DAVENPORT, Fla. \u2014 An Orlando-area self-taught fashion designer is representing Central Florida on one of television\u2019s most-recognized fashion competitions.<\/p>\n
“Project Runway” is touted as high-stakes, high-drama and \u201cutterly fabulous.\u201d Think of it as the ultimate fashion boot camp. Every week, a group of hungry designers is thrown into a creative pressure cooker. They\u2019re handed a challenge and sometimes are forced to muster up materials from a grocery store or a hardware aisle.
\nJeffrey Kelly Abess<\/a>, who lives in Davenport (the Four Corners area), is one of 22 contestants facing judges like Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum.
\n\u201cI really never thought that I would get to this level because as you\u2019re learning as a designer, you\u2019re messing up more than you\u2019re succeeding,\u201d Abess says.
\nHe has racked up a clientele list of celebrities, including wrestling superstar Mercedes Monet. \u201cI know where to put buckles and where not to because if she gets hit in a certain area, I don\u2019t want it to hurt her. These are things I\u2019ve learned over time. She is flipping, twirling, and doing everything she does in the ring.\u201d
\nThe 10-episode “Project Runway” Season 22 follows a weekly rollout plan, on Fridays. The finale airs Sept. 10, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAVENPORT, Fla. \u2014 An Orlando-area self-taught fashion designer is representing Central Florida on one of television\u2019s most-recognized fashion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4093,1595,8273,8274,274,104,115,4094,7149,139,141,140,278,835],"class_list":["post-369063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-allison-walker","tag-app-arts-entertainment","tag-app-latest-arts-entertainment-stories","tag-app-latest-entertainment-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-entertainment","tag-news","tag-on-the-town","tag-on-the-town-app","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}