Streeter: Randallstown’s ‘Project Runway’ model on that dress controversy and what Baltimore gave her

There is something exhilarating about succeeding in spaces you are not expected to be in. But it means you have to kick back extra hard when you frustratingly feel like someone’s trying to close the door on you again.

“This is bigger than me,” said Liris Crosse, a Randallstown native, standout “Project Runway” plus-sized model and unintentional center of one of reality television’s latest controversies. “It’s about women who see a piece of themselves when they see me.”

On Episode 7 of the fashion competition’s current season, Crosse, who has been with the show for nearly a decade, had to walk in a dangerously heavy outfit made of dangling wires, taped down and fitted over a used trash bag by designer Bryan Barrientos.

It felt like a sloppy afterthought. And Crosse doesn’t want fans to ever feel that way. “When they feel like you can’t get a plus-size girl right, it makes them feel some kind of way,” she said.

Barrientos and representatives for Freeform, the network that airs “Project Runway,” did not return requests for comment.

As someone who wears a size 12-14 and a longtime “Project Runway” fan, I sure did feel some kind of way and I’m not the only one. Barrientos’ last-minute effort made Crosse literally slip going down the runway — in front of her hero and guest judge Iman, no less — and inspired internet-wide outrage.

“One thing I HATE is that week after week (no matter what designer she’s paired with), the designers always put her in their weakest looks!,” fashion podcaster Kendrick Tucker wrote on Threads.

In a YouTube video that’s gotten more than 82,000 views, Crosse expressed her unhappiness with the outfit and with Barrientos’ lack of vision for her. But she told me she feels less defeated than disappointed that women who look like her have to keep proving themselves.

“Sixty-two percent of American women are plus-size, 14-16,” she said. “How are you making clothes and not designing for them? You’re missing out on money.”

But I feel that some people would rather leave cash on the table than serve a broad range of women well, and not in shapeless clown wear. You may have noticed that American culture is breathlessly racing backwards, rooting out those in positions of power, visibility and voice by telling us we don’t need education, independence, employment or a personality of our own that does not include a husband and a passel of kids. The powers that be want us silent. Women like Crosse are the opposite. Me too.

I think every designer worth their salt, particularly on this show, shouldn’t be shocked to dress a larger size. But as GLP-1-era America reverts to a regressive standard of beauty, with some brands even offering less plus-size clothing, we need women of all sizes, races and backgrounds to be able to reclaim their shine.

I’ve been watching “Project Runway” since the very beginning, when you only ever saw plus-sized models in so-called “real woman” challenges, where some designers behaved as if they were being asked to make a wedding dress for a Jeep.

“This is what it feels like to be a plus-size woman and to try to go shine out there in the world when they’re making stupid stuff like this,” Crosse said. “They have nothing for you.”

Crosse and others joined as regular members of the cast in 2017, meaning contestants were going to have to figure out how to dress larger women as a routine part of the competition. Her body’s natural shape has been a part of the conversation before, even when she has loved certain outfits others found unflattering. She has been a standout since starting her career locally as a teen. But some didn’t want her to stand out so much.

“They all wanted me to lose weight,” she said. “I remember I tried to do the starvation thing, but I really enjoy eating, so that didn’t last too long.” After graduation from Randallstown High School, Crosse moved to New York to pursue modeling full time, eventually signing with Wilhelmina Model.

Her fierce confidence comes from the encouragement of her parents and being from this area. “I think there is something, like a feeling that sometimes people think they can count Baltimore out,” Crosse said. “There is this underdog feel.”

The funny thing is that Crosse, who won her first season on “Project Runway” back when models were part of the competition, hasn’t felt like an underdog for some time. But Season 22 has been a bummer, with Crosse and other plus-sized models feeling that they were not served well in several episodes.

Episode 7, which required contestants to create couture out of outdated technology like floppy discs and giant computer keys, was the most egregious. Instead of following Crosse’s suggestion of creating a sexy body-conscious bandage dress with wires, a la the Herve Leger brand, Barrientos just looped them around her neck and bust.

To save time, he also taped the used trash bag around her body as a base, which Crosse didn’t know had been picked up off the floor until after the show. The experience made her cry.

“I thought he would be creative with it,” she said. “I don’t think he’s a horrible person. I think he was just overwhelmed.”

Liris Crosse is a beautiful woman who can literally look pretty in a trash bag.

But she should not have to.

“Where are my looks? On Season 16, Mama had looks upon looks upon looks,” she said. “You can’t tell me people are not able to create for fuller bodies. There is too much technology and information available. You know you’re going to have to make something that’s more than a size 6.”

We will not know until Thursday’s episode whether Barrientos, who was eliminated, will be saved by “Project Runway” mentor and Baltimore School for the Arts alum Christian Siriano, whose New York Fashion Week show Crosse will walk in after an Instagram plea to him.

She will also continue serving the proper looks in other people’s shows, including at Chloe Magleby’s, a designer who reached out to Crosse to redo an unsatisfying outfit from an earlier challenge this season.

But whatever the runway or “Project Runway” has in store for her, “I always try to rock it,” she said.

“You have to go to where you’re celebrated.”

We all deserve some celebration.