Project Runway 8/2/12--"Welcome Back to the Runway" summary

Previously on Project Runway: the annual “unconventional materials” challenge. This time it’s candy from Dylan’s Candy Bar. No one sneers that they don’t work with candy, or whatever, like Bert did last season. Gunnar and Chris keep on fighting. Maybe they’ll make out. At least then Gunnar would be quiet.  Ven crushed some rock candy and made a dress that resembled stained glass, so he won. Lantie ended up scrapping her design, and even though both Gunnar and Elena had dresses that fell apart on the runway, Lantie cut up an umbrella and made some candy flowers so she goes home.
Raul thinks Ven is a one trick pony because you can’t always do “pretty”. Kooan thinks maybe they will have poodles today.
   
Heidi tells us Ven has immunity and today’s challenge will be red carpet. Tim and a special guest will tell them about it later. Field trip!
   
This is apparently “The Lexus Challenge”. The winner of the whole show is getting a car, so I guess it makes sense, but unless they’re going to tear those cars apart for materials I’m not interested. They already had the unconventional materials challenge. They will be making red carpet looks for someone with “empathy” for whatever they’re going through. Gunnar thinks it’s either All-Stars, or each other. Or Heidi. Blah, they always make gowns for Heidi. Plus, everyone knows what is going on anyway from the previews. The winning look will be worn at the Emmys. Ven says he always watched the red carpet, although not always the show itself. Heh. Then Tim says they have to incorporate whatever color car they’re assigned to. Are you kidding me? What kind of dumbshit requirement is that? GOD this show sometimes. Some guy talks about the cars, but I don’t care at all so I’m not talking about it. Teams of two, to make one look. Let’s hope it really is one look and not one red carpet look and one everyday look. They only have one day (and $300). Elena doesn’t like to work with people. The Velvet Bag comes out, and everyone gets a key. Chris cracks that this is probably the only time he’ll hold a Lexus key. Heh. No one seems very happy about teams. I was hoping they’d all run over and try their keys in each car, but I forgot they have key fobs. I have a crappy car with no key fob, OK? I’m behind the times. Chris and Andrea get paired up, so at least Chris isn’t paired with Gunnar. Sonjia and Nathan, Buffi and Elena (Elena is really pissed), Ven and Fabio, Gunnar and Kooan (HA!), Dmitry and Melissa, Raul and Alicia.
   
Lexus won’t let them drive the cars. Heh. Chris and Andrea find Anya standing around on the street. Raul and Alicia get Mila, and Raul wants to do menswear. Gunnar and Kooan get Irina, whom I do not recognize right away even though I should, seeing as how she won her season. That’s not a good sign, producer types. April gets paired with Melissa and Dmitry, so that might be good. Her hair is purple and not that weird gray it used to be. Valerie gets Nathan and Sonjia. Admit it, it took you a minute to picture her. She was on season 8 with Ivy and Gretchen. She seems up for a slightly crazy look. Poor poor Laura Bennett gets Buffi and Elena. Buffi is glad to see how Laura is dressed, but I don’t see any of Laura in either of them so far, so I’m not sure how that’s going to turn out. Ven and Fabio get stuck with Kenley, who claims to be fashion forward. HA! Kenley, you are only fashion forward in the sense that you steal designs from current collections of famous people. Fashion forward my ass. Irina tells Gunnar not to make her look like a checkerboard. Like his last dress. Heh. Kenley irritates me in the 10 seconds of screen time she gets, talking about how she is young and cool and fresh. Do you even hear yourself? Gah. Fabio can tell she is difficult. Raul and Alicia both have a menswear background, and Raul admits he’s never done a gown. You can see Mila go “oh shit” in her head. Gunnar says he can hand-bead, but Irina is like “don’t do that”.
   
Everyone starts sketching and talking to each other. For some reason, Laura seems to be the only one actually looking at sketches. Everyone else has left. Shopping is shopping, except for the part where Gunnar says “When it comes to fashion, I’m kind of a controlling bitch”, as if he’s not always that way. Kooan of course can’t possibly know as much as Gunnar, because he probably hasn’t seen the Emmys. Shut up Gunnar. Buffi says she and Elena are going to try and get along for the sake of the challenge. Dmitry and Melissa try to get jersey, but settle for silk charmeuse, which is very hard to work with.
   
Gunnar declares that he has it worst out of everyone, because his client is demanding and he doesn’t know how he and Kooan are going to work together. Let’s get this out of the way right now. No one thinks they are “working together”. Gunnar is going to order Kooan around like he’s an intern and not listen to any of his ideas. Most other people seem to be getting along. Raul points out that their clients are also designers, so it’s like there are three people per team. Strangely, Anya doesn’t want her dress to look like she designed it. Weird.
   
Tim comes in to tell everyone they have until midnight. When he comes back he’ll bring their clients, and the winner will also go to the Emmys. Chris is glad to work with Andrea and he gushes about how great she is. Kooan says he has to trust Gunnar and that is stressing him out. Elena says she’s a better tailor than Buffi, so Elena is sewing and Buffi is ironing pleats. Alicia admits she hasn’t ever made a gown either. Buffi and Elena kind of snipe at each other, mainly because ironing pleats will take all day and Buffi wants to make things. It’s pretty mild, as things go. Ven doesn’t think Fabio knows what he’s doing. Elena is stressed, and she seems to be making a lot of noise and sighing and irritating others.
   
Tim time! And clients! Irina looks skeptical, which prompts Gunnar to say he can’t tell if she’s arrogant or confused and he wants to smack her. Bitch please. She’d kick your ass. She says if they’re confident, then OK. Kooan wants the whole side panel to be sheer but Tim says “Borderline vulgar”. Gunnar says he wanted Kenley, but I think I would have to take the week off if I had to deal with both of them at the same time. April loves the color and the silk. Mila doesn’t like a print, and Tim doesn’t either. A print can be too daytime, and Alicia and Raul kind of are going in that direction. Mila wants to know if they can fix it to be more formal, maybe with less of the print. Raul loves the print, but Mila is the client. But he would tell her to use the print? In the end, they’re going to put more black in it. Kenley talks over Ven but she seems to like it. Valerie also likes her gown, or what they have. Anya likes the black belt Chris and Andrea have, and the backless gown. But she wants to fill in the front because it’s too low? Chris has to fish chiffon out of the trash to find enough to drape over the front. Chris is really concerned, but Andrea talks over him and says they’re good and…something about simple. Laura loves the design but knows that Buffi can’t pleat all that fabric in time. Elena is pissed, especially because Buffi is agreeing with Laura and Tim. Buffi tells her to calm down, which will never work, because no one likes to be told to calm down. I hate that.
   
Elena insists she’s calm and she just wants to get started. She stomps off somewhere, and then Buffi says she wants to walk out. And then Buffi goes looking for her, which is a poor move. You want to quit, but now it’s important you find your partner? Are you going to tell her to shape up or you’ll quit? Because Elena will just tell you to quit. I would. Elena is outside somewhere smoking. When Buffi comes back from not being able to find her, Dmitry tells her to just take over. Oh that’s a great idea. In confessional Elena is taking deep breaths and not speaking. When she is able to speak she tearfully says she’s shocked they gave them such a small amount of time for evening wear. Buffi sulks and mutters to everyone about how Elena is “screaming” at her. For some reason Elena is sewing and her sewing machine is super loud. There are some good shots of her sewing and other designers looking at her nervously. Elena (in a completely different outfit, hair down, all made up) says Buffi is moving too slowly and she is compensating by moving even faster. I think she really is wound up, and time constraints are the whole point of this show, obviously, and she does need to calm down. But you can’t tell people to calm down because it works so rarely. Elena says she needs toughness because in the Ukraine that’s what you need. I guess that’s her way of apologizing. Buffi complains that she’s starving but she has to get the stuff done to please Elena. Should have eaten while she was out smoking. Andrea is also moving slowly, but Chris doesn’t know how to speed her up in a respectful way. He flails.
   
The clients come back in for fitting. Kenley’s dress is kind of retro, of course, but not particularly fancy. Alicia is worried because things aren’t working and they’re out of time. Once they catch up, Elena calms down, and Buffi says she could have had dinner, although I don’t know why she doesn’t go get dinner now. She’s more and more irritating the longer she talks. Chris is still mad at Andrea. Raul hates the red carpet.
   
Back at the apartments, Buffi is still complaining, and Chris thinks he and Andrea are going home because they only started sewing an hour ago.
   
Tim comes and gives everyone two hours. Andrea is asking people how to work the sewing machine. Kenley spazzes about her dress. Gunnar has made a white dress so it is kind of wedding. Andrea screws up and is not really concerned. Chris makes faces and resembles Gunnar more and more the more he talks. Hot makeup guy. Irina’s dress has a weird bump on her butt, where the seam isn’t lying flat. She points it out to Kooan, and then says “You don’t want to fix this? It’s your project, I’ll go out there like this even though I’m embarrassed, but don’t you want to fix it?” Oo. Kooan says he’s sad. When Gunnar comes over she says pretty much the same thing to him, so he bitches back at her, but he got called on it so I am entertained. Gunnar hates the dress too, which is stupid because I’m pretty sure this whole dress was his idea. Now she has a frowny-face seam right on her ass. Lovely.
   
I only have to talk about seven looks. Yay! Heidi makes sure to say “winner” and not “winners”. Guest judge is Krysten Ritter. Buffi and Elena: long black dress with a high neckline and cap sleeves. The bodice has pleats that start at the neck (almost a mock turtleneck) and spread out, and there are some pleats in the skirt. It’s not a bad dress for Laura, although not really sparkly and no sternum. She has fun posing in it, you can tell. The back has a big keyhole. Chris and Andrea: long sleeveless brown gown with a boat neck and a very high slit. It’s pretty simple, but the skirt moves really well and there is a studded thin belt. OK, you can’t see the good china so the slit isn’t THAT high. This one also has a keyhole, and that belt does that thing where it is higher than the back so there is skin between the belt and where the dress covers her butt. Ven and Fabio: blue dress with a boat neck in a super Kenley retro cut. It’s full on bottom and short and it looks like something she would design. There is some folding over the front so it’s not as boring as it might be, I guess. Dmitry and Melissa: long gray dress with a very high neck and elbow-length sleeves. I think they put all the seams in the back, because it drapes wonderfully over her front. The middle is pulled in so it almost looks like a corset or a thick waistband. The back is cut low and there’s some draping. April looks irritated though. Raul and Alicia: long black dress with a V-neck and red belt. It is boring. Also the top is strange, strapless but the sides curve inward so it looks like a bodice for a much skinnier person, that they sewed to the top of Mila’s bodice. The back has a narrow keyhole that looks pretty good. Mila doesn’t look happy either though. Gunnar and Kooan: long white dress, sleeveless, with a high neck they capped off with a collar necklace. There seems to be a train? A piece of fabric at her neck that drapes down, so maybe a cape? It’s not very exciting but it doesn’t suck that bad, I guess. Irina looks sort of amused, like “Can you believe this shit they made me wear? Crazy right? But that’s the price of being on TV again.” Sonjia and Nathan: long gold dress with cap sleeves and a deep V. Not that deep though. It fits really well and is pretty sexy. You can tell Valerie loves it. I think in the back there is a V of lighter gold fabric.
   
Nathan, Sonjia, Elena, Buffi, Dmitry, and Melissa are all safe. Really? Nathan and Sonjia weren’t in the top? Whatever. In the Scrap Bin Sonjia says she thought they had the best three dresses there. Yeah…I wouldn’t argue against that. Ven and Fabio, and Gunnar and Kooan, had the highest scores. Uuuuuugggghhhhhhh. Heidi kicks the others out for a minute. Elena can’t believe Gunnar and Kooan are at the top. Andrea thinks she and Chris got along. Chris might be about to cry and he says it’s really not funny (Andrea said she was laughing about getting so worked up) and that he really wants this and it’s killing him to be in the bottom. Andrea (at least I think it’s her, it sounds like her but they won’t show her face) says if she gets knocked out it’ll be a relief. Everyone else says they really want to be here.
   
Preemptively: shut up Kenley. Although Ven starts out “For the Lexus Challenge”. Ugh. The dress looks expensive and appropriate. Kenley says they listened to her and she loves it. Krysten is slightly bored and doesn’t like that it’s short. Kors thinks that they used Kenley’s style while keeping themselves in it. Heidi asks them who wins, but of course they both think they should win. Like either one is going to be like “My partner should win”. They don’t get bitchy though. Gunnar says Lexus too, GOD. Kooan says he doesn’t do elegant and he had to listen to Gunnar. Gunnar says “Yeah” so shut up Gunnar. Irina says the sewing could be better. Heh. It’s more eye-catching. They like the high neck and the collar. Kors loves how she looks. Kooan says Gunnar should win, because he couldn’t even think about making this without him. That…is pretty self-aware.
   
Raul explains how he and Alicia work in menswear, and the execution of the dress is not perfect (if you watch carefully Mila gives a tiny nod here), but it’s not horrible. Mila wishes they had picked a more tailored fabric. Heidi wonders why they didn’t do a suit, but you know they would have been all “Where’s the gown?” Did they say “gown”? Or did they say “red carpet look”? I don’t feel like going back to look. They wanted to challenge themselves. It’s boring and not sexy. Also they put a big fake pony tail, which is obviously fake because the bottom is flat. It’s not Mila’s style. Nina thinks they didn’t put any effort in. Raul says they both agreed to take equal blame and no one will throw anyone under the bus. Finally they admit Raul started the sketching. As they pan up the dress on Anya, the bodice looks weird. I can’t tell if it’s the fabric they draped over it, or if it doesn’t fit right but it looks lumpy. Chris admits his dress is awful and he’s embarrassed and it took the whole 10 hours to cut the pattern. Oh, just come out and say it’s Andrea’s fault. I hate when they do that. The hem is slanted and the top of the back is too tight. Anya thinks they were too ambitious. Krysten says “Halloween costume you can get at a drugstore”. What? What are you dressing up as? Somehow it’s too cliché, Kors says the slit is too old-fashioned. Chris gets wound up and is now saying it took Andrea 12 hours to cut the chiffon. Andrea admits she made a mistake (Chris keeps talking, shut up) and she had to cut one piece at a time and whatever. Kors thinks they should have fixed it. When Heidi wants to know who should go home, Chris throws Andrea under the bus by bringing up her comment that “she didn’t care if she was voted off”. Wrong procedure, but it gets the point across. Andrea says that’s not what she said, which is true, she said it would be a relief. But she says what she DID say is she’s grateful for the opportunity she’s had so far. Then she says she had to do the bodice because Chris didn’t know how to make a cowl neckline. Ha! Chris says “I have too much respect to say what I want to say”, which he only says so the judges will “force” him to say it because he is too chicken shit to just do it himself. Andrea says she is better than this, but then Chris says he hates to point fingers and he “doesn’t” point fingers which is hilarious. Now he’s crying and saying he wants this so bad, and Andrea is saying she does too (except…relief to be eliminated) but she was laughing at the sewing machine so obviously she is a horrible person. Also he is not demeaning her. Are we done yet? OK, we’re done.
   
Kors says Gunnar and Kooan picked the wrong fabric, but the look of the dress was great. It’s dramatic and the white looked great on Irina. Ven has a really obvious point of view, but that team clearly got along. Kenley’s dress is not memorable (and Heidi wouldn’t wear it) but it looks expensive and they would be proud if it ended up on the red carpet. Chris and Andrea’s dress was terrible and it was “cheesy and obvious”. I don’t know, “cheesy” to me is like, 80’s shiny satin and a ton of ruffles. Raul and Alicia also had a crooked hem, but no one stopped any of the poor decisions.
   
Ven wins, which, bleh. Boring. And that means Kenley gets to go to the Emmys. Keep her away from cats. Fabio is in. Kooan is in. Gunnar is in. Chris is in. Andrea is in. Alicia is in. Bye, Raul. Raul insists that this was totally 50/50 and maybe they should have both been eliminated. He seems pretty upbeat which is weird. Like…too upbeat. Also he hates the Red carpet.
   
There’s a screen that says “The Next Morning”, and Buffi in the apartment asking where Andrea is. Melissa says she heard Andrea get up in the middle of the night, and when she got up in the morning, Andrea was gone. To be continued!
   
So a nitpicky thing, which is just because I always think about these things, is that when they have a runway show, they have the runway and judging, and then they all stick around and film the beginning of the next episode that same day. The part where they’re all at the runway and they do model selection and Heidi talks about the challenge. At least that’s what they used to do. So was Andrea there for that? Are they going to carefully crop her out of shots? Or do they not film that way anymore? I know it’s weird to worry about that instead of what happened to Andrea but they already had news reports that someone walked out of the show in the middle of the night and went home, so obviously that’s what happened.
   
Next time: Kors’s store, Chris claims to feel awful about Andrea (you know he just feels guilty, he doesn’t care if Andrea’s there or not), Tim says gather ‘round, both Nathan and Kooan say they think they should leave (I think? It’s not shot well), someone else leaves, something is tragic.