Project Runway 12/12/07--"What's the Skinny?" summary

Previously on Project Runway: the designers have to take old busted trends and make them relevant, which is stupid because if they were relevant they wouldn’t be old and busted. Jillian leads her team by creating clothes she would wear, and she wins. Chris, as adorable as he is, is destroyed by the shoulder pads and loses. (click for more)

In the morning everyone is sad to see Chris go. Jack is talking about sewing one handed with one hand over his mouth. He says he thought he had a pimple inside his nose but it’s getting worse and he’s all swollen. Like, his whole upper lip and that part of his face. He thinks it might be a skin staph infection, because he‘s had them before. Dude, those are serious. Ricky tells him to get over it and come on. I’m pretty sure he’s joking.

Heidi tells the designers to meet their models. There is a huge silhouette (which confuses everyone) and it’s a woman in a gigantic wedding dress. Steven thinks it might be sisters of designers or something, but then he doesn’t know any of them. Each of the women has lost a large amount of weight and these are their favorite outfits from their heaviest. They still have them? I mean, speaking as someone who is the “before” size they’re talking about, if I lost that much weight I’d burn those clothes. Everyone introduces themselves and says how much weight they’ve lost. Some of them have lost the equivalent of an entire person. The challenge is to make a new look with the old clothes. Christian bitches about it. Heidi draws names to pair people up. The main thing to know is that everyone has mostly normal clothes, except the woman in the wedding dress, who is paired with Steven.

Chris left them a farewell note and it’s so cute. You can tell everyone really liked him. They have until midnight to make an outfit that is suitable for everyday life but also expresses their view as a designer. Tim gives them 30 minutes to meet with their clients. Victorya is like, they’re not ideal model size and the rules are different. None of them are that fat, but they are not models for sure. Kevin says game on. Christian is pissed because the girl is super boring and always wears black and doesn’t like print or color or dresses or sleeveless or anything that Christian would like. Someone call the wahmbulance. Steven has no idea what to do with himself. That’s totally not fair. Christian got a black t-shirt and jeans. Steven has a wedding dress. How is he going to make something for every day? They only get $10 and 15 minutes to shop at Mood. Steven is going to use the wedding dress as trim for a black dress, and Jillian has found fabric in the exact color of the shirt she has, because the shirt has too much seaming or something. That’s about all shopping is good for.

Work time. I don’t know if I could cut up someone’s wedding dress. Jack’s face almost looks worse than it did this morning, if that‘s possible. He doesn’t want to leave because the treatment is hardcore. According to Tim’s Take (which is back! Hooray!) it’s a week in the hospital on an IV. He says that the infection is something anyone could get, and his immune system isn’t suppressed, it’s just tricky to treat it. Staph infections are nothing to play with even if you are healthy. He calls his doctor on the phone and his doctor wants him to come in right away. He worked hard to get here and he’s pretty upset about it. Tim comes in and he and Jack go outside to talk. Sweet P says his health is more important than the competition. Tim calls them around, and Jack’s sobbing, and he tells everyone that he doesn’t want to leave at all, but he isn’t comfortable staying, and he quits. I’m going to cry. I mean, I know he’s OK now, but this sucks. Everyone cries when they say goodbye.

Kit says it was hard to handle the emotions. Everyone seems pretty down. Suddenly Ricky is wearing shoes off the accessory wall, because he’s the same size as the model and he wants to look at his clothes with heels. It’s freaky. (Kmanpat: “He’s entirely too comfortable in those.“) Tim makes them gather around for another surprise, which is Chris! Now that I think about it, wasn’t he in the previews? Maybe not, they’re not that stupid. Either way I can’t remember. They brought him back to take Jack’s place. Everyone cheers and is happy! Yay! He gets to stay overnight to work because it’s so late in the day. Now their clients come in for fitting. Chris loves the challenge since he is no stranger to dieting. Christian…seems to be making nothing awesome. He’s taking the shirt in and he’s then going to take in the pants. Blah. It looks briefly like Steven’s client will be mad for not having color but she doesn’t care. Steven thinks he’ll be done on time. There is no client drama a la Angela’s mom, which is good because that was stupid drama, but also bad because it’s more boring.

Chris asks to see Steven’s wedding dress and he loves it and asks for it. Because he’s going to wear it. Sadly this does not happen. Christian says fierce again but it’s not to the camera. Maybe that’s just how he talks.

Tim comes in and asks Christian how fierce his outfit is. Hee, Tim mocks you. Someone else in the background laughs too. Elisa’s outfit is busy; there are multiple layers and a slip that sticks out of the bottom of the skirt. Tim thinks it doesn’t work for the client. I like Elisa. I just want to say that. Steven tells Tim that the wedding dress is only going to be used as “cuff and collar” and let me tell you, that’s not what I think of when I think of “cuffs and collar”. Tim is worried he’s throwing away most of the dress, but Steven pretends like he might stand up to Nina if questioned. I’d like to see that. Chris wants to make a sailor suit. Yeah. Tim warns him not to make a costume. They agree that he should make as many decisions as he can now while he still has his brain, and Tim says, “I’ve make more bad decisions at 3 o’clock in the morning than I can list.” Everyone laughs and Steven demands names. Hee! Tim claims to be an old fart since he didn’t even think of that. He promises to come back at 4am after his bad 3am decision. (Me: “Do you think that‘s what happened to Andre?”)

Christian talks smack about being finished, and in response, Sweet P asks the room if it’s against the law to kill a 12 year old. Chris says you‘d have to wait until he turns 12. Hee. Christian then asks the room, “Don’t these bitches know I’m way better than them?“ and at first I thought he was still joking, like when you tell people to shut up when they’re making fun of you. But watching it again, he seems more serious. Can’t take the heat, can you? Everyone goes home and ditches Chris in the workroom. He doesn’t want to be eliminated twice in a row.

In the morning when the designers get to the workroom they wake Chris up to go back to work. He’s so confused that he can’t even remember if he made anything. It’s done, but he has no idea if it sucks or not. Steven doesn’t know what’s going on, but he does know he‘s not done at all. Models! Kevin says everyone is looking at his model because she’s fabulous. Jillian knows that everyone can tell that she didn’t use the clothes she was given. Christian reminds us that he is awesome, of course. Chris is glad that his clothes don’t totally suck. Christian talks smack. He says that stupid thing about “the judges might die over it, or die because of it.” Honey, it wasn’t that funny the first time. Elisa says that if her client is happy, then she’s won as far as she’s concerned. Ricky is crying. I know that is not news, but this time I think because his client is super happy and he’s touched. Steven runs around like a crazy person and he says panic is fun. He’s reduced to gluing the hem of his dress, as his client looks on in horror.

Heidi is wearing a very short dress with a blousy top and it’s not that great. Also she needs a haircut because her bangs are too long. She welcomes Chris back, and I just had a thought. When they kicked Keith out, they didn’t bring anyone back to replace him. Interesting. Guest judge: Patrick Robinson, head designer of the Gap. Nice fro. Sweet P: halter dress in green. It used to be a giant olive caftan. Jillian: another halter dress with a racerback, this one in red. Ricky: empire waist top and capris. It’s very cute. Chris: it’s a light blue top and a pencil skirt with a red sash and pleat in the back. I think the sash might be what pushes it over the line but I like the fit. Christian: she’s got pants and a black ruffled shirt. It’s very Christian. Eh. Victorya: green velvet knee length dress, where the center bodice part looks like a different fabric. Reversed maybe? Or from the sleeves? It used to be one of those floor length long sleeved velvet dresses people sometimes think us fat girls like to wear. There’s a belt but I think it could be more flattering. Elisa: red jacket, long tunic with knee length skirt. Or possibly short dress with the slip peeking out. Kit: pink dress with a faux wrap top. It‘s OK. Kevin: yellow strapless bustier tunic (out of a blazer) with leggings. Very hot. Steven: she looks like a pilgrim. It’s all black with a white collar and white cuffs on elbow length sleeves and then the skirt is below the knee. Rami: sleeveless top and pencil skirt which looks great.

Steven, Christian, Chris, Kevin, Jillian, and Elisa are called out. Everyone else can go. Kevin’s model loves his outfit. Everyone loves it. Kors is like, be careful with leggings, everyone has them so it’s not unique. Blah, whatever. Elisa says that Tracy needs active stuff. There’s a sash I didn’t see before. Heidi wanted something more classic. They think that Elisa didn’t make something that fit her client. She’s also cut her client into sections and she’s short. Jillian gets called out on the fact that she used new fabric, but that‘s about the only thing bad. Kors says it’s a dress that makes her look great but not hoochie. Nina wants something with the original shirt but she is sexy and tasteful. While we’re on the subject of not using the materials given, Steven gets yelled at next. Kors is speechless. He thinks the fabric was amazing (white polyester satin? Um, no) but it’s the beading he wanted. Stupid. Christian gets high praise, it’s super commercial, the client loves it, etc. Chris’s client feels good about his “costume“, and they like the top, but not the red. Kors is like, 1957 Shirley McClaine hooker with a heart of gold, or something. Shut up, orangey. You will never match “barefoot Appalachian Lil’ Abner Barbie” so stop trying to come up with stuff.

Judge bashing. Not bashing the judges, but the part where the judges bash the contestants. First though they discuss that they love that Kevin‘s model loved her outfit and the bustier was great. Christian’s clothes are young and cool. Jillian has a beautiful dress. Elisa didn’t match her client and visually chopped her body so it looks stumpy. Steven’s outfit was a failure because he didn’t use any of his fabric. Apparently they were all waiting for some crazy fabulous thing all in white with beading. I bet if that’s what he had given them they’d complain about how it was too much like the original outfit. Heidi brings up that she looked like a French maid, but really, it’s a pilgrim outfit. Chris gets in trouble for the costume thing again. I just don’t see it. I guess that’s me.

Jillian is safe. Christian wins. Woo. He gets immunity, which is pretty sweet. (Me: “You know this means we’ll have to listen to him talk about how awesome he is.” Kmanpat: “Don’t you mean…fierce!” Me: “…No. No I do not.”) Kevin and Chris are safe. Steven is out. Aww! I like his sense of humor. His dress did suck, though. He says just because the judges don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s awful. He doesn’t have any parting words about how he’s going to keep going or anything. He seems kind of lost.

Next week: Tim is waking them up to freak them out. They jump up and down. Jillian fails. Sweet P freaks. The workroom looks totally trashed.