Project Runway 10/22/09--"Around the World in Two Days" summary

Previously on Project Runway: everyone had to make a Bob Mackie-inspired gown for Christina Aguilera. Did anyone deliver with the sparkles and whatnot? Of course not. Imagine the outfits for the WWE Divas. Now imagine them on Christina Aguilera. Pretty good, huh? Sadly this did not come to pass. Carol Hannah won, and her gown was gorgeous and had sparkle and feathers, but from far away it would have been boring. Shirin made some weird gored black and white dress, and it was not cute. She went home, and Gordana was lucky she had immunity or it might have been her. Also, as I watched the model show, I noticed that they forced everyone to choose new models this week. I’m beginning to wonder if that’s a random schedule. Most designers are loyal to their models. Say a good model has a not-so-great designer who is eliminated. Do the producers suddenly go “Oh! Today you will switch models!” in an effort to save that girl? It didn’t work this week. Just something to think about. (click for more)

Carol Hannah is going to miss her roommate Shirin. She starts talking about sheep and wolves. Nicolas talks about himself and how he is going to assert himself and whatever. The usual Nicolas talk. Chris thinks he’s an underdog and he talks about how he doesn’t have training and then he gets a montage. A montage? That can’t be good.

Heidi tells everyone that Tim is taking them on a field trip to Rodeo Drive to meet a world-famous fashion designer. Woo. Logan and Chris explain for us about Rodeo Drive, because if you don’t know, famous people shop there. They end up in Kors’s store…eh. I mean, I like Kors, but it would have been nice to have someone new. On the other hand, he’s been gone so long that I’m OK will dealing with him all day. And can you imagine his comments when the designers are supposed to be making clothes for him? Alright, I’m better about it now. Kors tells everyone that they should get inspiration from all the fabulous places they’ve traveled to. He gives the vaguest challenge EVER which is to be inspired and have fun with their inspirations. Sigh.

Back in the workroom Tim does the teacher thing and explains things more thoroughly: they must make an outfit inspired by a location. Or that embraces that location. Or something. Well, it’s better than what Kors said. Also they aren’t really designing for Kors either. Carol Hannah gets to pick first and she picks Palm Beach. Nicolas takes Greece, and it falls out as follows: Althea = St. Tropez, Gordana = New York, Irina = Aspen, Chris = Santa Fe, Logan = Hollywood. When Logan gets stuck with Hollywood there is tootling and he pretends to be excited. 30 minutes to sketch and then a budget of $150 at Mood. And one night.

Sketching commences and nothing exciting happens. The girls seem to know what they’re doing. Shopping is boring too. Logan is wandering until something jumps at him, Gordana is buying jewels, and Irina doesn’t have enough money.

Logan is making some hippie clothes. Irina is making pants, a vest, and a sweater. The sketch looks great. Nicolas has some long-ass story about fabulous tomboys. Somehow Carol Hannah didn’t buy enough fabric. Irina bitches that everyone is laughing and not working hard enough and then they run out of time. Jeez, they’re having fun. Calm down. Gordana mentions cracking under the pressure. There are a lot of really disjointed sound bites today. Is it just me? I feel like each interview and comment is unrelated to the others and it makes for a really choppy recap. Maybe I’m just tired. Anyways, people are hoping to do well and afraid of screwing up. As usual. Chris gets ANOTHER montage. WTF, producers? Did nothing happen this week so you have to kill time?

Tim time! Gordana is making a collar with her jewels, and Tim points out that all she has is the collar and no dress. He is nervous. Althea has some shorts and a top, all in muslin right now because she knows tailoring is very important. Tim agrees and tells her to remember to make it menswear inspired but not menswear, but men probably wouldn’t want to wear short shorts. Oh, I can think of some. (Kmanpat: “SHUT UP you said they were back in that year! Plus I have great legs.”) Chris has a very plain long dress with a square-ish neckline. And a belt. Tim tells him not to waste all his time with a belt. Irina laughs and says his dress is Amish and she can’t believe he’s still here. Shush, Tim just said it was fabulous. She’s just not funny to me. Carol Hannah, right now, has what looks like a muumuu. She wants a long flowy dress, but it’s boring and cliché and not even an Uli dress. I can’t tell what Nicolas is doing because all he has is some black pants now. Poor, poor Logan seems to be flailing. I think he has a T-shirt. Tim just tells him to get to work. Irina has really tight pants with weird leather straps on them. They’re well made but the straps are odd. Tim warns her that everything has to be proportional. On second inspection the straps I think are trim on the pockets. Nicolas thinks it’s borderline costume, but no one would make a costume all in brown. Probably.

Model fitting doesn’t have any surprises. Irina tells all of us that no one else is doing anything different from when they came here and no one is improving but her because she is superior to everyone. Carol Hannah interviews that Irina doesn’t want to be anyone’s friend and it bothers people. Nicolas starts to freak out because he can’t get the jersey to sit right. Chris’s outfit still does look kind of Amish, and he finally figures this out with 10 minutes to spare. He quickly chops off the bottom of the skirt.

The designers go home and hang out in one of the apartments and joke around and drink wine. Nicolas loves everyone. Really, he said he’s close to everyone and they’re all talented. Althea can see the end of the tunnel. It gets weird when people are eliminated.

Carol Hannah may not have enough time to get done. Nicolas had a mental breakdown yesterday but he seems to be OK now. In the workroom, Althea feels good but Logan is cutting a new waistband in case his old one doesn’t fit. It’s very quiet because everyone is freaking out. The models come in and some last-minute fitting ensues. Nicolas has some weird flaps going on. Logan’s fits, and Carol Hannah hopes she can finish it well. Chris says something to the effect of “No one will give me a chance because I didn’t go to design school” and PLEASE STOP HITTING ME OVER THE HEAD WITH THAT. He’s going to lose, I get it.

Heidi is wearing some pleather dress. Kors and Nina are BOTH here! Yay! The guest judge is Milla Jovovich. Uh…OK. Logan: slim white pants, a blue tank top, and black vest. It seems well done from here, and there are suspenders which is kind of cool, but I feel like I could go out to the mall and buy pretty much the same thing. And it’s not that Hollywood. Althea: short dark bronze shorts, a white tank, and a gauzy blouse that is open but tied with a ribbon belt. I think it’s St. Tropez. Very vacationy. The shorts look good. Nicolas: slim gray pants with pleats at the ankle, and a white long-sleeved top. The top has a strange vest effect, which I think is what happened with the weird flaps. It’s OK but not very Greece-like. And the back of the pants looks weird to me. Carol Hannah: long flowy dress in a green print, with spaghetti straps. Boring. I mean, it’s cute and all, but just like Logan’s I could buy it right now at the mall. Chris: brown skirt which is pretty short, but flowy, and a bronze belt with a pattern to it. There are two layers to the skirt; he put a gauzy flimsy layer on top of a plain fabric. Then the top is a light blue with a white camisole. The sleeves are elbow-length but really full. It’s mostly cute but I don’t see any Santa Fe in it. Irina: tight brown pants, a brown sweater with a big cowl neck and a tie belt, and a fur vest with a hood. It’s a lot of brown and there’s a weird keyhole in the back that looks sloppy, but the rest of it looks expensive. Gordana: short gray dress with a jeweled collar, and a sheer wrap that the model is wearing draped across her front. She takes it off quickly though. There’s some ribbon trim that makes an hourglass shape and then winds around the skirt. It’s cute.

Althea is the only safe one. Irina talks about her outfit and of course everyone thinks it’s great. The back keyhole is actually finished well. I don’t know, they all think it’s a fantasy thing, like people playing dress up, or something. Maybe it’s just because I don’t like Irina. None of these outfits are that great. I’m bored. Chris talks about color stories and stuff. Nina I think is bored, and wants better colors. Milla likes the belt but that’s all that’s good about his look, which doesn’t look like Santa Fe either. Carol Hannah wanted relaxed. Nina loves the twisted fabric she used for trim and straps. Everyone praises her fabric, and how easy the dress is, but I feel like the fabric did half the work. Nicolas thinks Greece means edgy. Kors thinks he got “Grease” the movie. Hee. The shirt is tight and the sleeves are loose, and probably he should have just made a dress. Gordana was thinking of a socialite and is defending herself and digging herself a hole as she talks. She should just say socialite. They love the collar and wish the dress was even simpler. Kors says it’s very Park Avenue. Logan is inspired by younger Hollywood. The vest he made actually has diagonal buckles, it looks like. Also there are zippers on the back of the ankles of the pants. The clothes are too basic and not edgy enough. Kors agrees: “They’re clothes, they’re not fashion.”

Irina’s outfit was very well made but could have had more than one color. Gordana’s dress fit her part and her neighborhood, but she isn’t confident. Carol Hannah made wonderful details but maybe needed something extra. Chris had poor proportions. Heidi thinks it was unwearable and ugly. When Heidi brings up Nicolas Kors says “His Greece is a song.” Heh. They can’t understand his pants at all. It sounds like he would have been OK had he made the top into a dress and left off the pants altogether. Heidi didn’t mind Logan’s outfit, and Milla says ”If this was called ‘Project I Didn’t Mind It’ he would win”. Hee. I don’t mind Logan either. The judges feel jeans and tank tops are not enough to win.

Carol Hannah is in. Irina is the winner. Blah. She claims that she is now under more pressure to be better than before. Gordana is in, but not before Heidi tells her to be more confident. Logan is in. They’re just waiting for him to hook up with someone. Anyone. Nicolas missed the mark and his outfit was not Greece. Chris’s outfit was wishy-washy and wasn’t Santa Fe. Chris is in. Wait. IN? What kind of crack is that? Are they hoping he’s the one who sleeps with Logan? This makes no damn sense. Nicolas tells everyone not to cry, and he’s going to move to Japan and become a shepherd. Ha, just kidding! Tim appears and reassures him it was a matter of taste. Nicolas wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Next week: Heidi makes them face away from the runway for some reason, and then everyone freaks out. Logan copies Althea maybe. I’m still confused that Nicolas was worse than Chris.