My Dinner with Jay Nicolas

So I’m in the Westfield food court eating dinner before rehearsal. Ok, I’m not eating yet, but I’ve just gotten my food and I’m settling into a table when I see this guy walk by in front of me and sit down at a table across the way. I only get a brief look at him head-on, but my first though is “Is that Jay Nicolas Sario, Project Runway 7 designer?” It isn’t so much his face that I recognize, but the way he’s dressed. He has a hat on, a scarf… he’s dressed exactly like Jay Nicolas Sario. But I think “maybe that’s a popular style for Filipino men, especially now that he’s on the show.” I wonder “was he one of the designers from the Bay Area?”

I get a look at his profile as he scans the crowd for his friend, whom he waves over. Man, it really looks like him. So I grab my Blackberry and pull up his profile on the Lifetime website. On the website he’s listed as being from “The Philippines” (though apparently on the show they subtitle him as being from San Francisco), but he’s the one who works for Gap, Inc. Their headquarters is just down the road, so it could be him.

I need a better look at his face though to be sure, so I study his picture for a moment, and then get up and go to the silverware dispenser to get a spoon I don’t need. On the way back I get a better look at his face.

It’s him.

Should I say something? He seems very intent on his dinner conversation with his friend. He’s also facing away from me the whole time so I can’t try to make eye contact or slyly take a picture with my camera phone. Before I can come up with a suitable plan of attack, they finish and disappear into Bloomingdales.

My next thought is… “He didn’t look like someone working frantically away on a collection for Fashion Week.” (Which incidentally starts next week. The Project Runway show is at 10am on Friday, February 12. Christian Siriano is showing the later same day at 3pm.) So I’m guessing he’s not in the final 3. Or if he is, he’s got things extraordinarily under control.