Meet the Five Black Queer Designers Serving Everything on Project Runway Season 22

Season 22 features the most diverse cast in the show's history. Five Black designers are ready to make it count.

Project Runway announced its cast for Season 22, featuring one of the most diverse groups of designers in the show’s history. Twenty-two designers. One runway. One winner. And if the cast is any indication, this season is about to deliver.

While the show has been around since 2004, no Black designer has ever won Project Runway’s numbered seasons in its 21-season run — Bishme Cromartie’s 2023 All-Star win is the closest we’ve gotten — despite several reaching the finals and placing as runners-up. Although no Black designer has yet to take home the win of a regular season, we have our eyes on five hopeful Black designers who are serving both on and off the runway, and whose stories are worth knowing before their first looks even hit the catwalk.

This season, Aaron Potts, Omolara “LRÉ the Artist” Odupitan, Nahiem Muhammad, Octavius Terry and returning Season 21 contestant JosephMcRae are among the 22 competitors vying for the win. We spoke exclusively with some of the contestants and are here to break down everything you need to know about each one before the season begins on July 9th!

JOSEPHMcRAE

Returning to the workroom from Season 21 is JOSEPHMcRAE. He finished 9th. He is not here to finish 9th again. The self-taught, openly queer Black designer from Charlotte, N.C., is back for a second shot and coming with something to prove. His self-named label JOSEPHMcRAE is rooted in the fluidity of masculinity and femininity, and his designs are as bold as his personality, earning recognition from both the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and New York Fashion Week (NYFW).

McRae uses color, texture and proportion to redefine and blur the lines of gender expression through clothing. A former electrical engineer who walked away from a stable career to bet on himself, JosephMcRae treats the runway as a space for vulnerability, identity and radical self-definition. In a competition that rewards versatility, a designer who has already walked away from one life to build another on his own terms is someone worth watching.

When we asked about his unfinished business, he exclusively tells Gaye: “I never viewed my return to Project Runway as a redemption story. For me, it was an opportunity to continue telling my story. In Season 21, viewers were introduced to who JOSEPHMcRAE is — the energy, the boldness, and the confidence of taking up space unapologetically. This season, my intention was to share the why behind it all. My work is rooted in the belief that people deserve the freedom to fully express themselves and take up the space they were created to occupy. The work of discovering who I am and what JOSEPHMcRAE stands for happened long before I stepped into the workroom. Season 22 simply gave me a larger platform to share that journey and show people not just what I create, but why I create it.”

When asked what viewers can expect from the biggest season yet, McRae exclusively shared: “What makes this cast so special is the range of perspectives in the room. With so many designers from different backgrounds and experiences, every challenge brings a completely different point of view, which creates a unique dynamic throughout the season.

“As for me, viewers can expect exactly what they’ve come to know from JOSEPHMcRAE — authenticity, bold creativity, and someone who isn’t afraid to take up space. Everything I create is rooted in that purpose and in encouraging people to embrace who they are without limitation. Whether on Project Runway or in the real world, my goal is to show up fully as myself and inspire others to do the same.”

Each designer brings a unique perspective through their own lens of creativity, design and craftsmanship. Whether it be through gender-fluid silhouettes, tailored tuxedos or bold color expressions, these designers are here to leave their mark and take it to the finish line.

Octavius Terry

Then there is Octavius Terry. A former Olympic track hopeful, real estate mogul and CEO of men’s ready-to-wear brand OCTAVIUS MARSION. Terry is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds two fashion design degrees from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. He has created designs for iconic figures across music, entertainment and sports including Ray J, The Game, Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah, Chris Brown, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Nick Cannon, Mark Ballas, Tamar Braxton, Lecrae, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Lena Waithe and Matt Barnes, just to name a few.

His designs have been seen on the red carpets of the Academy Awards, the Grammys, the American Music Awards and a multitude of other award ceremonies and celebrity weddings. After 11 years in corporate America, Octavius made the life-changing decision to dedicate himself fully to building his fashion and real estate empire — guided by his mantra: Be Bold. Be Authentic. Be Inspiring.

And now, he starts a new chapter. “People love a straight line — track star to executive to designer sounds like three different lives,” Terry said in an exclusive statement to exclusively to Gaye Magazine.

“But it’s one life, just refusing to sit still. In the workroom, that shows up as someone who isn’t rattled by the clock, who can pivot when the fabric doesn’t cooperate or the vision needs to bend, because I’ve pivoted before and it’s never once been the end of the story. It’s usually the beginning of a better one. That’s the whole message I want people — especially anyone counting themselves out after 50 — to take from watching me this season: age isn’t a deadline. It’s just a number, and the work keeps going.”

That conviction is the read thread that runs through everything he has built. “Dressing A-listers and seeing my work walk red carpets taught me that fashion is a language, it says something before a word is spoken. But Project Runway is different. This isn’t me designing for someone else’s spotlight; this is me stepping into my own. At 53, that matters.

He continues, “We live in an industry obsessed with the ‘next young thing,’ and I’m here saying the next thing can also be the seasoned thing — the thing that took fifteen-plus years of bespoke tailoring, boardrooms, and reinvention to build. This moment isn’t a departure from my story, it’s the chapter where all the earlier ones finally make sense. I’ve spent my career proving that luxury isn’t a price point, it’s an experience, and now I get to prove that visibility isn’t a young person’s game either. It’s a legacy game. And I’m just getting to the good part.”

Aaron Potts

And then there is Aaron Potts, whose resume makes clear why he is not only qualified to enter the workroom but has everything it takes to go all the way. The Detroit-born, Brooklyn-based founder of A.POTTS has spent more than 20 years working in American fashion, trained at Parsons, shaped by internships at Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan, and seasoned by tenures at Escada, Tamara Mellon and Badgley Mischka, before launching a label built around what he calls “Everyday Editorial.”

A.POTTS won the 2020 Fashion Group International (FGI) Award for Best All-Gender Design, landed a look in the Met Museum’s “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” exhibition, and has dressed the likes of Lauryn Hill, Janet Jackson, Billy Porter and Questlove. His “Everyday Editorial” philosophy is less a trend and more a thesis, and Project Runway is about to find out exactly what that means under pressure. His designs have been seen in Vogue, the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, L’Officiel, Paper and other influential publications.

LRÉ the Artist

Next is Omolara “LRÉ the Artist” Odupitan, a disabled Air Force veteran and first-generation Nigerian creative who channels emotion and silhouette into transformative design. Rooted in luxury streetwear with an avant-garde edge, their work empowers people to feel like their most authentic and powerful selves. Each piece is crafted as armor, liberation and self-expression in equal measure.

For LRÉ, every design choice is intentional and deeply personal. “My Nigerian background deeply influences my aesthetic through fabric choice and strong silhouettes — those are the two most important details in my culture’s fashion,” LRÉ shared exclusively with Gaye.

“I think my history with creating sound experiences brings a strong narrative structure to my designs. Both my approach to fashion design and sound design involve challenging myself to elevate parts of the craft that I feel are usually overlooked in both design and storytelling.”

That same discipline extends to how LRÉ performs under pressure. We asked whether serving as a former Air Force veteran helped prepare them for the intensity of the competition.

“My time in the Air Force instilled the emotional regulation that’s essential for handling a high-pressure environment,” LRÉ tells us. “It taught me how to stay composed and execute under tight deadlines. That’s something that has stayed with me ever since—even when I worked as a gate agent for Delta Air Lines. Remaining calm under pressure now comes naturally, and it’s always given me an advantage.”

Naheim Muhammad

Rounding out the five is Naheim Muhammad, an L.A.-based designer, patternmaker, creative director and the youngest designer to enter the workroom this season. The creative mind behind YahSoul, a brand that lives by the ethos “Free Your Mind & YahSoul Will Follow,” Muhammad’s designs bring a fresh perspective to streetwear. His last collection, “SEEDS,” explored a utilitarian aesthetic with a grunge sensibility, blending points of Americana like the American flag as a symbol of liberation and the belief that style is our armor.

“I create garments that are a physical representation of liberation,” Muhammad told us exclusively when asked how they would describe themselves and their work to someone unfamiliar with YahSoul.

“Whether it’s freeing yourself from the stress of figuring out what to wear or providing the armor you put on until you reach a place of true confidence and freedom, YahSoul’s purpose is to support the wearer throughout that journey.”

For someone who describes himself as making the most of what he has, being cast on Project Runway Season 22 has been nothing short of surreal.

We asked Naheim what it means to be selected as a cast member for Project Runway Season 22.

“Man, it means everything,” Naheim said. “For me, it’s confirmation that I chose the right path—the path of choosing myself, my higher self, and my creativity.”

And the experience has taught him more than he expected. “Stand on your vision,” he says.

“It’s your vision for a reason and it is most potent when you act on it without doubt or hesitation. Don’t let others opinions sway that because they
don’t understand it.. they weren’t meant to. Not yet at least.

“Being humble is great — gratitude and humility are important,” Muhammad said. “But there are times where you must make your presence and voice heard. Respect is earned, and if you expect to earn it by being quiet, it doesn’t quite work that way. In essence, I learned to love myself louder.”

Whether it is JosephMcRae, Octavius Terry, Aaron Potts, LRÉ or Nahiem — we are “rooting for everybody Black” and excited to see what these five bring to Season 22. This is shaping up to be the most compelling cast Project Runway has ever assembled.

Season 22 premieres July 9 on Freeform with a two-episode drop, streaming shortly after on Hulu and Disney+, followed by weekly airings. Heidi Klum returns as host, joined on the judging panel by Law Roach and Nina Garcia, with Christian Siriano back as mentor. Project Runway debuted on Bravo in 2004, ran five seasons before moving to Lifetime for 11 more, and returned to Bravo for Season 17 before landing at Freeform, Hulu and Disney+ for Seasons 21 and 22.

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