16 designers competed on season 11 of Project Runway, but there could only be one winner. The three finalists for this “game-changing” season were Patricia Michaels, Stanley Hudson, and Michelle Lesniak Franklin who battled it out to the end for the shot at being named this season’s Project Runway winner. And when the dust settled and the judges – including finale guest judge Michael Kors – voted, it was Franklin who emerged as the big winner.
A look back on the season shows that the competitors had to work hard to impress big-name guest judges that included Susan Sarandon, Emmy Rossum, Miranda Lambert, and Bette Midler as well as the judging panel of Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia, and Zac Posen.
Franklin began the season on the losing teams, but her talent and tenacity allowed her to remain in the game. As the winner, Lesniak earned $100,000 from L’Oreal Paris to start her own line, a fashion spread with Marie Claire, a 2013 Lexus GS 350, a $50,000 technology suite by HP and Intel, and the chance to design and sell an exclusive collection at Lord & Taylor.
