The television fashion competition Project Runway is expanding its roster of personalities by bringing in talent from the drag community. Among the additions are two notable alumni from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16: Plane Jane and Q. Their presence follows the success of Utica Queen, who reached the final three on season 21 with bold, experimental looks. Plane Jane, who also appeared briefly on the reality spin-off House of Villains, will participate in Project Runway season 22 in a role that has not been fully detailed. Q, praised during her run on Drag Race for strong visual concepts and runway work, will join the competition as a designer.
Beyond casting news, this crossover highlights another recurring thread in fashion and entertainment: the persistent use of French terminology. Many English terms used in style critique and culinary or lifestyle coverage trace back to French origins, and they often retain a distinctly Gallic flavor in written and spoken English. In this piece Gallicisms refers to those French words and phrases that have been adopted into English while keeping an unmistakable French identity, such as avant-garde or à la. These expressions continue to frame how designers, judges, and audiences discuss aesthetics.
Drag Race crossover: what we know about Plane Jane and Q
Both performers earned attention on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 for different strengths: Plane Jane for experimental aesthetics and Q for polished stagewear and critique-ready silhouettes. Their on-screen rapport became a highlight of the season, amplified by a moment in which Q disclosed her HIV status to Jane — an exchange that resonated widely with viewers and sparked conversations about honesty, vulnerability, and fandom response. The connection between them is likely to be one draw for audiences when they reappear together on Project Runway, offering an opportunity to see how drag sensibilities translate to mainstream fashion challenges and garment construction.
Production details and what to expect
Season 22 of Project Runway has not received an official premiere date, but the show is anticipated to return on platforms such as Freeform, Disney+, and Hulu. Heidi Klum remains attached as host, and industry figures like Christian Siriano are expected to reprise mentorship duties, while Nina Garcia and Law Roach are likely to sit on the judging panel. Whether Plane Jane and Q will compete directly or appear in guest capacities has been left unspecified by producers, leaving viewers curious about how each will influence runway assignments, team dynamics, and critiques rooted in both haute couture and drag performance aesthetics.
How French vocabulary continues to shape fashion talk
The English language absorbed a great deal of French during the centuries after the Norman Conquest, and in modern usage many terms still read as plainly French to anglophone ears. In fashion and related cultural conversations, writers and speakers often keep the original spelling or diacritics and sometimes attempt the French pronunciation. Terms like à la (in the style of), au revoir (a casual farewell), and culinary phrases such as bon appétit are familiar across contexts. The adoption of these words tends to be strongest in written form, where they are treated as stylistic markers that signal sophistication or a particular tradition.
Examples and why they endure
Some French loanwords in English function as technical or thematic shorthand: avant-garde describes experimental, forward-looking design choices; carte blanche indicates broad creative freedom; au pair refers to a cultural exchange arrangement for domestic and childcare support. Other expressions like amuse-bouche or apéritif bring nuance to culinary stages of a meal, while words such as bricolage capture a creative mindset of assembling new work from existing pieces. Each of these terms carries cultural baggage that helps critics and creators communicate complex ideas economically and with a hint of tradition.
Why this matters to viewers and creators
As Project Runway blends mainstream fashion television with the performative costume craft of drag, the vocabulary used by hosts, judges, and contestants will reflect both English-speaking critique and longstanding French-influenced terminology. The crossover of Plane Jane and Q offers a case study in how contemporary designers—whether trained in classical design or forged in club and drag rooms—use language and aesthetic references to position their work. Fans of design and reality TV alike can look forward to seeing how terms like avant-garde are applied to garments that push silhouette, texture, and narrative, and how this layered vocabulary helps shape audience interpretation.
Ultimately, the addition of two Drag Race alumni to the Project Runway universe promises fresh perspectives on construction, storytelling, and critique, while the persistence of French expressions will continue to color how fashion is discussed and understood. Viewers will have another chance to follow Plane Jane and Q as they bring drag-informed creativity into a broader fashion arena, and to observe how language and design inform one another on screen.