Prajjé Oscar Jean-Baptiste Reveals Why Captain Sandy’s ‘Project Runway’ Design Was Extra Challenging [Exclusive]

Was the Project Runway playing field even on the Below Deck episode? Designers Prajjé Oscar Jean-Baptiste and Anna Zhou both ended at the bottom with their designs for Captain Sandy Yawn and Captain Jason Chambers.

Meanwhile, Bishme Cromartie dominated with his chief stew uniform for Aehsa Scott. Also, other crew designs impressed the judges, but they allowed for more liberty because of their lower rank. Ultimately, Anna went home for Captain Jason’s look.

Prajjé recently told Showbiz Cheat Sheet he loved working with Captain Sandy but felt that he had quite a few limitations, not only with uniform design but with a captain’s uniform.

The ‘Below Deck’ captains were especially challenging

Prajjé is a Below Deck and Captain Sandy fan. “I know Below Deck. I watch the show. I think they are fun that they work and they go out and go crazy,” he said. “But you got the two captains, you can’t really have fun.”

Tackling the uniform challenge was a first for Prajjé. “I haven’t worked so much with a uniform per se,” he said. “But one thing I will say working with Captain Sandy was that once I realized that OK, you have a captain here. While everybody is trying to show one boob here, one leg here, I couldn’t really do so.”

“So she did allow me to create something that she wanted to wear,” he continued. “I remember the entire time she loved it. She loved the look, she even said ‘I wanna put in a request to actually wear this on the boat.'”

Prajjé said his main goal was to make Captain Sandy happy

Prajjé was also trying to impress both the judges and his client. “So it was a bit of a challenge trying to do that challenge, but not too much impressing the client because the client was happy,” Prajjé said. “The client loved the work, but it was so much like, how do you do both? And in trying to still deliver on the challenge part. And I think that’s why it was challenging.”

He also admitted that when Captain Sandy requested some “bling” he knew he was in for a few hurdles.

“There were a lot of things, sparkles were the first one,” he recalled. So Prajjé wondered if Captain Sandy could mix it up and consider a skirt or dress. “She said, ‘I wouldn’t get caught dead in a dress.’

So how did Prajjé ultimately create Captain Sandy’s look? “My business is based on private clientele,” he explained. “I wanted to speak to the client first.”

But he knew the parameters were firmly grounded in uniform design. “We had to see where we could go with this but not so much pushing it,” he said. “All the direction that I pushed for Sandy that was the complete opposite of her, she was like ‘No absolutely not.’ I wanted to put on a beautiful dress, but she was pretty much, ‘This is what I like.’ But she was fun.”

What did Prajjé wish he could have changed in Captain Sandy’s look?

He spent time talking to Captain Sandy to create her look. “I learned that very early on and everything I picked for her was based on our conversation,” he said. “She was fun, she wasn’t into basic anything. She likes to stand out on her own. We talked about not looking like the same people, we even share that. If I go to a club, and somebody’s wearing the same shirt as me, I’ll go ahead and change it. She goes, ‘I usually have one in my car!’ So we kind of connected in that.”

In the end, Prajjé designed a captain’s uniform that had style and function. “I designed her pants so she could put her hands in [the pockets] while her walkie is there without going too far,” he recounted. “So I tried to give her all those things in a look that she’d actually like.”

If he had it his way, Prajjé would have changed the pant style. “One thing I wish I did fight Captain Sandy about was her pants,” he said. “Originally I did want to make it a wide pants. And I think she was like, ‘No, it would make me look like a cow.'”

So he worked within the parameters, which he said was somewhat limiting. “Once we went down the lists of ‘don’t do’s,’ my creative list was half full of everything,” he laughed. “But once we went over that, I knew exactly what she does not want, it was very easy to design for her.”

He added, “She was super fun. Her title, I guess is what made it stiff in a way. But I was very happy to have her.”

Project Runway is on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.