Ethan Mundt, in his own words, is “a designer, a model and a drag queen.” Now, he is also one of the main characters of “Project Runway” season 21.
“I’m really gagged that the camera is eating me up,” Mundt told WWD over the phone.
Since the premiere of the current season on July 31, the designer from Utica, Minn., has been dominating the show’s screen time. Mundt won the first challenge, received high praises for his second look and fell right to the bottom on the third episode, which aired on Aug. 7, putting him at risk of elimination and adding to his intense arc on the competition.
Mundt sees his trajectory on “the fashion TV show of the world” as a blessing. “I’m so excited to be a part of this story, and really taking control of not only my narrative, but kind of steering the ship in a way. So yeah, it feels really cool to be a main character,” he said.
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In 2021, Mundt debuted on television with his drag queen persona, Utica, in season 13 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” He became known in the drag race world as a fashion queen, wearing otherworldly and dramatic garments created by himself, both on and off the competition stage. For “Project Runway,” Mundt brought Utica’s artistic influence with him.
“Utica has got me through some really difficult times in life, and she really is like the steam engine pulling the train behind her. I’m not gonna let her go that easily. She is my light that I’m following throughout this competition,” he said.
The designer sees drag art as a tool for “political storytelling of bending gender and of creating the fantasy of what the human body can be and what we could wear.”
“We take drag queens and we put them on this, this pedestal of wonder. We all want to be more like drag queens. We want to live that fantasy in our real lives. We want to be glamorous. We all want to be creatures, but we’re blended into this normy kind of fashion,” he said.
With the attention achieved through “Project Runway,” Mundt feels ready to take the next step in his designing career, but warns his fans that a debut collection will take time.
“I’m going to be a big name someday,” he said. “I want my work to be known, to be out in the world on people’s bodies, and to have a little bit of my storytelling taste on sites that people can buy and to accumulate this really strong sense of people wearing my story. I would love to continue to cultivate that.”
To find out what happens next with Mundt on “Project Runway,” viewers can tune in on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on Freeform and on Friday on Hulu and Disney+.
