Project Runway All Stars 1/30/19--"On the Prowl" summary

Previously on “Project Runway All Stars”: we pretended that corsets celebrate a woman's figure, because sure. Everyone got a corset they had to incorporate into a garment. I feel that “All Stars” should have to construct their own corsets from scratch, but as we all know they don't ask for my opinion even though they should. Christina made wings over her model's hips and a latticework skirt and she won. I didn't really like her look, but in terms of “we're going to sell your look online” it was simple enough for that, I guess. Jasper did some weird thing with his pants, and some poorly-arranged lace, and was sent home. (click for more)

Alyssa comes out with a boa constrictor. She is very calm (also I love her dress here). There are several painful puns about dating being a zoo. You must create a runway look to “attract the most attention on a wild night out”. Sure. Field trip to the zoo so they can each pick an animal. It's implied they have to use characteristics of the animal in their look, and this is part of the judging criteria, but we'll see.

At the zoo Sean fills us in that there are labeled animals, but only one person per animal, so there's a lot of running around. Several people want the jaguar, but Cynthia gets there first. Anthony Ryan wants the owl, and he barely beats out Django. Michelle takes porcupine which is hilarious to me. Irina gets to feed a baby wallaby in a pouch. Dmitry is too slow and gets stuck with the rhea, which is like an ostrich. Juli for some reason makes a beeline for the gibbon, and no one else is anywhere around. She makes a cheeky monkey comment, and says she's going to put monkey cheeks on the buttcheeks of the dress. I don't know. Sean is attracted to the wack proportions of the giraffe. All I can think of is last season on “RuPaul's Drag Race” when Monique made that outfit with giraffe print and she insisted it was “Brown cow! Stunning!” Look, it's late, and I'm going into my second day off school because it is too damn cold outside.

10 hours to work. Mood happened but it wasn't exciting because Mood usually isn't. Anthony Ryan has a fabric with a stripe and he wants them to be vertical, so he has some work to do. Django wants to make an interesting crop top. Juli is cutting a bunch of bias-cut strips to sew onto her garment, but it is taking forever. She's convinced everyone is worried about her, but I wonder if it's not that the producers keep prompting people to talk to her. Maybe they are worried about her, I guess that's possible. She and Michelle discuss nip slips.

Anne shows up. Juli has decided the gibbon was flirting with her. She wants a fur-like texture, and some skin showing. Michelle has some quills? I can't really see them, mostly she looks like she's made a flapper dress. So it's not super obvious, I guess. Sean has a checked pattern. For giraffe. Anya has chosen...parakeets. A couple of people are getting “don't make it too slutty”. Anthony Ryan has a pinstripe, or like a seersucker stripe? Not sure it says “owl” but we all know no one is going to be literal. Dmitry is too Ren Faire. Irina has made a conversation piece, which would be a way to attract a mate, to be fair. Anne says to Django, no green. Also no gimmicks.

Django is upset because he feels Anne doesn't appreciate the work he put into his top. Also he says “innovation” but it's a leather top with a cutout. He's all agitated about it still. Dmitry of course makes it about how Django is so distracting by being upset. Model fittings. Sean goes back to his checked pattern. It's not checked like a tablecloth, it's more a windowpane. Django is going to use the green after all.

Runway Day. Lots of work to do. Irina decides now, the day of the runway show, would be a good time to go to Dmitry and point out that Michelle has made a dress with floating, geometric panels like Dmitry always does. She's got long diamond panels, with sheer in between so they float. First of all, it's a little late for that now. Second, it doesn't concern you. Also third, Dmitry shouldn't use that gimmick as much as he does. Dmitry says he's glad Michelle is inspired by him. Irina interviews that Michelle is just desperate. Dmitry at first doesn't really care, but then she's like “suddenly he's angry”. He doesn't seem angry, and also that sequence seems like Irina harassed him until he said something negative. Anthony Ryan goes to fetch Michelle and fill her in. Michelle decides to get mad at Dmitry, and passive aggressively ask if they're friends and shouldn't he say that to her face if he has a problem. Instead of being mad at Irina, who clearly started it and I suspect needled Dmitry until he was upset enough for her. I guess Anthony Ryan didn't tell her that part (to be fair, he might not know she started it). Dmitry is just like, I would, what is your issue, what are you blaming me for? Michelle says she's just making sure he's not talking behind her back, and Dmitry says he isn't. Everyone else is. Heh. She deserved that, because you can't be mad for people not coming directly to you, when you can't come out and say “Do you have a problem with my dress looking like yours?” Meanwhile, Dmitry just assumes everyone is talking about it because it's so obvious, like duh, but he doesn't seem particularly mad about it. Michelle claims she's been using that technique for a decade (sure, have we ever seen it from her?), Dmitry didn't invent that technique (100% true), and that moving forward you just can't trust anyone. Calm down. Biddell's comment, which is gold, is that if you're going to take someone's technique, you'd better do it better than them, which she is. Also that this doesn't seem like a “say it to my face” kind of place.

Sean's lines in his print don't line up at the seams. Uh oh. Hot makeup guy Scott. Michelle is still hung up on Dmitry's “betrayal”. Because he noticed you're using a technique he used so much on his last All Stars season that it's now forever associated with him? Or rather, because someone else noticed and discussed it with him? I don't think he's even mad she did it in the first place. Michelle is coming off the loser here, because Dmitry doesn't care as much and therefore automatically wins.

I like the bodice on Alyssa's dress, but the skirt is sitting weirdly. It looks like a full skirt, with a petticoat, but all the volume is in the back instead of evenly all the way around. Guest judges are actress Payton List and supermodel Joan Smalls. Oh also winner today gets $5000 from Southwest. Michelle: loose flapper dress that hits just below the knee. It's mostly black sequins, with orange and black triangular panels that come to a point at her navel. It doesn't really look that much like Dmitry's looks, because he had more contrast between panels and the sheer part. It's not obvious there are sheer stripes everywhere. Also it's loose, but in such a way that it doesn't look like it's on purpose. You know? But I like the color and the triangular straps. Cynthia: tight leather dress, with a black skirt and a red and gold halter top. The gold is one strap, then it runs down her side and around her waist. There are gold studs in a diagonal pattern down the front. I think she confused jaguar with cougar. It fits perfectly though.

Sean: long pants with bell bottoms, in a shiny gray and white windowpane. The pants meet the top at a point at her navel, kind of as if she was wearing a jumpsuit you cut the sides out of. The top is sleeveless with a mock turtleneck. There's also a tie/sash at her navel. I guess in terms of “giraffe = tall” that works. Shiny, though. Anya: I am pretty sure it's a kimono robe over an Anya dress with a miniskirt underneath. It's all in black and white prints and the kimono has some orange in it. It has nothing to do with the bright blue and green birds she had, but this is the first time she's talked all episode so I'm assuming she's safe. Christina: black dress with a deep V. Miniskirt in front, and in the back is a tail that hits the floor. The whole back of the dress is horizontal strips of copper leather, in different widths to accentuate her waist. There are also long sleeves of the same leather, attached just at the top of the shoulder.

Django: white bra, with a black leather strip that runs underneath it from her waist up to her throat, with a collar at her throat. Over all of this is seafoam green fabric that is attached between her boobs, and then draped into a skirt that hits just above her ankles. You can see a black leather belt too. What even is this, also he had lion. Dmitry: off the shoulder black and silver dress with a lot of ruffles. There are tiers everywhere, three each on the sleeves (or possibly just gathered ruffles) and the fabric is sheer too. Irina: tight black pants and a dark mustard yellow jacket. The jacket has a ton of volume, and hangs off her boobs in the front. It's slightly longer in back. They show it onscreen for approximately three seconds.

Juli: short black dress with a halter top and side cutouts. The skirt has a notch in the front and the back, and on the sides of the skirt just barely below her hips are big triangular panels of beige ruffles. It looks like growths on her thighs. Not good. Biddell: tight sleeveless dress in black with a bronze center panel. It hits below the knee. The black and copper have wavy seams to accentuate her waist, and there are accents of copper leather along the sides and at the hem. Anthony Ryan: long wide gray pants in a subtle stripe. It looks like there's a panel over the front of the pants, like a skirt panel. Then the top part is a crop top in a much stronger stripe with a sheer rectangular panel that is draped along one side down to the floor. The pants panel and the top panel are on the same side.

Sean, Dmitry, Michelle, Django, Anthony Ryan, and Juli are the top and bottom. Anthony Ryan explains how his look is like an owl. It's supposed to mimic feathering. They really like it, although you can see her shoes. Georgina says it's quiet and elegant, so that makes sense. The panels are mostly vertical but there's a little horizontal for contrast. Sean talks about elongating his model. He did do that, but the fabric is shiny and cheap-looking. Also the sash in the front looks dumb. Dmitry talks about birds. It moves well and the criss-cross straps at the top are nice. Georgina reminds him that the first runway had a similar looking dress from him, and then accuses him of repeating himself because they liked the first one. He does point out most designers have a signature look. Isaac seems insulted that he did something that wasn't him, because he thought Michelle's dress was Dmitry's. Michelle mugs for everyone, which makes absolutely no sense. She's so smug, but why? Everyone was talking about how you copied Dmitry and you were mad no one said it to your face, and then the judges said “I thought your dress was his because it looks like something he'd make” and you're going to smirk about it?

Anyway, time to grill Michelle about her dress. Standing still, the floating panels are more obvious. The pointed panels are the spines, and everyone loves it. I didn't notice at first, but there are dark circles over her nipples. It looks like pasties. They all love it, and I still think it could fit better, but fine. Juli wanted to bring the monkey's white cheeks to the dress, which is why the sides of the skirt look dumb. The notch in the front of the skirt is not great, and she's accentuated her hips. And then the rest of the dress is pretty basic. Django says something about lions, as we can see the bottom of the draped green skirt is actually attached between her legs. The green is disjointed and it doesn't fit right. Alyssa asks if it's pants or a skirt, and he asks if it needs to be one or the other. Well, yes, because it looks like a mistake. Pants in the front, dress in the back. Yeah, no.

Anthony Ryan made something expensive looking, and quiet like an owl. They all still love Michelle's look, which isn't super literal. At least Isaac admits you can't wear it if you have boobs. Dmitry's look is very pretty, and moves nicely, but Georgina is still hung up on how it looks like what they saw the first week. Sean had an idea, but the shiny fabric was a big mistake. Also there was the sash, which is so random Georgina wonders if there is an insane crotch under there. Juli's dress had terrible panels to make her hips look wide, but if you remove them the dress underneath is so basic. No personality. Django didn't make any sense. It didn't look like “lion”. Georgina kind of loves him for his “fuck it” attitude.

Michelle wins, because of course. I think we could all see that coming. Anthony Ryan and Dmitry are in. She thinks because she won the drama is over. Sure. Dmitry actually has no comment in confessional. Django is in. Juli had terrible proportions, and Sean had terrible fabric. Juli is out. Sean is in. Yeah, that seems right. She agrees with what the judges said about her work, so she's upset but not surprised.

Next week: red carpet metallics and Wendy Williams.