Ah, the audience favorite and designer dread! The unconventional materials challenge! We all look forward to this, am I right? They do it every season so since they'll clearly be doing it next season I have two requests:
1. Every season the mentor urges the designers not to use anything that's fabric-based, they should be using odd materials in an innovative way. Could we please not make this announcement again, I am so over it. If they haven't watched the show, or in the case of All Stars, have no memory of what happened before, then oh well, there ya have it.
2. Could we outlaw glue guns in the workroom? Is there a professional designer who uses a freaking glue gun?
Not a lot of drama in the workroom, they all seemed to be pretty focussed on their work. A nice change of pace. You know how a beauty pageant gives a Miss Congeniality award? I think Project Runway should give a Least Trouble in the Workroom award. I'm happy to choose the winner.
Let's go straight to the runway, shall we? The guest judge was Stacy Bendet, CEO and founder of clothing brand Alice + Olivia.
TOP FOUR
Brittany's dress, of the top three, looked the most effortless, the most like something you could wear out in the world. Brandon gave her a few demerit points for structuing it on muslin, which is a bit of a cop-out.
Kayne, what a hoot! He knows how to turn it on and turn it out. All of that last-minute flurry in the workroom shore did pay off. The chevron construction along the front of the gown was damn impressive. I love that Nina was filled with joy by the bleeding eyes of the pandas.
Prajjé's look was pretty damn cool. It really looked like clothes but still had lots of attitude.
Viktor's dress was very special. Nina referred to it as "flawless." Elaine said about the boomerang pieces, "What even ARE those things?" That's a sure sign of being in the top on an unconventional materials challenge. Bravo to him.
BOTTOM THREE
Mila said she didn't have enough time. True, but as my wise mother would say, "That's an explanation, it's not an excuse." All hail the maternal wisdom of Miss Nita. Ignore her at your peril.
Rami got emotional telling the story about seeing kites in the sky in Palestine. I doubt it was a deliberate choice but it sure did reroute the judges from possibly giving him the auf. I think we can all agree that the dress looked not so great. Elaine used the word "noisy." In the final judge review Brandon said that at least Rami's look was finished, unlike the other two.
Laurence's dress was so unresolved, to use a PR term. Mila ran out of time, but I'm not sure Laurence could have rescued this failing design even with another six hours. Here's a so-cold-it-burns conversation fragment from the runway review:
NINA: Why not try?
LAURENCE: I did try.
NINA: But did you?
Remember last week I agreed with the judges on both the win and the auf? This week I disagreed with them on both. Viktor was the winner and I would have given it to Prajjé, his look had so much more distinctive attitude.
The auf went to Mila and I would have given it to Laurence, for two reasons. First, Heidi often used to do a "Which would you wear?" litmus test - - you look at the two worst outfits and you have to choose which you would wear if you had to wear one of them, if a glue gun were held to your head. Clearly you'd be wearing Mila's. And second, this isn't fair, but I see Mila as a Project Runway legend. This shouldn't give her bonus points and more time on the show, but I wish it did.
Here's the commentary from Statler and Waldorf. Waldorf first:
"I have a little thing for Rami that I can not put my finger on and his story got to my heart. I was hoping he stuck around. I am very glad Viktor won."
Statler was more salty:
"My biggest comment was about guest judge’s makeup. I still am having nightmares about her lashes. Were her eyes actually open? I also am kinda over the woman who keeps crying about missing her baby. Christian's response was so direct. Ha. I laughed out loud. Harsh. Andddddd I also wish Christian would stop giving so much advice. He’s more like and adviser than a mentor. I don’t want so much of his opinion."
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