Design of a Lifetime: Former Willows resident on 'Project Runway'

A former Willows resident will make her television debut in the season premier of “Project Runway” at 10 p.m. Thursday on Lifetime Television.

Janeane Marie Ceccanti is a contestant in the show’s seventh season.

“I’m apprehensive about seeing myself on TV. I’m doing just a small thing with my friends and family,” instead of having a big party or going out, she said Tuesday afternoon.

Ceccanti and her twin sister, Christa, were born at Glenn County General Hospital in 1981 and lived in Willows until they were 11 years old.

Their father, Don “Butch” McSpadden, now of Paradise, owned Willows Glass until a family member took it over. Their mother, Phyllis April Hanks, now of Portland, Ore., was secretary at Murdock Elementary School and taught swimming in the summer, Ceccanti said.

“We grew up riding bikes and going out and looking at the cows in the field,” she said, noting the family lived on edge of town near a big field, where she and her sister played with crawdads and other creatures.

Before moving to Portland, where Ceccanti now lives, the family lived in Chico for nearly two years. She visited the area regularly, until recently when her grandfather Earnie Hanks died. He was married to Eva Gallegos, who preceded him in death.

Ceccanti, 29, who lists Willows as her hometown on the “Project Runway” Web site, works out of her North Portland design studio, Janeane Marie. She said she came to fashion design late, just starting in 2005.

“Willows has turned out to be a really big influence on who I am and I’m happy about that. I’m happy about where I came from,” Ceccanti said. I think if I’d grown up in a big city, I would have had a much narrower appreciation for the whole thing,” meaning fashion.

“In Willows, I was not really exposed to fashion too much. I never thought about fashion or magazines.”

But, she has always liked to draw and pointed out proudly that she won a $10 prize for taking first place in a drawing contest when she was in first grade at Murdock.

She also has “always loved crafts, because they serve a function and have esthetic value. Fashion is a way to be creative,” Ceccanti said.

It seems she comes by it naturally. Her grandmother, Phyllis Hanks, was an expert seamstress. Even though Hanks died when Ceccanti was just 4 years old, “it’s in my bones somehow,” she said.

Participating in “Project Runway” was “pretty tricky,” she said. “It was insanely stressful and a challenge.”

The challenge came in the form of “here’s a problem, here are the materials, what’s the solution?” Ceccanti said.

“It’s not designing in a situation you’d normally be working in.”

Of course, she cannot reveal anything about the outcome of the show or her standing, but she said being in New York for the first time made her “feel the distance” from big-city designers. And she sees things differently now.

“I have a new improved filter for my vision of where I want to take my design. I’m motivated to get better and better. I’m trying to find my pace right now, so I can make sure this is my life’s work, not just a ‘thing’ right now, Ceccanti said.

Even thinking toward the future, she always come back to growing up in rural Northern California.

“Coming from a small farming community, that was a big marker on my life. I always think, ‘I grew up in Willows and look where I am. I’m not where I want to be, but I feel like I’m getting there.”

Ceccanti is not the only North State woman to be in this position.

Leanne Marshall, who grew up in Yuba City, won the fifth season competition of “Project Runway.” She also works out of Portland.