Project Runway 10/8/00--"A Fashionable New Beginning" summary

Previously on Project Runway: there was some challenge about Macy’s or something, something about blue, I don’t know, it was boring. The only interest was how Nicolas and Irina were bitchy and mean. And Kors made Chris cry. Then Irina won with some dress that didn’t really look like it had any blue in it and she got to make a dress for Macy’s holiday season and it was all black. After she said that dresses that were all one color were stupid and boring. Louise went too far after everyone said she was boring and made a bunch of ruffles which were terrible, so she went home. Blah. Oh, I did read that part of why the show moved to LA was so Heidi could be near her children, but that means that Nina and Kors have to be gone for several episodes because they still have real jobs. Everyone who is willing to lose Heidi for more Nina and Kors raise your hand! I thought so. (click for more)

Carol Hannah feels that Louise was really talented and it’s sad. Gordana doesn’t want to get older and realize she never tried for anything. Irina imagines everyone hates her because she’s won two challenges and most of the rest of them haven’t even been in the top. That’s not why they hate you, dear. They are smiling to her face, so of course she assumes they are talking about her behind her back. Ah, projection. Logan says Irina is sophisticated and it appeals to the judges. Now she thinks she is better than everyone. Cute and perceptive! Yay! Chris can’t be in the bottom again. Everyone is really obvious today.

Heidi comes out mostly dressed and says she has a surprise: new models. Which is stupid because they already picked the models for this challenge. They showed it on the model show. The kooky tootling music comes on and a bunch of women in wedding dresses walk out. Ha! Some of them are BAD. Some are cute, though. The dresses, not the women. Heidi gives them their challenge, which is not to make wedding dresses. These women are all divorced. They want to make their dresses into hip new outfits. Awe. Some. I love it. See, this is the kind of challenge that we needed. Everyone introduces themselves and shares how long they’ve been divorced. Some have only been divorced for 2 or 3 months which seems really recent. Gordana knows that if you don’t get to pick early, you might end up with not as much fabric. Of course Irina goes first and picks the woman with the giant princess ball gown. The gowns in that style go first except Nicolas takes the hippie woman. Althea is next to last and she says the two women left have lots of attitude to make up for their lack of yardage, and then takes a woman with appliqué. This leaves Shirin with a plain gown without a lot of fabric, and she doesn’t even pretend to be happy about it.

Irina discovers her dress is 5 tons of acrylic and acetate. All fake fabric. Ha. Sadly Shirin also has polyester and maybe 2 yards of fabric. The polyester means she can’t even dye it. Tim appears to announce that winner has immunity, and this is the last immunity for the rest of the season. They have the rest of today to work. Dismay greets his words. The divorcees come in for consultations. Most of them I think want tight fitting sexy clothes. Nicolas’s client only wants to use cruelty-free fabrics. Shirin rubs her forehead as her client asks for a feathered headdress and something Cher. She’s getting agitated.

Everyone goes to Mood where they are given $25. They can get up to two yards of fabric and whatever else they need. Shirin is looking at feathers. Epperson says in a challenge like this you don’t have time to think about how this sucks, you just have to go with it. Logan is cheating slightly because he’s found a wool that has a wide yardage (so when you picture a bolt of fabric, think of a really tall one). A yard and a half of the wool is enough to make pants. It’s not really exactly the challenge, but he’s hot so I don’t care as much.

Carol Hannah says she makes a living creating wedding dresses, so chopping one up is “like running into a church and swearing at the top of your lungs.” Hee. She puts the dress on, sort of, and runs around. Irina feels this challenge is pretty empowering. Gordana is also divorced, and she is trying to be mentally prepared. She starts talking about her kids and being disconnected from her daily life, and she gets to call home. Sadly no one answers the phone and she has to leave a message. Aww! That has to suck hardcore. She’s upset, and thinks maybe it’s the lack of speaking to her family added onto the divorce thing. Epperson is trying to make this as far from her old dress as possible. Shirin, after yelling about how it was impossible to give her client what she wanted, seems to be trying to do that. But she is still complaining about not having any fabric.

Tim time! Chris has a black dress, I think, and Tim is worried. The black is underneath, though, and won’t be as obvious. The actual dress will be white, or possibly silver, with a cute belt. They discuss how the skirt can’t be too short or we’ll be in cougar territory. Heh. Irina has dyed her acetate dress and somehow managed to get it a good color. Epperson is trying to use as little wedding dress as possible, which Tim advises against. Yeah, they’ll nail you for that. Logan has too much going on, and Tim gives him the same advice he gave Epperson. Gordana has a sleek sheath with frayed edges which looks cute. Tim say to take it as far as she can. Shirin describes her client’s wish for a short, strapless dress with a peacock feathered skirt and a headdress. Chris and Nicolas crack up in the background. Tim says she must make her client respect that her butt is on the line. The feathers are crap and she shows Tim her trim that she bought and starts to cry. Tim puts an arm around her all fatherly (aww!) and he tells her to clean off the table and put the pieces down and play with them. Shirin is going to figure it out. Epperson says he misunderstood the challenge so he’s changing things. Logan is also freaking out and has a lot of work to do. Shirin maybe has a plan?

The divorcees are back for a fitting. Epperson has a new sketch which is well received. Most of the women seem very excited. Except of course all Shirin has done is put some black stitching on the dress. Her client kind of jokes that she’s been wasting time. Shirin is really just concerned with making a dress that will save her from elimination.

Gordana is refocused in the morning. Chris is very confident, even if his client doesn’t really get it. Nicolas tells his roommates this will be the best runway ever. You know, I haven’t heard from him at all today. Weird. Logan’s just trying to get done, but I don’t think he’s wearing his silver pants to distract the judges. Shirin is madly stitching. Epperson is adding on and I think he may be lost. Uh oh. The divorcees come in, and Epperson’s client immediately loves it. Actually there are a lot of women who are very pleased, except Shirin is getting bombarded with “Can you tighten the straps? Did you work right up until midnight? And the hem will be shorter?” Chris’s client begs him not to make her look like a fat grandmother. He says that if he goes home, at least it’s his design aesthetic. Nicolas hates his design but it’s what his client wanted. She wants to have his child. The look on his face as he faces the camera in terror is hilarious. We discover the models taught the divorcees how to walk. Heh. I think the best line is Nicolas’s client says she was told the best way to walk is “look like you’re better than everyone and you’re pissed off.” Nice. Logan flails right up until the last minute. He thinks he’s gotten lost as a designer.

Nina is still gone. Dammit. Zanna Roberts is here in her place and also Tamara Mellon, who founded Jimmy Choo. Irina: somehow she’s gotten a light bronze out of the fabric, which has a wide sleeved top and gold sash, and a knee length skirt. You know when the openings for the sleeves come down to your waist? That wide a sleeve. You can still see the appliqué in the lace. It’s cute. Shirin: you can’t see any of the stitching at all. It just looks like a short dress with a black sash. Logan: Irina said the pants suck, and they do. They’re a gray wool, but they fit horribly and this woman looks like her hips are huge. Then on top he has a white sleeveless button up top with ruffles along the neckline. It’s really wrinkled across her stomach. That and the pants make her look fat. I think he dyed the dress fabric a light gray. Carol Hannah: dark charcoal gray short dress with fringe? It looks like fringe but I think it‘s pieces of the petticoat. And a black shrug. Very cute. Althea: she’s dyed it blue, and put seaming that runs from between her boobs out and down to the hem. And over her boobs are dark patches. It seems cute, another short dress with cap sleeves, but the seaming is weird at her waist. There’s a belt, and the seaming doesn’t come back in at her waist, so I think it makes her look thicker in the middle than she really is. The hem has a band of the same dark fabric. Her model bounces all the way down the runway, though. There are some weird straps going on in the back. Nicolas: olive green pants, and a brown top and short-sleeved cardigan that I think he made out of the lace. The cardigan is white. The pants are way better than Logan’s. Nicolas hates it but she loves it. Gordana: gray strapless short dress that looks like it’s made out of strips of fabric that start at her right hip and radiate outward. It looks very expensive and on purpose. But she put her in knee high black boots which don’t really work. The dress is great though. Chris: poofy silver dress, with a bubble hem, and a black and sliver belt. I’m not sure where the silver came from, because I don’t remember him dying anything, so it’s possible he bought that and dyed the wedding dress black for the layer underneath. It really has a lot of volume to it, which is great for a model but not so much for normal people. Also it’s pretty short. Not up to her lady bits short but for someone who referred to herself as a grandmother, it’s up there. Epperson: white dress with a black and white corset. The dress is knee length, and the corset piece looks like it has black ribbons crisscrossing over it. There‘s a good slimming effect. In the back the ribbons are straight up and down. There’s a short shrug too.

Carol Hannah, Nicolas, and Althea are safe. Gordana only used the lining of her dress, and it’s very flattering and is edgy. Her client loves it too. Chris starts talking about industry parties (his client is an actress) and networking as his client looks like she’s biting her tongue. Tamara references the worst dressed list, and Kors is more blunt: “Do NOT go to an industry function like that.” Then he says it’s like a metallic Hefty bag. Hee! Epperson explains how he misunderstood the challenge at first, and we get a better shot of the corset piece. It’s a very light blue, and has a pattern to the ribbons, where before I thought it was random. They start at the center, right around her belly button, and radiate outward. And there are two different ribbons. Heidi gets annoyed at him for not listening to her, and then asks his client what she wanted. Well, she wanted flowy but fitted at the waist, which it is what it is. Heidi is all, so you didn’t ask for Oktoberfest, then? That poor girl just stands there while Tamara calls it pirate wench and Kors thinks if she wore it on a date the guy would bail. Sigh. Shirin describes how her client wanted some crazy nonsense so she just stitched the fabric. Her client says it’s beautiful but safe. Of course the judges think it’s great. Seriously? OK, the stitching is very well done, but she spent her time whining and then just altered the dress instead of making something new. Kors says something about her “Cher” moment and he’s saying what sounds like “Cher in a half-breed” but that doesn’t sound right. Everybody’s been saying that phrase all night and I never could figure out what they were saying. Logan didn’t want to make a dress. Heidi is mentioning Oktoberfest again, which, it’s not really. I think Heidi just wants a beer. The girl says she would wear the outfit maybe on the second date and Kors is like “Smart girl!” The judges especially point out the cuffs on the pants, which are huge and poorly stitched. The neckline is too opera singer, according to Kors. Irina only used the new fabric for the lining. All the outer part of the dress is the lace from the wedding dress. It’s age appropriate and a great color.

Shirin gave her client something she wanted. And Tamera references a “Cher hybrid”. Is that what they’re saying? “Hybrid”? Kors likes the stitching. Gordana’s dress is versatile and not safe which is what they were looking for. Irina’s whole look, accessories too, was perfect. No one thinks Epperson understood what was going on and his dress was not very good. Logan made horrid pants and the vest was horrid, and there was nothing of Logan in it. Chris’s dress was really a garbage bag and was certainly on the worst dressed list.

Shirin is in. Gordana wins! She’s so thrilled and is so glad to be able to show people she has skills. Irina is in. I imagine she’s pissed. Good. Chris is in. Uh oh. Both Logan and Epperson lost themselves in this challenge. Logan has poorly made clothes, and Epperson didn’t understand the challenge. Logan is in. Aww! He says he still feels like he won for himself. He limits himself, but if he pushes he can go further. Sad.

Next week: at the Bob Mackie studio designing for…someone…who I think is Christina Aguilera. My DVR cut out the name between “Project Runway” and “Models of the Runway”. Sequins abound. And NINA!