Project Runway Finally Reveals Who Designed Heidi Klum’s Devil Wears Prada 2 Premiere Dress

Project Runway Season 22 Episode 6, “The Devil’s in the Details,” turns one of the season’s challenges into a red-carpet reveal that had actually been hidden in public for months. The remaining designers are asked to create a gown for Heidi Klum to wear to the world premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2, an event that had already taken place at New York’s Lincoln Center on April 20, 2026. Viewers who saw Heidi’s seafoam-green dress at the premiere therefore already knew what the winning garment looked like, but not who created it. Episode 6 finally confirms that Bryan Barrientos designed the look, beating fellow top designers Bi Pham and Jeffrey Kelly Abess for the win.

The reveal is more interesting than simply attaching a name to an old red-carpet photograph. Bryan’s winning dress changed considerably during the challenge, and the version Heidi eventually wore was further adapted to fit her body and the demands of an actual movie premiere. That transformation helps explain both why Heidi chose it and why the final red-carpet version does not look exactly like the garment viewers first see on the runway.

Spoiler Alert

Bryan Barrientos Designed Heidi Klum’s Premiere Gown

Bryan Barrientos is officially the designer behind Heidi’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 world-premiere look. Episode 6 places Bryan, Bi Pham and Jeffrey Kelly Abess in the top three after the judges evaluate all eight remaining designers, with Heidi ultimately selecting Bryan as the winner. The victory also earns him immunity and an unusually powerful additional advantage that allows him to nominate three competitors for elimination. Bryan chooses Bobby Diakonenkova, Naheim Muhammad and Jude Mikulencak, although Naheim is already protected by immunity from the previous challenge.

Bryan entered Season 22 with substantial fashion experience rather than as a complete newcomer. Freeform’s official cast announcement identifies him as a Peruvian-American designer whose work has previously appeared at New York Fashion Week and the Met Gala. That background makes a celebrity-premiere challenge particularly suited to him, because the assignment is not simply about creating an interesting runway piece. It has to survive the much less forgiving transition from a model walking for a few seconds to Heidi wearing it in front of international fashion photographers.

The Challenge Was Built Around a Real Red Carpet

Episode 6 gives the designers a very specific client and occasion rather than a broad theme. Each contestant receives a $700 material budget and is asked to create something Heidi can actually wear to The Devil Wears Prada 2’s world premiere, while the movie’s costume designer Molly Rogers joins Christian Siriano during the design process. That connection makes the challenge especially appropriate for Project Runway, since The Devil Wears Prada franchise is itself built around the collision of fashion, image and professional judgment.

The premiere had already taken place nearly four months before Episode 6 aired. Disney confirms that the event was held at Lincoln Center in New York on April 20, with Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci and other guests walking the carpet. Heidi was photographed there in the striking green gown, but Project Runway deliberately kept the contestant’s identity secret so the television challenge would still have a reveal. Fashion coverage at the time described the garment as a seafoam or teal floor-length dress with dramatic open sides and flowing textured fabric.

Christian Siriano Pushes Bryan Toward a Completely Different Dress

Bryan does not begin the challenge with the gown that eventually wins. His first idea is a darker, shorter dress decorated with pieces of green and blue material, but Christian questions whether it feels appropriate for Heidi and the scale of the red carpet. Bryan then abandons much of that concept and begins working with the delicate seafoam fabric that ultimately defines the finished garment. Vulture’s Episode 6 recap identifies Christian’s intervention as a major reason Bryan changes direction during the workroom phase.

The pivot is important because it illustrates one of Project Runway’s recurring tensions: designers are judged on their vision, but knowing when to abandon a weak idea is also part of the competition. Bryan’s eventual gown relies less on heavy construction and more on movement, exposure and the visual effect of the fabric itself. That produces criticism from the other designers, including Bi, who points out how little traditional sewing appears to be involved. Yet for Heidi, the result apparently captures something more valuable for this particular assignment: it looks like a Heidi Klum red-carpet dress.

Why Did Heidi Pick Bryan Over Jeffrey and Bi?

Bryan’s victory is not presented as an obvious unanimous decision. Jeffrey earns praise for a strongly constructed hot-pink look, while Bi creates a shimmering, body-conscious gown that also lands her in the top three. Bryan’s dress is lighter and less technically elaborate, and Law Roach specifically questions whether its extremely open construction will work on Heidi’s proportions because the runway version provides little bust support. Heidi nevertheless chooses Bryan, making personal fit with the client as important as complexity of construction.

That distinction matters in a celebrity challenge. Jeffrey or Bi may have produced garments some viewers prefer in isolation, but the assignment is not simply to make the night’s most impressive dress. The designers are creating for Heidi, whose red-carpet style regularly favors dramatic silhouettes, skin-baring cuts and high-impact movement. Bryan’s seafoam fabric and exposed sides speak directly to that established aesthetic, which likely helps the garment stand out to the person who will actually have to wear it. The episode does not establish that Bryan wins because his construction is superior, and the judges’ discussion makes clear that construction is one of the areas where the look remains debatable.

Why Does Heidi’s Final Dress Look Different From the Runway Version?

The red-carpet version is noticeably more structured because Bryan’s runway garment had to be adjusted for Heidi’s body. Law had already identified the potential problem during judging, asking how the extremely open design could provide the support Heidi would need. Vulture later noted that the modifications added more support and changed some of the free-flowing quality visible on the runway. The basic concept remains Bryan’s, but the final garment is therefore better understood as an adapted version of the challenge winner rather than an untouched runway sample.

Photographs from the April premiere show Heidi wearing the finished design as a long teal-green gown with a high neckline, large open sides and layers of fabric gathered into a dramatic trailing effect. InStyle described the surface as resembling rippling water, an effect that becomes particularly visible under red-carpet lighting. Whether viewers prefer the original runway version or the adjusted premiere fit is subjective, but Episode 6 finally provides the missing piece that April’s fashion coverage could not reveal. The mysterious Project Runway designer credited behind Heidi Klum’s Devil Wears Prada 2 moment was Bryan Barrientos.