Bonnie Croisant’s fierce designs won the Student Union Activities Project Runway competition last night.

Croisant, Humboldt senior, beat out four other design teams with her three garments featuring lederhosen-style pants, a Samurai-warrior-inspired top and a hand-dyed dress with a long slit up the side.

Croisant said she set high standards for herself after losing the competition last year.

“It was my last chance,” Croisant said.

SUA awarded Croisant $500 for winning the competition. She said she planned to give the money to her mother because her mother recently bought Croisant a computer after Croisant’s broke.

Christian Siriano, winner of season four of Bravo’s “Project Runway,” Katie Hunt, Memphis senior and winner of the 2007 SUA competition and Natasha Kastl, 2006 graduate and manager of Epic Apparel, judged the competition.

SUA provided the judges with specific criteria to use while judging the garments. The criteria included craftsmanship, fit, how well the designers responded to the challenge and overall appeal.

Hunt said she would also be looking for unexpected designs and details on the garments.

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Project Runway

Kastl said Croisant took risks and was the most unpredictable of the contestants. She said the judges based the final decision on her concepts, although there was room for improvement with her sewing.

Croisant used the armor of Samurai warriors for inspiration in the Asian-Inspired challenge. The top of her garment was collared, with pleats down the front. She said she felt as though she knew exactly what to do with the design and systematically measured strips of fabric for the pleats.

“The top is fabulous,” Soriano said. “I’m telling you: Sell that top.”

Croisant said her innovative designs came through experimentation.

“I come up with ideas and just try to make them,” Croisant said.

The models walked the runway under Christmas lights and paper cranes. Spencer Titus, Newton sophomore, said members of the SUA Cultural Arts Committee spent about 30 hours folding more than 2,000 cranes to line the runway and hang from the ceiling.

The cranes were part of the Asian theme for the night.

Competitors presented their designs by category. After every challenge, the contestants had the opportunity to talk about their inspiration and receive feedback from the judges.

Throughout the program, SUA showed video of the contestants working on their garments at home or in the studio at the Art and Design building.

While the judges deliberated, the models presented the garments from the preliminary challenge, the designers created the multicolored garments using paper bags.

The night began with a question-and-answer session with Siriano.

The audience him asked questions ranging from what his favorite Project Runway Challenge was to what his plans for the night were.

His answers were peppered with jokes about the questioners’ outfits and fashion sense in the state of Kansas.

Siriano said his advice for aspiring student designers was to intern with a professional designer for at least a year. He said social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace made it easier for them to promote their work.

“It’s the best time for young people to show their work,” Siriano said.

— — Edited by Brenna Hawley