Project Runway - Ven Budhu Labeled "Adult Bully" by "Real-Size" Model

By Tina Bradley ·

Project Runway's most controversial season ten designer, Ven Budhu, has been called out for "adult bullying" by his "real-size" model/client Terri Herlihy.  In the episode "Fix My Friend," which aired last Thursday, Budhu sparked controversy over his rude treatment of Herlihy, frequently criticizing her body size and age.

On the episode "Fix my Friend," the designers were asked to makeover the friend of clients who were "regular people," rather than designing for runway models.

Most of the designers took the challenge in stride and worked well with their clients, but Ven (who's 36 year old client was a size ten) drew the ire of his clients, fellow designers and the viewing audience by making frequent disparaging remarks about his client's weight, clothing size, lack of style and age. He went so far as to point out several times that he didn't have a belt that would fit his client and remarked to her how "shocked" he was that she actually looked good after getting her hair and makeup done.

Ven then made a bad situation worse by tweeting remarks that further insulted Herlihy and suggested that Ven did nothing wrong and was in fact set up by the show, who wanted him to fail because he did so well the first few weeks (what?) and then edited the footage to make him look like a bad guy.  Ven later deleted the tweets and changed his tune, issuing a "full apology" to his client.

Alleged deleted tweets from Topsy.com:

Ven Tweets 1 Ven Tweets 2

Ven's Apology:

What a jerk!  I mean it's good that he apologized, though you have to wonder how sincere it was, but I can't believe he had the gall to actually go on Twitter and insult this poor girl some more after what he already did on the show.

Herlihy told The Clicker, that not only was Ven's bad guy image not a result of editing, but he actually treated her even worse than what the show made it look, though she added that she felt the editing was designed to spare her feelings, saying ""I think (the producers) did a great job of editing it because it was so much worse than what was shown."  "They edited it to my advantage because I would've kept looking stupider on TV."

Herlihy went on to say that she was bullied by Ven throughout the show and he even tried to bully her into walking down the runway with no shoes and no accessories, because he couldn't find any that would fit her.  It ended up being Herlihy's friend who ultimately located shoes and accessories for Herlihy to wear during the runway show.

I wish they had actually shown this on t.v.  The way they presented it, Ven looked like a total d-bag, who was inexcusably mean to his client and made her feel so bad that she cried, but this kind of behavior suggests that he wasn't just satisfied to make her feel bad, but wanted to punish and humiliate her on national t.v. for the crime of not being 20 and thin.

As if that weren't bad enough, Herlihy says that Ven's suggestions for her hair and makeup were so bad that competing designer Gunnar stepped in and took over the makeover because he felt so bad for her.  Herlihy remarked, " I'm very thankful for Gunnar. And that wasn't aired on the show, and I wish it was."

Gunnar, who in addition to being totally awesome in his unaired assist in Herlihy's makeover, was very considerate and understanding with his own "real-sized" model, gaining major points with me and hopefully other fans of the show for his enthusiasm and compassion in working with his older and larger than a model client.

Gunnar wasn't the only designer who was shocked and dismayed by Ven's behaviour.  In addition to several designers who voiced their disgust with Ven on air, including Nathan, Fabio, Alicia and Chris, season 8 and all-stars contestant Michael Costello offered to make Herlihy a dress on Twitter and remarked to The Clicker that he though Ven should have been eliminated instead of Nathan, because Nathan's dress "wasn't that bad" and Nathan's client was happy with his dress.

He added that he thinks Ven's career may not be able to recover from his behavior in "Fix My Friend," because, "I don't think any woman would want to wear anything from him ever again after seeing the way Terri was treated. ... It's sad because he's a great talent, he's very skilled."

I don't know if it's just because I've become so used to people acting awful to each other on reality t.v. shows, or heck even on Facebook, that I'm kind of numb to it, or the fact that every time PR does one of these "regular people" challenges some designer makes insensitive remarks about their client, or even as a decidedly not model-sized woman myself, I'm just used to people making rude remarks about clothing/body size, but I was just kind of miffed when they didn't eliminate Ven when I watched the show.  Sure, I thought he was an insensitive jerk, but I didn't think that much about it.

Now though, I'm pretty disappointed that PR didn't choose to send a message that how you treat your clients should be every bit as important as how good your designs are and choose to send Ven home.  However, I will add that as disappointed as I am with Ven and the fact that he didn't get sent home, I'm equally proud of the other designers who stood up for Terri and treated their own clients as valuable people deserving of both respect and a fabulous makeover.  I hope Terri is able to take Michael up on his offer to make her a dress she will love.

Terri and her friend have now set up a Facebook page in response to Ven's treatment of Terri and the treatment of overweight individuals in general called Terri's Redemption.

Project Runway - Ven Budhu Labeled Adult Bully by Real-Size Model

Project Runway