Dec 21, 2007  |  By: BRIAN MOYLAN  | COMMENTS     

Mackenroth talks about the show and making it work with HIV

Part of the fun of watching Bravo’s hit fashion design competition “Project Runway” is that it’s never predictable. The audience can’t guess who might make a horrible dress out of salad greens or who gay judge Michael Kors is going to chew out on the runway or just what hideous outfit host Heidi Klum is going to wear.

One thing that many “Runway” fans were aware of is that Jack Mackenroth, the show’s first openly HIV-positive contestant, may not make it to the end of the competition, and not because he committed an atrocity with silk charmeuse, but because of his health.

Back in October, a month before the fourth season started, a gossip column in the New York Daily News reported that Mackenroth would leave the show in its fifth episode for health reasons, and, lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened.

On the Dec. 12 episode, Mackenroth revealed that he has MRSA, a type of drug-resistant staph infection, on his lip. Because of the disease’s aggressive nature, hospitalization is often necessary to fight it. Mackenroth then became another “Runway” first: the only person to leave the sewing room voluntarily.

Even in his brief stint on the show, Mackenroth, 38, who was raised outside of Seattle and now lives in New York City, showed considerable talent. He was never called onto the runway for a bad design, and even managed to win a challenge, designing a menswear outfit for “Today” show co-host Tiki Barber, who wore the ensemble on the air.

He also became a favorite of gay audiences, partially due to his good looks and incredibly fit body — a body that was on full display in a clutch of nude photos that found their way to many popular gay blogs and web sites after he was cast.

Not only a model — both nude and for legit magazines like Men’s Fitness, Blue and Men’s Journal — Mackenroth has some serious cred as a designer. He has degrees from both Berkeley and Parsons School of Design and designed menswear for Tommy Hilfiger and Weatherproof Active Wear.

The Blade sat down with the actor, model, designer and competitive swimmer to talk about his departure from the show, the visibility of HIV-positive people on television and his new reality-TV star boyfriend.

The Washington Blade: How did you get involved with the show?

Jack Mackenroth: I had been working in New York as a designer for 15 years and I loved the show, but it was a women’s wear show and I was a men’s designer. To try out you have to bring in three items you’ve made and the audition process is arduous. On season two there was a designer Emmet McCarthy who was a menswear designer so I thought, “I can do this.” So for season three auditions, I had three dresses and I had done some sketches. They told me maybe, but the next year, I started way ahead of time, and I made 7 dresses and I illustrated a whole collection and that’s how I got on the show.

Blade: You’ve been very open about being gay and HIV-positive. Did you want to use the show as a vehicle for visibility about living with HIV?

Mackenroth: I didn’t think of it like that. I didn’t want to use the show for anything but advancing my career. It is just a secondary effect that has been amazing. I found out [I had HIV] about 17 years ago and I was very young. After I got comfortable with having it and everything involved with that and realized I was going to be healthy for the long term, it was my stance to be open and honest about it. If you can’t deal with it, that’s your issue, I’m going to move on.

Blade: How is that affected because you left the show for medical reasons?

Mackenroth: I was concerned about being the HIV-positive guy who got sick. I think it’s clear on the show and the way they edited it that being HIV-positive and getting the infection aren’t necessarily related. In my case, my T-cells are in the normal range of healthy and I have an undetectable viral load, so it’s not because my immune system was compromised. I had a lot of issues about the way I left. It’s not the way I envisioned leaving the show, but you have to play with the cards you’re dealt.