seven), Rami Kashou (season four), Viktor Luna (season nine), Korto Momolu (season five), Noral Pagel (season one), Kara Saun (season one), Hester Sunshine (season 17) and Anna Yinan Zhou (season 19).

Nina Garcia, Brandon Maxwell and Elaine Welteroth are returning as judges, with previous “Project Runway” winner Christian Siriano acting as a mentor. The show airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST on Bravo and will be available to stream on Fridays on Peacock at 6 a.m. EST.

ncG1vNJzZmivp5l7pLvMaKeoqF2Ywq3A1KucaJuVobKjvsitsGamlazAcLzRqKGem6Riv7a61pqwZpmcoXq0wMCrqmarlZbAsLqMa2dmnpGXtrB5wqiqrZldZn90gZVxbXFsaGQ%3D