Project Runway 2/27/08--"Finale Part 1" summary

Previously on Project Runway: There was a boring reunion show where people were cranky. Oh, you mean before that. Everyone made dresses based on works of art. Sweet P made a cute dress that had nothing to do with her picture, unfortunately, so she went home. Christian won, with his usual puffy sleeves, and Jillian also did well. Then we come to Chris and Rami. Chris made a beautiful dress that also happened to be too similar to his and Christian’s avant-garde dress. Rami draped something, AGAIN. The guest judge was Roberto Cavalli, and he LOVED Chris’s dress and Rami bored him. The judges ended up being deadlocked, which makes me suspect that Cavalli voted for Chris, along with Nina who was sick of Rami draping things. Then the other two voted for Rami. So those two had to make collections and be judged just before Fashion Week. And apparently start dating or something, because I’m not the only one who noticed how snuggly they were at the reunion.(click for more)

Heidi comes out to explain to everyone about the Fashion Week collections, as if they didn’t already know. They get $8,000 and the next 5 months. She reminds Chris and Rami about their extra challenge. Heidi says they’ve all chosen to keep their models, but it’s a voice-over so I am betting that they actually had model selection but nothing happened so they cut it. Tim reminds them the world will be watching, no pressure or anything. Heidi proposes a toast.

They go all the way back to the apartment roof, where Tim name-drops the product placement champagne. Christian brags that he is awesome. Everyone packs up and Jillian is also thrilled. Rami and Chris are excited to make collections. Nothing we haven‘t seen before in the first 3 seasons of people leaving to go make collections.

Tim goes to Christian’s flat in New York for a visit, and the first thing I see is that Christian’s hair is flat. He’s got a tiny apartment and he’s sewing in a room the size of my closet. Seriously, his bed slides out and he sleeps on the floor. Christian confirms that his room was the closet. Then there are childhood pictures where he looks normal, as does his mom. He worked in a salon in Annapolis when he was young(er), where his stupid hair isn’t so weird. He has a lot done. His theme is romantic Goth, I guess. It’s all blacks with a couple of browns. And some beige. I really like color so I‘m bored. He’s got some ruffled thing, I don’t know. Tim tells him to ask when he doesn’t need something to edit. He has pants covered in feathers. Tim says they’re fabulous but they look costumey. He puts them with one of his blouses with giant ruffles, and he’s like, it’s a lot of look. (Kmanpat: “Maybe after sewing feathers all day he doesn’t want his hair to be like feathers anymore.“) Christian says he’ll listen to Tim but in the end do whatever the hell he wants.

Next up is Jillian. Also in New York. Tim says people are “working on their collections” in a certain location and it almost sounds like they don’t really live there. Jillian’s got dress forms all over the living room. In her interview she’s all made up and she looks beautiful. She’s got a jacket with some seaming details. It’s like princess seams but with tabs so it looks almost woven. Jillian didn’t go back to Ralph Lauren after the show, so she’s been spending a lot of free time looking for inspiration. She’s working from 15th century armor as the basis for her collection. Tim loves the combination of femininity and strength. She also doesn’t have much color which Tim warns her about. There’s a full body shot, and she’s wearing a thick winter sweater, and…corduroy shorts. Sigh. They go to meet her parents in Long Island. And boyfriend. And cute small children. Apparently her mom was told by a psychic that she would have one famous child so her mom pushed her to be awesome. I don’t know if I should be moved or horrified. She was a cute kid.

Rami is in LA. His friends are “hanging out” I guess, and they meet him right off and they chat over snacks. You should know that the guy that was there? Is his partner and was introduced as his “good friend”. Huh? His dad and step-mom are very supportive, even though he kept it a secret for a long time because of his culture and whatnot. And I’m talking about the sketching and fashion designing. He’s describing sketching in secret, and his brother “walking in” on him, and you can edit out a couple of key words and it’s like his coming out story. He says something else, but there is a super hot picture where he looks like John Barrowman and I stopped listening for a second. Rami’s studio is a real building studio, not in his house. His inspiration is Joan of Arc. His first look is a black capelet with sleeves, and a blouse with pleats and the back is draped. Like a shawl collar only longer. Tim is worried there isn’t any softness in the other pieces and picks up a coat as a demo, because it’s super heavy. Rami also is not planning to listen to every single thing Tim says.

Chris is in New York too, which is sad because I wanted him to be in San Francisco. He is conscious of making costumes, but he wants to be himself. His inspiration is “95% fashion, 5% costume”, or beauty with a quirk. He’s got a crocheted thing? It looks like a ladder of velvet or something. And he’s using human hair for trim in a couple of pieces. Tim clutches his pearls. Chris is not surprised. Tim is giggling and has no words. He starts telling a story about the monkey house and how after a while it doesn’t stink but then if people come in they will know it stinks. Chris has been living in the monkey house. He still wants to use some hair. Then they take a trip to his friend’s house, who has built a ton of stuff all over the place. Chris calls it a “baroque, rococo nightmare.“ There is crap everywhere, all over the walls, Jesus how can he live in there? Chris’s brothers are nonplused by the crazy. He won a costume contest once and kept on doing it but he wanted to get into fashion so he moved to New York. Hey, you know what? Tim didn’t meet Christian’s friends. Two options. 1. Christian didn’t want Tim to meet his friends. 2. Christian doesn’t have any friends.

Time for Fashion Week! Rami is the only one who has to fly in with a ton of luggage. They still put everyone up in a hotel. Everyone is confident. Jillian is rooming with Christian I guess, and they quasi-joke about being nice to each other. Rami is rooming with Chris. Which…is interesting. They both go over to the other room and everyone has a nice reunion and beers. More reminders of what’s at stake, blah blah if I can’t remember what happened 20 minutes ago I have bigger problems that watching TV.

In the morning Rami and Chris gather their stuff and head on over to the workspace. They’ve only set up three tables, and Chris offers to share with Rami. Which is good because Christian refuses to share. Jillian makes multiple trips. There’s still a bluefly.com accessory wall.

Tim appears so he can stand over the bluefly.com painted on the floor and tell Chris and Rami they have 3 hours to fit 3 randomly assigned models. Jillian and Christian have to help them. Haha! Rami with Jillian, and Chris with Christian. That’s 3 hours you can’t have to work on your own stuff! Tim makes a point to namedrop Bluefly because they donated shoes, I guess to avoid a Karasaun thing. Chris has chosen 3 black pieces, while Rami has picked one dramatic piece, one sculptured, and one ethereal. Rami is flailing hardcore. He says it’s hot (Kmanpat: “Yes, yes you are.”). Christian smirks that Christian’s clothes are “interesting”, in the way your child’s crappy drawing is “interesting” because you don’t know what it’s supposed to be. Chris makes him brush the dress. Hee. The quotes from Rami and Chris seem to imply that Chris is more confident than Rami, which tells me that Rami is going to win. I mean, not that you couldn’t tell all season that the judges loved Rami. Except Nina, I guess she gets bored easily. They just couldn’t get Cavalli to change his mind.

Runway time! Good Lord, Heidi is wearing rubber leggings. And a giant black blazer. Only Kors and Nina are there, so they can do whatever they want. Chris is so dead. Rami is up first: blue coat with a black dress underneath. They don‘t really show the dress (although the little bit I saw was classic Rami draping) so I guess the coat is supposed to be the whole point, but then why open the coat at all? The coat has a high collar and puffy shoulders and then pleating on the arms and then puffy cuffs. It’s foofy and high fashion, I guess. The next look is a black shawl and a draped. The dress is made of two contrasting fabrics, one white and one dark but both with polka dots. It‘s not a Grecian dress (it’s strapless and fitted to her waist) but it‘s certainly draped. His final look is a long black dress with a million pleats and a train. I don’t like the headband though. Chris: the black jacket with hair trim that he showed Tim and a beaded skirt. It could be fur, I guess. Second look: Halter top with black beading over a skin tone fabric, and the whole skirt is hair. Final look: long slim black dress with huge wrap, all the front is crocheted and it is awesome. The model can’t walk in it, though.

Chris talks about his glamour Goth inspiration and “unexpected materials”. Everyone looks creeped out by the hair. Kors admits that he thought outside the box. The beads I saw were actually safety pins. Kors hates the last girl because she has to walk slowly, and he calls her dress a “velvet condom“. Nina thinks he may be overboard. She and Kors have to admit everything is constructed beautifully. Heidi thinks it’s different. Chris thinks that it would be good to see a viewpoint from outside the fashion world in Fashion Week. Rami starts out by saying that he wanted to make things that were different outside the show. Nina is glad, and for some reason loves the second look, which is the draped look. Eh? Maybe because it’s different colors and it‘s not Grecian. The first coat has huge volume and pleats and it‘s busy. What I thought were puffy shoulders are actually more like cap sleeves. The third dress has circles on her hips so they look bigger. Now, I didn’t notice that until Kors pointed it out. This has been Rami’s calling since he was 6 so he wants to get the opportunity. Time for the judges to talk about them alone.

Nina is upset that both men were so dark. There was a lot of ingenuity but some overdone ness. Rami had some commercial aspects to his dress, but the coat was overdone. Kors loves that he tried, and Nina is so relieved that he didn’t drape everything. Why are we talking about his commercial appeal when that wasn’t enough to save Sweet P? I mean, look for commercial appeal, or penalize them for being too commercial, but pick one. Chris’s clothes were intriguing, because you can’t tell what they’re made of. Kors feels like they’re still costumes, but Nina says that there are designers who started out making costumes. They don’t talk about Chris nearly as long as they talk about Rami. Just like they were trying to justify their decision that they made long ago!

This was a difficult decision, everyone’s looks were dark and overworked, etc. Praise for everyone! Rami is in. Don’t you act surprised. They were looking for any excuse to let him in, and he made one thing without any draping in it so they were satisfied. I get that Rami makes beautiful dresses, but the judging is so arbitrary this season, and everyone contradicts themselves, and Rami repeats himself but Christian doesn’t, and being commercial helps Rami but hurts Sweet P, and just be consistent for Chrissakes. Chris and Rami hug and there is a moment where I think they’re going to start making out but they don’t. Jillian and Christian are backstage hovering. Chris is like, you two bitches better watch out for Rami! Haha! Tim comes to say goodbye, and Chris is like, this happened before! Hee hee! He never expected the amount of love he got. He says he’d do it again and then he laughs. Hee.

Next week: Jillian flips out over a missing model, Christian actually stops talking about how awesome he is, and I think he actually cries. Posh is the guest judge. I don’t even care who wins anymore, because I’m sure it’ll be based on some random criteria that the judges picked out because they threw a dart at a dartboard and that’s where it landed.