Under the Gunn, or Who Is Going to Wear a Lace Ruffle For a Bra?

Were we supposed to hate Natalia from the start? And think she doesn't deserve to be there? Because I can think of more than one person *cough*MICHAEL COSTELLO*cough* who very good but stuck around and won challenges with ugly/boring clothes. And I felt much more strongly about that. Natalia I thought was OK; not like I thought she'd win or that I was rooting for her, but I didn't rail about how she should be gone. (click for more)



I'm just asking because the past two episodes of heavy "Natalia sucks" editing seemed to come out of nowhere. Also I just realized that last week both the top designers were Nick's. But did he get to pick the winner? No. Because, as always on Project Runway, the judging is bullshit. I did kind of roll my eyes at Natalia's complaining about how no one liked her, because it seemed eye-rolly, but by the time the episode ended I was firmly on her side. The challenge is to pair up and design for Francesca's, which is a store that I am aware of but have never shopped in. I knew (and I bet you did too) that when they said there would be pairs that Asha and Natalia would be paired up. Because Asha was the loudest about how Natalia sucked. Plus you know that this isn't random because all the mentors were carefully paired up so they'd have to work with each other. Everyone works with everyone. Sigh. There's a lot of editing about how Natalia is terrible and Asha is screwed, but it could also be "poor Natalia, everyone hates her" editing. Except Sam, Sam is the dedicated "I used to hate Natalia but now I think she's cool" person.

Asha started the challenge assuming they'd lose and then they did. She was a bitch. Talking over Natalia when she was trying to design, and then steamrolling her when they went over budget at Mood, which can't be all Natalia's fault because Asha is buying fabrics too. And then doing all the work and then whining that she had to do all the work. Well maybe if you let Natalia talk and do some designing! You can't give yourself all the work because you don't trust your partner and then complain that you have to do all the work. Even when there are pairs and someone is legit terrible, I still get irritated at that. They tend to announce double eliminations early so you can freak out about it. If they don't, then let the other person sink on their own. Yeah it's a team but they always want to know who did what.

Mondo was a total dick. "I'm not feeling a lot of Asha, I hope that's not Natalia's fault." No, Asha wouldn't let her design anything AND Asha threw out Natalia's fabrics so how exactly can Natalia cause this? Natalia didn't make Asha design those fugly clothes. And then Natalia is like "I want to do well so I don't let Asha down." Oh honey.

Also WHATEVER MONDO, I feel like when you are designing for CROCS you maybe should not get your panties in a bunch about someone else's designing.

The thing with the scalloping. Yes, probably Natalia should have asked Asha how to cut the hem thing on the dashiki. Just because she's been so horrible all challenge so you need to cover your ass. On the other hand, Natalia's point of "It's not like a scalloped edge is going to save this ugly thing" is totally correct.

Oscar and Shan did well, and that dress is an Anya dress for sure. I guess they could both win? I think they have the collection Francesca's thinks they should be selling (with the exception of the dress which seems to fit in with their stuff) and Sam and Blake have the collection Francesca's is already selling. Clearly they want to be edgy enough to sell Shan's jacket with the tramp stamp cutout. Which, by the way, is NOT currently for sale. You can buy the dress but there's only a link to get email updates on when you can buy the jacket. Oscar was super cute when he said Shan should win so his kids could be proud of him. Side note, I loved Sam and Blake's pants.

Natalia's dress had a terrible bust, although the back was cute. Asha's designs were terrible. A white dashiki where you only belt the front so she has a cape? A "crop top" that is basically a white lace dust ruffle and a "maxi skirt" that is a mullet hem and pretty short in front? White lace dust ruffle! How is that failure in design better than poor execution? And then they ask who should go home and everyone stands there. Asha, don't you dare pretend you don't think Natalia should go home. You've done nothing but complain about how much you hate her. That stupid pause and crocodile tears pissed me off more than the whole rest of the episode. Don't be a shady bitch. Natalia basically falls on her sword for some reason, which is more than Asha deserves. Although it did occur to me that maybe Natalia is tired of everyone hating her and this is a way for her to quit but still keep her dignity and maybe make some people look bad and feel guilty on her way out. 

OK what do you think? Or we can talk about next week which is the "real women" episode. I think the last person to whine about not working with a model was maybe Ven? Or Olivier? It's been a while. Everyone got genre savvy and stopped being jerks.