Project Runway 10/4/12--"In a Place Far, Far Away" summary

Previously on Project Runway: Heidi used the designers for free labor and made everyone design outfits for her baby line. I mean, clearly Heidi has a line of baby clothes. Also just for fun everyone had to take care of dolls that cried and were fussy. There were real clients, though, so that was cute. Even though they put in a twist that the designers also had to make an outfit for mom. Chris’s mom hated the outfit she got, but the dress for her daughter was a winner. Sonjia won also, by making a very cute suit out of fleece for a little boy. Elena just slapped a bunch of random colors together and her outfit made everyone tell her it looked like a thrift store outfit, so she was sent home.

             

Fabio is glad to be top 5. Dmitry doesn’t want to be eliminated when he’s so close. Melissa, silly girl, thinks the number of wins you have is relevant in any way.

             

Heidi points out there’s only five of them left, like they can’t count, then sends them to go meet Tim and someone else. They all traipse off to the country somewhere, to a big house and gardens. Tim is waiting at Oheka Castle with the L’Oreal Paris guy, who is NOT hot makeup guy, which is dumb. Tim says these grounds are part of the inspiration for this challenge. The other part is some special colors of makeup. Some fantasy thing. Product placement. Each designer gets one of the color sets, and they have to make an avant garde design. Melissa is very glad to do that. Tim and the guy talk about the makeup colors as if they’re real people. They’ll have $400 and two days. Let’s hope there is no “ready to wear twist” happening. Dmitry is planning a suit. Sonjia wants sexy but complex. Melissa is kind of sad to not have the makeup set with black in it. Chris gloats that his will be better. Shush. Sonjia seems weirdly unsure of herself. She loves her fabrics but doesn’t know what she wants to do. Melissa got stuck with pastel sorts of colors and she really is still wishing she had black.

             

Tim gives them until 10:30 tonight and all day tomorrow. He says these garments should be ambitious. Yeah, too often this challenge produces lame outfits. Sonjia discovers she’s missing her gold fabric and immediately starts freaking out. Does she have the receipt? Haven’t they sent people back to Mood to find it? Why is everyone freaking out? Melissa thinks she has to wow everyone to make it.

             

Tim time! He wanted to come today, when they would still have time to fix things. Melissa is making a high collar, and Tim tells her to watch time. Chris is building out the hips in his dress. Dmitry says something about triangular sleeves? For his jacket. Tim doesn’t think it has enough drama. Fabio has a sheer inner piece, with boy shorts, and a “hard” outer piece. Tim is silent, which is worrying. Fabio leads us through the stages of Tim’s looks of concern (hee) and he knows it’s not good. Tim thinks it’s costumey and old. Down and dreary and flat. Poor Fabio. Sonjia tells Tim she’s kind of stuck, and Tim says he doesn’t think she’s been working up to her potential. Oo. He says he knows there’s a lot more in her. She says nothing to him about the gold fabric that we can see, so maybe she ended up not buying it? It’s not on the receipt? After Tim leaves everyone gets back to work to revamp everything.

            

In the morning, Fabio is unhappy about how much more work he has. Chris also bitches about how much work there is. Melissa is still talking about how much she wants to go to Fashion Week, to the point where I wonder if she’s the winner and this is all misdirection. Sonjia thinks she’s finally come up with something good. Fabio tells us that he used to wear button-down shirts as pants. Of course. So he puts the coat on upside down and decides that’s awesome. Dmitry feels pretty good about his jacket. Tim comes back with the makeup guy. Makeup consults are as usual, whatever.

             

Tim comes back with three hours to go to check up on everyone again. Tim loves Fabio’s upside-down coat and is crazy about it. He can’t believe that’s all Fabio did, was turn the jacket upside down. Melissa is trying to plan everything out, and it seems like she has patterns set up, she just has to cut and sew. Sonjia has some illusion netting and floating pieces. Like, one shoulder and arm that isn’t attached to anything. Tim tells Chris he sees an 1890’s dress. Chris says the hips make it avant garde, but Tim says that just because no one would want to make their hips look bigger, doesn’t mean it’s not a mistake. Chris has no response. I think he didn’t go big enough. The hips should be huge, not just slightly larger. It’s a nice dress but not avant garde. Dmitry gets the same critique. It’s too similar to other things, and isn’t avant garde enough.

            

Model fitting. Fabio has made everything fit perfectly which is creepy but he’s thrilled. Sonjia says the same thing. At least her model has the same skin color as the illusion netting. Chris is happy with his dress. Melissa curses at her collar. They all leave, and interview how important it is that they win.

             

Everyone talks about how tired they are and how excited to be almost in the finals. They will have extra time for hair and makeup. Chris stands on a stool and the table to sew. Fabio will have to do all his finishing by hand. Hot makeup guy is doing all the work today. Haven’t seen the other guy. Melissa appears to run out of time? It’s not clear.

            

Heidi is wearing some weird unflattering print that makes her look pregnant. Guest judge is Zoe Saldana. Heidi says something about “one OR MORE of you will be out” but I doubt it. Melissa: long skirt in a black and white print, with a high slit and lined in red, black leather sleeveless top, teal vest with a high collar, and black armguards on her forearms. It’s nice. Fabio: puffy red coat, with an interesting shape to it, and then black vertical strips, and very wide legged black pants with alternating sheer and black strips. Under the black is a dark red. The coat is cool. Dmitry: very dark purple or navy blue suit. The shoulders are pointy and there’s some cool seaming, and the back has a deep V and a very high slit, exposed zipper, and sheer pieces on the sides of the skirt. Sigh. The jacket has a weird collar or keyhole or something, but I don’t think it’s avant garde. Sonjia: long green mermaid gown and the top has the illusion netting with floating swoops on one side and up on one shoulder with a collar. Chris: long black dress with sparkles and a mermaid skirt. Feathers on the shoulders and on her arms for some reason. It’s a perfectly nice dress, I suppose.

            

Heidi says they were impressed. Sonjia wanted something sexy, but didn’t want her body all out. Heidi likes the green, but she thinks the illusion netting is a shade too light. Nina doesn’t like it, so Heidi argues with her a little. Kors says it looks like an ice skating costume, and Zoe thinks it looks unfinished. Like some napkins fell on her and the netting in the back is bad. Heidi continues sticking up for Sonjia. Kors is a bitch today and Sonjia is barely resisting rolling her eyes. Finally Sonjia is like, difference of opinion. Chris talks about making her hips wider. Kors praises her makeup and nails, which is dumb because that part was not Chris’s idea. Kors also thinks it’s a costume, especially because of the feathers on her arms. Each arm has one long feather. Weird. He should have pumped up her chest instead of her hips. There’s too much fabric and it makes her looks smaller. Nina thinks there are too many ideas, but the back is beautiful. Dmitry talks about castles and architecture. Heidi loves it. The sleeves are weird triangles, like they are very wide at her elbow from front to back. The collar thing is not good, but the suit fits wonderfully and the sleeves are great. Nina says “when in doubt, don’t go there”. Heh. Fabio says his jacket is reversible too. It’s fantastic, says Kors, but he hates the pants. Heidi doesn’t like it at all. Oh, what do you know. Everyone loves the jacket but they hate the rest of the outfit. Hilariously they like the jacket better turned around, i.e. the way Tim hated. Melissa talks about colors, and then Kors says he loves it. What? It’s not avant garde. It doesn’t suck, but it’s not that crazy fashion outfit that normal people would never wear. Nina thinks the skirt is a little too long. Heidi says Melissa’s outfit might be the ugliest. Her or Fabio. Shush. What is with Heidi today? She doesn’t agree with anyone and she’s not afraid to say so.

             

Melissa says it’s her dream to go to Fashion Week and she’d make a collection with leather and Sonjia and Fabio should come with her. Fabio says being on this show showed him how “loud” he wanted to speak and a Fashion Week show would let him “scream”. Heh. He would take Melissa and Chris. Bleh. Dmitry always wanted to be a designer and he’s ready. He picks Fabio and Chris. It’s Chris’s dream. He would also like Dmitry and Fabio. Boo, Sonjia is cool. She says she’s never thought of being anything else. She’d take Melissa and Dmitry with her. Interesting. Everyone likes Fabio. Except Sonjia.

             

The Scrap Bin is filled with talk of how far they’ve come. Heidi says they should consider everyone’s past work. They talk about if Melissa is one-note, because she likes black and leather, but she’s used color also. They like a lot of Sonjia’s pieces, and they agree she’s a wonderful tailor, but Nina doesn’t think they can pinpoint her aesthetic. Would she be a good storyteller? Chris’s Rockette outfit is taking him a long way, and they talk about his pleating technique he used a bunch of times. He’s taken risks and they seem interested in what he can come up with. They love Dmitry’s jacket, and all his clothes are meticulous and perfect. His clothes are serious, so maybe he could lighten up a bit. Fabio is conceptual and androgynous, but Heidi complains that she can’t remember any of his designs. Kors says he went for avant garde.

            

Chris is in. Jesus, he is Michael Costello 2.0. Just look at him and the gasping and hands to mouth. Whatevs. Dmitry is in and is also the winner? Uh…OK. I’ll admit I’m not sure what “avant garde” truly means, but…weird. Melissa is in. I am super sad. I love Sonjia AND Fabio. Heidi tells them that basically, she didn’t agree with the other judges about their outfits. Fabio is in and is thrilled. Sonjia is out. Boo. Everyone thinks she’s joking when she says she’s out. I love her. She says she’ll be at Fashion Week and won’t share the stage. Heh.

            

 Next time: no one is guaranteed a spot in the final three, everyone freaks out, something is crazy ugly.