Project Runway 4/25/13--"Finale Part 2" summary

Previously on Project Runway: the final four went home and made collections. Daniel was deemed the worst and was eliminated. Now it is finally the end of this show. Except for the reunion. (click for more)

Also last week the reason Stanley was so far behind is that he said he hired a woman to dye some fabric for him, but she jacked it up and he was not only out $700 but he had to start over. He said it but I missed it and that puts a whole other spin on his being so far behind. Can’t really help that.

The three finalists talk about all the changes they are supposed to make and they say encouraging things to each other. Yes, even Michelle. Also they talk about how much they want to win.

Three days until the finale. They still have their helpers which is nice. Tim comes in to applaud and tell them makeup consults will be today. Also he has a “spectacular” surprise which is $500 at Mood. Hmm…I know in the past this was a crutch because the “favorite” was so screwed they wanted to make sure they could save themselves. Now I’m not sure if that’s it or if they just thought maybe they should do that every year to be slick. Stanley says he’s not making anything new, but he is adjusting things and remaking pieces. Michelle is thinking of scrapping her yellow quilted top, and making a whole new outfit. Simple. Patricia has to change “at least” four looks. Lots of work. Michelle buys more yellow, Richard looks for things to sex up Stanley’s looks, Patricia gets leather so all her pieces can have leather.

Back in the workroom there is a weird random conversation about Swatch. It’s cute. Patricia goes to make leather pants and discovers holes in the leather. What? That sucks. She has to patch. Stanley has a gorgeous red beaded top for his finale piece, and he says he hired some women to hand-bead like three pieces. Nice. He also expresses some jealousy about how Michelle and Amanda work well together. He’s not really fighting with Richard but I guess he wishes Richard had more ideas, maybe.

Makeup consults with Billy, which, SO DUMB because he has no idea who these people are. Where is hot makeup guy Scott? You guys suck. Makeup and hair consults are always boring to me. It’s all “smoky eye” and “clean looks” and whatever. When the day is over, Layana observes that Patricia would be screwed without her help. Michelle predicts Stanley will rock it, while Patricia has a ton of work.

Two days left. Michelle’s new yellow top looks cute. Stanley is raising hemlines, which I think maybe he didn’t have to do to everything. Not everything has to be sexy, but whatever. Patricia has a ton of work still. Michelle has decided to rebel against the judges and maybe not change hair that much. Or also to put accessories. Hair consults. Patricia seems to have kept most of her headpieces.

Tim time! He loves Michelle’s new top, but he doesn’t think the compass is cool. It’s like a pocket watch or something. Whatever. I will agree with Tim that the sweater with the bleeding anatomically correct heart can go. Michelle might not do it; she seems determined to ignore whatever criticism she doesn’t agree with. Stanley has no skirt for his final look. As in, it’s not made yet. Tim seems skeptical of his ideas of hard vs. soft, and tells Stanley that it looks like he went to a vintage store. Oo. It kind of does, which doesn’t bother me because his clothes are expensive and I like them. But everyone complained about his clothes not being modern and sexy so this isn’t good for him. Patricia says her collection will be more cohesive but not totally cohesive. She also seems to have misplaced some scarves. Tim quickly spies the holes in the pants (or she points them out, weird) and Tim is horrified she’d send out holey pants to Fashion Week. Patricia just has piles and boxes of crap and she can’t find anything. Tim encourages her to cut a neckline off something and then put it on something she’s already used, for cohesion. He is not a happy camper. But I mean…he is physically moving pieces of fabric around and saying how much better it is.

That’s a lot of help he’s giving. Like, it’s one thing to tell Michelle not to put too many accessories. It’s another thing to tell Patricia to put a collar on another top. Or to tell Stanley to mix and match his pieces. But as we’ve seen with Mondo and Gretchen, when you ignore what the judges tell you, they get all pissy and then suddenly you are losing to the person who did exactly what they said and then everyone is upset about everything.

Amanda suddenly is over helping Patricia. I don’t know. Final model fittings. Patricia doesn’t have some pieces, but I think Stanley has most of his stuff. At least that is what it seems like. Every time Layana has an interview it pisses me off. She’s not saying anything that bad, she just bugs I guess. After the models leave, Stanley is still making his skirt but he can’t make it as long as he wants because he doesn’t have enough fabric. That sucks. Michelle complains to Amanda that it is “annoying” that the other two are so unprepared. Why are you annoyed? At least she’s showing her true bitchy self to someone instead of just in interview.

One more day. Patricia has too many sequins to put in. Michelle gets hung up on a zipper, I guess so she has something to freak out about since she seems to be done mostly. Tim comes to take their helpers away. Michelle cries about how wonderful Amanda was. Then Tim sends in some family members for everyone. Aww. Patricia and her kids dance like dorks which is super cute. Everyone is encouraging. When Tim comes back, he says they have about two more hours today to finish everything and pack. He promises “lots” of time to do things tomorrow. Tim then gives a gather ‘round and lets them in on the news that Kors is the guest judge, which is good because he knows what they’ve gone through, and he “is extremely powerful” with the other judges. And then Tim gets choked up about how proud he is, which is really striking because I feel like it’s been several seasons since he got choked up at this point.

Patricia decides to put more holes in the pants to disguise the ones that are already there. Michelle is done early, so she’s whispering to Patricia about how Stanley’s collection is “bad” because it’s not together. She is nice to his face though and offers to help him pack. I would be willing to assume she was actually worried about him and wanted him to do well, except for the pissy comments to Amanda.

In the hotel Michelle tells Patricia that apparently Stanley only has four looks done. Four. That means eight looks are not constructed. So what was that he said in Mood about not making anything new? Whatever. Michelle’s pretty sure he does not have one outfit he can just put onto a model and she can walk out. She almost looks like she’s in tears about it, which is weird and doesn’t fit with how she’s been acting. I’d buy it if Patricia was that upset for Stanley, just not Michelle.

Super early Friday morning. Michelle has a crazy hat. Like, not really a hat, but two big circles pasted on the side of her head. I…maybe like it. Stanley says he has 4 dresses and a top that need to be completed. Jeez. Michelle promises him some of her helper people. He claims to not have ever been on the bottom. Michelle manages to talk about how much she’s been through (losing a lot) but sound arrogant at the same time.

Two hours to go until the finale. It looks like everyone gets half a dozen people to sew and do whatever. Stanley’s people look at him like he’s crazy when he is telling them things like “This needs the sleeve set in”. Like the sleeve is not sewn to the dress. The judges come out to greet everyone. Heidi is wearing some loud thing. Ugh. Stanley’s still dressing models. Holy crap, he is telling people to sew models into garments with five minutes left. Tim is interviewing that there are four different people sewing four different garments. I know he got screwed with whatever woman was supposed to do things, but did he really show up with so much work that a week wasn’t enough time? Tim is flipping out.

I really do no like Heidi’s harem pants. She kisses up to Zac and Nina, talking about how much she loves them and is thankful they helped and whatever. Michelle is up first. Didn’t I read that when the finale actually happened they didn’t say whose collection was whose? Did I imagine that? Because if that’s the case, then they either had everyone come out randomly and talk, or they just had Michelle walk out onto the empty runway and then spliced in the crowd next to her. She says nothing about her collection. All photos are from Blogging Project Runway. Michelle’s collection. Her collection feels modern and slightly edgy, but not super hard. I like it. I don’t think there are too many accessories so maybe she toned it down. It’s cohesive and the pops of yellow are nice. Lots of pants. Heh, she kept the sweater with the heart. There are also several outfits where there is an outer piece with maybe elbow length sleeves and a piece underneath with flowy fabric. OK, so when all the models walk out afterwards, the final model is way way behind everyone else, and there is Michelle, only they did not do that during the actual show because no one knew whose collections were whose. Why, producers? We already know you are full of shit. Now you’re resorting to Photoshop to insist on your story of how things happened? WE KNOW SHE DIDN’T WALK WITH HER MODEL AFTER THE COLLECTION.

Patricia is next, because OF COURSE Stanley is last. Patricia’s collection is dedicated to trees. That’s what she says. Patricia’s collection. It’s creative, but all very flowy and hippie. I like some of it, but it doesn’t have as much cohesion as Michelle’s. I do think, though, that all of these clothes are clearly Patricia’s clothes. You know they do not belong to anyone else. She still sent down the dress they all hated. Heh. I know she says she cut up the pants, and filled them full of new holes to disguise the ones she was stuck with, but I can’t see anything on this TV so who knows.

Reunion show next week, you guys. I know the promo promised lots of fights. There probably won’t be as many as they tried to say there would be, but still.

Stanley finished, I guess. Stanley’s collection. That gold dress from last week, he shortened into a top with a peplum and put it over a pencil skirt. The clothes look younger, but the gold coat, hmm. It’s just too bulky or something. The camera keeps zeroing in on the hems, and I can’t tell if they’re trying to show how they’re short and “sexy”, or if the hems are jacked up and they want you to see. Seriously, like every outfit gets a close-up of the hemline. I think some of them look jacked. And the one long gown didn’t get that shot so I guess they want you to know he shortened everything. Is that a winner’s edit? Ugh. I like his collection well enough, it kind of reminds me of Chloe’s. Sort of. But I don’t like that he was sewing up until his models walked, and that one dress is basically fabric wrapped around the model and tucked under.

Everyone talks about their favorites and I spend this time looking for Tom and Lorenzo. It’s anyone’s game, I wish I could sit in on the judging, blah blah. You know the drill.

The judges discuss how nice it was to give them time to do things and how Kors is more objective for not knowing anyone, but still could tell each collection was distinct. Michelle talks about her lone female wolf inspiration, and when Heidi is like “Oh? What have you gone through?” she rolls her eyes and says this whole thing. OK, Heidi deserved that. Nina liked that all her silhouettes were consistent (kind of a baby doll shape) and that she LOVED the heart sweater and wanted it. Kors also loved the opener, but he hates the final look which is felt. I think he just hates that it’s felt and not silk or something. The final look doesn’t have to be a gown. Kors nitpicks how one look had a scarf tied like a menswear tie. Michelle tries to argue that hipsters will be wearing these things in the future, but Zac says quilting is over.

Patricia says this collection is about trees. She either made the textile, or the embellishment on top of it. All the jewelry, all the silver, sequins, whatever, she made (or had someone make) all those things. Kors says the beginning was “art teacher on acid trip”. Hee! I missed you, Kors. He did like the horsehair. Heidi claims to be excited by things like Patricia’s clothes, but we all know Patricia’s clothes are not short, tight, or shiny enough. The long dress with the red long-sleeved shirt underneath doesn’t work. The scarves are worn in such a way that the models look older, but they do all recognize her talent and creativity.

Stanley was inspired by beadwork and tapestries. The collection is very luxe, but Kors says his last look (the long red one with the beading) is “Betty White on Dancing with the Stars”. Oo. Then he says Holly Hobbie and hates on the ring, which to be fair is a giant pile of sequins going across her entire hand. Zac says it’s very pretty but dated. But “women like things that twinkle”. That is a quote. Heidi nails him on his last-minute construction. Nina complains again about his two piece dress with the studs. The one he showed last week and she told him to break up the pieces. They love the white dress with the beading.

Stanley says he has a clear message and he can execute it well. Uh huh. Michelle is moving to the future and “creating a new woman who possibly doesn’t know she exists yet”. Patricia wants to win to research new ideas and find her voice.

Stanley had some good-looking clothes, but maybe they were just nice. Zac seems determined to ding him for not doing the beading himself, which is dumb. Do you think Jay knitted all that stuff? No. Heidi calls it catalog wear, which Nina thinks is harsh. It’s just “old styled”. He has ideas but can’t make them modern, and doesn’t want to. So really they’re just pissed he ignored their suggestions? Whatever. Kors doesn’t think Stanley had anything to say. They seem to agree he was better in a team. Patricia did a ton of work, which she did herself so I guess this is better. Kors loves the blend of modern shapes and handmade details. She thinks outside the box. Heidi loves Michelle’s “journey” and Kors loves the quilting. They do not like the cloche hats and some things are overdesigned. They brainstorm women to put in the first dress, because she made a definite person out of that outfit. If that makes sense. Her pieces can be worn in the real world.

Zac talks about how great and creative Patricia is, and Nina argues that sure, OK, but maybe they’re being swayed by her techniques. She kind of doesn’t meet anyone’s eyes when she says it which is weird. Michelle is fashion forward and her pieces will appeal to a lot of people. She also has a solid customer in mind, whereas Patricia’s customer is more nebulous. Heidi tries to argue that they don’t have to look for a commercial designer, and do you remember when they would NEVER look for a commercial designer? SO SAD. So sad to remember that and think, yes, once someone actually lost BECAUSE they were a commercial designer. Not that I think commercial collections are bad. Just that they’re pretending this is how it’s always been. Heidi tries to argue about Patricia, and the look on Nina’s face is fucking fantastic. Contempt for this bullshit! Love it.

Stanley is out. We all saw that coming. I for one am glad that after all his last-minute shenanigans he didn’t win. He’ll be fine, people will see his clothes and ask him to make them stuff. After praising everyone, Heidi reveals that Patricia is…out. For her part, she’s thrilled she did so well against such great designers. So Michelle is the winner! I really liked her collection, it’s just that her attitude was terrible. Even after she probably saw the beginning of the show and heard some of the backlash (I would assume) she was the same. Maybe that’s just how she is. And for the record I never hated that she doesn’t like to be touched. I know she got a bunch of flak for that. Tim comes out and tells her how her teams always lost, but now she’s won! Aww. Good, I’m satisfied with it. As much as I can be satisfied about this stupid show with all the producer manipulation.

Next week: reunion drama. People are dressed like crazy people. It’ll be more interesting than watching the same challenges again and again.