Project Runway 1/2/08--"Eye Candy" summary

Previously on Project Runway: Jack’s face swelled up because of an infection, which was pretty scary, and he had to leave the show because the treatment basically involved a hospital stay and an IV. Chris came back to the show to take his place, which everyone on the show was very excited about. I’m excited too, I like Chris, but I do see the point that he lost and then got a do-over with no penalty. Kmanpat pointed out that since there were real people involved, it’s possible the producers were obligated to make something happen for Jack’s model, and also my sister thought that this way, they don‘t have to cut a challenge. Oh! The best part was the challenge! All of their models were women who had lost a ton of weight and the designers had to use their old fat clothes to make new outfits. Christian won, so you know we’ll hear about it forever. Steven got stuck with the woman who brought her wedding dress, neglected to use most of it, and was out. So we lost both Steven and Jack. (click for more)

Kevin complains that his roommates are gone and it sucks. Chris laughs at Ricky because he doesn‘t care that Steven‘s gone. Well, Ricky asks him what he thinks and he‘s all, I‘m still here after my do-over, so ha ha. Christian makes sure we all understand why he thinks Steven was eliminated, as if anyone cares. Sweet P starts talking about sticking around, so you know she’s going to have trouble today. Kit (I think) points out that this is challenge 6 so they‘re halfway there.

Heidi greets everyone with her stupid velvet button bag and they pick new models. Everyone. I wish they’d pick one model selection method and just stick to it. Either everyone picks models every week, or only the winner gets to pick, but no more of this crap where you just do whatever you feel like that week. I haven’t even bothered to learn the models’ names because after Morganza there is no model drama. Sweet P isn’t last! That’s the most exciting thing. And also the fact that some girl is going to be out even though they weren’t around the last challenge, and that’s happened twice now. Heidi tells them Tim will be waking them up early tomorrow to take them on a field trip for their next challenge.

Tim Gunn wake up call! 6am! At least he knocks politely, rather than busting in all, “I want breakfast!”. Kit is traumatized to be in her pajamas. Ricky answers the door holding his entire comforter for some reason. Chris asks where Tim’s footie pajamas are. HMM I want to relate this to Tim‘s earlier comment about stupid decisions at 3am but I can‘t come up with something good. Jillian dresses herself in rainbow suspenders. No, I’m serious. Tim takes them to Times Square and Jillian is like, maybe we’re dressing a musical? Because she doesn’t watch the show. No, it’s HERSHEY’S. Elisa is thrilled. No shock there. Oo, chocolate clothes.

Tim introduces Michelle Gloeckler. They have to use Hershey’s products as raw materials. Now, I happen to know that people make chocolate clothes all the time. But those are like, poured and molded chocolate clothes. But still. I will quote Tim: “You’ll be using items from Hershey’s as the raw materials for the outfit of your choice”. The graphic says “use items from the Hershey’s store”. That becomes important later. 5 minutes to grab whatever they want, no budget. Chris laughs that you shouldn’t use food to make things. He is grabbing pillows. Heh. Christian is only taking Reese’s peanut butter cups. I must point out that in this shot you can see his boots, which are pointy toed but not high heeled. Still…not sure he should be wearing boots that I could wear. It’s like a tornado hit that store when they‘re done. They can barely carry all their stuff. Jillian’s suspenders come in handy because she’s taken the larger bags and laid them lengthwise so the suspenders hold them next to her body. On the second go-round I noticed the amount of product that people took that I saw none of in the outfits. Where did it all go?

They’ve got 13 hours now, back at Parson‘s. There’s a lot of shenanigans, playing with the candy and so forth. Tim arrives to remind them they have to make their clothes wearable. Of course. Jillian tells us she’s the only one using edible product. So, everyone else is using stuffed animals and wrappers? Lame!! I demand clothes made out of food! Sweet P is using broken pots and bears. Christian says he works “instantaneous” and it works for him because he has a strong style. In the background there is jaunty music which is just this side of Crazy Tootling. He’s using the wrappers from the peanut butter cups, not the foil, the brown wrappers, glued onto some brown fabric that came from…somewhere. And the calls them “Ree-see’s”. Chris is making op-art which looks cool. Everyone talks about Jillian using real food. Rami has stolen wrapping paper, I think, and he’s saying how he only picks stuff he can work. Elisa is telling a story about her daughter Calliope. She says it was her daughter’s idea to try out for project runway. Apparently when she was in London she got hit by a car and broke her neck, was in a coma, all that. Not like I’m trying to dismiss what she’s gone through, but you can guess what all her injuries are. She’s trying to reclaim her life that she could have had before the car accident. Oh, ELISA. You just sealed your doom. Kevin has many pieces to his outfit, and I hope he can get done with everything. Christian is done already, and insisting he doesn‘t know how it happens! He‘s just so great! Ricky is tired of him and his ego. (Kmanpat: “But he’s so fierce!“) Christian gives unwanted advice to everyone and interviews that other designers don’t have a real direction because they think about their pieces too much. Eh? Kevin says every interview he has to tell us he’s going to kill Christian. Sweet P is starting over and she gets help from Christian. Blah. But it’s too crazy, her broken pots and bright blue animal pieces.

As time goes on, people start freaking out. Tim comes in to discuss. He tells Victorya to change her ruffles. Her whole dress looks like ruffles. Rami’s skirt has great pleats, it looks cool. Tim declares it “Jillian”. Elisa is interpreting Gretel. This worries Tim because it’s not exuberant enough. Jillian explains that she is working but her materials are more tedious than she thought. Sweet P gets her interview as she is starting over. So of course it looks really bad when Tim tries to see what she‘s doing. Tim tells her that her skirt looks like a maxi pad. Yikes. A hidden gem from Tim‘s Take: what we didn’t see was that Tim pulled Christian aside (since even Tim saw him sitting around doing nothing but irritating everyone) and told him maybe he should do some more thinking. He has immunity but I guess Christian thought his candy wrappers and the cut of the dress were enough to win because everyone else sucks so much. Tim received a death glare for his trouble.

With an hour left Jillian is still not much further along. Chris goes to sleep. Jillian can’t get the Twizzlers to stay on. She tells Rami that when she picks up the skirt everything falls off, but I didn’t see anything fall. She’s worried she won’t finish, and Sweet P comforts her. She says she’s terrified but she’s still got that monotone. You know that she’ll be fine.

Elisa’s goal is to be safe. She thinks she can make final 3. Jillian is still upset that she’s a good designer and she doesn’t want to fail. So she’s fine. Elisa is probably out. Christian says something about a “tranny mess” but I’m not sure what or who he’s talking about. Shut up Christian. Sweet P still doesn’t know what’s going on with her dress. Everyone fits models. Chris feels for Jillian and knows about trying to make dresses with food. Jillian’s model, on the other hand, offers to help her stitch Twizzlers on. Nice. Sweet P is in trouble. I half expect Christian to be in the makeup room getting makeup. Rami reminds us that his outfit (and everyone else’s) are made of paper, mostly, which is pretty fragile.

Heidi tells them their outfits will be auctioned off for charity. Aren’t all the outfits from every episode auctioned for charity? Guest judge tonight is Zac Posen. I don’t know what he has to do with candy. (Kmanpat: “He’s tasty!“) Ricky: silver bodice and Hershey’s wrappers. The skirt shape reminds me of a kiss; I think a bubble skirt works here. Chris’s outfit has Hershey’s on the bodice, in vertical stripes with a plain brown skirt and is non-costumey. Kit’s bodice is Kit Kat wrappers and the skirt is Hershey’s wrappers, those giant oversized bars. I think that’s what Chris used. It‘s OK. Elisa’s hot mess is brown velvet and ruffles at the top, which I guess isn‘t a hot mess, and then puffy silver water wings. Kevin’s model has a silver bodice with a brown pencil skirt, with a little silver ruffle, and a darker brown bolero jacket. It looks like I could buy it in a store. Christian’s outfit actually does look hot, damn him. It’s a halter dress and the wrappers are shiny so it is neat. Sweet P’s silver thing, eh. The model is throwing candy and looks asleep. It’s just a silver bodice and a light colored skirt. Rami’s skirt is pretty cute, I like the pleats. The top is shiny vinyl in a halter. Jillian…the bodice is stiff but the skirt is amazing. Victorya’s ruffled mess is asymmetrical and the model is holding her hands out like she’s a Barbie doll and it looks dumb. I guess Victorya used Peppermint Patty pillows or something, but she turned them inside out so they’re not exciting.

Ricky, Christian, Kit, and Kevin get to leave. Ha on that, Christian! He looks pissed. Rami explains what he used to make his clothes. And Zac is impressed with the complicated construction and Kors says it could have been stupid. He mentions working with candy which I don’t think there is actual candy in the dress. Elisa wanted her dress to feel like candy. Randomly they attack her for being boring. Well, I guess it’s not that exciting. They were looking for the “joy of candy”. Jillian does get praise for using actually candy, thank God. Kors self-consciously says she looks “deliciously chic”. Shush. Victorya argues that she would wear her dress, because Kors thinks she never would wear it, and she works at Dairy Queen? Or something? They also point out that her model walked stupid. Victorya wanted “Ice Princess”, which doesn’t go with wearable. Chris talks about his op-art bodice, and Zac thinks it’s not fanciful. Chris points out he totally could have brought them a parade float. Kors does admit that from Chris, his outfit is smart editing. Nina says she is all set for Elle. Good. Sweet P’s skirt is made out of those paper tabs that stick out of the kiss? Only in tissue paper form? Kors wants more joy. Sweet P argues that she has a simple style, but Nina calls it sad.

Kors does know they all enjoyed themselves but some people did well. They know Chris’ garment was good. Hilariously, backstage he is eating candy. Rami did a ton of detailed work in his pleated skirt that we at home couldn’t make out. Jillian’s was also well done. And actually used candy. Elisa wants to be avant-garde but she’s not making it. Victorya didn’t do anything interesting or inspiring, and Zac complains about using the pillow with the logo, even though I‘m pretty sure that‘s what Chris used for his skirt. Sweet P’s also wasn’t very exciting.

Chris is in. The winner is Rami. Stupid non-edible clothes. False advertising, is what that is. I wanted to see more candy. Wendy Pepper is screaming at her TV right now, you know she is. You know they were hoping for a train wreck like that bikini and then only one person used candy. OK, two, I think Kevin had Rolo buttons. Still. Jillian is in. Victorya is in. Elisa should have been playful and creative, and Sweet P’s look was boring and thrown together at the last minute. Sweet P is in. Aww, poor Elisa. She feels fortified and evolved. She’s grown and the other contestants were the true judges and she won. I’ll miss her.

Next week: creating memories. Christian is on the floor. Ricky cries. I am thinking it may be family members. Why did they even hire models this year?