Project Runway’s Estrada twins talk community, careers from NY studio

Armonk-based designers Antonio and Jesus Estrada, known across Westchester and the Lower Hudson Valley for their showstopping dress designs, are heating up the runway in Freeform’s newest season of Project Runway.

In the J & A Estrada headquarters on Main Street in Armonk, an explosion of color, feathers, fabric and Latin pop turns an inconspicuous blue barn into the epicenter of fashion’s next big thing.

Born in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico to a mother who was a model, Jesus and Antonio were surrounded by fashion at a young age.

The brothers grew up in San Diego, California for much of their lives, where they say they take inspiration for their designs.

After graduating from Fashion Careers College in 2010, Jesus was picked by his professors as a potential fit for the show’s seventh season. Within two weeks of auditions, he said he was already filming the season.

“Honestly, I was so young. I wasn’t really a confident queer boy at the time so I went into the show honestly not fully being myself and who I truly was an artist and a designer,” Jesus said. “That’s why I decided to come back. I think our story as designers has been such an amazing evolution of growth throughout the years.”

But while Jesus was the first one on the fashion radar when he competed in four weeks of Project Runway in 2010, it was Antonio who had dreamt of starring on the show since its first season in 2004.

“I’ve auditioned every season after my brother was on the show and I stopped auditioning when Heidi [Klum] left, because to meet Heidi is Project Runway,” Antonio said.

Heidi Klum stepped down from hosting the show in 2017 after 13 years of deciding who’s in and who’s out.

This season, she returned to the show along with longtime judge and ELLE Magazine’s editor-in-chief Nina Garcia and celebrity stylist Law Roach, who is best known for styling Zendaya.

“When I heard that she was coming back, I decided to audition and I got a callback the next morning,” Antonio said. “It happened so fast. When I did the whole process and I got the callback to be a finalist, they had asked me if my brother would be willing to come back.”

Establishing the Estrada brand in Westchester, and Bergdorf Goodman

When Antonio moved to New York to be closer to the fashion capital of the United States, Jesus followed shortly after.

The brothers got their start as in-house designers for a store in White Plains after Jesus finished filming Season 7. Then, in 2011, they opened their own store as 23-year-old designers on Brook Street.

For years, the brothers worked together to create garments for hundreds of clients. Jesus says their most popular clients are young teens about to receive their bar or bat mitzvahs.

“We found a niche because you know, as the New York Post said, we’re the kings of bar and bat mitzvahs,” Jesus said. “So that’s been our bread and butter throughout these years.”

In 2024, they opened up a showroom Main Street in Armonk and turned the barn into a high-end gown studio in Armonk, where they produce hundreds of glamorous dresses a year.

They both agreed that having their studio in the Lower Hudson Valley is “inspiring” for them, since they are able to bring a taste of Manhattan’s Fashion District to Westchester.

“For us, the city is chaotic, it drains your energy,” Antonio said. “For us to be able to come home, get a good night’s sleep and wake up to the birds and not the taxis honking all over, like the chaos of the New York minute, is beneficial to our work.”

After the word buzzed around the Westchester bar mitzvah scene, the Estradas slowly grew their clientele and their reputation.

“We have an amazing Jewish community here in Westchester that has followed our career and we are very grateful and thankful because we feel like through what we do with making the dresses for the moms, the grandmas, the daughters, even the queer boys now, they have helped us grow our brand,” Jesus said.

“They’re all 12 years old, going on 13, so they love TikTok and they help us keep up with the trends,” Antonio said. “It keeps our mind fresh. These kids are kind of like our teachers because they come in and say ‘well, this is what’s hot right now.'”

In 2023, they launched a limited collection of dresses featured at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan’s fashion district, according to their website.

But as filming started in 2024, Jesus and Antonio knew they had an opportunity to grow as individual designers and show their own personal style to the world.

Jesus was already somewhat known to the fashion world and Project Runway fans. He said his journey was about growth and redemption, along with Caycee Black, another returning contestant who was eliminated in the first episode.

But for Antonio, this experience was his introduction to the fashion world as a print-loving, bold and colorful designer.

Look book: Project Runway Season 21 premieres July 31. See looks from show’s iconic Y2K era

Are the Estrada brothers favorites to win the season?

From the premiere episode, it was clear that both of the brothers were in it to win it.

In the first challenge, Jesus and Antonio were split up and on opposite teams, but they both showed similar fiery determination and immediately jumped into leadership roles.

“I’ve played this game before and I think at this point, I know what it takes,” Jesus said in the premiere episode. “If someone has to take control, I think that person is going to be me.”

At first, the twins seemed to make a few enemies over their visions, assertions of leadership and even their teamwork together.

But as the episodes progress, the Estradas say they’ve left the show with lifelong friends.

‘Designer family’ watch parties with Project Runway cast

On Thursday evenings, the brothers host watch parties for their family and friends, but Jesus says that through the whirlwind of filming, they didn’t even realize major moments that would be in the show.

“We’ve been having viewing parties and we really don’t get to watch the episode and focus so we keep watching it and we’re like ‘Oh, we haven’t seen this part,'” Jesus said.

For Episode 4, the Estrada’s hosted friends, family and many of their fellow cast members at a watch party in an Upper West Side apartment.

All of the drama on screen seemed to have dissipated in a whirlwind of excitement as each cast member entered with big hugs, squeals and excitement to see themselves on the big screen at one such party Thursday, Aug. 14.

Joan Madison, a bridal shop owner and Queens native, flew in from Columbus, Ohio with her sister to see “her babies” again.

“I just feel so overjoyed. I missed them so much and it really feels good to see them again” Madison said. “We really missed each other so it’s good to have that energy and be back in that environment.”

As one of the older contestants on the show at 61 years old, Madison said she enjoyed getting to work with younger designers, who call her “Miss Joan.”

“I am one of the senior designers but you’re never too old to learn things. I feel that working with younger designers, they’re giving me life. I’m living my best life,” Madison said. “But I also feel like I’m an inspiration to them. It’s like a melding of both worlds, so we’re both learning from each other and I think that’s really beautiful.”

Angelo Rosa, 35, of Providence, Rhode Island, also attended with his daughter Ava, who he said was a big inspiration behind his menswear line.

“It’s an amazing feeling to see everyone again,” Rosa said. “At the beginning, it was overwhelming because everyone has a different personality. But as the episodes went through and the more time we spent, you really got to see who’s who and you learn to build a really close relationship, to the point where we call each other our ‘designer family.’

He didn’t have as far to travel since he is also now a Westchester resident with a studio in Harrison.

“It’s just a place for me to create and get my ideas out of my head,” he said. “I’ve had it for a bit so I’m just sitting there sewing and creating as much as possible. It’s a really good feeling. I’m creating as much as possible.”

Belania Daley, 35, of Long Island, gave Miss Joan a long embrace when they reunited. She said she was overjoyed to reunite with her “designer family.”

“It’s a blessing to be around other fashion designers that just get it,” Daley said at the party. “I really took away a whole fashion design community from this experience. Without community, we don’t have anything.”

The wrath of Law Roach

Jesus’s team won the first group challenge with their House of Villain designs. Antonio was placed in the bottom three for his butterfly-print tulle dress in the House of Princess.

However, both brothers faced the wrath of Law Roach, who is proving to be the toughest judge this season.

In the second episode, Jesus and Antonio were reunited after Ethan Mundt, also known as Ru Paul’s Drag Race superstar Utica, decided to boot Jesus off his team.

However, that decision came back to bite Mundt when Jesus and Antonio not only led their team to a major victory, but Jesus won the challenge and scored a featured collaboration with athleisure brand Calia.

Jesus says the design he created for Calia sold out within minutes of the episode dropping, proving that the fashion world is on the edge of their seats for this current season of the reality show.

In Episode 3, Jesus became the official team leader against Mundt and both teams faced off to design outfits out of “boring fabrics” for actress Sofia Vergara to wear at a red carpet event.

While they were equipped with only drab gray wool, the Estradas’ team won the challenge with flying colors compared to Mundt’s denim team. Jesus and Antonio found themselves in the top three, but it was their team member Belania who created Vergara’s winning design.

The extended friends and family of the Estradas all gathered around the cast members, including Veejay Floresca, Yuchen Han and Joseph McCrae to watch the drama live on the big screen.

Before the episode began, Antonio gathered his fellow cast members up in front of the screen and expressed his gratitude for the mini cast reunion.

“We haven’t seen each other in weeks and I really want to thank everyone that’s here today, friends and family. We just needed a reunion,” Estrada said. “We created community on this show and we all love each other. There’s drama on the show but we are here for each other.”

Episode 4 brings a bombshell to the cast

Angelo Rosa was eliminated after designing a denim dress and jacket for Ethan Mundt’s team, to the raucous “boos” of Thursday’s watch party audience.

Joan Madison and Mundt were also in the bottom three, but were able to move on to unconventional materials challenge, a staple in the Project Runway competition. This season, the contestants had to use middle school science fair materials introduced by Chris Perfetti and Lisa Ann Walter of Abbott Elementary.

The first solo challenge of the season so far, each member was pitted against each other, but many contestants pointed out that Jesus and Antonio were still giving each other feedback and advice for their designs.

“I don’t think it’s fair that the twins are always working together because it’s an individual challenge,” Floresca said in the episode. “I already know what you guys can do together. I’ve seen it three times already.”

Roach, the only judge of this episode’s challenge, chose Yuchen Han as the winner for his bodacious dress made out of soccer balls, inspired by Lady Gaga. Mundt received an honorable mention for his unconventional design made out of butterflies.

In the bottom three were Joan Madison, who made a corset dress out of popsicle sticks, Joseph McRae, who made an outfit out of a science fair banner, and Antonio Estrada, who made a dress out of plastic circles and a pink flag jacket.

However, the biggest twist of the episode came to the safe contestants, who now face the hardship of choosing which of their own competition to eliminate.

To find out who gets eliminated, be sure to tune into Project Runway every Thursday at 10 p.m. on Freeform and shortly after on Disney+ and Hulu.