Contestants Curtis Matysek, Leeland Mitchell and Charles Lu in Project Runway Canada’s season finale.Images courtesy of Crave/Bell Media/Supplied
Well, we’ve finally made it to the finish line of Project Runway Canada’s reboot season. The 10th and final episode opens on a downtown Toronto rooftop, where the last three designers – Charles Lu, Curtis Matysek and Leeland Mitchell – toast one another with bubbly. No matter how it ends, they’re genuinely happy to have made it this far together as friends.
If this were the American version of the series, there’d likely be a “but” lurking somewhere in that sentiment, but not here. Would they even be Canadian if they didn’t keep their naked ambition at least a little bit hidden?
The next morning, we’re thrust straight into the fervour of show day: The runway is being prepped, the room is buzzing with VIP attendees and the designers are racing through model fittings so quickly you can see the sweat beading on their brows. (“Can someone get me a tissue?!” Lu exclaims.)
The catwalk snakes through The Room at Hudson’s Bay, once a gleaming destination for designer gems and now reduced to a blank canvas for the series finale. The contrast is, frankly, brutal, and as I mentioned last week, it conjures a metaphor for Canadian fashion that is uncomfortable at best.
The show opens with Lu, who is emotional as he explains that his final pieces aren’t merely a collection of clothing, but a love letter to his family and his Vietnamese heritage. What follows are masterfully corseted hoodies and that show-stopping silk orchid dress he introduced last week (now lined with neoprene to keep things sporty). Lu’s M.O. of merging streetwear and eveningwear is a perfect proposition for life in 2026, and, as the judges later agree, his strongest work of the season. Watching from the front row, his mom is a puddle of tears. As am I, from the comfort of my couch.
Matysek is next, presenting a collection titled “I Wither, Then Bite,” a meditation on breaking free from fear. This kitten has claws, and so do the details: masterful beading, studs, laced football pads worn low at the hip, and the aged metal we saw last week, now stitched together into a skirt of armour. The finale look – a sequined, hip-hugging mermaid skirt paired with a matching corset – simply must end up in the hands of Lady Gaga’s stylist.
Mitchell’s finale runway look.Images courtesy of Crave/Bell Media/Supplied
Last is Mitchell, who opens with a cheongsam-style dress that’s sequined to the hilt, embroidered with peacock feathers and layered beneath an oversized, fur-trimmed plaid coat. The opener sets the tone for a fun, fabulous collection – and a very literal yet effective merging of the designer’s Chinese and Scottish heritage.
The show ends on a look that brings judge Jeanne Beker to tears: a leather biker gown, ballooned with volume and cinched with accenting belts. Beker compares it to the greats of couture she’s borne witness to over the years, and with that, the competition’s fate is sealed.
Toronto’s Leeland Mitchell is a winner, baby.
After a season of telling him he was too much, it seems the judges were ultimately won over by the sheer joy Mitchell brought to the runway – and, in turn, to each of them.
Whether he’ll break onto the international stage – or if that’s even his goal – remains to be seen. What is clear is that, beyond the continuing quest to define Canada’s place in the global fashion conversation, what we’re really looking for is something simpler: a designer who can make us smile.
Mitchell reacts to winning Project Runway Canada.Images courtesy of Crave/Bell Media/Supplied