Designer Jonathan Peters discusses his work with mentor Tim Gunn in an episode of “Project Runway” on the Lifetime channel.

Lifetime Television / Barbara Nitke

Jonathan Peters grew up in Woonsocket, a working-class city, where the work is blue-collar, and the collar is definitely not anything fancy.

Yet Peters is on “Project Runway,” the Lifetime channel’s reality show for fashion designers. After two weeks the field of 16 competitors is down to 14. And Peters is among them, carrying on, designing and sewing garments for at least one more week, and maybe another — depending on how things go in this season’s third episode, which airs Thursday at 10. “I recognized that maybe Woonsocket wasn’t the right place to prepare for the design industry,” Peters says. “But I still had a prom-dress business. In my senior year in high school, I did six or seven gowns.”

Peters, a 1998 graduate of Woonsocket High School, moved to Providence at age 18. He attended URI, studying fashion and taking a full load of classes while also working full-time in retail. But he couldn’t sustain the grind more than a year, and couldn’t afford to work less. So he dropped out of school.

In 2006, after eight years of retail store management in Providence, Peters moved to New York.

“I have this philosophy that if you want to grow, you have to surround yourself with people who are at least 30 percent better than you at what you want to do. I went to New York to play with the big boys. I went to the epicenter of fashion.”

Last February, after three years in New York, Peters returned to Rhode Island when the store he managed in New York’s SoHo district temporarily closed for renovations. Peters got a job at a store in Providence Place, but when the economy worsened that job was gone and “Project Runway” was looking for contestants.

“The timing was perfect.”

Peters was free. And he invested himself into an audition tape for the show, now in its seventh season, which you can see on the program’s Web site, mylifetime.com/shows/ project-runway. And you’ll see that Peters achieves his desired effect.

“I wanted to make sure I was as memorable as possible.”

In his audition tape, Peters is singing while apparently milking a goat.

“I just thought it would have comic value, me being somewhere I would never be, doing something I would never do. And yes, I was milking the goat.”

Peters says he didn’t have enough tape time to pull off his cinematic ambitions. He wanted to make an audition tape that honored three classic movies: “The Sound of Music,” “Psycho” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

The goat addressed the first. Peters holding a hoe, not a shovel, alluded to the second. And not being eliminated from the show and being sent home, Peters said, was the trifecta.

“There’s no place like home — and not going home.”

“I don’t know if I was cast as the small-town guy. I’m the only one from Rhode Island to ever be cast on the show. That makes me proud.”

Peters is correct. He is the first full-fledged Rhode Islander on the show. However, this year there are two other contestants with Rhode Island connections. Anne Marie Lynett, 23, originally from Whitefish Bay, Wis., and now living in Los Angeles, is a 2008 graduate of RISD. And Mila Hermanovski, 40, originally from Dallas and now living in Los Angeles, is a 1991 graduate of RISD.

“There are a few of us on the show who are self-taught. I think when you’re interviewing for a job it’s good to have a degree from a reputable university. But I think in the fashion industry, people want to see what’s in your portfolio. Your work tends to speak for itself.”

In the first “Project Runway” show this season, the designers were asked to create a garment that reflected their style, but were given limited materials and time. In last week’s show, the designers were asked to make a dress out of potato sacks, which are made of burlap.

“Not only were we to make a dress out of burlap, but the models got to choose us and they were our clients. It’s multiple layers of challenge.”

Peters is participating in the show for the same reason he once lived in New York.

“It’s playing with the big boys. I love a critique of my work. Anyone who has been to art school loves that.”

Tim Gunn, chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne, serves as mentor to the designers. The show’s judges are host Heidi Klum, the supermodel, designer Michael Kors, fashion director Niña Garcia, and a guest judge.

“This is an amazing opportunity to meet some of the most talented and iconic people in fashion. Besides, the prizes are nice, too.”

The show’s winner receives $100,000 to start a clothing line.

brourke@projo.com