Project Runway 5/30/19--"The Art of Fashion" summary

Previously on “Project Runway”: we had the usual makeover episode, with women who “keep the city moving”. Everyone at least tried to do what their clients wanted, except for Tessa, who told her client she wasn't going to get a pink girly dress and then laughed about it to the other designers. And then lied to Christian and the judges about how her client loves dark colors. The judges are at least tired of her arguing, but Jamall made a poorly constructed prom dress, and his client loved it but it wasn't “him”, so of course Jamall was sent home. Sebastian made a retro dress that was still modern and he won. (click for more)

The designers hang out in the Scrap Bin, I guess after the elimination. Tessa says something about how the things she thinks of take a long time to do, or something. Bishme fires back that she doesn't do them. Or even try? I'm not sure what exactly this argument is about, although I'll support anyone calling Tessa out. She interviews that she hasn't impressed the judges recently. We see in a montage that the judges have told her to quit with the unfinished hems since week three. So she's had plenty of warning. Hester vaguely defends Tessa in confessional by saying she can come off as fake. If she says anything nicer, like how Tessa is just awkward or how she's really nice and not fake, it's not shown. Christian appears to congratulate the final five and tell them they'll find out about their challenge tomorrow at some warehouse.

Back home everyone is up at 5am wondering if Karlie gets up this early. You know she has gotten up that early for some gig. Sebastian is thrilled to be final five. The warehouse has fake rooms set up. You know, when they put three walls in a U and no ceiling. You know what I mean. Bishme tells us that he grew up watching Project Runway and remembers watching Christian's season. He's got chills. Karlie tells everyone that designers are combining their fashion with pop culture or art or whatever, to create experiences. The challenge this week is to create an “experiential fashion show”. Make a look to showcase themselves, and she does say it should be “bigger and bolder” than anything they've made so far. 100 people will be there at the “show”. This determines the final four who will create a collection and “present it to the fashion industry”. That's a distinct lack of “show a collection at New York Fashion Week”. I wonder if they got tired of having to have ten decoy collections every season. Or maybe they weren't allowed to show there? Anyway, it sounds like there will be a collection but not at the actual Fashion Week. Sebastian gets to pick his model (he takes Mimi because of course) and he also gets to pick the order everyone else goes in. Tessa has to go last so of course she's cranky. Two days to create everything.

Each designer also gets to work with a “conceptual artist”. Garo says he does this all the time, because he used to work with a nightclub that would hire him for this exact thing. Hester wants rococo, which is very ornate baroque to the point of tacky. Sounds about right. She wants to make a big hill in the middle of the room that her model can stand on with a teacup. Bishme is still talking about Baltimore and flowers. He says every time he references Baltimore he ends up on top. I kind of like how he phrased this, as in there's the chance he knows it's not because he does better when Baltimore is the focus, but he knows it gets him there so obviously he'll keep doing it. Something about flowers pushing out of the walls? Garo wants to make a futuristic dressing room, and he knows the more the guests interact with the space, the better. Tessa wants to make a ceramic studio. She has decided that her best looks are inspired by her upbringing. You know, she really should have won the video game challenge, so I can see where she's coming from. Sebastian is struggling, and he's running out of ideas and energy.

At Mood, Christian tells them to make a buzzworthy, amazing look that will cause people to want to invest in their future. Hester wants to use this material she has had her eye on for forever, which is an orange and white checked silk, I think. She tells Christian “aggressive rococo bondage picnic” which is hysterical and somehow perfectly Hester. Christian just kind of repeats it and laughs. In contrast, Tessa tells Christian about her mom and wabi sabi and he just nods and stares at her. Wabi sabi is a Japanese philosophy that emphasizes transience and imperfections. Is this how she's going to get around hemming her shit? By insisting it's a tribute to her mom and it's wabi sabi? Oh yes, because she literally says that's why she doesn't do hems. Why is this the first we've heard of it? Christian does confirm that she needs to finish her garment. Somehow Tessa starts to talk about finishing your hems, but making them look unfinished, and how she doesn't have time to do that. So that's the excuse? “I totally would finish my hems, but I want them to look unfinished, but I don't have time so I just leave them unfinished on purpose because that's what I want them to look like.” This just sounds like a bullshit excuse because after nine episodes, she's finally figured out she needs to finish her garments, but she is SO stubborn she won't just do it. She's got to have some excuse, and now suddenly she's got one. Why haven't we heard this excuse before, if it's really the reason she does this? Her colors are a dark red, and Christian suggest something different than what she usually does. Sebastian has some geometric designs, like the dress he made in the second episode. It was vertical fins. But he needs the right fabric. Bishme buys rose gold lame, very shiny. Hester doesn't like the colors she has so she's trying to adjust. Sebastian doesn't have the color he wants either, but he's got the right kind of fabric, hopefully. Christian says tomorrow they'll be meeting him somewhere for a field trip.

Day One. Garo is making a “giant hostess skirt” with a corset. Knitwear, corset, floating, “structural boning”, “serious shoulder action”. Tessa brags to Hester that she bought nylon-coated fabric, I guess so Hester can tell her she's done a good job and is taking a risk. Tessa is making an oversized jacket with kimono sleeves, that will somehow have woven strips of fabric that look decayed? She's so insistent on everything looking busted, and so far it's just resulted in actual busted garments. If you're really trying to impress the judges, why not make something that looks and actually is finished? Sebastian's fabric isn't as stiff as he wanted, so I think he's going to stitch some fabric over neoprene. Hester stares at the piles of fabric she bought and doesn't do much of anything. Eventually she decides on...I have no idea because she's not saying real words. But it's taken her nine hours to come to this decision so that's a nice waste of the day. Bishme sews something wrong. He interviews that out of the top five he's the only one left who was self-taught, and now he's in his head.

Day Two. It's time for the field trip. Hester thinks she can win the show. The field trip is to the Council of Fashion Designers of America, which is the agency that will provide a year of mentorship to the winner. They sit down with the CEO and listen to an ad, basically. It's really for us, because I'm sure all of these designers already get it.

Back to work. Garo is making a skirt out of what looks like paper and boning. It's like a lampshade. Christian comes in to talk to everyone. Hester says...I still have no idea. She's speaking fast and not using real words. You guys caption Sebastian and he's perfectly understandable. Is it because he's not American and you're racist? Because Hester needs captions much more than Sebastian does. Christian is worried because her bodice looks exactly like the one she made last week. She can do whatever she wants, so go for it. She grabs some scissors and cuts up her bodice on the dress form, and Christian wisely leaves. Tessa talks about kimonos and layers. But I'm looking at her top right now and there are just regular narrow straight sleeves. I thought she was doing kimono sleeves? Christian is confused by the layering, because it comes off as messy.

Bishme wants his model to be an abstract rose, that grew out of the concrete. He talks about a straight skirt, like a stem, but Christian thinks maybe he's got enough going on. Sebastian is talking Greek columns. He's got two rows of folded fabric, one at the bust and one at the waist. It's a technique he's done before, where you take the folded fabric and hang it with the fold up, to make a row of upside-down Us. But it's only on the front of the garment, which makes it lopsided. He should play with proportions. What is his model going to do in the room? Apparently nothing. The room is colorful, but he doesn't know why. He has to have an actual story, though. Garo has a ton of sculpture, and he wants to show how this look could turn into a collection. Christian loves it.

Model fitting. Garo's model loves the palette, which is funny because it's all white. Hester has screwed up the bodice, but she doesn't have any more fabric, she says. Probably a result of her cutting up her bodice an hour ago. Hester in confessionals has that edge to her voice that says she's just barely keeping it together, which makes me wonder if she's eliminated and trying desperately to not show it during interviews, which are sometimes filmed after the judging. Bishme hasn't tried everything on his model, just the under parts? He doesn't have the skirt done yet. Christian is starting to freak out for everyone. Sebastian's dress fits just fine but he hates it. He needs to cinch the waist.

Everyone goes to the warehouse to see their rooms, which are actually almost done. Bishme is not happy because his room is too literal. It's concrete and a taxi cab door and graffiti, and he wanted abstract and dreamy. Rather than fake brick and graffiti he wants gray walls with flowers coming out. Tessa has a real potter's wheel, and tells her model to sit down and make a pot and don't care if the garment gets dirty. Garo has an all white room, very futuristic, and his artist says there will be arms coming around the window, and does Garo want mannequin arms or real arms? Garo is thrilled he could get real arms. Heh. Hester has a garden with a giant gold picture frame. Her model asks what her character should be, and Hester kind of laughs and says she needs to figure out a dress first, but then she starts crying. Aww. Listen, Hester has been wildly overpraised this season, but I don't want her to fail this badly. Plus, admit it, if she made a collection it would be insane. Sebastian has yellow walls and columns, with purple flowers that look like they're made of folded paper. He talks to his artist in Spanish, because he thinks they had a communication issue like Bishme did. He was thinking “Greek palace” and this is not it. There will be more columns and a bunch of mirrors, eventually, so it won't look so empty. Sebastian asks for more mirrors and no furniture.

Sebastian goes back to the workroom (they make it seem like he walked back alone from the warehouse) and announces to everyone that he's done, this is his last day. Hester hollers that she doesn't even have a dress, so clearly she's being eliminated. Sebastian hates his dress, he hates his room, he's not finishing his dress, he wants to go home right now. He's giving up. Cut to commercial of course. The producers tell him to think about it, and Garo and Hester basically beg him to stay. He goes to the lounge and I guess he's going to sit there? Hester seems to have a pink sheath dress with rectangles of black and white checked fabric pinned to it. Come on, Sebastian. You can beat that. Sebastian returns and says he's realized he's been fighting for too long to give up. Well that was a lot of drama for nothing.

Runway Day. Christian says before the models come in, just so you know, Cardi B will be at the party. Hester is upset because she loves Cardi B. She's not a judge, though. Bishme pulls strands from his fabric and puts them in his model's hair. Hester at least has something to put on her model. Christian tells Tessa she has twenty minutes, and she's very unconcerned. He starts in on the unfinished hems, and she swears there won't be any. Oh, so you can hem everything in twenty minutes. Christian is skeptical. Tessa thinks he's being overdramatic, except for how it's episode twelve and he's got your number, Tessa. Sebastian's stitches are breaking because the dress is so heavy. Bishme's fin on his dress, that's supposed to stand up behind his model's head, isn't standing up. I think Christian says to sew it to her hair. Which I think he does. The rooms are cool.

Guest judge is Linda Fargo, who works for Bergdorf Goodman. Bishme: long gown in shiny rose lame. The skirt is straight, and then the bodice is much shinier, a metallic, with a peplum and a strapless sweetheart neckline. There's a big fan on the back of the dress. Think a folding fan set sideways. She's standing on a small hill in the room, which is now basically concrete with some graffiti, and a few flowers. I think the peplum maybe is only in front? Nina loves the proportions, and he's got a signature. Pleats and ruffles. Brandon wonders if the peplum and the fan clash, but overall he gets Bishme's story and he likes it. Bishme says he's thrilled to get complements from Brandon, and Brandon says that everyone always says that about Nina so he's glad to have a fan. So then Bishme says he hasn't gotten a chance to tell Nina yet but he calls his mom “Nina” and he even has a tattoo. Brandon makes a great face.

Garo: so the room is white, with some pops of color from a bunch of neon wigs and some cushions. In the back of the room is a circular alcove with a bench, like a window seat, that his model is sitting on. There are four holes with some actual people they hired to stand there with their hands out. The dress is a long gown in various shades of cream or off-white. The skirt is slim, and over this is the lampshade construction. This is flipped up like a cup while she's sitting, but when she gets up she folds it down so it hangs down like a really stiff peplum. There's a waist cincher/corset, and a sleeveless top that comes up to a very high collar. She also has on sleeves, but they're basically tubes that run from her hands up to her armpits. Garo says it's a futuristic changing room. Just under the corset are some layers of padding, like a tiny peplum. Or when you think of the Jetsons, and people had those fins around the leg and arm holes of things. Garo says everything comes off, it's very modular. So it's all different pieces. Elaine loves the corset. It's very elegant and wearable.

Tessa: her room is a dark rust color, with random floating shelves, each with a piece of pottery. There's a potters wheel in the middle. Her look is a red cropped jacket, kind of boxy, that attaches at the neck but then is cut so it opens up over her torso. The sleeves are regular slender sleeves, but she's got big rectangles of fabric over them. Are they just slid over, or sewn on? One rectangle is gray with a red stripe, and the other is a bunch of strips of the red, with some black woven in somehow. The skirt is a long skirt of the red, with darker panels at the hips. There's a white shirt underneath, but I don't remember what it looks like. I don't think it's anything special. As the model moves to take off the jacket, we see that the skirt is actually separate strips of fabric attached at her waist, over a plain straight white skirt. There are also light lavender strips of fabric in the back, and all of this is folded over at the waist somehow. While the judges are there, the model sits down to make some pottery, this time not using the piece of cloth she had to protect the clothes. Elaine says she's glad it's not black, but Karlie doesn't think it's finished. Would people buy it? Maybe. Even Cardi B doesn't think it's well made, but I do agree with Tessa that this look was supposed to be avant garde more than wearable.

Sebastian: so his room is basically yellow with Greek columns and mirrors, and big purple flowers that look folded from paper. In this setting the gray gown really stands out. It's strapless (although there is some illusion netting) and it still has the two rows of folds. They make an hourglass shape, because they stand out at her bust and her hips, and Sebastian added a belt. The skirt is pleated, but done in such a way that the folds match up to the folds in the hips. On the floor it's purple with a couple yellow flowers. The colors and gray fight each other, a little bit. Sebastian says this is her dream world, and her own world doesn't have color. That's...not a bad explanation. But then why isn't her gown colorful? She's a sculpture. They talk about how well-constructed it is, and it's a difficult thing to pull off.

Hester: the room is full of flowers and trees and picture frames and shit. Her model is behind a big picture frame, with a teapot and cup. The look is a pink crop top, with two metallic halter straps leading up to a collar. Earlier she showed a different crop top with a random print we hadn't seen, but I guess she scrapped it? The skirt is a plain pink skirt, straight cut to the knee. Then there are pieces of fabric sewn to it to give it some volume. The pieces I think are squares of different fabrics in black and white prints. The judges love the room, but the outfit has more problems. There are straps on the sides, because I think this is what's left of that bodice that fit horribly, and there's a big ring basically under her arm. OK I think the skirt is more complicated than just squares sewn onto a straight skirt, but then Brandon says something about the skirt and Hester laughs, so I guess it was good, but I have no idea what he said. Maybe I need to get my hearing checked, you guys. The skirt looks like she's sewn the hems up to make like a bubble skirt.

The judges had split up, so now we get everyone else's reactions to stuff. Nina thinks maybe Garo's is too costumey. Elaine says Bishme's gown has some imperfections. Tessa tells Brandon and Nina about wabi sabi and he says that explains her unfinished shit, and then says “you could have told me that like, so many challenges ago.” EXACTLY. So apparently now Brandon understands that this is Tessa pushing herself. Sigh. They all praise the lavender. Elaine knows this is not Hester's best look. Cardi B says Sebastian's look is her favorite, even though she hated his room. Karlie tells the other judges that Christian has pulled everyone's looks from the whole season, so they can make a good decision.

In the Scrap Bin, Tessa declares that she's happy with what she's made, and she's happy to have made it this far if she goes home. Huh. Hester also says same, which is weird because we know she hated her look this week. In the workroom, everyone has a rack and some dress forms with all their looks. I kind of don't care, because we've never pretended to only be looking at this week. Elaine says that Bishme is one of the few designers to show them something bigger and better this week. It's a mashup of a bunch of things he's shown them this season. He's got a lot of range, and it's well made for someone self-taught. Nina says that he's developed his signature “fashion language”.

Now that all the looks are all next to each other, they can see Garo has a corset in basically in every look but maybe one. He's got creativity. Nina points out there are ups and downs, and she's been harsh on him. But this is an improvement. But can he stay in this world? Asks Karlie. Elaine thinks he's improved.

Sebastian's look today is for sure his best. His looks don't always have a story behind them, and they think he's dependent on his skill set. They're not sure what his inspiration would be if he did a collection, but Brandon points out that the story behind some things is “throw them on and go out and have everyone look at me” so who cares.

Hester has a ton of color, and she's very different from everyone else. Very theatrical, but maybe there's no market for it. She has great ideas, and Karlie points out she's won more challenges than anyone else. Maybe she shouldn't have, but whatever. Nina says when she had immunity, she really pushed herself.

Tessa's room wasn't super exciting, but it was a cohesive story. She has a great taste level, but she has trouble pushing herself. Elaine says she won the first challenge with something simple and refined, and then the judges got bored. She does have a defined minimalist brand, and Nina admits it's harder to have fanfare in that case, but maybe she doesn't need a big runway show? Oh, Nina, don't get my hopes up like that.

Now all the judges are on the runway making decisions. The guest judge says Sebastian should win, for the quality of his design, and despite his room sucking. Elaine thinks Garo's look and room and this is the culmination of his time here. It seems to be a question of how much the room should count in this judging. So then they discuss who else should make it. Brandon has been pushing Tessa, because it was an experience, and then they talk about how her designs are “pure”. The guest judge says something and I have no idea. Just...today everyone is mumbling or something. Hester's look was poorly made, and does she deserve a spot? Nina thinks yes, because she knows who her customer is. That's true. Brandon says Bishme has misses, but when he hits it's amazing. Elaine says he can rise to the occasion.

Garo is the winner! Nice. He's so thrilled. Sebastian is in. Bishme is in. This is about what I expected. Karlie tells Tessa and Hester they're both talented, but there's one collection they wanted to see more than the other. Hester is in. No fucking way! I did not expect that at all. Brandon says she shouldn't look at this as a loss, and she should be proud of herself. She thinks she's grown (ha) but she's being professional about it. However I do notice no one is giving her a hug. In the interview she says she gave them what they wanted so she's disappointed. Whatever, I still think Hester is very quirky in an aggressive way, but she's mellowed and I'll take that over Tessa's lying and excuses. Plus you know Hester's collection will be far more interesting.

Karlie says they'll have five months to make a ten look collection. Finally, plenty of time! Budget is $10,000. Damn. So they are left to go celebrate, but then Tessa is still in the Scrap Bin so that's where there's hugs. She says something about being glad to be cast with these amazing designers, which I feel is not what she's been saying during confessionals this whole time, but sure. I'm not going to go look it up. She leaves and Christian brings out champagne so everyone can have a group hug and be supportive.

Next week: home visits, good advice, a visit to Elle, I am sure an extra look, Hester sews her finger, Bishme appears to need to leave to collect himself?