Project Runway 10/1/09--"The Sky Is the Limit" summary

Previously on Project Runway: everyone had to pick film genres and make outfits. However no one ever really specified if they were supposed to be costumes or if they were supposed to be “real” clothes inspired by the genres. Nicolas won and the judges were all a-flutter about how well his dress would photograph and they totally got his “queen from Orion’s belt who was frozen by her sisters” story. But Chris and Epperson also got high praise and neither of them had an outfit that would work as a costume. They were too far from authentic. They were cool and everything, but they weren’t really costumes. So why did they not get dinged for that? Who knows. Ra’Mon went home because his weird lizard green dress wouldn’t have worked either as a costume or regular clothes. (click for more)

Gordana says she believes that everyone deserves to be here. She thinks losing is like coming in one second late. Logan has to move in with the other boys because all his roommates were eliminated. They discuss shower length. Louise thinks she should start going over the top more. That might be a bad idea.

Heidi reminds us that Nicolas has immunity, and that the next challenge will be colorful. No field trip this week, though. Instead, back in the workroom Tim introduces Martine Reardon who is a VP at Macy’s. This week they will be working with color. Specifically the color blue. They have to make two blue looks for the I.N.C. brand. Winner gets to make a holiday dress for the brand to be sold in Macy’s. Oh, Louise. You picked a bad week to declare your over-the-top-ness. Also they will be in pairs. Carol Hannah says “wah wah.” Everyone gets 15 minutes to sketch and then Martine will pick the team leaders. Oh, that’s always fun. Someone always gets in trouble for having grand ideas but not executing them at all.

Irina thinks this is the best challenge she could ever hope for. Eh. Epperson thinks you have to keep true to yourself but also fit in with the line. Louise is wisely simplifying. Everyone pitches, and it’s the usual quick shots of people where you don‘t see a lot of anything. Lots of dresses and some pants. Epperson pitches a cape. Nicolas has a leather vest. In blue. Louise pitches rosettes. (Kmanpat: “Is Angela here? Where?”)

So the team leaders are Irina, Althea, Carol Hannah, Chris, and Louise. Then Tim picks from the velvet bag so everyone can choose their helpers. Althea takes Logan (shocker), Chris pairs up with Epperson, Louise and Nicolas, Irina and Gordana, and Carol Hannah and Shirin. Louise specifically says that it doesn’t bother her that Nicolas has immunity because she knows her designs kick so much ass that they’ll be in the top. Oh, Louise. Tim takes them to Mood to spend their $100 but not before telling them that due to the prize for winning this episode there will not be any immunity for the winner.

At the store Nicolas looks like he’s taking over. Carol Hannah can’t find what she wants so she’s just buying a bunch of whatever she feels like. Irina doesn’t like to shop with a partner, apparently, and Gordana says Irina’s telling her she’s stressing her out. Well…perhaps the solution to that is to actually pick your partner, instead of telling Gordana and Shirin to decide amongst themselves who wants to work with you. When they’re checking out, Louise has to run around looking for her money, which she has left under a box somewhere with her sketches. Sigh.

Shirin interviews loudly that she wouldn’t have designed Carol Hannah’s outfits but she’ll help make them. Carol Hannah, on the other hand, is loving being the boss. Although she does notice that she’s paying attention to how she works. Irina complains about having to keep track of someone else’s work and do her own work. Nicolas hates ruffles. And he thinks that people throw them on a dress when they don’t know what else to do. Well, your design obviously wasn’t up to par, so suck it up and sew some ruffles. While Louise works he makes catty comments to Althea. Epperson is more diplomatic about it, because of the last team challenge and his giant fight with Qristyl. Chris is a much better leader so he’s pretty relieved. Chris is thrilled too and is taking suggestions from Epperson to improve his designs. Nicolas admits to enjoying working with Louise because she’s calm and nice and makes cute animal noises when she works. Like, chirping and stuff. Think chickens, but not loud chickens. If you’ve ever been around chickens that are just eating or sitting on nests you know what I mean. Do you think Althea likes working with Logan? Of course she does! (Kmanpat: “I would too!”) He is chill. Gordana talks about how Logan is so hot that the boys like him too. Hee. Gordana then says she’s stressed because Irina isn’t giving her direction. She’s just saying “I don’t like it” and then Gordana has to come up with something. Irina sighs that she doesn’t like her dress all one color because it’s too boring. Isn’t it Irina’s design? Why are you whining about it? So now she has “a patchwork of stripes.”

Tim time! He starts with Carol Hannah and Shirin. Shirin pipes up that one outfit has leggings, and he puts a hand up to stop her. “Don’t get me started on leggings.” Oh, thank you Tim! I hate leggings too. I had them when they were popular the first time, I don‘t need any more. There’s a weird ruffle that is similar to a bad 70’s tuxedo shirt. Tim suggests another color. Louise has a fitted dress with a big ruffle, a dark color with a light highlight. She didn’t want the ruffle to get lost. Tim’s kind of apprehensive but he trusts that they’ll fix it before it gets any worse. Tim likes Althea’s stuff. Irina has a dress with a light top and a darker skirt. There’s a sash, and she and Gordana argue in front of Tim because they disagree about whether the sash should be attached to the dress. Tim leaves them to it. Chris looks almost done. The two dresses don’t go together? I’m not sure what Tim is referring to here. However what I do know is that Chris’s second dress is not blue. That is a green for sure. Tim announces that he believes in everyone and the models are here for fittings.

The noise level goes up a couple of notches. Carol Hannah has to let a skirt out. Irina hates Gordana’s outfit and she complains that it should be done already. Weren’t you watching her? It looks fine to me, and Irina never says why she doesn’t like it, so I’m not sure what the problem is. Irina is really bugging me today. Louise has a lot of work to do. Nicolas too. She has poor time management. She tells Nicolas she’s using some ruffles to hide some ill-fitting part of one of the dresses. Nicolas interviews again that he hates ruffles, as if they were brussel sprouts or something. Carol Hannah interviews that it’s time for her freakout that she has halfway through each challenge. Hee. We’ve never seen that, have we? It’s probably really cute. Irina bitches that Carol Hannah is making discount store clothes. You know, Irina and Nicolas are good at putting everyone else down, but they aren’t particularly entertaining when they do it so it just sounds mean. It’s not even a good bitchy.

In the morning Chris walks around without pants. Irina is pretty confident. Louise is not. Nicolas however is planning to help Louise out and not throw her under the bus.

Althea may run out of time to fit everything perfectly. Shirin is not stressed. Irina feels that one of her dresses is sad and depressing. Not the one she’s been working on, of course. And she just kind of asks Gordana if she doesn’t think it’s too plain, instead of saying “I don’t like it, put some beading on it.” Gordana is pretty frustrated. The models come in and the frantic working begins. Louise is flailing and thinks she won’t be finished. Irina complains that Gordana could have been more proactive but the dress looks better on the model. Chris is pretty confident. Nicolas is glad for immunity. He hates ruffles, you know.

Guess who is back! Kors! Yay! Sadly Nina is still gone and we have Zanna Roberts, senior fashion editor for Marie Claire. Also Martine is back. Heidi pretends more than one of them might be out. Irina and Gordana: the first dress has a deep V with thin straps and a knee length floaty skirt. The top is that style where you attach the straps at the navel and then there are squares covering her boobs and wrapping around to the back. The skirt has Vs in it too, lots of stripes. The whole thing looks like it has no blue in it at all, but that might be the crappy lighting. There’s also a fishtail hem, and the back of the skirt comes all the way up to the top of the dress so it looks pretty wide. Gordana’s dress has a plain dark skirt, and a lighter blue top with a sash. It’s cute but pretty boring and I do feel like I could go buy it somewhere. Althea and Logan: dark suit, with a very short skirt and a jacket with tight long sleeves. Man, that skirt has a slit in the back too, and it is super high. I didn’t even get a good look at the top because all the shots are of the skirt. The other look is a tank top with ruffles along all the seams and hanging down the front, and some pants. Louise and Nicolas: one shouldered dress with a ruffle along the one shoulder and then all the way down the center of the dress. The dress itself is in a blue gray silk (?) but the ruffle is a dark blue matte fabric. When she turns around there is a bow with long streamers so she looks like she has a tail. The other dress is better. A fitted dark sheath with more ruffles, but these only go about to her waist and some of the lighter blue is put in as a contrast. It’s still not fantastic. Carol Hannah and Shirin: dark highwaisted pencil skirt with a sleeveless top that has a neck tie. The top is like a dark turquoise. It’s pretty cute. There’s a round keyhole in the back. The other look is a lighter turquoise tunic with a dark leather belt, and leggings. The top has ruffles along the neckline and the sleeves are loose. You know if you took some loose sleeves and slit them from the wrist up to the shoulder so they just hung down? Like that. Chris and Epperson: oxford shirt dress with a plain white collar and cuffs, and a blue stripe through the rest of the shirt. There’s a dark sash, and it’s a wrap dress. It’s cool but kind of shiny. The other outfit is the one that I don’t think is blue at all. It’s a high-necked sleeveless top, and there’s white lace around the neck and a band collar, and then the top is very loose and baggy down past her butt. It’s not very flattering. Then…I think those are capri leggings.

Heidi calls out Althea and Logan and says they are the exact middle and are safe. Holy crap, that skirt was up to her lady bits and it was safe?? Damn. Louise, Nicolas, Chris, and Epperson have the low scores. Chris gasps. They get kicked out while the judges talk to the winners. Carol Hannah describes her designs to the judges. They like the tunic and leggings, and they like the details on the other top and pencil skirt. Irina says “we” which, I hate when people do that. Say “we” when they don’t mean it. Gordana admits it was a challenge working together but she likes what they came up with. Irina speaks up (her voice is loud; was it always that loud?) and tells Gordana she is shy as a designer and that Gordana should have taken care of the dress because that’s what she was told. I guess she thinks Gordana should have done whatever she wanted? Also, if you’re talking to Gordana, you could actually look at her. Gordana wanted to make Irina happy, but she’s just like “You’re a designer too”. Sigh. Heidi likes Irina’s dress, but also Gordana’s top.

Time for the bottom four. I wish for the Loser Gong. Louise talks about versatility. She wanted to spice up her dress, and add something. Heidi says, so, ruffles then, and Louise is like, yeah! It’s sad. You can see how pleased she is with the ruffles and as Heidi gives her a look of “Are you insane?” her face just falls. The other judges lay into her about how overdone the ruffles are, and comparing them to bad bridesmaid dresses, and then Kors says it’s like a bridesmaid dress with a shower loofah stapled to the front. Nicolas says he doesn’t like ruffles but its Louise’s vision. Heidi is like, aren’t you lucky. Chris’s voice is already cracking as he talks about his designs. Heidi doesn’t think any of these things are modern. The thing I thought was lace on Chris’s not-blue look? It’s a cravat. OK, not really a cravat, but the little frills you find on the collars old men’s shirts from like, the 17th century or something. Too much. Kors calls the shirt dress a librarian’s shirt dress fro 1979 and also it looks like a tablecloth. The other dress is labeled “teal charmuse disco pumpkin”. Kors, that is not shiny or sparkly enough to be disco. Chris is crying now. The two dresses don’t go together at all. Epperson tries to save things by telling the judges they picked out fabrics separately. The shirt dress shouldn’t be shiny either. Finally Heidi lets them go.

Louise’s dresses both had ruffles but they were not exciting for consumers. She lost track of the customer. Chris’s outfits had nothing to do with each other, and were poorly made and terrible. We move on to the good stuff. Kors thinks Irina’s dress would stand out, and Gordana’s top was great. Both of Carol Hannah’s outfits stand out too.

Shirin is in. Irina wins. Blah. That dress isn’t blue. She doesn’t even really thank Gordana. Gordana and Carol Hannah are in. Epperson is in. Nicolas is very lucky and is in. Louise’s dresses were bad bridesmaids dresses and were not modern. Chris’s two outfits didn’t go together except that they were both clueless and no one would like to buy them. Wow, Heidi is mean today. Louise is out. Oh, you saw that coming. Chris is in. He cries some more. Louise made it further than she thought she would, and she’s going to be a better designer. Then they have a shot of Irina’s holiday dress and guess what? ALL ONE COLOR. It’s black with a black sequin butterfly at the hip. Now I really don’t like her.

Next time: new models, lab coats, someone doesn’t follow directions, Nina is still gone. But they still picked models, they showed it on the model show.