Sandhya Garg — From the Archive
Showing at New York Fashion Week — and What a Decoy Collection Is
Project Runway Season 13 · Mercedes-Benz NYFW · The Secrecy · What I Made
Quick Answer
Here is something most viewers never learn about Project Runway: designers who have already been eliminated still build and show a full collection at New York Fashion Week. They are called decoy collections, and they exist so that nobody in the audience — or watching the broadcast months later — can work out who actually made the finale. You produce an entire runway collection, present it at NYFW, and then say nothing about the outcome until the episode airs. This is what that was like, and what I made.
I competed on Project Runway Season 13, won two challenges, and showed a collection at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. That last sentence is the one people ask about most, and it is also the one with the most interesting mechanics behind it.
If you want the full account of the show itself — casting, the workroom, what the timings are really like, what I would tell anyone applying — that is in my complete insider guide to Project Runway. This page is about one thing: the collection, and the peculiar exercise of showing it.
What a Decoy Collection Actually Is
A reality competition has a scheduling problem. The finale is filmed at New York Fashion Week, but it airs months later — and Fashion Week is a public event with an audience, press and photographers in the room. If only the three finalists showed collections, the result would be common knowledge before a single episode of the finale had broadcast.
The solution is the decoy collection. More designers than have actually made the finale are asked to produce and present a full collection. Everyone shows. Nobody in the audience can tell who is a finalist and who is not, and the result stays sealed until broadcast. You do the same work, to the same deadline, in front of the same audience, without knowing what the footage will eventually be used for.
The work is identical
A full runway collection, sourced, drafted, fitted and finished to a fixed date. There is no lighter version for a decoy. You are building a real collection because it has to survive a real runway and a room full of photographers.
The secrecy is total
You cannot discuss the outcome with anyone until it airs. Months of it. Friends and family watch the finale not knowing any more than the audience does — which is a strange thing to carry around.
The show is completely real
This is the part people miss. Whatever the format needed, the collection went down a Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week runway in front of press and buyers. That happened, and it is on my CV because it is true.
I still remember the feeling of showing my work to the world, and the pride I took in representing India — and every woman in my family who made it possible.
Who the Collection Was Actually For
I was the Indian designer in that season, and I was very aware of it. Not as a burden — as a reason to be specific rather than generic. There is a version of that collection I could have made that would have read as safely international and offended nobody, and it would have been forgettable.
What I made instead came out of my mother and my aunts — the women who taught me what textile was for, who encouraged me to follow this, and who are the reason I ever ended up in a workroom at all. Colour, print and ornament that came from somewhere real. That instinct is still exactly how this label works, which you can see in where the prints come from and in how they are made.
The Collection Was Written, Not Just Drawn
Looking back at the photographs, the through-line is obvious in a way it may not have been at the time: the prints in this collection are made of words. Not a slogan slapped across a chest, but text used as textile — typography repeated at scale until it stops reading as language and starts behaving like a woven pattern, then breaking back into legibility when you get close.
And on the white look in the lineup above, the text reads SIZES HAVE NO COLOR. I did not plan for that to become a mission statement, but it is a reasonable description of how this label has worked ever since — everything graded XS–3XL, in colour rather than in the apologetic neutrals extended sizing is so often given.
[SANDHYA: I have described what is visible in the photographs rather than what you intended — if the typographic idea had a specific origin, or if the collection had a name and a stated concept, two or three sentences here in your own words would make this section significantly stronger. Delete this box afterwards.]
The Collection Now · Artisanal · XS to 3XL
What That Collection Became
The runway pieces are archive, but the thinking behind them is the label. All verified in stock today.
Hand-Drawn Print & Ornament — The Runway Instinct
Colour Blocking & Art Deco — The Graphic Side
From the Archive — Nearly Gone
Current styles XS · S · M · L · XL · XXL · XXXL · Archive pieces in limited sizes as noted · Made to measure
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a decoy collection on Project Runway?
A full runway collection produced and shown at New York Fashion Week by a designer who is not necessarily a finalist. Because the finale is filmed months before it airs and Fashion Week is a public event, more designers show than have actually made the final — so nobody in the audience or the press can identify the finalists in advance.
Is the work any different for a decoy collection?
No. It is a complete collection built to the same deadline, and it is shown on the same runway to the same audience of press and buyers. There is no lighter version — the garments have to survive real runway lighting and real photography either way.
Did Sandhya Garg show at New York Fashion Week?
Yes — a full collection at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week as part of Project Runway Season 13, in which she also won two of the show's challenges.
Can you still buy pieces from the runway collection?
The original runway looks were one-off samples and are not for sale. What continues is the approach — original hand-drawn prints, hand embroidery and heritage textile references — which runs through the current collection. A handful of early pieces remain in single units, marked above.
Where can I read more about the Project Runway experience?
The full account — casting, the workroom, the timings, what the judging is actually like and advice for anyone applying — is in the complete insider guide to Project Runway.
Keep Reading
The Full Story
Project Runway, From the Inside
Casting, the workroom, and what it's really like.
Inside the Studio
How Our Prints Are Made
Drawing to cloth, by hand.
The Sources
Where the Designs Come From
A char bagh, a jharokha, a zellij wall.
The Designer
About Sandhya Garg
London College of Fashion to Los Angeles.
About the Writer
Sandhya Garg is a Project Runway Season 13 designer who won two challenges on the show and presented her collection at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. She studied womenswear at London College of Fashion and worked at Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Liberty London, and Alice Temperley. Her Los Angeles label creates limited-edition artisanal dresses, resort wear and occasion pieces — featured in Marie Claire, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Vogue online and the Workshop at Macy's, in sizes XS–3XL with custom sizing available.
Project Runway · Mercedes-Benz NYFW · Vogue · Marie Claire
The runway ended. The instinct didn't.
Sandhya Garg is a Los Angeles boutique creating limited-edition artisanal dresses in original hand-drawn prints, hand embroidery and heritage textiles. Sizes XS–3XL, shipped from Scottsdale within 1–3 days.
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