Unbelievably enough, I missed Project Runway Wednesday night, so apologies for the late recap! That said, it was kind of interesting to watch this week's episode after hearing some very faint buzzing about the unexpected results (as I studiously tried to avoid spoilers, of course). What manner of injustice would take place? An unfair win? An unfair loss? An...um...okay, I guess there's no third category there. But little did I know, it would be total lunacy on the part of the judges, with a completely ridiculous winner AND loser. Oy. Let's get started, shall we?
Though it was yet another challenge without models, I enjoyed the prom dress theme this week. Unlike Christian, who thinks prom is "horrible and tacky and gross." Um...has he even seen his hair? Plus, high schoolers who think they know best + designers who actually know best (or so one would assume) = awesome drama, right? Well...yes. A little too right. And I loved the interesting twist, in which the clients chose their designers. (And you know I loved it even more when Victorya asked why her client chose her, and the girl admitted that she had the last pick. Awk! Ward!)
Christian's client, God love her, thinks she's a designer, and has some very strong, very tacky opinions. Christian and his side-mullet are worried and frustrated, to the point of almost giving up after both he AND his model (and me, for what it's worth) hate the dress. Happily for me and my love of bitchy side-comments (of which Christian always has many), Tim talks him off the ledge. Because when Tim tells you to rally, you rally, goddammit!
Did anyone else think there would be way more drama when the moms came in to see the dresses? I thought for sure they would be grabbing spare fabric and sewing modesty panels onto the chest areas. Ah, well. I'll have to settle for the look of surprise on the mom's face when she realizes that all the draggy costume photos in Chris's portfolio are actually of Chris. Chris: I love you! You're so...fabulously chuckly. I also love Sweet P, who seems so wise, for example, when she refuses to make her client something too trampy, because there's no way she's going home because she listened to a teenager. Right on, Sweet P.
Ricky, in what I was sure was a loser's cut, calls his mom (a seamstress) for inspiration. But hopefully not advice, because that probably wouldn't be legit. He also cries in an interview, but that's no surprise. It's too bad Elisa isn't still here--she could use her fabric to soak up the tears, imbuing it with the essence of gay sorrow. Or happiness. Or homesickness. Sometimes it's hard to tell with Ricky. However, he does have a great quote: "When I had a girlfriend, I actually made her prom dress. ...That should've been a clue right there, right?" HA!
It's runway time! Sweet P's dress is very nice and classic, though maybe not playful enough for a high schooler. Victorya's dress is reeeally not to my taste, in that it seems like bedazzled jewels are slowly creeping up the bodice to strangle her client. Chris's dress is a great color, very flattering, and classy while being just interesting enough. LOVE it.
Kevin's dress didn't really seem to fit the prom theme to me, and wasn't very flattering. He also failed to hem it, which will likely come back to haunt him, since they showed clips of both Tim and Chris advising him to do so. Jillian's dress was interesting, and I loved the colors, but it just didn't pop for me on the runway. Christian's dress is a hot, unflattering mess, but at least looks expensive, and like a lot of work went into it.
Kit's dress is definitely cool and edgy, but possibly too casual for prom. Ricky's is way too sweetheart--not to my taste at all, and not flattering. Kind of like wrapping his model in a sparkly, pale pink gunny sack, in fact. Rami's is very clearly his style, with fascinating draping, and a lovely green color. The length is a bit flapper, but his client seems to be loving the whole thing.
Kit, Jillian, and Chris (WHAT?!) are safe. Sweet P's dress gets praised for its beauty, though Nina wonders if it's a bit too sophisticated. I'd say that's a fair question. Kevin gets knocked for the dress's red color (really?), the cut (fair enough), and the dress's general matronly-ness (I definitely don't see that). Plus, of course, the lack of hemming. Victorya's dress gets praise for being chic, young, and fun, and for its bright blue color. Hrrrm.
Christian immediately goes on the defensive, throwing his client under the bus and thus pissing Nina off. However, he does get a teeny bit of praise for the workmanship that went into the final product. Ricky says that the girl inside him would wear his dress (except that all the sparkles would be made out of tears, right?), but gets slammed for the dress's sloppy execution and boring design. Rami gets criticized for his color choice (bananas) and length (I can see that), with the general consensus that the dress was too sophisticated (read: old) for a high school prom.
Clearing up my confusion at the seeming imbalance between the top and the bottom, Nina informs us that the judges only liked two of the dresses. Okay, WHAT? Chris's was fabulous! And since Rami's wasn't that bad, they definitely could've had an even top and bottom. They love Sweet P's meticulous work and fitting, and praise Victorya's cute, modern design. And if by "modern," they mean "80's," then I completely agree.
They trash Rami's color choice and tunnel vision-like failure to design for a younger client, and hate that Christian pinned the blame for his dress on his client, and spent his time focusing on so many little details. Which, fair. He was given a bad situation, and handled it terribly. They think Ricky's dress was boring and unskilled, and that Kevin's was cheap-looking (true) and made his client look old (less true).
Victorya is the winner (UGH), and Sweet P is safe. Ricky and Rami are also safe, leaving me perplexed. I mean, if Ricky, who has been flying by the seat of his pants this whole competition, and turned in a lackluster-at-best look this week, is safe, then who...? I mean, Christian and Kevin's dresses were both pretty unfortunate, but geez, at least they look like they tried. Kevin, unfortunately, is out. Hrm. Christian's dress was definitely uglier, but he DID have a tougher challenge, and the dress was a higher difficulty level. But god, was it ugly and unflattering.
Ricky definitely should've been out on this one, I'd say, if not Christian. And Chris was the winner in my book. But then, what do I know? Much less than Nina "I love electric blue and tacky glued-on rhinestones" Garcia, that's for sure.
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