Juli Grbac was last night voted as the winner of Arena's fashion-based reality show Project Runway. The newlywed from Brisbane who has run her own label for six years will now show at L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Week. Her prize includes $100,000 to spend on her runway show for the February event.
“I’m absolutely over the moon and ecstatic. Even though I found out earlier than viewers, it still hasn’t sunk in,” said Grbac. “It’s a dream come true, the $100,000 means I can employ people to workon the collection. It will pay for the models, the tent and lightingand will be more than enough to produce the pieces for the show.”
Grbac, who has just shown at Brisbane Fashion Week, says she will skip a season of her own range to focus on producing the collection for next February’s event. She hopes to find an investor to help produce the collection once it is shown and is optimistic that it will be very saleable.
"Investors are easy to find. But like husbands, you have to pick the right one. I want one that will give me total creative freedom," she says.
Grbac was in the top three alongisde fellow Bris Vegan Leigh Buchanan and Melburnian Petrova Hammond. Those who saw her final collection last night would note that her delicate pieces are also very commercial - the ideal combination for any investor. Grbac believes this edge that convinced the judges she was worthy of the prize.
"I loved what Leigh and Petrova did, but my collection was definitely more commercial. I have been running my own label in Brisbane for six years, so I've got to a point where when I'm designing I'm always thinking 'will someone wear this', 'will they buy this'. That doesn't affect my creativity, it's just the way I think now," says Grbac.
Grbac married her fiance Paul in something of a rushed ceremony at the Brisbane registry office last month. This encouraged rumour mills to churn, pondering whether her obligations to the show might become too much to fit in a spring wedding. When her hectic winner's schedule dies down she looks forward to a big church wedding later in the year when her fiance's family can fly over from Manchester. Naturally, she will design her own very wearable bridal gown.