Montrealer Maya Ginzburg shares her ‘Project Runway Canada’ experience
Posted January 12, 2026 10:52 pm.
Last Updated January 12, 2026 11:23 pm.
As the first season of Project Runway Canada comes to an end, CityNews sat down with Montrealer Maya Ginzburg, who competed with 11 other designers, proudly representing the future of Canadian fashion.
“A fashion career can mean so many different things, and throughout my career, I have been working in corporate fashion as well as more bespoke things and costumes. So all of those things don’t necessarily give me the freedom to work on my own brand. So in terms of my brand, it’s only about a year and a bit in, and it came at just the perfect moment to make me feel like I should just go for it,” said Ginzburg.
Ginzburg had the chance to showcase her skills to some of the most influential names in fashion, such as Coco Rocha, Jason Wu, Patrick Ta, Lauren Chan, Mei Pang and the mentor from the latest season of the American version of this franchise, Christian Siriano.
“There’s definitely a couple that kind of hold the top spot, one being Jeanne Beker, of course. Not only is she an incredible, talented and super insightful person to get to hear her opinion on my work, but also now I have one degree of separation from Vivian Westwood and all of these iconic designers that I’ve looked up to for years.”
Each aspiring designer competed for a career-launching prize of $100,000. But for Maya, the competition ended a little too soon.
“I’m so grateful to have gotten to work in parallel with all these other designers that I probably wouldn’t have crossed paths with. [The production] did a really good job of picking very different and talented people. So the whole time it felt like we’re all in different lanes and getting to learn from each other, and that’s something I’m really grateful for,” said Ginzburg.
CityNews asked Ginzburg, why is Project Runway Canada so much better than the new PR season, and if she agreed with a Reddit thread making the claim.
“I mean, it feels great. It’s always nice to hear people like something that you were a part of. I think the designs in the American season were also really interesting, but I think what people are pointing at there is that the Canadian season was so much more focused on the designs and the work, and how we’re working together —rather than the American season was more focusing on the drama between the contestants,” she explained.
