Project Runway 10/7/10--"A Look in the Line" summary

Previously on Project Runway: all the designers got to make their own fabric designs, which is always a good challenge. They also got family visits, which consisted of everyone’s mom (except Chris got his boyfriend). Mondo won again, with a Mondo print that actually was inspired by his HIV+ status. I love Mondo. Valerie’s print was dark blue on black so it was hard to see, plus her dress looked too much like her party store dress, so she was sent home. Her decoy collection is full of shiny color and is very Valerie. (click for more)

Mondo is very excited. Gretchen is also excited because Valerie is gone and now it’s quiet. She tells April that she needs to focus on herself sometimes. Is Gretchen ever not focused on herself? I know she’s supposed to be the “villain” or whatever, but I just find her delusional, or full of herself, and not totally evil. Mondo says “The stakes are high. I don’t even like steak.” Heh. Andy must redeem himself.

Heidi has the velvet bag with her, and everyone is worried. For some reason the producers want everyone to change models. Whatever. Do you know any of their names? Do you care? I can’t be the only one who doesn’t care. Mondo is sad because his model is the one that ends up being eliminated. This challenge involves designing for Heidi for her New Balance line. I am so sick of designing for Heidi. Can’t we even at least once design for Nina? Or hell, design for Tim. Anyway, blah blah, active wear, head-to-toe, etc. Six models come out in some of the designs. How in the hell is a long-sleeved tunic with a belt and no pants “active wear”? You know what? It doesn’t matter. It’s all in gray and beige so Mondo is worried. So the winner gets to be part of Heidi’s line. Sold on Amazon, not on Piperlime which makes me laugh.

Back in the workroom there are large bolts of fabric to look at. I don’t think anyone has made active wear ever. Mondo is going to pull something out of his ass. Gretchen pooh-poohs the designs as “retail driven” and basic. Of course it’s retail driven. That’s the point. Tim collects them to go to Mood where they get $100. Everyone ends up in the same section. Chris is putting chiffon in his active wear.

Andy has a hoodie and cargo pants, with “interest”. April wants to make a long maxi dress with kimono sleeves. Mondo has pulled a shiny pink. He wants to make something more cropped, as opposed to oversized. Gretchen feels that the collection needs a jacket. She also is pretty confident no one will ever exercise in any of those clothes.

Tim time! And Heidi time! Gretchen doesn’t like Heidi in the workroom. She’s the client! What are you thinking? First thing, Chris’s model had a family emergency so he gets Mondo’s old model. Chris has some draping in the back and really open armholes. Somehow this will not appeal to busy web browsing women. Gretchen comments that Chris’s design is flat. Mondo has a cropped top, and Heidi for some reason doesn’t believe him when he says it’s a size 6. With no prints it’s dulled down, says April. She also says it looks like Ivy did it. Hee. Heidi basically tears into Mondo’s look, trying to force him to admit she wouldn’t wear it to go shopping in, but he refuses to play along and actually gets pissed at her. She insists she can’t get the clothes on, but he’s like, well I haven’t fitted it yet, do you want to try that on too? Heidi’s offended he won’t take all her criticisms with a smile. Maybe she has some good points, but this isn’t the runway. Michael sees Heidi as the boss and not the client, but I think she’s more the client here. That’s how she always acts, anyway. That entertained me for some reason. Heidi likes Andy’s clothes.

Mondo is still pissed so he goes to the lounge to take a break. He doesn’t want to start over, because he’s gotten nothing but praise for being different and now Heidi is attacking him for being himself. Chris tells him he could win the whole thing and not to let this go.

Back to Heidi and Tim. April has a loose black dress with I guess a lot of detail that we can’t see. Gretchen also has chiffon and jersey for her jacket. For some reason she tells Heidi this will translate into the cashmere. Heidi asks my question for me: Why don’t you just make the jacket out of the cashmere I gave you? Yeah, seriously. Gretchen felt that part of the challenge was to show what they could bring, in addition to making something that would go in the line, and while that’s true, Heidi would have to make it in her fabric, so why not just do it now and save the step? Gretchen gets defensive about the fabric, saying she doesn’t want to “waste time” about the fabric, she wants to win, so if you don’t like it it’s gone! And she throws it on the floor. Wow. Why is everyone crazy? And why was she so adamant she use her own fabric and then all of a sudden claim they’re wasting time and change her mind? Her leggings have butt rouching. That is a bad idea, and Heidi says so. She’s just as pissy as Mondo was but she does not get yelled at for her attitude. In confessional she whines that she has to use the same fabric as everyone else. Michael is making a poncho with a hood. It’s very simple, which April is irritated by. Tim says it’s very speedy, without saying that’s because it’s simple, and then Heidi makes fun of Ivy because OBVIOUSLY Michael can sew, if he makes garments faster than everyone else. I don’t remember Heidi ever being so catty about the designers before. Was she?

Tim and Heidi, before they leave, announce that the twist this week is to make two more looks! Three complete looks! Woo! Mondo isn’t even paying attention. But they get help, which consists of who knows what. Tim will take them to Mood again, and they can buy more stuff, and they get tonight and tomorrow. Gretchen sketches a “fashion legging”. I just realized how glad I was to only have to talk about six outfits and now I have to talk about eighteen outfits. I hate these twists. Mondo is doing nothing. Tim says to think positive!

Tim shoots down all of Gretchen’s fabric choices and she’s flailing. She and Mondo really hate this challenge. Tim comes in with his gather ‘round and sends in the help. Which is eliminated designers some of whom I was glad to not have to listen to anymore. Michael says “Here they come. The past” with his eyes bugged out. Hee. He thinks they all hate him so he’s really not happy. Yeah…I wouldn’t be happy either if I was him. He would rather be eliminated. Mondo picks Valerie, Gretchen picks Casanova, Chris picks Ivy, Michael takes AJ (ee!), April gets to work with Peach. So Andy gets Mike D., and he interviews that he will have to simplify some things.

Mondo has no idea, but he is going to do something so he doesn’t look stupid in front of Valerie. Gretchen is still freaking out about Heidi, because for some reason it made her feel like she’s not a designer. When day one ends, Andy hasn’t finished any of his looks.

The next day, AJ admits he was nervous about working with Mike C., but he’s actually glad. Chris is taking advice from Ivy. He says he can’t see what’s going on right now, so he needs a fresh eye. Peach is nitpicking, so April has to tell her when to move on, which she seems to be fine with. Casanova calls Mike C.’s outfit pumpkin pie with pecans. At least I think so. Those are the colors he has right now. I don’t mind the colors, but the pants are weird. Mike C. totally admits that he has a Thanksgiving color palette. Casanova tries to give him shit while they all sew but he just laughs. Ivy asks Mike C. how it feels to be so near the end, and he says he kind of can’t believe he‘s still there. And she says “Why, because you cheated?” Like, out of nowhere, all fake calm, and why didn’t you bring this up when you were still on the show? So apparently, for the Jackie O. challenge when they were supposed to make “American sportswear”, Ivy thinks Mike C. taped the dress to his model so she wouldn’t fall out. This is not allowed. That was like, four weeks ago, and the week after that for the “advertorial” shoot I totally said something about one of Gretchen’s pieces, that it looked taped. Either no one has noticed anything or no one cares. Michael says his model uses “sticky boobs” which seem to be plastic shields that are tacky, and she puts those on with tape. But I guess that’s OK. He totally is not worried about it, and just asks Ivy how it feels to be eliminated for a crappy design. Mike D. is looking at him like “did you really just say that?” Ivy says “Well, you know, it’s a TV show.” EXACTLY. It’s a TV show, so why are you in here with your accusations of cheating from four challenges ago then? They bitch at each other for a while. Ivy interviews that Michael’s language is “low class”, but they bleeped what he said so I don’t know exactly what it was. Whatever. He’s now despicable, and all her being a bitch to him was justified because he cheats. I wonder if she’s proud of how she looks right now? Because I really don’t think Ivy of all people should be attacking anyone about how they talk shit about everyone. When pressed for details, Ivy just says he sabotaged everyone by cheating and “playing the game”, which to me is a red flag that she doesn’t really have any arguments. I mean, that’s what I do when I don’t have examples. If you have specifics, you list them. Eventually the producers just let her interview about how unfair it is, and they let Michael interview about how she’s just bitter because she lost. I mean…she calls him Satan.

Michael says this is a lot of drama, but imagine how he feels when everyone hates him. AJ tells him that people do think he cheated, and he didn’t always trust Michael to “do the right thing”. Is this from before what Ivy was talking about? Because AJ was gone by then. Michael tells AJ about how if Mondo hadn’t become his friend he would have quit. Ivy comes over to Mondo and says she made Michael C. cry because he’s not a good person. Mondo knows she’s bitter. Ivy is seriously going around to the entire workroom telling each person how she called Michael out on his cheating. Are you kidding me? …I can’t even come up with anything to say. At least Mondo backs me up. Dude, even GRETCHEN agrees with me. Ivy interviews that she totally believes in karma, as the producers then cut to something exploding off the sewing machine and hitting her in the eye. Amazing producers! Michael C. laughs and I don’t blame him one bit.

With 45 minutes left in the day, Tim appears with another gather ‘round. I guess someone finally told producers about Ivy, and she at least explains the accusation. Ivy claims she and other designers saw the trash from the tape in the bathroom. Mike C. is insulted they would think he would do such a poor job of hiding evidence of his cheating. Ivy claims not one of them mentioned it because they were each so concerned with putting out their own garments they had no time to talk to a producer. Why is it coming up now? Ivy says they did bring it to the producers the next morning, right after the challenge, and the producers told them it was too late. “It IS too late!” Tim says brightly. “There is no malfeasance and it’s all hearsay.” Woo Tim! Malfeasance! Michael is a little sad it happened at all but he’s OK with this outcome. Tim promises if he felt it was really serious they’d be dealing with it.

The day of the runway show the boys joke about how they’d like to see Mondo go home. He’s all, bitch, everybody does. Hee. The girls have gone back to hating Michael again. Andy has to finish things. Chris is basically done. Gretchen shows up at Michael’s table, unsolicited, to tell him to let things go and just be present and make this the best that you can. Thanks Mom. Casanova and Gretchen argue about if the clients here still want to have sex. Michael says he’s either safe for sure or the winner. So that’s foreshadowing. Ivy is thankfully silent. Mondo has made thick fabric headbands with weird shapes, like, boxes and discs. The best interaction yet? Michael describes his client as being about the gym and working out but also being about a man. The makeup guy, the main one with the handlebar mustache, says “I don’t know anything about that”, totally deadpan. Hee! Everyone says their goodbyes.

Why isn’t Heidi wearing some of her active wear line? Guest judge is Norma Kamali. Gretchen: first is a white dress, loose on top with an asymmetric hem and a long black duster. I think there are drawstrings. The top is just a tank top with a racer back and it hangs weird. Second look is black leggings with a gray cropped top that looks like something from the 80s. There’s a white jacket too. Like a cardigan. Last is a gray long cardigan, a bandage skirt with bike shorts, and a short sleeved top that is slashed, with netting, so you can see her bra. It’s all in white and gray and black.

Andy: wide legged cropped pants in black with white chevrons, and a gray shirt with elbow length wide sleeves. The collar of the shirt is black with a black stripe down the front. I like the pants, the V is low enough it’s not creepy. Second is a gray and charcoal hoodie, with a swirly design that is pretty cool, and I think just plain black pants. The last look is a very short dress, in black and white curvy stripes, long sleeved, off the shoulder.

April: very loose gray dress with an eggplant camisole underneath. I think. The top is asymmetric, and I think she has a leather jacket on. That’s what it looks like, anyway. Next is a shorts and top combo, the top in sheer. The last is the maxi dress, which has a mullet hem (knee length in front, long in back) and is one shouldered. The one shoulder has an elbow length sleeve, while the other one just has a wide strap. It moves in an interesting way but looks huge.

Chris: gray sleeveless top and navy pants. The pants have drawstrings at the bottom so you can pull them up and crop them, and the top looks like he just sewed two rectangles together. It’s not very exciting. The back is draped, though. Second is gray yoga pants and a red top, with a jacket that is cream and lavender. The lavender is striped across her shoulders, and the sleeves are very wide and ruffly. It looks more interesting, anyway. The last look is a short dress with very wide sleeves in gray, then a strip of pink and black in the middle. But I can see from here that it’s not done well. It looks crooked and is cut like a T-shirt.

Michael: knee-length melon colored pants, with a beige hooded poncho. It may be a coat with very wide sleeves and not a poncho. Second is more orange pants, more pumpkin this time, but these are tight around the calf and very loose at the hip. Like, weird draped fabric loose. Then a gray top and brown hooded cardigan jacket. Last is a short dress with a zipper and banded short sleeves. Eh.

Mondo: purple leggings and a tunic with wide sleeves, in dark gray and melon. Next is a white tank, a cardigan with a gold strip maybe? and black pants. Last is a white tunic that also seems to be two rectangles sewn together, but with vertical stripes and also some seaming or something to give her a waist.

Michael, Chris, and Gretchen are the bottom, so they have to leave and wait it out. In the Scrap Bin, Gretchen complains that she made ten pieces in two days, as if no one else did, and I notice she’s wearing those over-the-knee boots she likes from the accessory wall, and then I realize her dress is made in a fabric she was looking at when she was at Mood. How does she have time to make herself clothes? Plus, I didn’t know designers could borrow from the accessory wall. She also thinks Mondo only made one look. Whatever. Back on the runway, Heidi is bitchy to Mondo about her “favorite” look that she complained about before. He was playing with shapes. Kors loves the headbands, and knows he had a challenge working with the muted palette. But the leggings are boring. One of the jackets has satin which Nina loves. Norma feels the pieces look good and people will wear them a lot. April wanted high fashion but comfortable. They like the long dress, and Kors will admit that nothing active is happening in these clothes. Norma doesn’t like the colors so much, but it’s modern. Heidi claims she is afraid to wear short shorts. I can’t roll my eyes hard enough. Andy wanted clothes women would want to live in. Heidi loves the short dress. Kors is excited. His jacket is chiffon and jersey, and all the pieces go together. Nina feels they might look a little like Halloween, but she still loves the pieces. Classic and beautiful.

Bottom three. Michael wanted to go a little more fitted. There are a lot of new colors, which Heidi doesn’t like. They also don’t look that athletic, or relaxed. Kors thinks he tried to hard to make it look “fancy” and it didn’t work. Nina doesn’t like the styling--too many things and it’s not relaxed. Norma still thinks there are some good pieces. He didn’t put them together right. Chris wanted something easy and effortless. Kors wouldn’t pay more than $10 for anything here. Ouch. The gray pants have a slit along the inside for some reason. And Kors says the dress is “sadness personified”. The jacket doesn’t go with anything. The best piece is the dark leggings, and usually he’s finished things well, but he didn’t make these clothes with love. Gretchen wanted to fill in some gaps in the collection with her looks, and not make sweatpants. Heidi thinks there are pieces that just don’t look casual. The bandage skirt and bike shorts, Heidi says that hurts her eyes. “You call it ‘hoshkaposh’?” That’s “hodgepodge”. Kors corrects her without batting an eye. Gretchen says that’s just a difference of opinion. Nina doesn’t like the cut on the bike shorts, and is that on purpose? That the inside of the leg is shorter than the outside? Because my shorts do that just because I have fat legs, and I try very hard to avoid that. Why would you do that on purpose? The gray jacket has a drawstring and looks like a robe. Kors hates the styling and turbans, and Gretchen is done with the criticism, you can tell.

Gretchen thinks Heidi hates her. Possibly. April’s styling is strong, her clothes are easy and high quality. And it’s still edgy. Andy’s clothes are light and interesting, and it ended up special. Heidi brings up how Mondo had an attitude in the workroom, and Nina is looking at her like “why am I sitting here with this woman?” but they all agree that the finishing is perfect and the clothes are wonderful. Christopher had a pajama party at the retirement village. It’s sloppy and washed out. Michael had weird proportions, and Kors doesn’t like his taste level. “Talent but no taste”. Gretchen’s clothes were out of an 80’s dance video, and the styling was terrible. There were too many things going on. Heidi doesn’t feel that Gretchen made things that would fit in the line, and then they discuss Gretchen’s ego, because she basically said “your line is lacking, I fixed it for you”.

April is in. Andy is the winner. I think Heidi is still bitter about Mondo’s attitude. Andy will get all three of his designs produced as part of the line. Nice. Mondo is in. Gretchen is in, but before she goes Heidi tells her constructive criticism isn’t her enemy. Chris is out. Aww. He just wanted to get past one more challenge. He’s thrilled that he got this far and it was amazing.

Next week: Mayor Bloomberg, final challenge before Fashion Week, Gretchen wants to leave, but you know she won’t.