ENTERTAINMENT: Local Girl wins 'Project Runway' (But beats out the Gay Boys)!

Gretchen Jones is the big winner of Season 8 of "Project Runway," but not without some controversy.

In possibly the most emotionally dramatic season of the design reality show, the Portland, Oregon native scored a major upset on the Thursday, Oct. 28 finale over fan favorite Mondo Guerra and fellow finalist Andy South.

Although everyone agrees that Jones has excellent construction skills, the judges and other contestants are split on her design aesthetic. Some say it's fashion forward and beautiful, whereas others find it older-skewing and unexciting. Jones is philosophical about her detractors.

"I understand. I can't please everyone and that's okay with me," she tells Zap2it. "I know that I represented not only myself, but to me where the modern movement to where fashion is going. I think when you're an accessible designer but maybe challenging certain things, it comes with a very critical eye. I feel I was a very strong competitor. I feel like I'm a modern woman with a really strong idea of what fashion is.

"All I need is to reach the people I should be reaching and what's beautiful is that Mondo was able to do that, Andy was able to do that, Michael [Costello] was able to do that. As long as we all reach people who then will vote for us with their dollars, we'll all be okay. That makes me happy."

Even though Guerra has an overwhelming fan base that may be upset with her for winning, Jones believes that part of that is just the nature of reality shows.

"Memory can be very short term," she observes. "The reality of the situation is that he was the nice guy and he won at the end three times in a row. I think he was very strong in the end, but I think people forgot how strong I was at the beginning. Yes I had a weak moment in the end, but I think also have always been that strong of a designer and the judges saw that.

"There was a reason why I was there. I think that I should have won. My collection deserved it. My customer is not necessarily Mondo's. I would wear some of Mondo's stuff, but I think I play chameleon but not everybody does."

Look for My interview with fellow NW native. Jones, coming soon!