Project Runway Season 22’s “Designing with the Stars” episode eliminated two designers at once — Bryan Barrientos and Jeffrey Kelly Abess — then ended on a genuine cliffhanger, with Christian Siriano announcing he’d save one of them without revealing which. The resolution won’t air until the next episode, September 3 on Freeform. But the more interesting story isn’t the double elimination itself; it’s the real controversy that preceded it.
What Actually Happened in the Double Elimination
Episode 8, “Designing with the Stars,” brought in professional dancers from Dancing With the Stars as runway models, with designers creating looks based on different dance styles and Julianne Hough joining as a guest mentor. Because no one had been eliminated the previous week, host Heidi Klum announced going into the episode that this would be a double elimination. Both Bryan Barrientos and Jeffrey Kelly Abess landed in the bottom, and rather than simply sending both home, Christian Siriano used a save — announcing he’d bring one of them back, without telling viewers or the designers which one, ending the episode on a real cliffhanger rather than a settled result.
The Real Story: A Model Says She Was Injured
Bryan’s bottom-two placement came the episode after a genuinely serious incident involving veteran Project Runway model Liris Crosse. Crosse, 47, said Bryan’s unconventional-materials design left her carrying more than 50 pounds hanging around her neck as she walked the runway, and described her “spirit was broken” being sent down the runway in what she called a dirty garbage bag. That’s not a minor styling complaint — Crosse described both emotional distress and lasting physical pain from wearing the garment, a real workplace-safety and design-judgment issue for a competition built around wearable fashion, not just visual concept.
Why the Cliffhanger Matters More Than a Normal Elimination
Project Runway using an actual save — where a mentor or judge can override an elimination — is a real departure from the show’s usual structure, and holding the reveal for a full week is a deliberate choice to generate exactly this kind of “who got saved” search interest. Given that Bryan’s bottom-two placement is tied to real, specific harm described by a working model rather than a purely aesthetic judgment call, the outcome of Siriano’s save carries more weight than a typical week-to-week elimination — the show is effectively deciding whether a designer whose garment reportedly injured someone gets a second chance.
Who Is Bryan Barrientos
Barrientos is a Peruvian American designer from Paterson, New Jersey, FIT-educated, running his own couture label, Atelier Barrientos, built around special-occasion wear that blends personal memory, cultural ritual and sculptural craftsmanship — drawing on residencies in Urubamba, Peru, and in Oaxaca and Puebla, Mexico. Before Project Runway, he worked retail jobs at Abercrombie & Fitch and Banana Republic while building his label, which has since shown at New York Fashion Week and the Met Gala and been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and WWD. That real fashion-industry track record is part of why the Liris Crosse incident matters as more than a single bad week — it’s a specific, physically documented failure from a designer whose actual professional reputation is built on sculptural, structurally ambitious garments, the same design instinct that reportedly produced a 50-pound wearable piece.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Bryan Barrientos eliminated from Project Runway Season 22?
He landed in the bottom two alongside Jeffrey Kelly Abess in a double elimination, but Christian Siriano announced he would save one of them — the outcome wasn’t revealed in this episode.
When does the resolution air?
September 3, 2026, on Freeform, streaming on Hulu and Disney+ the following day.
What happened with the Liris Crosse incident?
Model Liris Crosse said Bryan’s unconventional-materials garment left her carrying over 50 pounds around her neck, describing both emotional distress and physical pain from the design.
What was the episode’s challenge?
“Designing with the Stars” — designers created dance-inspired looks worn on the runway by Dancing With the Stars professional dancers, with Julianne Hough as guest mentor.
The Bottom Line
The headline “Bryan eliminated” oversimplifies what actually happened — a double elimination with a genuine, unresolved cliffhanger, sitting directly downstream of a real controversy involving a model’s reported injury. The more accurate story right now is that nobody knows for certain whether Bryan is actually out until September 3.
