Project Runway 3/7/13--"A Sticky Situation" summary

Previously on Project Runway: the “real women” challenge made everyone design outfits for seniors. No one was a jerk about it, which is kind of nice. I’m telling myself it’s because everyone is nice and not because everyone is genre savvy and knows not to be a jerk. Stanley won, because he found the woman most like a model (that’s how it usually works) but he also made an elegant pantsuit. Ben is out, for making something shiny and too retro. But Patricia also got called out, FINALLY, which was nice. Amanda is now without a partner, and it’s not clear if they’ll stick her with Michelle (who had to be part of a threesome last week) or if they’ll redo teams again. (click for more)

Richard celebrates that he can move in with the other boys and Stanley in particular. Kate thinks Amanda is the next to go. Yeah, I can buy that. She’s trying to learn from her mistakes.

Behind the scrim is a duck. On a leash. I don’t know. Daniel used to have a pet duck. Hee. Tu hates ducks because one time a duck attacked him. Is he sure it wasn’t a goose? Geese are evil. Heidi says this is their clue, and I know what is coming because I watch previews, but I cannot imagine what kinds of horrible thoughts are running through the designers’ heads. Heidi says they must be “stuck” (but she doesn’t emphasize that so good for her) and Tim is waiting in the workroom with their challenge.

Tim has piled several tables with duck tape. Duck tape? Duct tape? Didn’t we already HAVE the unconventional materials challenge this season? Are we going to replicate an activity that countless nerdy high school students already do every prom season? Sigh. At least they have all the colors and patterns available. Also this is Duck Brand Duck Tape so that answers that question. The guy mentions nerdy high school students and then apparently we can’t get any more creative than that because the challenge is to make a prom dress out of duck tape. A prom dress? You can’t make anything else? Regular clothes? Tuxedos? It’s just “Hey, sometimes kids do crazy stuff, let’s make them do exactly the same thing!” It bugs me. Also because I think some of the sudden trend of strange prom dresses is just people trying to be special and doing crazy things just to get attention. As opposed to "I'm broke but I bet I could make a dress out of this stuff." Also tonight they are going to a high school to let students “interact” and make comments and vote. Samantha is irritated. Teenagers have attitudes. 20% of the students’ vote will be applied to their final votes. So they can’t destroy you, probably, but they might make a difference. Assuming the producers don't rig the voting. Stanley says he’s confident which is slightly worrying. Tim says teams of two, each team will create ONE “Stuck At Prom” look. Nice. Kate says she wants to work with Tu, because Patricia is weird and Michelle, Layana, and Amanda are bitches. She says bitches! Aww. They’ll have less than a day. Amanda looks flabbergasted even though Tim JUST SAID the teenager thing is tonight. Also they’re picking new teams, because the team thing is just for drama and not for actually working together with one person and learning their strengths and weaknesses.

Stanley gets to pick first because he won, and he takes Layana. Richard makes a great “Well, shit” face in confessional and then gloats that his specialty is prom dresses so touché. Patricia says she doesn’t want to be with Amanda so let’s assume that will happen. Kate and Tu, Michelle and Amanda (aww, I was wrong), Richard and Daniel, Patricia and Samantha. Samantha thinks they clash, so either it will be awesome or ridiculous.

Richard takes all the gold tape. All. And leopard. Layana tries to whine about it but they won’t budge, so she interviews that Richard must be jealous Stanley picked her. OK, but then he’s also screwed the rest of the room, not just you. Whatever. Michelle bitches about it too, because they have 250 yards of tape. Amanda realizes she’s twice the age of the students, because she is 31, as the chyron people put arrows pointing at it in confessional. Heh. Stanley has grabbed hot pink to use, but Layana whines that she doesn’t like pink. Not that it’s tacky, or something, just that she doesn’t like it. Stanley is firm with her and tells her to stop complaining about not having gold and just deal with pink. She’s also complained that New York high school students will not like pink zebra print because it’s not chic, although regular black and white zebra print is apparently OK. Stanley finally is like “do whatever” so she wins. Ugh, I hate when people like that win because they wear down the person they’re whining at.

6 hours to go. Kate thinks Tu is the only one who will listen to her, because she is the only cook in this kitchen. Tu says he’s listening to her, and as far as I can tell he is doing so because she has worn a dress to a prom before. Michelle says the camouflage is standing out to her. Amanda is all, no, tie-dye. So now they are creating a print. OK, if they have time. Patricia says something about stripping paint, and something about layers and something. I can’t tell what she’s talking about. Samantha is freaking out because she can’t tell either. Daniel thinks it’s good, but then he realizes it looks like a baked potato in foil. He had been taping the mannequin, but now he’s going to make the “fabric” on the floor and then sew it. Maybe. He and Richard love each other and are pleased.

Tim time! Stanley and Layana have a black bodice with the zebra as trim. It looks pretty good in terms of construction quality. They’re going for a 50’s shape. The skirt is very full, with all zebra. Tim says something should pop on the bodice. Tim points out to Samantha and Patricia that they have two outfits made. So what is the deal? Samantha says she was just playing, but maybe they are not working smart. Or together. Tim says wrapping paper. Daniel and Richard are putting things on the skirt? Embellishments? I don’t know. Tim is impressed. Amanda and Michelle have made some big houndstooth print which looks cool and pretty clean. Tu and Kate want to make a long dress, and so all the strips are horizontal because the strips were getting too long vertically. It’s very shiny and one color. Tim says not to pretend this is fabric, which seems to be what they are doing. Kate freaks out.

Everyone starts frantically working. Samantha is flailing slightly and Patricia thinks she [Samantha] is regretting getting paired with Patricia. Someone will have to compromise. Kate and Tu put some ruffles on their dress. Model fitting. Daniel and Richard’s dress is very, very close to their model’s skin color. It’s a very sleek strapless sheath dress, with some cross-hatching details that look like corset lacings. Then they put giant things on it and now it’s got like, ruffles, but not flappy ruffles but giant stiff ruffles. Ick. Michelle and Amanda have pulled it off. Kate still thinks she and Tu have the most “realistic” dress, meaning it’s the most boring.

Everyone is at some gym, where there are high school students of both genders. Patricia is terrified of teenagers. They cheer Tim Gunn though. Tim explains the challenge to the teens and how they’re voting. Amanda and Michelle: the print is mostly red, with black in a houndstooth kind of pattern. Strapless bodice, with one big wing off one side. The skirt is kind of full, but the pleats lie in such a way that there is one panel in front, and then folds off to the sides. It’s a slight mullet hem. Stanley and Layana: black dress with the white zebra trim, and a full skirt with pleats, also in the black and white trim. There is a big pink bow and sash. Maybe the skirt doesn’t have pleats but outlined panels, some in black and some in zebra. Very retro. Richard and Daniel: gold short dress with all the ruffles. From far away the ruffles don’t look that bad. I think they fell a little bit so they don’t stand straight out as much, but I still think it was better without. Kate and Tu: long dark blue dress with one shoulder strap and ruffles. It looks like it’s a mermaid skirt. Samantha and Patricia: silver bodice with thin black straps, and the skirt is a mullet hem with blue and silver lining. The skirt doesn’t really move, and it's above her knees in the front and almost to the floor in the back. I can’t tell what is going on with the skirt and Patricia’s ideas. Interspersed are shots of teenagers looking bored and smirking, but who knows when those came from.

So now the students get to mill around and ask questions. One girl wants Tu and Kate’s dress. Michelle and Amanda have some black and white hemming on their dress. There is a lot of praise for everyone’s stuff, even Patricia. The skirt maybe is silver with blue over the top, and then the blue is slashed somehow? I have no idea what Patricia did. Amanda worries because no one is talking to them. I like their dress. It’s fun.

Real runway day. Kate says she’s putting a bunch of crap on their dress. Hot makeup guy Scott. Everyone trash talks everyone else. Yes. Not very exciting.

Heidi is wearing an ugly dress again. Patricia and Amanda got the most votes from the students, for some unknown reason. Ugh. Stanley has immunity. Guest judge is Chris Benz, who is a designer and has bright pink hair. The runway is mostly the same as before. Layana made the bow bigger. Kate and Tu put a bunch more ruffles on it, which maybe was a bad move. It’s a good dress though.

Everyone gets to stay on the runway. Patricia made the skirt pattern with layering and stripping layers and whatever. They like it a lot, which is crazy. Nina raves about the hook and eye closure and the zipper. Nina! What are you doing? It’s a shiny silver bodice and a black strap and then a weird blue scale/leaf skirt print. The skirt doesn’t move right. I guess we’re far enough along in the season that the judges start smoking crack. Patricia and Samantha each say the other one should win if they are the top team. Tu admits he never went to prom so he did whatever Kate told him. Heidi hates it because she can’t walk in it. It’s old-fashioned. Nina even tells them so. That’s not true, people wear long prom dresses all the time. Ugh, I’m going to get all worked up about it. They hate on it, except Zac says he thinks long can be cool. Nina barely hides her disgust. They actually fight about it which is amusing. Zac is brave for taking on Nina Garcia. Heidi whines that she wants to go to a prom, but if she showed up to a prom in her usual red carpet outfits she’d get kicked out. Kate says she’ll go home because it was mostly her design.

Stanley and Layana made a bracelet too. Woo. Nina loves all of it, including the giant pink bow that looks like a gift-wrap bow. Heidi thinks she’s cool, and why don’t they get on this dress for being retro? Somehow it is fresh and modern. Pff. Amanda and Michelle were going for punk rock. Chris loves it, because it’s modern, and Zac likes the shape. Finally some good comments. There are cut outs on the sides, which are gaping a little, but they don’t mind a lot. Heidi thinks they had to do some math, and Zac says “tessellations” which is exactly correct. Maybe Zac is smarter than I thought. Amanda says she’d let Michelle win. Daniel was inspired by “16 Candles”. Heidi asks how long it’s been since they’ve been to prom, and when Richard reluctantly admits it’s been 20 years, she says it looks like it because this dress is outdated. Burn. The lattice detail is on the sides and her arms cover it. It doesn’t look like duck tape but this just makes it look lame. Nina is irritated at how inconsistent they are.

Stanley and Layana had good styling, which is not the point of the challenge, and they like that there is a petticoat. Michelle and Amanda did a lot of work but it is a showstopper. Zac loved how weird Patricia and Samantha were. Well, I guess that is a valid thing to like. Chris says it was “nature oriented”, I guess because the pattern in the skirt was like leaves. Kate and Tu were boring, and Nina is still insisting it was old-fashioned. They “don’t know who [Tu] is” which is a stupid thing they always say. If you wanted to know who Tu was as a designer, maybe you could NOT FORCE HIM TO WORK IN A TEAM. Daniel and Richard didn’t push themselves. Zac thinks they’re talented.

Stanley and Layana are in. Michelle and Amanda are the winners! Good. Patricia and Samantha were close, which, whatever. Michelle wins, so she’s clearly pleased and will probably continue to be mean to everyone. Oh well. She did deserve it, at least. Patricia and Samantha are in. Richard and Daniel are in. They “don’t know” who Tu is, and it was Kate’s design. Tu is out. Stupid. He knows he lost his voice and he says in confessional he knows he should go home. Kate…is also out? DAMN. To her credit, she is less surprised at that than Tu is. She’s sad because she had more to show the judges. Everyone back in the Scrap Bin flips the fuck out, which makes me wonder why everyone is shocked. Is it because they thought Kate was still in but they’re OK with Tu being gone? Or vice versa? Or just a general “the judges have changed the rules”? Tu says seeing a model with his design on it was fantastic. Kate says to believe in yourself even when no one else does. Aww.

Next week: male strippers. NO I AM NOT KIDDING. I’d keep talking about it but how many people are still paying attention? Nina loses it and has to be fanned.