Project Runway 10/13/16--"There's No I in Team" summary

Previously on “Project Runway”: everyone had to make swimwear for Heidi's clothing line. This was also combined with the “make your own print” challenge. Sigh. Rik won, with a graphic black and white geometric print that was actually pretty good. Was it original? No, but it would sell. Sarah made something boring and I had forgotten she existed until suddenly she had a bunch of screen time. So you could tell from the beginning of the episode she was going home. (click for more)

Alex tells us his roommates (really him) made up a nickname about how they're all great. He talks about his past which is probably the kiss of death for him today.

Tim introduces the Mary Kay guy, but I don't care because Scott. Also teams! Ugh. Two teams of six, each making a mini-collection of four looks. For once there are fewer looks than people! Hooray! The budget depends on how well you sell your concept to some “scholars”. 45 minutes right now to figure out how to get your money. But if you win, you get $5000, and that's each and not per team. Since Rik won, he gets to go first, and he picks Alex. The button bag comes out to “randomly” pick the first person on the next team, and Brik picks Tasha. The teams end up Rik, Alex, Roberi, Cornelius, Mah-Jing, and Nathalia (each person picks the next person); and Brik, Tasha, Laurence, Erin, Dexter, and Jenni.

Mah-Jing's team decides on main colors of black and gray, or possibly black and brown, and he doesn't like the lack of color. The other team (I guess the misfit team) wants to be badass, or at least Erin does. Alex says he has done pitches and he wants to be the person who actually does the pitch. Dexter is annoyed because no one on that team is thinking about the pitch. He gets bossy and I think ends up with the pitch because he's the one with the idea. Erin wants to call their team “Team Button Bag” because that's how they got picked. Whatever.

The “mystery investors” are Heidi, Nina, and Zac. Whatever again. Alex talks about black and navy and shows everyone their sketches. Nothing is super exciting, but Alex is good at answering random questions without stammering. Team Button Bag is somewhat less polished, with multiple team members speaking during the pitch. I can't bring myself to care, because they're clearly being written as the underdog.

Alex's team declares themselves “Team Unity” because someone has to be delusional about how they're all going to get along. Zac says both teams are aiming for the same demographic: professional women and an “introductory” price point. Zac offers Team Button Bag $800 of his $1000 because Team Unity didn't have as strong of a concept. Heidi gives Button Bag $600, and Nina gives them $800. So that's Team Button Bag, $2200, and Team Unity, $800 total. Damn. Team Unity wasn't interesting enough. Brik celebrates briefly before realizing the judges are going to expect a LOT from them. Everyone at Mood argues and Mah-Jing thinks no one respects him and Erin buys bright yellow and tells Jenni to make sure she cuts her fabric in the right direction. I sort of agreed that Mah-Jing's fabrics weren't great, but then Cornelius is all “I like the fabrics but whats-his-name does not” because of course Cornelius is an asshole who doesn't know everyone's names. So shut up, Cornelius.

Mah-Jing feels like the outsider on his team, because the other men are roommates and then Nathalia is Cornelius's BFF or whatever. They edit a weird sequence that makes it look like everyone is eating lunch while Mah-Jing works, and then they all leave when he sits down to eat. But I'm pretty sure the producers control when people eat. Laurence makes a leather jacket. Dexter wants to rename his team “House of Bouton” which actually is pretty good. Then he apologizes to France for his pronunciation. Someone gets Mah-Jing's name wrong. Listen, we are five weeks in. OK, not actual weeks, but you've been crammed in with the same people 24/7 for what, a week? Long enough to learn people's names. Come on. Mah-Jing interviews that his dad is Chinese and black and he's gotten shit for being a black man named Mah-Jing Wong for forever. There are makeup consultations which are as always. Strong brow, lip, blah blah.

Tim Time! Team Unity has a bunch done, and Tim says it looks modern, but maybe Nathalia's jacket doesn't go with the pants she's planning to put it over. It's a “somber” palette, but Tim does tell them the merging of all six points of view is outstanding. The four looks do look cohesive and not like individual people have been trying to jam their different aesthetics together, which is because for once they don't have one look per person. Alex says they're on the right path and they are amazing. Mah-Jing checks in with his team to make sure they like his look and everything. Alex promises they wouldn't close him out, because that was clearly a “I know you'll throw me under the bus if we lose so I want you to say you like it now, and when you try to throw me under the bus I can bring it up.” Nathalia, less helpfully, just insists they're going to win.

Tim Time for House of Bouton. Erin has bright yellow and what she says is mauve but looks beige. Brik and Tasha combined a top and skirt but they don't go together at all. And he thinks Erin's coat doesn't go with the rest of the collection. Interesting. Usually the misfit team turns out to be great and the “good” team implodes. They argue in favor of the coat, and Tim just tells them to keep an eye on it. As he leaves, he says they have four more hours, but models won't be there for 90 minutes. So the model fitting happens with 2.5 hours left.

Brik scraps the white pleated skirt, and Erin tries to improve her jacket. Nathalia says her first jacket had too much volume, her team said so and she agreed, so she's fixing it. Model fitting. Alex's dress is too tight, but the rest of the looks seem OK. House of Bouton has less to fit because nothing is done, but Laurence's jacket is excellent. Brik and Jenni whip up a dress out of the mauve, which ends up being mohair. Nathalia is getting cocky about how great they are, but to her credit the other team is way behind.

Runway Day. House of Bouton has a lot to do. Dexter is tearing around doing whatever needs doing. Brik cuts that new dress really short. Not hot makeup guy Scott. Erin tries to spin her team's running out of time as “not over designed”. Except for the part where it looks like they are sewing a skirt in the last 10 minutes because they forgot to make bottoms for this model.

Heidi is wearing a maxi dress with spaghetti straps and a big ruffle at her knees like a tier. Guest judge is Sabrina Carpenter. I do not know who this is, but she's wearing a bright yellow shirt in the same shade as Erin's coat. Team Unity is up first. Cornelius and Rik: black skirt and top, with a print jacket. The print is a yellow and blue floral print on a black background, and the top has a crew neck and is shimmery. The skirt looks like leather, and it's pretty short but not so short that I think the judges will be mad about it being vulgar. The jacket is cropped with elbow length sleeves. Mah-Jing: black pants and a sleeveless wrap top, in a charcoal gray. The top looks like more leather, maybe the same as the skirt from before? The pants don't quite look right. I'm not sure if they don't fit, or they're pleated or drop crotch pants or something and I just don't like them. But they're cropped too. The top has a belt, and when they show a closeup it's the leather from the skirt, and the lapels are the shimmery material of the top. Yeah, her pants are kind of loose through her knees and then are much tighter below that. Nathalia and Roberi: long black coat with silver lapels, over a black blouse and pants with the floral print. The top has an asymmetric hem and the pants are at mid-shin. The jacket just seems cut like a trench or something. Nina makes a face and I agree. Alex: tight strapless leather dress in dark silver. The hem is just below the knee, and it has a pattern like it's been wrapped around her. It's fine. Overall the collection is cohesive, mostly because of the same fabrics but it does look like the same person would wear all of it.

House of Bouton. Dexter: black suit with pants that hit just above the ankle and a black double-breasted blazer. The team has cut out appliques of beads from some fabric and sewn them to the cuffs, but it's so sloppy it looks like they hot-glued the fabric together. It's beads on some beige netting, so you can see the netting, but the edges don't looks sewn down. Also I'm not sure if there's a shirt. Jenni and Brik: very short “mauve” dress, sleeveless, and I still think this is beige and not mauve, but whatever. The neckline looks like they had a V-neck, and then sewed in a dickey in a slightly contrasting fabric so it looks like a bandanna a cowboy would wear. And she's probably flashing underwear at everyone right now. Laurence and Tasha: black leather moto jacket and yellow pencil skirt. The jacket has very pointy shoulders and a diagonal zipper, and looks great. The skirt is fine but not exciting. Erin: black pants and a white shirt. I think the pants are very last minute, but the model never takes off the coat so you can't see them or the shirt. The coat is the yellow coat, long, with “mauve” sleeves and lapels. There are also beaded appliques on the coat, but bigger pieces and they seem to be attached better.

Heidi declares House of Bouton the winning team, which I don't think I agree with. That dress is so short and the suit is kind of sloppy and the moto jacket isn't so incredible you could overlook those things? But I'm sure this is so everyone can throw Mah-Jing under the bus because that's the one source of conflict in this team challenge. Team Unity is all shocked, because they should be. Erin tells the judges the looks are all integrated and they got along and all thought of Mary Kay and blah blah. Heidi liked the yellow and Nina thinks it's versatile. No, not everyone can wear yellow. Heidi also loves the beading (which on the bottom of the pants too) and says it's new, which I doubt. I think Erin claims the beading. At least Zac does hate on the too-short dress. It's too short even for Heidi. They tell the judges who did what, and Nina hilariously is like “Oh I knew that jacket was Laurence, don't worry”. They do love it, and it's great, I just don't think the rest of this stuff is so great too. Erin's jacket is declared a risk and fashion forward. Heidi makes everyone say who should win, and Erin, Dexter, and Laurence each get two votes.

No one on Team Unity will talk about their collection. Weird. Heidi does tell them that this collection looks good for $800, but everything is over designed. For example, the first look with the print jacket has great individual pieces, but together it's too busy. There is not enough color. OK that's fair. Mah-Jing made the belted wrap top and Heidi loves it. Everyone is very insistent that they all worked on every look. It just smells desperate, like if everyone worked on everything the judges won't be able to decide who to send home. Alex's dress is lumpy in the back. Roberi jumps in to say they worked hard on this dress, and then Alex is like, I'm so proud of everyone and grateful to learn from this opportunity to work with such dedicated people and we got along so much. Why are you bringing this up now? They'll ask about getting along eventually. It's just so weird because the judges are still pretending to care about the designs and haven't flipped to caring about the drama yet. Nina goes back to their pitch where they said they wanted to “empower women to be more productive”. The fabrics are all evening so it makes no sense. She hates on the black blouse with the printed pants, and says it doesn't go with the rest of the collection. Nathalia and Cornelius try to blame the judges somehow, because they said not to make boring clothes so they tried to elevate it and now it's too busy. Nina says they claimed they were going to make clothes for a career woman, and these are not them. Zac says they had the wrong pitch, and claims that if they had pitched “evening/club wear at introductory prices” they would have been the winning team. So because they didn't deliver what they said, that's why they lost? Dumb, but fine. It's not like the judges haven't pulled worse reasons for losing out of their asses. At least Nina disagrees about the winning.

Who should lose? Rik tries the “we all worked together on everything” approach, but it fails and he quickly says Alex, because they hated his dress the most. Roberi says himself, because the blouse they didn't like was his idea. Cornelius and Nathalia are both crying, and he says he'll go home for his look, but he's been such an ass for four episodes I can't bring myself to care. Nathalia wants to go home too. Whatever, you guys. Mah-Jing talks about proving himself, and promises it's not personal but Alex should go home. Alex says it's fine, and I would say Mah-Jing is someone I actually believe when he says it's not personal. Alex admits his pitch was bad, and they hated it, I guess, and his dress, so he should go. He's not giving up, but he's taking accountability for the pitch.

House of Bouton's suit is denim and I still can't tell if she's got a shirt on. They do still hate Jenni and Brik's dress. Both Laurence and Erin's jackets are great. Team Unity has good individual pieces, but they don't match the pitch and Nina especially seems very hung up on this. They love Mah-Jing's top and Nathalia's coat. They finally take the coat off to look at this horrible blouse, and for some reason the hem is cut all jagged. But on purpose. It looks ridiculous. Alex's dress doesn't fit and is overworked.

Heidi awards Dexter the win. He did the pitch and then ran around helping everyone with everything. I'm glad he won for being helpful. Plus he wins an editorial in Marie Claire. Aww. Rik, Cornelius, Nathalia, and Mah-Jing are all in. Alex and Roberi made the two things they hated the most. This...seems too logical. I don't know what to do with this. Roberi is in, so Alex is out. He says he doesn't blame anyone and there's no other way he'd rather go. Tim comes in and is so proud and has to take a moment before he talks about how great Alex is and he's such an inspiration and everyone applaud! But go clean up your shit! Alex tells Tim he tried out for season 4 and met Tim, and Tim said he had potential but needed to go back to school, and he did. This is a weird speech for someone Tim is not saving. Right? You thought Tim was going to talk about how great Alex is and then save him, right? So did I.

Next week: a party, drinks in metal pineapples, I'm sure some kind of drama.