'Project Runway' Q&A: Elisa

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: About the brown velvet dress you made last night: Do you feel like that was the dress that deserved for you to be cast off?
ELISA JIMENEZ: Deserve is such a tricky word. I was raised in critique format, so the whole runway and wanting to be a part of the dialogue was something I asked for. I don't consider them judges, but to have those other people — Heidi, Michael Kors, Zac Posen, etc. — critique me, I don't see them as above me. You take what you can use, and you discard what you can't. So as far as that particular dress, I still stand by that dress. I like that dress. Do I agree with what they said? Not necessarily, no. Do I see the points that they were trying to make? Yes. What they don't realize is all the suggestions that they've made, I've already done 10 years worth of work like that. So why would I do the same thing over again? I'm not interested in that. Any way you can play with fairy and light and happy and sugar and honey and chocolate and things that are sweet and consumable and sensual has been part of my work — that's one of the things I do — so to go back and do that over again, just for Project Runway, is not very interesting. I personally need to be challenged.

They made comments that it was boring and wasn't joyful. Do you think that was fair?
I just think of it as critique. I don't really accept it as mine. I don't think my dress was boring; I actually quite love it. If you really think about what the dress is, I basically made her a chocolate bar. I made her consumable without actually using chocolate. I made what I wanted.

You said you could definitely make it to the top three if you wanted. You just had to put your mind to it. If you had the chance, what would you do differently?
It's hard to look back on the past and say, ''Oh, I would have done this and I would have done this.'' If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets in the sea.'' It's a very true thing. I'm very happy with how I approached the show. One of the things I learned that was crucial for me to learn as a creator is that I will never be that person in the little white box. Ever. No matter how hard I try, I'm good at being the person outside the little white box.

Were you offended when Chris said you were from another planet?
He actually turned to me and asked if I was offended. I said, ''You know, Chris, if you had been the only person who'd ever said, maybe. But I had people who loved me for years, and that's what they love about me.''

Of the designers left on the show, whose style do you admire?
I love Chris' designs because how can you not? He's extremely young, but if he stays true to who he is, no matter what happens, he will have an incredible career. Jillian — love her. Love her whole thing. She's not in the Land of Elisa, but I told her I'd love to wear one of her dresses and see what she'd do with me. I would love whatever that is. Kit, of course. We joke about the fact that we'd probably have been friends if we ran into each other in L.A. And Victorya, I admire her. She has this whole way of mapping out everything before she makes a garment, and I was a sucker for that.

What are you up to now?
I just put on three shows in the past month and a half — full-on fashion shows. I'm working on marionettes, and I have a show coming up, and I'm doing New York Fashion Week. Elisaj.com is my website that my genius friend put up for me. He said you can't be on Project Runway and not have a website. He was like, ''It's just wrong.'' I haven't seen it, so everyone tells me that it looks really good.

You haven't seen your own website?
You know, I'm attached to certain things, like making things, but I'm not really attached to other things, like the Internet.

Want more? See our TV Watch recap of Elisa's last night on Project Runway