Joshua leading the competition on Making The Cut Season 2

Making The Cut spoilers ahead! On the latest episodes of MTC, which dropped today on Amazon Prime, the competing designers were paired up to collaborate on the perfect wedding look. The winners were  Joshua Scacheri  and Lucie Brochard (catch our chat with her on Monday) who had judges Heidi Klum, Winnie Harlow, and Jeremy Scott swooning over their design. It was the second win for Scacheri—no biggie!—and we caught up with him again on Zoom this week to hear how he’s staying cool under pressure and why the response to his appearance on the show is making him emotional. 

Congratulations again! Two wins. How did that feel?
Amazing. Really amazing. A double whammy? I don’t know if that’s what they say. But it’s great! You still need to be grounded, but we can celebrate a little bit. I’m looking forward to the next challenge.

Heidi was a little critical of your runway look. How do you handle that kind of criticism when you’re in the moment?
It’s a critique, isn’t it? It’s a fashion competition. People are going to judge what you do. Some people like your stuff, some might pick up on little details that could be improved. In the real world, you would make things better because you’ve got your facilities or your team to work with you. Sometimes people will like it, or they don’t like it. I think Heidi did like it; she just wanted to make a few comments and shine the light more on Lucie, which is fair enough. She’s an amazing designer, I love working with her. It’s all cool. We won at the end of the day. It showed the people that we connected our creativity, and we respected each other’s crafts. I think that was the important takeaway from that assignment.

I know you work with a team now with your own brand. Are you comfortable collaborating with others?
I’m pretty comfortable with it. I love collaborating with people. Our recent campaign shoot with LOVE HERO was with a creative team, and all the film directors were people that I’ve worked with in the past who are now friends. They all come together and we collaborate on the ideas. For me collaboration is really key for bringing in different types of energy into a collection or to something you’re doing.

Where were you when the other designers looks were coming down the runway? Are you critical of your competitors?
We’re all backstage and there’s a TV screen. We don’t actually get to see the physical runway but then when we go up to speak to Tim, there’s a screen. Sometimes we could see the TV screen a little bit so sometimes we were trying to do a little cheeky look. I don’t think you’re not critiquing designers. You just go, ‘Okay. Is this good enough?’ Or are you better than them? There’s a motion going through your mind because you just want to make sure that you’re safe or if you’ve got a good chance of winning. There’s no negativity. We all have different aesthetics

The show hadn’t aired when we chatted last week. What kind of feedback have you gotten? 
It’s been amazing. It’s just been so overwhelming with all the DMs and people following us. There’s messages [from] all around the world. People say, ‘You’ve inspired me, thank you so much.’ People of different genders who have bought the kimono from the outfit, it’s just amazing how versatile that look was! It’s been beautiful—I don’t know how to explain it. I’ve had attention before in my life and with my previous brand, but nothing like this on this level. To get messages from Brazil, Argentina and Australia…where I come from; it was quite emotional really.

How so?
I think as a designer you’re always protecting yourself. It’s a hard gig to do a brand. I’ve done it before, but it was a struggle. I knew that I needed to go work and get more experience. So moving to London, that’s where I got the experience. But I also saw the big luxury brands that work for this, it’s a struggle for them too. So when you get that sort of gratification from someone buying your clothes…not just buying them, but saying, ‘You helped me transform and gave me confidence.’ That’s what I take away, more than the monetized value of the transaction. That’s why I do it. Just to put smiles on people’s faces. When they wear my clothes and it makes them feel good, it’s an extension of their personality. If I can help them reinforce a personality, or make them come out of their shell, or make them feel complete in some way, that’s the beauty of a designer.  That’s why I do it.

Read the full Article on Fashion Week Daily by  Eddie Roche