Gays get a slice of fashion television

If there was any doubt the gay community and its members know how to look after itself and each other, take a look at the first Australian series of cult fashion show Project Runway.

Five out of the six male contestants -” Shane Garland, Oren Nuri, Leigh Buchanan, Mark Antonio and Wee Min -” are gay and clearly use this connection. But those looking for a passionate affair will be disappointed because Project Runway is all about dirty deeds and fashion, though only one is done dirt cheap.

So, what’s it like living in a house with, among others, five passionate, diverse and exuberant gay men?

According to contestant Shane Garland, not that bad as the flamboyant fashionistas clash shimmering wristbands and utter a few choice words of bonding to become the show’s style super league.

We really bonded together and looked after each other, Garland told Sydney Star Observer.

The girls were saying that their house was a bit boring because all the boys were funny and not many of the girls were funny. We were singing, laughing and having fun.

Oren Nuri, also a member of the show’s said gay super league, said the group had a good chemistry, helped along by a very similar design ethic that came to the fore the more they worked together.

It made us look strong and therefore we stayed in the show longer, he said.

We are a community and a minority and we stick together and help each other out as much as we can.

During the show, for example we had to choose our partners to pair up with on one of the challenges and all the guys paired together.

We used to mimic the judges in the show, one of us even had the chance to walk in high heels around the house and do a drag show.

Some of us felt so comfortable that we walked around the house with only our underwear on. On our days off, we used to cook for each other, exchange clothes and talk dirty.

You’d think that with a bunch of gay guys all passionately working toward their first big break in the fashion industry there’d be plenty of claw showing and back scratching – and while there have been elements of this Nuri said it was minimal.

The girls didn’t really like Helen and it got really bitchy behind the scenes, he said.

Mark and I had a bit of a fight with Helen in one episode where she claimed that I used one of her pattern blocks. She made a big drama around the camera and made it look like I stole her patterns and we didn’t use it wisely.

The morning after, once we stepped into the lift where no one saw anything and the camera wasn’t there, she took my hand and said -˜I’m so sorry love and you know I shouldn’t do it’.

There were people that were two-sided. I didn’t have any strategies before I went into the show. She [Helen] wanted to be the talking mother, mature, helping everyone but behind the scenes she was quite driven by money, success and fame -” she didn’t really care about all the others and tried to be the angel in the show.

Project Runway is launched this Monday 7 July and will feature community figures and fashion identities Henry Roth and Jayson Brunsdon, who will join Sarah Gale on the judging panel.