Jay McCarroll Sounds Off on Hard Times Post-Project Runway

Project Runway's Jay McCarroll is bitter towards Bravo. Two years after the show wrapped, the designer is still without a fashion line or financial prospects. "What I needed was someone to sit down with me and say, 'Here's how you start a fashion label,'" the Season 1 winner said in the Aug. 13 issue of New York Magazine. After winning the top title, McCarroll discovered that if he accepted the show's $100,000, 10 percent of his brand would be forever owned by the Weinstein Company. So he turned down the prize but has yet to find his footing in the fashion world. That's not to say that all the contestants on the Bravo reality show are in the same boat. Season 2's Austin Scarlett is the creative director of a bridal line, while winner Jeffrey Sebelia sells his clothes in major L.A. stores. Meanwhile, McCarroll is struggling. In response to the New York story, he recently posted a video on YouTube depicting himself as a homeless man with a "Will Design for Food" sign. "I took the f--king bus to New York the day after I won the show, thinking someone was going to come up to me on the street and say, 'You're awesome, here's money,'" he said. "I thought that for two years. But I've given up on that." - Reporting by Marissa Klein