Project Runway All Stars 12/20/12--"Flapper Fashion Face-off" summary

Previously on Project Runway: unconventional materials challenge! This time everyone had to make an outfit from the Christmas store, without making it obvious it was from the Christmas store. Mostly it was tacky. Uli won, because her signature is now apparently embellishments, and not flowy maxi dresses. Casanova flailed and made multiple dresses and ended up going home. (click for more)

So…next season of regular Project Runway. All team challenges. No Kors. I watched a season of a reality show with teams, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. It was terrible. No one liked the teams. Although it does raise a question, namely, if you have to be in teams, are they going to be the same teams all the time? Do you switch teams every week? Do they send a whole team home each week and maybe this season won’t last forever? This sounds like a terrible idea, all team challenges. Sharks, you guys. Sharks and water skis. Gah.

Ivy is kind of sad Casanova is gone now. Emilio thinks everyone left is strong. Game changer, he says.

Carolyn says some stuff about the 1920’s. They must make a modern look that is inspired by the twenties. She has six invitations for them. Everyone takes one, and they all have different destinations on them. Social soiree, afternoon garden party, speakeasy. So now everyone is paired up, but not in teams but head-to-head. Nice. Uli and Laura have soiree, Josh and Emilio are garden party, and Ivy and Anthony Ryan are speakeasy.

Everyone gets to designing. Emilio is going more body-conscious late ‘20s. Josh asks Laura if she’s going to have feathers, and she declares she does not need feathers to compensate for her design. Out loud. In front of Uli. Jeez. $250 to shop. Josh and Emilio fake fight. Ivy is buying some fabric that is $150 a yard. Yikes.

When they get back to the workroom to start on their stuff, Anthony Ryan thinks Ivy is hiding from him. Ivy, on the other hand, thinks Anthony Ryan is all up in her personal space. Uli claims she really didn’t intend to use feathers today. Laura thinks using trim and feathers is really “styling” and not “designing”, and then she says she’s combating this trim and feathers thing with…fur. Whatever. She makes me tired. Also she doesn’t think the ‘20s had outfits with stuff all over them. Didn’t flapper dresses tend toward beading? Or is that just my musical/movie image of them? Josh thinks he and Emilio have the hardest category. For no reason, Josh is using horrible floral print fabric instead of muslin. Then he “brags” that he only goes to fire escape parties and parties on rooftops. Anthony Ryan makes a feather capelet. Josh models it because he is weird. Ivy cuts her expensive fabric into strips. Laura also has beaded fabric, and she says she has to smash the beads before she can sew it. She claims to respect Uli, after she said all that stuff about trim.

Joanna time! Josh has a draped sash, almost, and Joanna warns him against making his model look fat. Then she points out that both Josh and Ivy have not won a challenge yet. Emilio has grandma’s sofa print fabric. He promises Joanna it won’t end up old, and then he says while Josh’s model is appropriate for the garden party, she is just a guest while his model is the owner. Heh. Josh fights back by saying HIS model is the main course to her husband? It didn’t make a ton of sense but Josh thinks his girl is hotter, I guess, and they both seem entertained and not insulted. Laura is making pants again. Uli thinks the judges will penalize her if she doesn’t bust out the feathers. Anthony Ryan’s capelet looks great. Ivy’s fabric is turning out well. Joanna forces them to judge each other, and Ivy admits she doesn’t like Anthony Ryan’s outfit. She is ready to win.

Model fitting. Uli discovers her fabric is too sheer. She also likes Laura’s outfit. Josh really wants a brooch, but he can’t figure out where to put it. Underneath Ivy’s sewing machine the floor is covered in beads and sequins. No one seems terribly close to being done.

Day of the show. People trash talk each other. Hot makeup guy Scott. Everyone loves what they have made and thinks their opponent is terrible.

Carolyn has gotten herself all glammed up with waves and a 20s dress and whatnot. Uh…and then everyone is seated at hightop tables and they told them to dress appropriately? So with feathered headbands and in period looking clothes? Sigh…two guest judges again. Gretchen Mol (on “Boardwalk Empire”) and designer Jenny Packham. Josh: part of his bodice is light gray and sleeveless. Then there is a swath of dark raspberry fabric across the other side of her body. Like she has on the gray dress and wrapped herself in the other fabric. The brooch ended up at her hip, and I think the skirt is longer in front than in back. She looks kind of wide, but I wonder if everyone is going to go for a flapper boxy silhouette. The back of the dress has both colors and a diagonal light yellow stripe, for some reason. Emilio: tea length slim dress with wide shoulder straps, in a floral print. It’s much more modern and looks really great. Uli: short loose dress, kind of boxy, in white fabrics with a skirt made of fringe. There is also a shawl across her shoulders and chest that kind of stands up. There is a lot of fringe on this dress. Laura: dark red pants, very wide, and a blousey camisole with some beading down the front and a very low cut back. And a fur vest. Eh. It’s fine, it’s just very Laura. Ivy: knee length straight dress with very nice beaded fabric in a horizontal print. The bottom of the skirt has a few feathers. For some reason her model is walking very slowly and carefully. Anthony Ryan: short dress in a very loose silhouette, and the fantastic feather capelet.

Josh talks about drop waist and whatever, and Georgina likes the back but not the front. Specifically, the brooch and her clutch. The front ruins it. Emilio really wanted to do a print, and he cut it carefully so there would be more blue print on top and gray in the middle. They really like how elegant it is and it fits the time period. Georgina wants him to push his unique point of view. Uli wanted expensive fabrics all put together. They do like it, but Isaac doesn’t like the fringe. They ask her to take the shawl off and they like it better with the thick straps and the slight crew neck on the dress. Laura says she loves “a whimsical pant”. With the fur, the pants are too much. Down at the bottom the hem is slightly cock-eyed and her hips are weird. Shiny fabric. Ivy talks about her beaded fabric, but Carolyn says she has seen it and is bored. Too heavy. Anthony Ryan’s dress looks very 60’s when he takes the capelet off. It’s a high neck and all vertical stripes, and with the length (above the knee) it’s very gogo dancer. Isaac doesn’t like the capelet. Even though his dress and Ivy’s dress are cut the same (boxy), no one says anything about it because I guess it is Ivy’s turn to go home. Emilio, Uli, and Anthony Ryan have the high scores.

They like Emilio’s dress, but at the same time they are bored and have seen it. Isaac doesn’t want him to win. Uli has a lot of detail and it looks expensive. Somehow Anthony Ryan is fresher. Whatever, we all know how pointless it is to try to figure out the judges. Then they claim that now is the hard part, figuring out the loser, except that we know Laura and Josh had mild criticisms, tempered with plenty of praise, and Ivy only got slammed. So I don’t see how this is really hard. Josh didn’t do that great, but they think he shouldn’t be eliminated. Laura’s pants are not well-liked, but they seem to like her outfit more without the fur vest. Carolyn thinks they’ll be seeing this same pantsuit forever. True. Ivy didn’t make her dress well, which seems to be a recurring theme with her recently. They can see her intention though, and Carolyn likes it better than Laura’s pants.

Emilio is in. Anthony Ryan is the winner! Eh. I still think that was more mod 60’s than 20’s but fine. Uli is in. Josh is in. Laura is…out? What? I didn’t think you had it in you, show, to fool me like that! She claims not to be sad. No one else seems to be sad either.

Next week: make a “wow” look. Ivy gets to call Casanova for some reason. Carolyn is bored. I’m not sure if I can watch and post on time next week, but hopefully I’ll get things up quickly.