Project Runway: Threads Episode 6 Recap: Monster Mashup

This week on Project Runway: Threads, Vanessa introduced three new contestants to their prize package totaling $25,000 and a chance to launch their career in designing. Host Vanessa Williams, shoe and clothing designing expert, is joined each week by Christian Siriano, the youngest designer to win Project Runway, YouTube fashion guru Ingrid Nilsen and special guest Jasmine Snow, senior fashion editor for Seventeen magazine. With the prize package including $10,000 for any Jo-Ann fabric and craft store, a scholarship for a summer program offered by FIDM, a Brother home set of sewing and embroidering machines and having one of their designs showcased in Seventeen magazine, it’s a dream come true.

The teens going head to head this week were Ciara, Katie and Lucas. They start off by showing their pieces of work they brought with them from home in the “Show Us Your Style” challenge. Vanessa and Christian will be the judges and decide who will win an advantage in the week’s challenge.

Ciara is 10 years old from Los Angeles, Calif., and a huge Tim Burton fan. The look she brought with her was even inspired by the infamous Burton and also included some elements of steampunk. She’s been sewing since she was 3 years old and already has a clear design point of view. She’s not afraid to take risks in this competition or in her designing. She’s brought her mother Tammy along as her assistant, who knows a thing or two about sewing. Christian likes that Ciara mentioned she was inspired by the Renaissance but wishes she would’ve chosen to put a different shoe with the look. He says that if she would’ve paired the dress with a different shoe than the boots, it would’ve made the look appear more high-fashion. Vanessa agrees and tells Ciara if she takes the advice it will allow the judges to see Ciara’s versatility.

Katie is 11 years old from Huntington Beach, Calif. She classifies her style as elegant and punk and has been designing since the age of 4. She’s the oldest of four children so she’s used to being independent. Katie has brought her mother Rosette along as her assistant despite the fact that she only knows how to hot glue and use safety pins. Christian likes the bodice back of Katie’s dress but can’t wait to see Katie fully unleash her crazy side in the challenge.

Lucas is 12 years old from Orlando, Fla., who got inspired by a Lana Del Rey song to make his fiery dress. He’s glad he was able to incorporate a lot of colors into the dress because it helps exemplify his colorful personality. Lucas has been sewing since the age of 7, when he started designing clothes for his sister’s dolls. He classifies his style as crazy, colorful and enthusiastic. Lucas has brought his supportive father Nick as his assistant in the competition. Christian is amazed that Lucas hand-painted all the colors onto the dress because in doing so, he was able to make his own textile with the dress. Vanessa thinks the dress might’ve been better being strapless since the straps are so distractingly white.

While Lucas may have amazed the judges with his skills in painting, Ciara comes out the winner in this challenge. Vanessa announces the week’s challenge to the kids as the “Monster Mashup” Challenge. As masked creatures come lurking out of the dark corners, Vanessa tells the contestants that they have to mashup two creatures into one high-fashion-inspired look. She makes it clear that the look isn’t supposed to be a costume and instead a fashion look that’s inspired by the costumes. Since Ciara was the winner of the previous challenge, she gets to pick which creature mashup she wants first and then choose the mashups for her opponents. Ciara chooses the werewolf and vampire for herself. She then gives Katie the demon and evil clown as a challenging mashup. Finally, Lucas is given the challenge of creating a look inspired by a swamp creature and skeleton mashup. I love Halloween but I’m not sure how I’d create a high-fashion look inspired by costumes.

Everyone but Katie seems to have a vision of what they want to create for their mashup look. After having a talk with mom, Katie comes up with an idea and tries to catch up with the others. Vanessa comes in to ruin it all with the “Surprise Door Twist” Challenge. Each contestant is given a plain white dress that will need to walk down the runway along with their first look. As if creating another look wasn’t hard enough, the designers are only given unconventional items to put on the dress such as candy, paint, and sponge rollers. Looks like time might be an issue for everyone now.

Lucas was worried about not finishing on time but luckily was able to have a piece walk down the runway when time was called. After all the designer’s looks walked down the runway, the judges wanted to ask them each some questions about their looks and give them individual critique.

Ciara is first and the judges all agree that there’s way too much going on in her second look. I couldn’t agree more because it looks like she put glue all over the white dress and rolled it around in a drawer filled with all these unconventional items. Whatever stuck to the dress is what she kept and had walk down the runway. Ingrid tells her that she wishes she could strip everything off and leave the paint job Ciara had on the dress underneath it. However, everyone seems to love her first look and I can’t argue with them there. Christian says that the model looks expensive and that’s just about the greatest compliment a designer or person wearing the clothes could ever get. Unfortunately, Ingrid and Jasmine feel that the cape material makes the outfit appear more grandma-styled than it should be. If Ciara would’ve picked a different material for the cape, she would’ve had an outfit that the judges couldn’t find anything wrong with.

Lucas is next and Vanessa and Ingrid can’t get enough of the straps he created on his first look, particularly the back. Vanessa understands how the skeleton inspired Lucas to create the straps on the dress. On his second look, Vanessa isn’t too thrilled about the gummy bears that outline the boobs of the model. However, she doesn’t mind the gummy bear bracelet that he made. I think the gummy bears would’ve been better off being eaten than thrown on the dress. Christian mentions that he wishes Lucas would’ve been more inspired by the swamp monster and I have to agree with him. I thought we’d see some green colors on the first look but Lucas says it’s the smaller colors that need to be shown more than the prominent colors.

Katie is the last designer to talk with the judges and Christian is amazed that an 11-year-old could design the looks that she did. Ingrid wishes that Katie would’ve been more inspired by the demon so it would show in her first look. I agree with Ingrid that the first look didn’t give off much of a demon feel but I don’t think Katie is dark enough to think of a design like that. Both Ingrid and Jasmine wished that the amazing color blocking in Katie’s first dress would’ve continued all the way down the dress. I think Katie didn’t continue the color blocking all the way down because of the short amount of time available. If she had more time, I would’ve like to see the dress continue down with the color blocking as well. Vanessa mentions that Katie listened to the critique earlier about her edging up her style but not too much to where she loses her own style. Listening to the judges is really important to Vanessa and she applauds Katie for doing so.

It was a tough decision for the judges to pick a winner this week and I couldn’t even think of who they’d pick. I really liked Ciara’s first look but her second look ruined her first look for me. I liked both of Katie’s looks the most but I feel like she could’ve put a bit more edginess into the first look. In the end, the judges picked Katie as the winner. I think the way she listened to the judges from the beginning really helped her win this competition.

What were your thoughts on this episode? Do you think Katie should’ve won? I feel like she had the best two looks overall and she did listen to what the judges were asking of her. Which look of yours was your favorite? If you had to do a monster mashup look, which creatures would you want to pick? I think I’d like to have Ciara’s monsters, the vampire and werewolf, because they’re my favorite creatures. You can have them evil and scary or beautiful and romantic depending on your own story. Leave your thoughts below.

Watch Project Runway: Threads Thursdays at 10/9CT on Lifetime.

Photos: Bobby Quillard Copyright 2014