Project Runway 1/23/08--"Even Designers Get the Blues" summary

Previously on Project Runway: What looked to be a stupid challenge, about hair, turned out to be kind of awesome. The designers have to make avant-garde looks inspired by their model’s hairstyle. Marred slightly by the lame “surprise” of having to make a ready-to-wear look too, some of the greatest designs I’ve ever seen on this show turned up. Victorya and Jillian made a black punk fitted long jacket with pink plaid lining, but they were beaten out by Christian and Chris, who used 45 yards of fabric to create a bazillion layers of ruffles and a giant collar. I have pictures on the post before this one. Rami turned out to be kind of a jerk, but Sweet P’s cute everyday dress saved his ass. Kit ended up going home because her design involved aprons and cutesy flowered prints. (click for more)

Victorya calls Sweet P “Kit” for no reason. Multiple times. There’s no excuse for that. Sweet P thinks Kit kicks ass and she misses her. Chris says their apartment hasn’t lost anyone and then he tells Rami to get out. Ricky says he’s tired of not being good enough. Or being told that. Or something. Maybe his denim capri cutoffs are too tight.

This week only Christian gets to pick out another model. Blah blah, you don’t know who they are anyways, do you? Where is Morgan? Camille? Nazri? When the one model gets sent home Christian tells her “thank you more than life.” Huh? Heidi says Tim is waiting to take them on a field trip. Everyone groans. Rami knows you could do something incredible or end up in garbage. I vote for garbage. (Kmanpat: “Field trip to my house! Only Rami should come!“) Someone asks Tim if they’re going to meet someone fabulous. Tim’s response? “We ARE fabulous; we don’t need to meet anyone fabulous“. Hee. Chris thinks they’re designing cement galoshes. Ha! They end up at a random warehouse. This bodes well for my idea. Except that the woman meeting them there is Caroline Calvin, who is senior VP for Levi’s. OK, I had heard it would be denim, but I held out for trash as long as I could. In the warehouse there is…nothing? No, some clotheslines with jeans. Rami says there are hundreds, but it doesn’t look like it. Tim does confirm, however, that inside the warehouse are 500 pairs of jeans and some 1 yd. bolts of white cotton. They have to make garments with “the spirit of originality and creativity of Levi’s“. 3 minutes to cram laundry bags full of crap. And of course they’re far away and they have to run. Chris looks pissed. You bastards, making the fat man run. Sweet P loses a shoe. She shows us her filthy feet for some reason in interview. Rami wants all dark denim. Poor Jillian is almost too short to reach the jeans. She is going for light colors. Christian also went for jackets like Jillian. Victorya dropped her jeans all over the floor and she’s claiming the random piles on the floor. Whatever. Now all the jeans are on the floor and they are dirty. Godammit I wanted trash.

Levi’s has provided notions for them so there is no Mood trip this week. They have until midnight. Ricky says no one can fit denim like he can so he’s making a corset. This is after he tells us that he’s made hats out of denim. That would be better than that mesh number he likes. Jillian is making a fitted coat with an epaulette of the Levi’s red tags. It looks like last week. Christian calls Rami a greedy bitch for grabbing a ton of stuff. He‘s just kidding. Rami starts talking about his life and how he‘s not an American designer because he didn‘t grow up here, he grew up in Jerusalem and his taste is different. I missed the middle part because he was interviewing in a tank top. He thinks this makes him more edgy and fashion forward. His outfit is not draped, I‘ll give him that. Sweet P’s jeans are all dirty and she for some reason asks Chris how to clean them. Chris and Christian argue about how to clean, which boils down to Chris telling her you can wipe the finished garment with a damp cloth and Christian telling her to clean it with a clean piece of denim (?). Chris says obviously Christian’s never been paid as a stylist (which, if Chris does costumes he should know how to clean stuff) and Christian is like, well, I know more than you, since you’re going to wet denim. Only in that “I’m going to pretend I’m muttering under my breath, oops, did I forget to talk more quietly?” kind of tone. Chris interviews that “it’s so cute to see youth (GIANT EYE ROLL).” Hee. I love Chris. Jillian is like, whatever, immature. Once Christian leaves Chris wants to give him a bottle and send him to take a nap. In the sewing room Christian continues talking, bitching about denim, about how this is so fashion school, about how “this is not how fashion is” or whatever. I think he brings good drama but sometimes I want him to shut up. Rami would tear out his hair if he had any.

Victorya wants to do a classic trench. She also begins to talk about her mom and childhood…hmm. Jillian notices that they’re both doing coats, and she claims that she made the coat last week, but wasn’t Victorya in charge? Wasn’t that her design? I don’t know. Jillian doesn’t like copiers.

Christian pretends that working with denim makes him feel manly. Honey, nothing will make you manly. Apparently they got look books, and it had a trucker jacket, so he’s making biker stuff. Sweet P is making a wedding dress. Her actual wedding dress is so pretty, there‘s a picture. She starts talking about how her husband has been supporting her. I see how it is, Bravo. You‘re making everyone talk about their real lives so we can‘t tell who will go home. Chris and Christian talk about annoying people. Well, Chris says that cool people have been going home, and you can tell he’s nowhere near about to say “But you’re cool and you’re still here!“ Christian bitches that annoying people are still left. OK, pot. He thinks Ricky should have gone home instead of Kit, even though that dress was Kit’s idea. (Kmanpat: “I don’t think you have the right to complain about people always doing the same thing, Puffy Sleeves.”) Ricky knows people want to send him home, but he has a lot of experience and he’s cool with that. He starts listing his experience for us. At one point Chris is alone in the workroom, and when Sweet P asks if people think he’s lonely, Christian says he’s probably talking to himself. Which he is. I talk to myself too. He’s making a “little black dress” except in denim, and he says when he works he talks to his garment. Jillian says it disturbs her a little but he totally doesn’t care.

Tim time! Ricky’s dress is very cute and Tim is impressed. Well…his blog says he wasn’t actually impressed. He told him something to the effect of “make sure it’s finished and when it’s finished, that it’s stunning”, and then they cut it so it sounds like he called it stunning. In reality Tim doesn’t know why he won, even though he is happy for Ricky. Chris has some weird strap down one side of the dress which Tim thinks is incongruous. Jillian’s jacket will be great if she can get it done. Rami is using the zipper as trim. HMM I HAVE SEEN THAT BEFORE. If you look closely at Jeffery’s green striped dress from Fashion Week you’ll see that all the trim is yellow zippers. Tim says nothing. Victorya’s trench is further along than Jillian’s, but it’s patchworky because the denim doesn’t all match. This is not on purpose. Sweet P’s dress scares Tim. “I‘m making a wedding dress, Tim.” “Mm-hm.” “Am I scaring you?” “Mm-hm.” Then the dress is declared “Happy Hands at Home granny circle”. See, Kors, that’s how it’s done. Then he says “hippy dippy” which I didn’t know anyone other than Stacey London said. Crazy! Tim leaves them with two hours.

Sweet P promptly freaks out and shortens her dress. Jillian complains that she wouldn’t mind all of this if there was time to do the work and everyone is like, um, did you ever watch this show? Where have you been? She complains (in her passive aggressive manner) that she’s just venting like everyone else does. Chris points out that she knew her time limit so it’s her own fault. With like 10 minutes to go Jillian cuts herself, again apparently, and she completely loses it and starts crying. I think we’ve found Jillian’s breaking point. Sweet P tells her to freak out in 10 minutes. Christian has even stopped talking to people and he is quite thankful to have immunity.

Jillian, all dolled up in her interview the next day, is much calmer. Rami drenches himself in perfume. Exciting times.

Jillian still has a ton to do and now she is hot gluing. I think a lot of people are. They only have an hour. Of course they only have an hour, now that everyone expects two. Jillian collapses across the table. Victorya only has the coat. No pants, nothing else. Ricky is very proud of himself. He says he’s over “them”, the judges I guess. He’s in the mode of “I am staying true to myself so I am awesome even if I lose”. Sweet P thinks she’ll be safe. Jillian’s model promises her that Victorya’s outfit is not cute. Christian of course thinks he deserves to win because he’s fierce. He’s actually made jeans out of sleeves from a jacket. OK that is cool. He whines that he’s sick of tube dresses. Shush. Rami is freaking out and gluing things. Jillian isn’t proud of her workmanship and thinks she should have made it simpler.

Guest judge is Caroline Calvin, who I think is wearing one of those fake hair scrunchies. You know, the kind made out of fake hair in some random color. No more immunity any more. Heidi is busting out of her dress, I have to say. Chris has a halter dress with a sweetheart neckline and shimmery purple scarf. It’s OK. On one side the trim is frayed but not on the other side. Ricky’s dress has a drop waist and a ruffle, buttons down the front, strapless. The boots go well. Sweet P looks short, which is better, and the darker panels along the waist and hips make it interesting. Victorya has a trench. It’s not super exciting. Kind of full at the bottom. I feel like I could buy it, and that‘s because when you look at the top of the trench coat, it basically looks like the denim jacket she started with. They had been showing the outfit from the back so it wasn‘t as obvious. Rami’s dress has no draping but it does have pleats. It‘s actually a two piece, a skirt with the zipper detail and a top with a high neck. It‘s cool. Christian’s jacket is cropped with the puffy sleeves and popped collar. I like how you can tell he used jacket sleeves for the pants because he left the cuffs. Not only does Jillian’s jacket look kind of like last week but the model has a high ponytail, just to emphasize the similarity. Also there’s a high loose collar, the kind you can sink your face into when you‘re cold.

Heidi makes them all stick around to get harassed. Ha! Christian talks about truckers and motorcycles, two things I doubt he has experience with. They love his sleeves as pants idea. He wisely lets Nina talk and just agrees with her. Kors points out that the jeans are tight, and believe me, they are painted on. Chris talks about his little “black” dress, but Nina thinks it looks dated. Caroline thinks it’s two ideas and unfinished, but she likes the concept, I guess. Of course they hate the frayed part. Rami, of course, gets a lot of praise but no one calls him on the zipper thing. I don’t even need them to attack him for copying Jeffrey; I just want them to be like, “You know? I’ve seen zippers as trim before and I liked them then, and these are just as good.“ Ricky talks about the bitch in him, but they like his dress for once. Kors compares it to Amy Winehouse since his model looks a lot like her. Kors can see how he works on lingerie, Nina tells him it’s impeccable, and Ricky is tearing up with all the praise and everyone pats him on the back. At one point he bugs his eyes out to keep from crying. Also I notice he comes up to his model’s shoulder. He explains that it’s a rollercoaster and he doesn’t know where he’ll go next, or something. Jillian’s coat gets her in trouble, because it’s not impeccably done. Caroline thinks the red tags are distracting. Nina thinks there are too many ideas, Heidi says it makes her look fat. Sweet P talks about patchwork and changing her design to make it better. Kors loves it and Sweet P is obviously relieved. Also it has “slimming voodoo” and Nina says, “I think all the girls here, except for Michael, would wear it.“ Kors says he would wear it with the right shoe, but I think he ignored the bigger issue which is that Nina just called him a girl. Actually I would pay to see Kors in that dress. Caroline is missing “the Levi’s 501”, whatever that means, but she still likes it. Up close you can really see that Victorya just took a jacket and put a skirt on it. She insists that she did a ton of work. Kors likes the idea of a trench coat but the execution is wonky because “it looks like a party skirt got glued onto a jean jacket”. Jillian looks as smug as she ever does.

Praise: Ricky was clever and meticulous and they can see the lingerie experience. Christian had a lot of details and was iconic, plus he sent out a “new jean” which Heidi thinks a lot of people would be into, which just tells me that Heidi has not shopped at a regular people store for a long time. Sweet P made it elegant and chic. Rami had cool zippers. Whatever. Jillian made it too complicated, Chris was dated and not rough enough. Kors tries to have a quote but he’s not going to beat “Happy Hands at Home granny circle”. Victorya didn’t have fun and it made no sense. I know this part is boring but it’s late and I’m done with this episode already.

Rami is in. The winner is Ricky. Cool! Caroline wants to sell a limited edition of his dress on Levi’s website. Sweet P is in. Christian is in. Chris is in. Oo, battle of the coats. Jillian’s look was unfocused, and Victorya was uninspiring. Jillian is in. Victorya says she’s competitive and she tries to let her work speak for itself. She seems calm. This is only a small reflection of me, I am going to have a great career, etc.

Next week: another stupid field trip and I think I hear children. Of course I was wrong last week. Lots of shiny fabric. Kors says he feels “like the Pope at a sex club”. Uh…maybe those aren’t shrieking children.