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Juli wins Project Runway Australia

Brisbane's Juli Grbac has beaten Leigh and Petrova to win the inaugural fashion design reality series on Arena.

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Brisbane fashion designer Juli Grbac (pictured, right) has won the inaugural Project Runway Australia. She was announced the winner during the season finale last night on Arena.

Leigh Buchanan came second, while Melburnian Petrova Hammond was third.

“This is the most amazing moment of my life,” said Juli. “I am absolutely thrilled to be the first winner of Project Runway Australia. I am so excited about doing my range for the 2009 Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, the whole experience is one that I will never forget”.

Grbac’s style “pioneers a lighter, softer, prettier look.”  She says she embraces “femininity, simplicity and individuality.”

The debut series has been a hit with Arena viewers and critics, virtually ensuring the greenlight for a second edition in 2009.

5 Responses

  1. My person favourite was Juli, although to be honest I though she’d end up coming 3rd in the finale.

    Juli definitely had the most commercial appeal, and all of her outfits would run out the door if put on sale tomorrow. The other two would look better in an editoral mag, but I guess at the end of the it all the judges were looking for the designer who would be most likely to sell dresses and appear to the largest amount of people, and that IMHO was definitely Juli.

  3. Thanks David, that’s interesting information. I can only assume then that Lui and Brent each received $10,000 to create their collections? Wasted 20K as it turns out. And Lui and Brent would have had to have been led blindfolded into a room with their previous designs, and then ripped them up to make the ’11th look’, like the other three designers? Interesting.

  4. Yes there were five designers at the finale, as it was filmed ahead of time and they wanted to keep a lid on things (although oddly the ep the night before had already established the final 3). They were all fantastic, my money was on Leigh, though Luis’ was probably the most practical / wearable.

  5. I’ve enjoyed the show but was disappointed with the winner – her collection was beautiful but too ‘safe’ to win, in my opinion. I would actually have had her third behind Leigh and Petrova. I’ve also been disappointed with some of the other ‘outs’ from the series – it’s obvious that the producers have some sort of agenda. And I’ve heard reports that the top FIVE designers did a collection for the final show – does anyone know if that’s correct? See: http://www.smh.com.au/news/fashion/our-insider-gets-the-goss-on-iprojectrunwayi/2008/09/15/1221330724471.html

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