Project Runway: It's My Way On The Runway - The Recap!

This episode was full of brooding - *le sigh* Dmitry *le sigh*, boy crushes - Raul hearts Christopher and Christopher secretly hearts Gunnar, rage - *cough*Elena*cough* and my lovely queen, Joanna Coles, was the guest judge all for the Marie Claire At Work challenge!
They were broken up into teams - you know the designers loved that - and they had to come with work-appropriate outfits.  And they got to direct their own photo shoot - which would be featured in Marie Claire At Work - for the winning team, of course.
The teams were as follows:
Team 6: Sonjia / Elena / Melissa / Dmitry / Alicia / Raul (who was picked last and was very bitter about it)
Team 5: Nathan / Ven / Christopher / Fabio / Gunnar

So what was the catch?  ONE DAY to work on ALL their designs and the next day for the photo shoot.  Ouch.  The best part of the entire episode (besides the obvious): Gunnar's HILARIOUS one-liners!  They almost rival those of The Kors.

Anyways - Raul freaks out because he doesn't want to be told what to make and he doesn't want to be eliminated...AGAIN and Elena hates everything EVER which, in turn, makes the tension in the workroom palpable.  On top of all that, Christopher finds Kooan's comb in the workroom and diverts attention, if only for a moment.  The other distraction: the group known as the Chiffon-zies...Chiffonies?  The Chiffon-zies/Chiffonies consists of Nathan, Ven and Christopher who express their love for silk chiffon in every outfit.  Don't hate.  If you can make it work, do it.  Just don't put flowers all over it.  I'm talking to you, Ven.  Dmitry had some choice words about Ven's obsession with flower designs



OMG STOP BEING SO CUTE DMITRY.  What he really meant was "one trick pony" but I think I'll add the monkey comment in my bag-o'-runway quotes (along with the hilarious "fish whistle").

On to the runway!

Project Runway All-Stars: The Finale Part 2 - The Recap

Last night's finale was CRAZY!  I felt like it was Heidi and guest judge Jessica Simpson fighting with Michael Kors and Nina Garcia over Mondo and Gretchen - only replace Gretchen with Michael C and you have the fight between Georgina Chapman, Isaac Mizrahi and Mr. Giggles Ken Downing vs Not-Heidi host and Tommy Hillfiger.  Tommy and Not-Heidi were really stating Michael C's case but Georgina, Heidi and Ken had a point about Mondo: he's ahead of the trends, he's more youthful and he has really great ideas.  But we already knew that, didn't we?
On to the runway show!  I'll start with Austin.

I think when he came out and gave his inspiration and description of his collection by saying it was "Hasidic Jew meets Victorian vampire meets Williamsburg hipster dandy friend", I could see how Ken Downing was laughing.  All I kept thinking was that that sounded like what the costumes would be if Interview with a Vampire had been filmed now instead of the 90's.  That shit cray and you know it, Austin.  Either way, he stepped out a fairly nice collection. 


I wasn't too crazy about his model choice for the 4th look because she didn't carry the dress well and I think that ruined the look for me.  As far as the styling goes, that hybrid pageant Victorian curls thing is killing the first look.  Like, murdering it.  It's not doing that look any favours and neither are those pants.  Eww.  Tommy Hilfiger wanted to have babies with look 5.  I think he was more crazy about the "rock 'n' roll" catsuit than Austin was!  And I thought it was smart for Austin to have done the wedding dress (with Anthony's touches of black accessories from the Opera challenge) but I expected a little more.  The petals were nice and the black accents were pretty with the different white textiles but I wanted a little more of the vampire element brought in to this particular look.  But, unfortunately, Austin's aesthetic is older and he caters to the suburban moms with money and it shows big time.  I think his 1st and 5th looks were his attempt to be more youthful but they didn't work with the rest of his pieces.

Michael C took us on a Gretchen-styled adventure.  Yeah, I said it.  Watching his stuff come down the runway AND hearing all the critiques about it made it feel like the Mondo / Gretchen showdown of season 8.  I was a little scared for a minute there.  Thankfully Michael spared us the granny panties and he showed some out-of-his-comfort (draping)-zone pieces.


Not gonna lie - the models in looks 1, 5 and 6 look FIERCE.  I'll even go as far as saying the model in look 5 looks like she could be a tan version of Diane von Furstenberg.  Lovely.  I will also admit that I LOVE the dress in look 6 without that damn vest.  And Lauren and I decided that Michael's best piece was look 2 because of the structure and angles and guess what - that's the one April helped him out on.  No surprise there.  The rest of the collection was too commercial-y I think.  Like he wanted to show them what he could do for the Neiman Marcus collection but that's not exactly what they wanted.  Well, maybe that's what not-Heidi and Tommy H were expecting but I think they forgot how the show actually worked.  Not a terrible collection, though.

On to the night's winner Mondo!  First of all, I love that he finally won and I'm kind of glad that he didn't win season 8 because these prizes are better.  I think Neiman Marcus and Marie Claire will both benefit from having him because his point of view is so young and fresh and modern.  He's a great choice not only because of his playful youthfulness but he's thoughtful about each piece and he really knows how to manipulate patterns to make his own.  Very clever.


While I always love everything Mondo does, I wasn't crazy about look 3 because it very distinctly has Mila's influence.  Ugh.  BUT it didn't hurt the collection, thankfully.  The inkblots were gorgeous and I was so happy to finally see them!  We just kept getting glimpses of them and I think the only full one we saw was the one in look 4 but the dress in look 5 is stunning and I would love to have that.  Ken Downing called the first piece a "wow piece" and then Tommy (I think) kept saying the buttons on look 2 were comically large - which I thought was wrong because I thought the proportions worked with the polka dots, the large buttons and the circular pockets.  It wouldn't have hurt to have made the pockets a little smaller though but at that point, they'd be purely for decoration and they'd have to question his motives on that one.  The rest of the pieces (save for look 3) was very Mondo though.  His point of view came across very well and I think the fact that he made the textiles for looks 4 and 5 with the inkblots might have sealed the deal for him. 

And can I just point out that last night, Lauren pointed it out to me that Angela was giving Georgina bitch face about her wanting Mondo over Michael C and ultimately, it was Angela's forced smile and "eat shit" bitch face look that gave it away before they even started talking to Michael that it was clear that Mondo won.  Re-watch it and you'll see it too.  There was no cutting around that Stinky McStinkface.

I want to congratulate all the contestants on Project Runway All-Stars this season because they were all great sports for coming back and they all did a great job with their newfound points of view.  This season of All-Stars kind of made up for the shitty seasons of Project Runway, I think.  But I feel like maybe season 10 will end up like season 8 and 9 where you get bitches like Anya and Gretchen taking the wins away from more deserving contestants.  We'll see how that goes.

I hope to see you again on the runway for season 10 and I hope it doesn't disappoint!

Tonight's the night!

Sorry for the lack of updates!  I've been busy reading The Hunger Games Trilogy and I'm HOOKED.  But I can put my books down for the Project Runway All-Stars finale, of course!
The Three Amigos are head to head TONIGHT and I'm so excited I can't stand it!


Photo credit: The super awesome Lauren

After last week, I'm just ready for Mondo to take it on home this time!  If he doesn't I might have to write off PR forever.  I know, I know - I've been saying that every season since Mondo lost buuuuuuutttt...THIS IS IT (maybe).  And secretly, I kinda want to see the wedding dress Austin was working on.  Will it end up being a wedding dress with all the time constraints or will he transform it to something else?  Hmmmm.  We'll know in just a few hours!

Join us for all the live-blogging fun!

Project Runway All-Stars: Puttin' on the Glitz - the Recap

Holy Broadway!
Our fair designers had to design an outfit for one cast member of the Broadway show Godspell.  The winning look was to be in the show (obvs) AND the winning designer got a bio page in the Playbill.  SAY WHAT.
They were challenged to dress a very eccentric older woman who liked to flaunt her money.  So basically, it was like that older lady that you see in suburbia that wears all her jewelry at the same time at the flea market or something.  At least that's what I thought of.  Here's what the designers thought of...

Let's start with Jerell so we can get him out of the way early.

Ugh. Hate the hair, hate the skirt and I definitely hate his attitude a little more each week.  The jacket is nice but I don't think I like the fur/feather things at the cuffs.  The colour is also a little too drab for me.  and that hair with the lace on the front of the jacket makes me think of a whorehouse in the Wild Wild West.

Mila's looked like she was supposed to be working on the corner for Jerell's Whorehouse Madam.

Or she could pass for a socialite in the early days of when being a socialite was getting popular on the interwebs and the TMZs.  Mila also thought that a lot of gold equaled money.  No, honey, it just looks tacky.  THIS LOOK SHOULD'VE GOTTEN MILA ELIMINATED.

Kenley was off her game last night.  I guess because she wasn't making anything with polka dots - which Joanna Coles was so sweet to point out.

I was too busy trying to figure out how she was going to survive since she couldn't make a Peter Pan collar for this challenge! LOL, I kid.  But seriously - the "Thrift Store" vibe she was trying to channel was not working for me and the fur trim on the collar looked sloppy.  She's not a master of the mixed prints like Mondo but we'll get to him shortly.

Michael's looked more contemporary rather than vintage, I thought.

The colours were pretty and worked very well together while the shape of the skirt had me making mental sketches on how I could possibly make a skirt like that for myself. I'd love to have this skirt in black!  It's so cute and so perfect for Spring!  And those shoes.  THOSE SHOES!  I want them!  I even want the green ribbons he used to tie them on his model!  LOVE!

Kara surprised me with her look.  I LOVED IT.

The bow was a little too large and in charge for me but I loved the black fur with the red skirt and the black and silver top. It was like the dreamiest outfit for any HBIC.  Too bad this look got her eliminated.  That really sucks because Mila and Jerell should've been gone...

Austin got a little catty on the runway when Isaac accidentally called him "Austin Starlette".  Shut up Austin.  You're still a perv with that mustache.

While this was a cute outfit, I was little confused about the leggings. Heather brought up a good point - he probably made them to be functional for the costume changes or something but I felt like while that was a nice thought, it didn't go well with the outfit.  I liked the cut of the dress and the big, billowy skirt but the hair wasn't working for me.  Well done Austin.

Mondo said he had to go to a dark place for this one.  During his mentoring session with Joanna, he presented a great idea with the smoking jacket and the pattern mixing which got me all excited.  But the put the jacket together and he hated the look.  WHAT?!  No, Mondo!  It was fabulous on the dress form but I will admit, the patterns were a bit much.  But then that realization didn't matter because Mondo is the MASTER of mixed prints so there was nothing to be worried about, right?  Right.

While the hair reminded me a little of Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter, I still loved the look.  The peacock eye-looking gold toned fabric over the shiny gold fabric was lovely and the rich hues from the jacket were a great match to all those golds and yellows - which led Mondo to another victory!  Hooray!  This was exactly the boost he needed coming off of his loss last week (which I still think was bullshit).  Way to go Mondo!! 

The preview for next week wasn't really that much of an informative preview at all but I'm hoping that will be when Jerell or Mila (or both in the dreaded double elimination) will get the boot.  I can only hope...