by WindUpDoll
I want the Project Runway perfume discussed at the top of this episode. Who wouldn’t want to smell like sweat, tears & Chinese food? Ok, I guess it depends on WHAT Chinese food. Is it Wong’s Wok fried rice with greasy gravy? Then no, I don’t want it.
It’s time for the tedious model selection, but apparently only Jack gets to pick. He chooses to mess Ricky up and take his model. So Ricky doesn’t get to pick, he just gets Jack’s leavings.
Back in the workroom, Tim and Nina are there to introduce the next challenge. With them are several little foam core posters with hideous, ugly things on them. Things like shoulder pads, neon and underwear as outerwear. Yes, they’re trends of yore, some of which have made a comeback. Thankfully others have not. Designers have to select a trend. Once all trends are divvied up, the designers are told that they have to get in groups of 3 to make 3 designs that are cohesive as a collection and they have to use all 3 trends of hideousness in a new, modern and fresh way. Some designers sought out trends that they thought could be incorporated. Others sought out people they wanted to work with. The teams are then told that they need to select which person will be the leader.
I’ll be referring to this as the Daniel Franco challenge. If you remember, this was the challenge that finally got Daniel Franco off the Project Runway wagon. He told his teammates he would take the fall for their awful nighties he insisted on changing at the last minute, and he ended up getting the Auf Wiedersehen. So our teams are (leaders, or team stars, in bold):
- Victorya, Ricky & Elisa
- Jillian, Rami, Kevin
- Chris, Steven, Sweet P
- Christian, Kit, Jack
The group efforts start out strong. There’s laughing, there’s camaraderie, there’s silliness. There’s Ricky talking to Elisa in ‘her language’ and he’s really not being snarky. He just knows how to translate Type A to hippie pot-smoking dance instructor types. It’s a rare gift that Ricky has. I can see now why he cries a lot. I’m noticing that Kit has a gun necklace. Nothing so weird about that, except the gun is pointing at her head, which is creeping me out. Steven also attempts to do a Santino impression of Tim Gunn. I like Steven, but he is no Santino when it comes to impersonating Tim Gunn. It just makes me miss Santino.
Victorya doesn’t want to be a bossy cow, but… she will apparently be a passive-aggressive bossy cow! Ok, so Ricky is technically their leader, but apparently Victorya can’t keep it to herself when she feels like things are going wrong, so she’s critiquing stuff left & right. Ricky doesn’t quite call her on it early enough, and things escalate over the course of the challenge. During the model fitting, Victorya tells her model that she’s going to ‘fix’ everything before the runway show. She hasn’t informed Ricky of this yet. Later Victorya tells Ricky that she liked that he was going to be the big strong man & take the leadership role. Ok, I’m embellishing. Ricky calls her on being passive-aggressive and tells her if she wanted to be the leader, she just should’ve said so.
Jillian is also having leadership problems. Her problem is not being able to tell Kevin to move his keester & finish sewing a pair of shorts. Instead, she talks to Rami about it. And talks. And talks and talks and talks. They agree to disagree about Kevin. Chris is getting concern from Tim Gunn about the jacket he’s created. It’s got shoulder pads, you see, and it’s a concern. Well Chris’ fashion disaster IS shoulder pads, so I’m not quite sure how he’s supposed to ‘modernize’ that. Chris ends up talking with his sleeve as he slowly goes insane.
Ok, and Make Me a Supermodel — all of the people in your commercial look like they’re WAY past prime supermodel age. It’s just not working for me.
It’s runway day. Victorya has decided to redo her garment (Daniel? Daniel Franco?) and says that she likes a flat bust, which is just the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard out of a woman’s mouth. Ricky, the lingerie designer, slaps her into reality and Victorya sees the flattened error of her ways. During all the drama, Elisa has just been in the background, imbuing things with her essence & other general funkiness.
Do I need to say that Christian thinks their collection is fabulous? Didn’t think so.
Let’s start the show.
So Heidi is loving the ’80s in an off the shoulder, big belt, big earrings little number. RIP Robert Palmer, RIP.
Various stuff comes down the runway, lots of which I can’t see any evidence or hint of hideous trend in. Like, where was the pleather? Seriously. Supposedly all 3 pieces in Christian’s team had it. Didn’t see it. At all. This is why I will never be a contestant on this show. That and I like sleep way too much.
Heidi spares one team quickly by announcing the winning team first. Jillian’s team wins the Daniel Franco Invitational, since Kevin was able to sew a pair of shorts in 2 days. Christian’s team is also spared locking their knees while hearing the judges go on & on about someone else’s design.
Chris’ team is criticized for not having enough cohesiveness and for not modernizing the shoulder pad. How that’s even possible, except for making them into some weird shape, I don’t know.
Ricky is told that his team was good at concept, but he was not as good at construction. Ricky acknowledged that he probably spent too much time helping his team instead of finishing his own work. When asked about Ricky’s leadership, Victorya goes on & on about how she had to take over. The judges call her on it, and when they ask who should go, Ricky and Victorya point each other out. Elisa’s just in a mental corner saying “I’d say I should go….” No one’s paying attention. Heidi pulls the same thing on Chris’s group and the only consensus is that Sweet P should stay in.
Various designers are given a reprieve until we’re down to Ricky & Chris in the bottom two. I’m so sorry to say that Chris is going home. Auf Wiedersehen. I don’t remember anything he’s designed, which is a huge problem on this show, but I liked him. Chris hopes he brought the fun. You did, Chris, you did.
Ooh, but next week there’s a model surprise (moms again?) and they better reveal what’s up with Jack, since they’re showing that tease again…