Project Runway 8/19/10--"Hats Off to You" summary

Previously on Project Runway: Gretchen was really proud of herself and got cocky. However the producers suddenly cut in a lot of clips of her talking about how awesome she is, which is kind of suspicious. I’m sure she is annoying, but maybe she’s not as annoying as they want us to think. She did say things like “my skills will cause everyone to step up their game”. The actual challenge involved a party store, which was fun. I always like the unconventional materials challenge. Gretchen did do well, in that she had a good jacket, but Andy made a whole dress out of ribbons, and he won. Casanova had no idea what he was doing, but Sarah’s dress was too boring and she went home. After listening to Gretchen, which they imply was why she went home, although Sarah doubted herself and she could have done that without any help from anyone. Also Ivy was taken to the hospital, and we ended on that cliffhanger. Why didn’t the preview say anything about that? Plus how come Ivy gets screen time but no one else who fainted the previous episode is even mentioned? (click for more)

We start again with Ivy on the floor being tended to. Gretchen and Valerie talk about how Ivy smoked and drank Diet Coke but didn’t really eat or take care of herself. At 3:20am Ivy returns to the apartments. She was dehydrated, they said. She doesn’t want to be inspired by the hospital room.

Heidi appears with the velvet bag, except she said last time that the losing designer’s model was automatically out. She is excited, as she reminds Andy that he has immunity. The models come out with the most awesome hats ever. Mike D. loves it. These hats are designed by Philip Treacy. These are wild, artistic hats, feathers, cones…just go look at the website. The challenge is to design a dress that goes with one of these hats. Andy gets to pick first, and he will work with the model wearing the hat he picks. Everybody picks hats. No one likes Peach’s model’s attitude, but she’s gorgeous so Peach keeps her. Obviously many people want to stay with their models, but hesitate because of the hats they are wearing. Kristin keeps her model, who is wearing a giant orchid.

Everyone gets a photo and one day to make a dress. 15 minutes to sketch, and $150 at Mood. Ivy seriously WAS inspired by the hospital curtains.

Casanova breaks the sewing machine, possibly, and then threatens to quit. Ivy interviews that she expects Casanova to be a diva, being a queen and all. He interviews that the judges know he can sew, but they expect him to have taste, so he has to win the next challenge, to prove to them he has taste. I don’t really get it either. Valerie discovers that she didn’t buy a zipper, like it matters and she can’t sew her model into the dress. Ivy offers an extra one. Kristin doesn’t like how literal the challenge is. Well…mostly how literal her hat is. She’s flailing. Valerie kind of freaks out but she’s going to persevere. Ivy makes sure to eat.

At dinner everyone talks about the different hats. Kristin is liking her hat more and more the longer she works with it. It…seems to be making her horny. No, really. She calls it “a big vagina”. Someone in the sewing room (full of gay men) asks why that makes her excited. Kristin says “Well, doesn’t it make you…oh look who I’m talking to”. Hee. Everyone talks about how they like her. Various people wish Mike C. a happy Father’s Day. Ivy says his dress is a hot mess. It’s just kind of…brown. Mike C. himself hates it.

Tim time! Valerie has made herself a headband out of a measuring tape. She’s got white faux leather for a jacket. Tim says nothing. He tells her to get rid of random stuff with no purpose, and edit. April has a pointy conical hat, with horizontal pink and white stripes. She is making booty shorts. Woah. Not only that but they are white, and are cut in such a way as to remind Tim of diapers. Not good. AND they’re quilted, are you serious? Ew. Mike D. looks like he’s making a bodice out of corrugated cardboard. He thinks it might be sci-fi but Tim encourages him not to be boring and middle of the road. Kristin has a plain black dress, but Tim doesn’t like that it’s fussy. Kristin starts cutting the neckline of the dress on the mannequin. Gretchen interviews that she hates Kristin’s work, but I don’t like her weird bun on top of her head. Kristin talks about a shrug but Tim recoils in horror so she is probably not going to do that. AJ has polka dots, and Tim tells him that a woman who could afford that hat, could afford a dress where the polka dots line up. Hee. Peach’s skirt is short, but not up “to show the good china”. I should start using that euphemism. Mondo has…black and white polka dots and then smaller yellow and brown polka dots. I don’t know. Chris’s print is a great gray with a black rose pattern. He thinks he is slowly getting better. Casanova feels his design is awesome, until Tim is like, um…I’ve seen this a million times before. Then he declares it “Donna Karan 1998”. He encourages Casanova to consider the woman who would wear that hat. Casanova says that the hat is editorial and no one is going to wear it, silly man. Not true. There is more misunderstanding. It looks like he bought a dress. Casanova doesn’t seem to care. Tim gives up. Mike C. admits he hates his dress. He’s got some puckering, and is concerned, as is Tim who tells him to change it all. But at least he knows his dress sucks.

With 5 hours left, Tim leaves and lets them all know the winner this week will have immunity. Mike C. starts over. Mike D. says that the other Mike doesn’t even have a ruler, and that “there are many ways to skin a cat…but you should probably bring a knife.” Oo, I need to start saying that too. Casanova claims he is almost done. Gretchen snots that April’s work is student work too. Seriously, I don’t want to hear about who you think has student work. You thought Andy had student work last week and he beat your ass. Mike C. gets a phone call with his son. He thinks he’s onto something good. The models come in for fittings. Kristin wonders about Mike C’s taste level. Wow…when April’s model puts the shorts on they REALLY look like diapers. Kristin loves her dress, and Casanova says something incomprehensible about it. Mike D. doesn’t know what to do about his skirt.

In the apartments everyone trash-talks everyone else. Nothing really sticks out.
In the morning people still are talking smack about everyone. Kristin wants some feedback. Casanova puts on a mud mask and Mike D. makes fun of him. He does look silly, but so does everyone when they wear a mud mask. When they all get to Parsons, flailing ensues. Tim enters to give them 2 hours to finish. Chris thinks he might win. Peach will get her model in the dress even if it takes a stick of butter. Philip puts the hats on the models himself. And he also comments on the dresses a little bit. Ivy is trying to be perfect. Then she nearly runs over a cameraman on the way out of the workroom.

Heidi walks onto the runway…ok first of all, they’re playing Seal. That is enough to cause me to have a fit. Then, she’s wearing a hat that is a black and red rose with a giant tall spiral stem thing. And a plain black dress. Flergh! That is what I think. Also, how exactly is that attached to her head? Philip is back to guest judge. Mike C.: rusty orange dress with a handkerchief hem and a deep V bodice. There is a gold sash wrapped around her, like the straps were super long and they used them as a belt. Her hat is a huge orange oval, with two little tails around her eyes. Remember Lady Gaga’s lobster mask/hat, where the antennae curved around her eyes? Like that. It’s orange but more red than his dress. Gretchen: beige short dress, with ruffles cut into it so it looks ragged. The bodice has side boob. It’s not really beige, there’s a sort of checkered/animal print to it. And leggings. And a black leather belt. The hat is a gray flat piece, on its side, and then spikes coming off the other side. Like she has a Mohawk and the hat is lying alongside her hair. Kristin: black dress with a red underlayer. The red is looped around, from under the skirt to the back of the dress, and again popping out from the bustline. Her hat is a big purple and white orchid. The red also shows up as a tail. Mike D.: the top still looks like cardboard, but it’s got a stand up collar, sort of, with no back, and it does seem to be cool. There is also an orange full skirt. The hat is round in the back, like she’s plastered a circle to the back of her head, then it comes forward over her head, and it comes to a point over the top of her head. It’s triangular, the part that frames her face, and then a big circular halo behind her head. I hate describing these hats. Valerie: red baby doll dress with a handkerchief hem and a white shrug. Her hat is really a black mask with sequins. The back of the dress is a racerback but the zipper really sticks out. AJ: black dress with white polka dots. The bodice has a big cowl collar, that stands up (not drapey), and the skirt is full but has some stiffness to it. It’s a cute dress. The hat is a big flat tan hat with a huge chinstrap. The skirt also has a scalloped hem, and there’s a big black sash.

Andy: huge hot pink jacket with huge sleeves and a double collar, and a pencil skirt in the same color. It reminds me of Chloe Dao’s finale collection. There is a tiny black bodice above the skirt. Not tiny like she’s falling out, but tiny like, the pink comes up to her boobs. The hat is a giant white circle with one strip of black. Like a clock. Ivy: light pink blouse, not super exciting but it’s a wrap top, and a white pencil skirt to the knee. Her hat is a bright pink flat cap with a big pink rose and a spiky feather thing. It’s almost a turban. April: black sleeveless vest and white booty shorts. They still look like diapers, even though there is a strip of black at the bottom of the leg hole. Her hat is a conical hat, with a really pointy top and a flat brim, in horizontal pink and white stripes. Nina is like, shading her eyes from the booty shorts. Chris: that gray and black print I described earlier, which is a sleeveless long vest or jacket, with a black belt. there is a gray miniskirt and gray tights that match, and high black boots. You know what it reminds me of, is that coat that Victorya and Jillian made for the avant-garde challenge, that awesome ruffled coat with the pink plaid? Not that this is a coat with plaid, but the cut and the way it sits on her makes me think of that outfit. Her hat is a big black Mohawk of black netting. Peach: first of all, her hat is a double swirl of black and white spiky feathers. Her dress is pink and beige floral print with a peplum and a short skirt. Casanova: plain black dress with a V neck and ¾ length sleeves and no black. His hat is a metallic swirl, with an inner swirl of neon yellow-green. Mondo: purple sleeveless vest, and then black and white polka dot pants with brown and yellow polka dot trim. Wow. Then his hat is a bright red spiral attached to her forehead.

April, Mike D., Chris, Mike C., Valerie, and Kristin get to be judged in more detail. Mike D. thought the hat reminded him of a warrior and a farmer. But not in a bad way. The skirt fabric is that permanently wrinkled stuff, which I like. Philip loves it. Wait, the skirt fabric wasn’t like that, he made it. Awesome. Everyone loves it, it’s dramatic and compliments the hat. Kristin wanted black to offset the orchid. Kors hates the black and thinks it doesn’t go with the hat. Her shoes have flowers too which is bad. Philip initially liked the stripes on the back but in the end he wants something more fragile. She politely disagrees and says she wanted her dress to flow. Nina says the black makes it not as soft. Chris wanted the dress to flow because his hat had a lot of hard angles. Heidi thinks it’s too dark and not happy enough. What? The hat is black netting. Kors hates the leggings, and the fact that she’s trying to be street but failing. Also they hate his top, which I really like. She does not look weighted down to the floor. Whatever. Mike C. wanted to transition the movement of the hat to the dress. Kors of course loves it that it’s not perfectly matched and not a costume. I see what Tim was saying about the judges this season. Not that Mike C. has a dress that sucks, but it’s not that great, I don’t think. To his credit, he sells it. April tries to sell her outfit, but no one is buying. Kors doesn’t like how literal it is. The back isn’t even fitted properly, and there’s a big black zipper. April admits she didn’t want to overpower the hat, so she made some mistakes. Valerie talks about scoop necks and the jacket being hard somehow, even though it’s a sleeveless white shrug. The judges all love it. Interesting. Philip, though, doesn’t get it or where it’s coming from.

Back in the…whatever room. Duabe says “Scrap Place”, and katnap says “Green Room”. Both are good suggestions, but it’s late now and I can’t decide. Will decide later. Mike C. brags about his dress, and everyone makes faces. They are also shocked that no one liked Chris’s outfit. April starts to cry. It was really her and she was confident.

Bad: Chris thought his look was edgy but it was dated and stiff. I still liked it. Kors admits that the vest was a good design on its own. Kristin’s whole outfit never came together. Nina thinks she has some talent. April had “triple panties” but the jacket was potentially OK. Plus she didn’t make a dress which Heidi likes. Good: Mike C. was effortless and perfectly coordinated. Valerie’s dress the regular judges liked, but Philip was bored and does not agree. Good. Someone should disagree. Mike D. was original and the outfit flattered his model.

Valerie is in. Mike C. is the winner. He’s so thrilled. Everyone fakes being happy. In confessional Ivy is all “WHAT THE FUCK?!?! OMG I said it!!” Gretchen complains, but she’s just bitter she wasn’t in the top. Mike D. is in. Chris is in. Kristin is out. That’s sad, she really did have a tough hat. Everyone is glad to see April, including Casanova. She makes fun of Casanova’s accent which is cute. Kristin is relieved to get back to the real world. She’s very calm about the whole thing.
Back at the apartments everyone bitches about Mike C.’s win, except his apartment, for obvious reasons.

Next week: two teams, Casanova is tired, people argue, dramz. That is when you have more drama than the word “drama” can handle. OK, it’s a typo my sister wrote and then kept. But that’s what it means.