Jeffrey Sebelia | |
|---|---|
 Sebelia in August 2007 | |
| Education | Los Angeles Trade-Technical College |
| Occupation(s) | fashion designer, musician |
| Television | Project Runway Season 3 (Winner) |
Jeffrey Sebelia is an American fashion designer, musician and founder of the clothing label Cosa Nostra, which he headed from a loft on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. He is best known as the winner of the third season of American reality show Project Runway .
In the early 1990s Sebelia was a member of the band Lifter, which was signed by Interscope Records. They had a minor radio hit with the song "402," but they disbanded. Lifter's song "Swing" was featured in Jeffrey's runway show at Olympus Fashion Week.
After a successful drug rehabilitation at the age of 31, Sebelia enrolled in sewing classes at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College. It was there that he immediately fell in love with design, and shortly after he started the clothing line Cosa Nostra. Among the label's celebrity clients were Dave Navarro, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, Elton John, Madonna, and Tommy Lee. The Cosa Nostra label was available in about twenty stores worldwide.
In the spring of 2006, Sebelia auditioned for the Bravo series Project Runway after seeing the success his friend, former contestant Santino Rice, had enjoyed. Jeffrey was selected to compete, was one of the final four contestants to display their collections at Fashion Week, and was chosen the winner. He had been portrayed as the third season's "villain," notorious for his explicit language and making fellow contestant Angela Keslar's mother cry when he worked with her as a client for a challenge.
Sebelia's final winning collection was filled with bright colors, flowing dresses, and smart separates, his collection was strikingly different from the trademark grunge, punk, and rock 'n' roll-style outfits he had created throughout the season. His winnings included $100,000 to develop his own clothing line, a 2007 Saturn Sky Roadster, a year's representation by Designer's Management Agency, and a 15-page spread - featuring Marilinda Rivera, the model with whom he was paired during most of the Project Runway challenges - in ELLE magazine.
Sebelia put his 100,000 prize into his brand Cosa Nostra. In 2007, he was hired to design a live-action film featuring the Bratz cartoon characters. He lost the gig after calling the characters "slutty" in an interview. In 2009, Cosa Nostra failed. Sebelia then put out an eponymous collection, but that too appears to have ended.
In 2010 Sebelia was named head designer of a brand called Fluxus. He left that job to launch edgy kids line La Miniatura with friend, Melissa Bochco. [1]
In 2013, Sebelia became a contestant on Project Runway: All Stars (season 3) , where he ranked 7th out of 11 contestants. [2]
Sebelia's father was violent, and divorced his mother when Jeffrey was 8. Later, Jeffrey, who felt responsible for the divorce, began using cocaine and marijuana. By the time he was 16, he was a heroin addict living in a friend's garage. The following 15 years were filled with numerous, yet failed, attempts to get sober at a number of West Coast drug treatment centers. He has never been far from the spotlight and has been friends with Dave Navarro since they were teens. [3] Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who was also an avid client, loved the Cosa Nostra line and knew Sebelia for years. [4]
Before the show, Sebelia had lived with his girlfriend, Melanie Vesey, and their young son, Harrison. However, after completing Project Runway Sebelia separated from his girlfriend. [5] It was Harrison, Sebelia's son, who inspired his trademark neck tattoo which took more than eight hours to complete. The tattoo reads "Harrison Detroit l’amor de la mia vita." It is his son's name, along with the phrase "the love of my life," in Italian. But the tattoo contains a mistake; the correct diction is "l'amore della mia vita". [6]
Los Angeles Trade–Technical College is a public community college in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Los Angeles Community College District and is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), American Culinary Federation, and League of Nursing, among others.
Project Runway is an American reality television series that premiered on Bravo on December 1, 2004. The series focuses on fashion design. It was created by Eli Holzman and was hosted by Heidi Klum from 2004 to 2017. It has a varied airing history, with Bravo originating the first five seasons, followed by Lifetime for eleven more. The show has had over 30 international adaptations.
Ryan Shuck is an American musician and co-founder of industrial rock band Orgy and electronic rock band Julien-K. He was the guitarist and backing vocalist of Dead by Sunrise, the alternative rock side project of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington. He was also the lead singer of the rock band Adema from 2019 to 2024. Initially in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Shuck played in the Bakersfield-based rock band Sexart alongside future Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis and future Adema bassist Dave DeRoo.
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Ulrike "Uli" Herzner is a fashion designer originally from East Germany, currently living in Miami Beach, Florida. She was a contestant on the third season of the Bravo network reality television series Project Runway, where she finished runner-up to Jeffrey Sebelia. She starred in her own show, It's Very Uli on Plum TV, and finished as second runner-up on season 2 of Project Runway All-Stars.
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Project Runway Season 6, premiered on Lifetime on August 20, 2009, the first season to be aired on that network. The production of this season started in September 2008 and finished the pre-finale filming on October 17, 2008. It is the only season of Project Runway filmed at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles.
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Project Runway Season 10 is the tenth season of the television show Project Runway, appearing on Lifetime. The season began airing on July 19, 2012 with 16 designers competing to become "the next great American designer."
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Candice Cuoco is an American fashion designer who finished as a finalist on Season 14 of Project Runway and has been on the sixth season of Project Runway All Stars, where she finished in 12th Place.
Jeffrey Sebelia, last season's winner, split with his girlfriend, with whom he had a 2-year-old son.
