Get real with Jay McCarroll
Who: Winner of the first season of "Project Runway" in '05, back when it was on Bravo. (It's now on Lifetime, 9 p.m. Thursdays.)
Who: Winner of the first season of "Project Runway" in '05, back when it was on Bravo. (It's now on Lifetime, 9 p.m. Thursdays.)
Age: 37
From: Dallas (Luzerne County), Pa.
Where now: South Philly
On "Project": The designer - a smoker, a joker, a fearless wearer of wacky specs and speaker of his own mind and not a few four-letter words - bested buddy Kara Saun and frenemy (OK, enemy) Wendy Pepper on the Bryant Park runway.
Post-"Project": Famously turned down the $100,000 in prize money - and therefore the lifetime of giving up 10 percent of his label's profits. Shot follow-up docu-series "Project Jay" and documentary film "Eleven," lost more than 40 pounds to win Season 7 of "Celebrity Fit Club," appeared often on PBS' "Quilting Arts."
Runway nowadays: The vegetarian teaches portfolio layout at Philadelphia University and sewing at South Street's Spool, and designs trippy-cool fabrics for FreeSpirit. He hangs out in Jefferson Square Park with pug Vern, and with human friends at Bella Vista's Royal Tavern and along East Passyunk, and in Portland, Maine, with the boyfriend.
Fashion statement: "People just wanna wear sweatpants at the end of the day. I know I do."