Project Hegemony

Project Runway is all about revenue, let's be honest. The point of having a fashion designer is to design clothing that people will want, that they'll buy. The point of having a show about finding that designer is to create a hype around them that will create a market when they actually start to produce designs.
There's a struggle, however, in finding a balance between what "works" in a market and what the designer's vision is. Waist-level pants worked for who knows how long, but someone had to step out and make hip-level jeans. Many times on the show, we see the judges saying, "There's no market for this," but the designer is obviously coming with a vision and feels that yes, there could be a market for it. If a designer would rather design for regular-sized women, i.e. ready to wear fashions, then they get categorized under "plus-size designers" and are written off as unable to design high fashion.
There's really nothing about Runway that refutes the power structure in America. It fully recognizes that there's a market of buyers, and if you don't give them something they'll want, you have no product. It can be a beautifully constructed outfit, seamlessly built and flawlessly modeled, but if the consumers aren't interested... well, it's trash. So the creative structure of the designer, the artist, is crushed. In a way, it's like the West Coast rock movement. They had a vision, but because they needed the revenue from "the man", their vision became a tool against them. Designers need sponsors, they need to be able to buy cloth and hire models and repair machines. But if that means they have to conform their vision to what the client wants, and they have no freedom, then is it really worth it?