Fans cannot stop discussing the controversy surrounding Project Runway's Season 19 winner.
Season 19 of the hit reality series aired on Bravo in 2021. The show is back in the conversation for 2025, as beloved supermodel and former host Heidi Klum was announced to return for Season 21.
The show is not the only one to have winner controversy throughout its lengthy run on television. More recently, America's Got Talent found itself in hot water following the crowning of its 2024 winner.
Why Is There Drama Around the Project Runway Season 19 Winner?
All these years later, the Project Runway Season 19 winner decision is awash in controversy.
Many consider the end of the 2021 season one of the most dramatic and divisive. Many believe that Shantall Lacayo's win was undeserved and that the $100,000 cash prize and personal designer line should have been handed to one of the runners-up.
After appearing in one of its international spin-offs, Lacayo was the first contestant to participate in and win the American mainline series.
Fans have long complained about Lacayo winning (and the season overall), calling her style nondescript and lacking any "strong signature [style]" (via MarketAffectionate12 on Reddit).
The common sentiment is that runner-up Coral should have won. One Reddit commentator voiced these concerns, saying Coral had a more consistently exciting final collection, while Lacayo "had some killer looks...but some misses as well:"
"Based on collection alone, Coral should have won. Took my breath away, she truly created art yet such wearable clothes. Shantall had some killer looks in her collection, but some misses as well. It was definitely between her and Coral for sure. Either way they both would have deserved it."
Some have also said that Coral's work was more easily marketable, while Lacayo's was perhaps a bit more innovative but geared toward a limited audience.
Project Runway Season 19 Runner-Up Speaks Out
Part of this Project Runway Season 19 controversy was the comments about the final winning decision after the action was over.
Immediately following Shantall Lacayo being announced as the winner, runner-up Kristina Kharlashkina made headlines by speaking out against the decision.
She told host Christian Siriano on the Project Runway official aftershow that she did not think the judges' decision "[was] right:"
"Honestly, I appreciate the judges' decision, but I do not think that is a smart decision, and I do not think it is right."
This came as guest judge Tommy Hilfiger, in the episodes, remarked that he thought all four of the Season 19 finalists were "deserving" before awarding Lacayo the final prize.
Siriano justified the judges' decision, telling Kharlashkina and the other finalists the prize went to the person who "could probably take this [to the next level]:"
"I think it went to the person who could probably take this a little bit further as a brand and who is fully ready... I am not a judge, I am your mentor. We all know there is going to be one winner. Do not forget, Jennifer Hudson, she did not win 'American Idol,' and she is doing okay."
"I think we are all ready for this business," Kharlashkina retorted, echoing fan sentiment that it perhaps should not have been Lacayo who walked away with the title. Kharlashkina has since launched her fashion line of "wearable art," dubbed Kristina K, and has amassed over 37 thousand on Instagram.
This is hardly the first time fans have spoken out about the winning decision of a particular reality show (look at Netflix's 2024 winner of Rhythm and Flow). Still, a runner-up is rarely as forthcoming about the eventual winner on live TV as Kharlashkina has been.
Project Runway is streaming on Peacock.
