Celebrity Profile-Seth Aaron Henderson
From Washington comes coffee, fish, North Face, and the most important thing, greatness. We created one of the most successful coffee franchises, have a local Seattle chef who was just named one of the best new chefs by Food and Wine magazine, and now we’re taking over the fashion industry. That’s right for all you Project Runway enthusiasts you know who I’m talking about, Seth Aaron Henderson, the most recent winner of the hit designer show Project Runway.
Seth Aaron Henderson was originally from San Diego, California but he moved to Vancouver, Washington and started a family and a fashion legacy. He started out as a small time designer and stylist and now is recognized everywhere he goes.
As a kid he was described as stylish, cool, and a little bit strange and at the age of eight he was positive he would be a fashion designer.
Henderson originally started creating men’s wear but quickly moved to women’s wear when a local retailer asked him to make a jacket he had made for a woman. Since that moment he has grown and flourished as a fashion designer and proved his potential when he won Project Runway.
Throughout the competition Henderson flew under the radar for the most part, but consistently from week to week kept to his style and kept his cool. He won three challenges throughout the season and was safe for all the rest. His competition, Emilio Sosa, seemed to have the upper hand on the competition the whole season, with five wins, four in a row, but it was Henderson who pushed the bar and gave an audience that was both high fashion and wearable for all ages.
Henderson’s 1940’s German military inspired line impressed all the judges including guest judge Faith Hill who said she would rock his hot red dress worn by his model Kristina. Henderson also finds inspiration in music especially new wave, punk, 80’s Goth, and Brit rock. While designing, he really lets these inspirations wash over him by blasting Manon, the Cure, and other 80’s rock music. He takes a page from Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Dior while still producing pieces that are unique and can’t be confused with another designer’s work.
While other people were sewing their models into dresses in the last seconds before each runway Henderson was sitting pretty with a perfectly tailored outfit and time to kill. Time management is a huge part of Project Runway, and this self- taught designer knew exactly how to handle the short time he was given in order to create something brilliant – or at least something to get him by to the next challenge, and he never seemed to break a sweat. He kept his cool and stayed out of the drama and it seemed to work out for him in the end.
So what is Henderson going to do with the $100,000 he won and the publicity he will get from his editorial feature in Marie Claire magazine? The talented designer plans on creating a large clothing line, entitled “Sethaaron” and he will have the opportunity to sell it on Bluefly.com. He will also receive a $50,000 Hewlett –Packard Suite that will assist him in creating, designing, and ultimately running his own business.
When asked if the winner would relive the extremely stressful competition he told People magazine, “I want to go back and do it all over again. I’m sad it’s over. I loved every second—the stress, the deadlines. Everything.”
It truly does pay to win Project Runway and Washington can add another prodigy to their local heroes tally.