Project Runway 9/17/09--"Fashion Headliners" summary

Previously on Project Runway: The models all came up with something they wanted to wear to an industry event, which meant there was some crazy and people who listened too much to their models and whatever. They were supposed to make something eye catching. Althea won, because she made some suit, and the jacket kicked ass but I couldn’t figure out the skirt. Qristyl went home, and now I don’t have to spell her name but I really wanted her to be around to make real women’s clothes. People elsewhere have pointed out that all the challenges this season have been like, “make a pretty dress” which is boring. Agreed. Also not all the models wore their outfits to the event. Some of them wore other random clothes. (click for more)

Carol Hannah says they are narrowing it down to the people who are competent. I’m seeing a lot of people call her Carol Hannah and not just Carol so I’m thinking I’ve been getting it wrong this whole time. Johnny hates being in the bottom. Althea wants to keep it up. Irina didn’t think Althea earned it, but doesn’t explain why. Nicolas interviews that Johnny and Irina shouldn’t be here at all.

Heidi is wearing pants today. She reminds everyone that Althea has immunity, and that Tim is waiting to take them on a field trip. Then she says this challenge will be tough but “the answers will be in black and white”. Cue dramatic gasping which Heidi mocks.

Logan thinks old Hollywood black and white movies. Oo, that would be good. Shirin thinks factory, but they end up at the Los Angeles Times. Oh! I was right last week! They wander the printing floor and end up with Booth Moore, fashion critic for the Times, and piles and piles of magazines. He says fashion is news, and elements of fashion are derived from headlines? OK, and then Booth says that they’re “bring all this down to a practical level” and make clothes from the newspaper. Oh, that could have been done better. “Fashion comes from news. Today you’re going to use the news to create fashion!” See, that took me 30 seconds. Nicolas of course is not pleased, but FINALLY something interesting. They have 3 minutes, and 5 different sections, I think so they can get some colors. Irina feels that everyone is grabbing more paper than they need. In addition to newspapers it looks like there are big rolls of blank paper too.

Once they get back to the workroom Tim gives them markers and dye and brushes, and tells them they can use muslin but it can’t show. Then we get a history lesson about paper clothing. They have until tonight, and winner gets immunity. Chris wants to make something fitted and rigid and a skirt with hundreds of feathers. The amount of work kind of freaks him out. Althea is lost and doesn’t know what paper would be good for in terms of shapes. Carol Hannah knows what she wants but also that she has to dye her paper now if she wants it to dry. Nicolas says he’s never sewn newspaper, as if others have. He declares he’s going home. Irina’s trying to go for a fabric look. I can see several people using the color ads as a print, which I think is cooler than painting over the paper. Shirin is making a crazy origami skirt with points. And a papier-mâché bodice. She talks a lot, mostly to herself, and those shots are interlaced with cuts of everyone else giving her a wide berth. Logan says he’s never met anyone so small that made so much noise. Nicolas feels old. You are old, you act old and superior. I like Nicolas, but sometimes he needs to pull the stick out of his ass. Johnny has some origami cranes going on. He’s painting his dress with fabric dye. Nicolas, again, is slamming someone else’s dress, and I’m noticing you have one page of newspaper on your dress form so maybe you should do your own work, hmm? I’ve never seen so much trash talking from someone who had literally nothing done. Johnny’s dress is a red column dress with folded parts around the shoulder. It does not suck ass, as Nicolas claims. I mean, it’s not that great. But I’ve seen worse. Ra’Mon is very excited by using a new material. More origami. Yeah. Louise is decoupaging headlines from the paper.

Tim time! Gordana is making two garments; one will say “time to change”. Tim is bored, but respects her political statement. He says her sketches are ho-hum but her garment is full of pleats and is not ho-hum at all. I guess that one is the non-political one. When she says there’s no muslin he says “I love you. Stunning.” Yay! Althea disappoints Tim. She’s just got some red, and shoulder pads. He tells her to look at the paper upside down so it’s just shapes and forms. Irina had a dress already, but it dried stiff, so she’s making a raincoat, and she tells Tim that she doesn’t think it will work without the muslin. He says that it’s been done, and she just says OK and goes back to work. Johnny explains his dress to Tim, who calls it “a craft project gone awry”. I love the birds though! Tim thinks they are attacking the dress. Don’t the judges love that stuff? Nicolas almost falls over laughing at Johnny. Sadly Nicolas gets a good review. Well, Tim warns him against costumes. Chris’s dress could be a showstopper. If he can get it done. Tim says he doesn’t need to talk to him any more, just go do it. Then Tim tells everyone he’s inspired and can’t wait.

Johnny is tiling his leftover squares. Irina seems to be crumpling paper and gluing it to other paper for her coat. Nicolas talks about punk rock. Johnny’s dress now is very busy. The models come in and worry about how this is going to work. However, mostly they seem excited. How are they going to fasten these things on? Johnny complains to his model about his dress getting ruined? It sounds like he didn’t want to admit he scrapped his first dress, so he is making up some story about how he wanted to iron it but obviously he couldn’t so he tried to steam it but the steamer was spitting and ruined it. Huh? Why doesn’t he just say his first dress was bad so he threw it away and started over? Why is there a giant story? After the models leave Johnny pretty much gives up and works on a crossword puzzle. Chris says everyone’s sick of Johnny’s lack of work. I don’t know why they worry about it. Just let him get eliminated.

Back at the apartment Johnny is talking about how Tim hated his first dress and he’s telling the story about the steamer again so is the story supposed to be about his second dress? Maybe it’s still his first dress. Nicolas is in the other apartment making fun of him and telling everyone what Tim said. They laugh but it wasn’t that funny. I mean…Tim’s said better things. “Gay pterodactyl” comes to mind.

In the morning all of a sudden Nicolas has doubts. Well, I think Nicolas always had doubts but was too busy making fun of Johnny. Johnny, for his part, interviews that he really doesn’t care what others think about him. Ra’Mon actually has two pieces. Irina’s coat looks cool. Tim arrives to give them 2 hours, and tells them not to stall out. Johnny’s model likes his dress. Gordana is thrilled with her final result. Carol Hannah stands on a table to finish her dress and take it off the dress form. Althea and Ra’Mon whisper that Irina’s coat looks simple and like she didn’t spend a lot of time on it. Tim tells everyone to pack some tape. The workroom is trashed. Johnny finally gets one in and calls Nicolas’s design “dinosaur chic”. Heh.

Nina and Kors are gone. AGAIN. I don’t want to watch this show if they’re gone. What’s the point? Tommy Hilfiger is here, woo, and Zoe Glassner is back. And then for some reason Eva Longoria Parker. Not the fashion editor from the Times? I don’t care about these judges at all. Logan: it kind of looks like Chris’s dress from last week, strapless sheath with a ruffle at top and bottom, but the ruffle is smaller and edged in blue. The print on the paper is arranged so it kind of looks like zebra stripes. And it looks like a real dress. Nicolas: the dress has wings, kind of, over her hips. They’re not very wide, but there are two on each side that create some volume, and he used stripes in the paper to make a pattern. She looks like she has no chest. Actually, no one really does. It’s not very punk. Chris: fitted gray bodice, and a full length ball gown skirt, with shredded newspaper that looks like feathers. It’s done so well that it doesn’t look like trash or anything. Even the bodice looks molded…it’s great. Ra’Mon: two pieces, a short skirt and a sleeveless top, the skirt is in green mostly and the top in purples. There are lots of pleats everywhere. I think the color comes from a print in the paper. The back has a ton of pleats too. His model walks horribly. Epperson: kimono style top with giant sleeves, and a tea-length skirt. Actually I think part of the skirt is knee length, and then there’s a longer piece wrapped around the back? This season SUCKS in terms of showing the dresses well. I love it though. When she turns around the sleeves are a giant shawl collar. Johnny: strapless sheath, with a belt, in tiles with faces on them so there’s a nice graphic effect. It doesn’t suck, but it’s not super exciting. Meh.

Gordana: sleeveless top with a high neck, and a short skirt. The whole thing is covered in pleats, and she found similar colored paper so it’s all a pinkish brown color. It’s cute and looks mostly like real clothes. Carol Hannah: long dress in red, with folds all along the bottom like Kayne and Robert’s Miss America dress. At her hips it’s fitted (you can see the strips she used) and the bra cups are a contrasting color. The ruffles get bigger near the bottom. I like it. Shirin: so, remember Leanne? And her noodles? Think if those noodles were made of paper instead of fabric. Pretty much that’s Shirin’s skirt. The top is fitted and it’s not exciting. But the skirt is made up of triangles with the points out. (Kmanpat: “It’s made of obtuse isosceles triangles, attached at the bases to the skirt. There, that’s descriptive enough.”) She didn’t color any of it, though. It’s all newsprint, and not the clean paper either. I like the shape. It’s not practical though. Irina: coat with crumpled paper at the collar and lapels, and cuffs. There’s a sash too. The model has boots on, but the “fuzzy” lapels and cuffs make me think “bathrobe”. It does have that Laura Bennet deep V. Althea: simple strapless sheath, but she’s cut strips from the paper and laid them so there’s a wraparound pattern which is nice. It’s cute. Louise: the bodice is made from regular newsprint, and then there’s a weird collar that is made from little rolled strips? And the skirt is full and maybe made from rolled pages? This is the first we’ve seen of it so I’m pretty confident it will fall in the middle of the pack, but I have no idea what is going on with it.

Johnny, Nicolas, Chris, Althea, Gordana, and Irina are the top and bottom. See what I said about Louise? The print on the paper of Althea’s dress is a building that she liked. They love it and it’s well executed. The girls want to wear it. Gordana wanted something conventional looking because it was an unconventional fabric. Zoe likes the architectural style of the top, but Heidi is bored because it’s so wearable. Gordana says she though that was the point, and the other judges tell her that the only reason she’s not ranked so high is that there’s some major creativity going on elsewhere. Irina claims she saw the challenge and thought “raincoat”, except we all know she started on a dress. Everyone loves it and I still think it looks like a bathrobe. Tommy does say he doesn’t like the scotch tape. They really like the collar and cuff treatment. Heidi makes Johnny explain himself, and he tells the judges his story about the steamer, but claims to not be making excuses. Heidi says with the hair and makeup and red shoes, she looks like she’s going to work. As in, “work”. “Like a pro”, is how Johnny puts it. Eva likes his idea but not the execution. Zoe thought he was going somewhere 80’s with the hair and the pop art and she was OK with it. For some reason Johnny can’t just keep his mouth shut and starts talking about how his other dress was hardcore and whatever. Oh, Johnny, you might have gotten away with it too. Nicolas finally loses it and starts making faces, and I’m behind him on this one, because there was no need to be making up stuff about how great the first dress was. Nicolas says that that dress was not Dior, but it was a red mess and Tim said birds were attacking it. Johnny is like, “Thanks for throwing me under the bus, jerk” but I think you dug your own hole there. If I may be excused for mixing sayings. Nicolas then gets to talk about his dress and how it’s punk, but Tommy tells him it’s not punk at all. It’s kind of like an insect, and Zoe’s like, um, cockroaches, so no. Chris says the top is pattern paper and is very rigid. They love everything about it, especially how the skirt moves like feathers.

Good was Chris (took a risk, fantastic construction), Althea (structured and shaped well, print was good), and Irina (well done couture, and drawn in stitches with sharpie). Not so good was Gordana (kind of boring but well done), Nicolas (no one got the punk thing and it was not well done), and Johnny (the print was cool but it was obviously last minute, and they TOTALLY don’t buy his story).

Althea is in. Irina is the winner. I disagree, but I’m not a judge, I guess. Chris is in, and robbed. Gordana is in. Nicolas didn’t get where he was trying to go, and Johnny gave them excuses but his dress was not well made. Nicolas is in. Johnny feels lost and empty, and says giving up addiction was easier. He thinks there must be something bigger on the horizon. Tim tells him to go clean up his space and then makes a comment which I have to quote because it is pure Tim: “I am incredulous at that utterly preposterous spewing of fiction that Johnny did on the runway!”

Next week: lots of running, Louise totally hurts herself, they show no clothes so who knows what is going on.