Project Runway 1/9/20--"She's Sew Unusual" summary

Previously on “Project Runway”: the designers were told to design an outfit for Karlie to wear to a fashion event in Paris. The catch was they could only use clothes from Goodwill. So there was a lot of cutting up clothes and making shirts from jeans and so forth. Victoria made the same pointy-shouldered wrap jacket with side cutouts that she's made every episode and she finally won. Tyler made a boring outfit and then got shady about how Karlie is married to a Kushner so he was eliminated. (click for more)

FIRST OF ALL THOUGH. I have very sad news. Hot makeup guy Scott passed away yesterday. I'm sad we won't see him again on Project Runway, although it sounds like he was on “Say Yes to the Dress” and that might be coming up. Rest in peace, Scott.

Everyone gathers on the runway, like they used to with Heidi. Karlie says something about having quite a day in store, and then someone says “Hey Karlie” and Cyndi Lauper walks out. It is hilarious how some designers just kind of sit there and some designers completely freak out. Nancy and Geoffrey especially recognize her and freak out. Anyways, we talk about Cyndi creating her looks, and creating her own style. Geoffrey says that she had a huge impact on his life, and he dresses like her a lot when in drag. Your challenge is to work in two teams to create a “mini-collection inspired by Cyndi's iconic 80's style. A mix of punk and pop.” Just quoting for when they complain that everyone is too 80's because they forgot that's what they said. No one is happy about teams, naturally. They do have an odd number, because of the double elimination that first week. Victoria won the last challenge, so once the teams are decided she can pick which one she wants to join. Team 1 is Geoffrey, Brittany, Delvin, Dayoung, and Nancy. So Team 2 is Melanie, Marquise, Sergio, Chelsey, and Shavi. Victoria wisely chooses Team 1. I know, Geoffrey can be an anxious mess, but he and Nancy had the strongest reactions to Cyndi, meaning it's likely they know her style. Plus who wants to be on Sergio's team? Shavi says he's not mad about it because everyone on that team has problems. Everyone will make their own look, but you already knew that. Two day challenge.

Team 1 gets to work and they all seem to have solid ideas. I mean, you can never tell from sketches, but they don't show any of them floundering or saying they don't know what to do. The closest they get is Delvin saying he doesn't know what color he wants and then Victoria getting a little bossy, because she knows what to do. They're all going to share a print and then pull complementary colors once they know what the print will be. Over on Team 2 it will not surprise you that Sergio is telling everyone what to do. He claims it's because he's always been a leader, so naturally he's a leader now. But he's moving people with “subtlety”. It's not subtle. He's literally saying “You're good at cocktail dresses, so you do a dress.” They decide on a plaid. Sergio also demands the last, dramatic look. He and Chelsey argue over whether or not his design is 80s enough. Brittany tells us she interned with Betsy Johnson, so she feels she has a good grasp on the aesthetic they want. Yeah, that sounds great actually. She wants to plan some cohesiveness in their collection, like all of them do pleating or something. Geoffrey thinks they should have chaos and then somehow discover cohesiveness as they go. Geoffrey. That never works. Everyone kind of shouts over each other and someone says “I LIVED in the 80s”. Team 2 appears to be agreeing, but I think that's because they're just doing what Sergio wants.

At Mood, Team 1 quickly gets frustrated about all agreeing on a print. Mostly Delvin hates what everyone else has picked out and thinks his choices will just get shot down anyway, so he wanders off. Geoffrey also decides this is never happening, and also wanders off. To his credit, Geoffrey knows he is terrible at shopping at Mood. Brittany tries to take control, but of course she blames Delvin for ruining the teamwork, and then she finds him and insists they buy all the fabrics together, and he says he's buying notions so calm down. Team 1 wastes 20 minutes choosing a print. Melanie actually talks and we see some of her work and hear about how her style is Scandinavian and flowing. I worry about her since she's basically been invisible. Christian flat out tells Geoffrey that his team has no idea, and when Geoffrey says they'll figure it out, Christian nods insincerely. Then someone shrieks for Geoffrey to “get in here” so that's going well. As they're all literally on the floor with their print, Christian appears to say it's not a very modern print and it's looking crazy. It's a kind of gauzy fabric with colors in fat lines like brushstrokes. I think they find something with like, 30 seconds to spare. Of course Brittany hates it. I guess they overrode her? Whatever.

Day One. Nancy has no sketch, because she just kind of puts fabrics together and makes something. Team 1 I guess is trying to force someone to use pink? But everyone wants to do black with only a little color? The new print they bought has no pink in it, all chartreuse and black, so...do they not have enough other fabric? The parts of Team 2 that don't involve Sergio are all getting along, so maybe they get along better than Team 1. I know Sergio will take all the credit for how smoothly things are going, but I am also certain he's not 100% responsible. Geoffrey's freaking out because he only wants to use black and not this pink no one likes. But how is all black inspired by Cyndi? You know? He begs Victoria to help him, but...later? Geoffrey starts crying because it's extremely important to him that this goes well. He talks about his childhood, which was shitty, but Cyndi taught him it was OK to be himself. I don't want to shit on Geoffrey, because legit that's a shitty childhood, but I am skeptical that the one celebrity who was the most important to him growing up just happens to be involved here.

Christian appears to judge things. Team 2 has some stuff done, and none of it looks like a giant disaster. It's mostly black and white, but with like, one hot pink shirt. Melanie has fringe? There's a black and white striped fabric that is their print that they're all using. As always, “cohesiveness” is a fine balance between making everything look the same, and having a bunch of clothes that don't go together at all. It's hard to get right. Team Chaos is trying to argue that Cyndi's look is kind of organized chaos, and Delvin can barely hide his eyeroll. Christian calls him out, and he explains in confessional that he doesn't think Nancy knows what she's talking about. “Organized chaos” seems pretty accurate, though. Brittany says that everything Cyndi wore had some kind of manipulation, a ruffle or pleating or something. Victoria...I think is saying that they're all trying to use complementary colors? Something about the colors they all have to use, and Christian is saying do they really all have to use them? Well yeah, if you picked a new print, then making everyone use the colors of the old print doesn't make any sense. Geoffrey babbles a little bit, because he's still freaking out, and he also begs Christian for help. Mainly because he says he's trying to be a team player and use this pink that is not in the new print. Christian tells them that Team 2 is using black and white and pink, so don't feel like you need pink. Fair. No one is saying you have to do anything. Punk and pop. That's it.

Then Christian gives a “gather 'round”, but without saying this. Styling is going to be very important, of course, so they have to make their own accessories. Except shoes. But all jewelry and bags and whatever. Chelsey says she's down but where is the time? They'll go to a store tomorrow and get $200 to shop. Meanwhile, Christian is going to go around and take back all their accessories. People are trying to hide earrings in shoes and belts under papers and so forth. He is having too much fun.

Back at the penthouse (after a generic montage of working) Shavi and Chelsey discuss how the stripe is kind of a lot. Maybe do shorts in white instead of the stripe? But Team 2 is pretty confident. They certainly have a better cohesiveness, if maybe too much cohesiveness. But they agreed on the stripe and the accent colors, and we didn't see that decision. I'm assuming they all agreed and it wasn't just Sergio telling them what to do, but I could be wrong.

Team Chaos is having an argument. Nancy says she was worried about Brittany because she had the pink? Why? If the pink sucks so bad why did someone buy it? Brittany looks confused. Delvin tells the group that he doesn't think cohesiveness means everything is super matchy, and Nancy says that's not what cohesion means. But that's what he said? Cohesion doesn't mean matchy-matchy? Nancy complains in confessional that she's making an effort to talk to the other designers, but it's not being reciprocated. Well, yeah, if this is what “making an effort” is. Telling people you were worried about their look and then interrupting someone else because you didn't listen to what they were saying is not going to go over well. Delvin looks especially annoyed. Nancy of course has no idea why it's not going well. Brittany explains a little bit by saying Nancy is validating all their decisions, and she's not sure why unless she's trying to make them feel better about how Mood went. These little chats about cohesion are not doing anything. I think Nancy is trying but it's coming off as talking to hear herself talk.

Day Two. Everyone goes to the notions store to buy accessory supplies. Team Chaos is going to try to at least have cohesion in the accessories. They're going to do chains and silver. Team 2 is making things out of safety pins. Lots of things, closures, belts, whatever. And a hint of spikes.

9 hours left. Victoria FINALLY gets subtitles. Guys, I know I harp on it, but someone wrote a legit academic book about subtitles and captioning in media, and had some pages about how you can set people apart because of who gets subtitles and who doesn't. And they referenced my blog, when I wrote about Justin getting subtitles and not Sandro, even though Sandro didn't speak great English, because they felt it was proof that Justin was understandable but they were setting him apart for being deaf. This show will refuse to subtitle people who really need it, but put subtitles for someone perfectly understandable. Anyway, Victoria is just complaining about how no one knows what Nancy is doing ever, because she just kind of makes it up as she goes. The sewing room tries to get her to pronounce “screwdriver” properly. Marquise is making white shorts, so someone on their team can make an outfit that doesn't have stripes. It's screwed him though, because he doesn't have a white zipper. He seems pretty calm about how sometimes on a team you can't do what you want.

Model fittings. Sergio brags that he always has an easy fitting because he's just so amazing. Team Chaos basically shittalks the other team in confessional, which is rich considering how they're on pretty thin ice. I mean, black and white stripes will always read Beetlejuice, but no one on Team Chaos is in any place to look down on someone else. Victoria is actually admitting she's making the same jacket, AGAIN, but this time with a ruffled skirt! Silver hardware! It's totally fresh. However Sergio claims his team's hot pink is magenta, which it is not.

When the models leave, Team 2 talks about what they're going to do about accessories. Melanie doesn't like her skirt, and the team is pretty functional as they discuss what she could do. Changing the skirt unfortunately makes it less her, though, because her style is not good for this challenge. Now she's going to make an all black skirt. Dayoung makes a fat ruffle out of royal blue to put diagonally across her dress. That shade of blue and the black don't look good together at all. Brittany talks her into using zippers instead, which is more punk. This is important because currently Dayoung has designed a black sheath dress with a tiny bit of bust detail and pockets. It really needs something. Team 2 is being very agreeable and Sergio has said one word. So I have to take back what I said. I thought for sure they'd be cohesive and get along because Sergio ordered them all around, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Certainly other people are talking without checking with him first, and not asking his opinion.

Back home everyone has pizza and talks about how they're doing makeup. Well, some people have pizza and Team Chaos hangs out on the balcony and talks about what makeup they're all doing tomorrow. Minus Nancy. When they come back in, Marquise asks if they had a good team meeting, and I thought the punchline was that he was being sarcastic or something, but the punchline was, Nancy was inside the whole time having pizza and not outside with the rest of Team Chaos. She asks if that was a team meeting, and Marquise digs that they left her out. The team tells her it wasn't a team meeting, so cool your jets. But it did seem to be, in that they were discussing makeup and one would expect the team to have cohesive makeup. On the other hand, did Nancy not notice her whole team was outside and think maybe she should go join them? Brittany claims they were just talking and didn't make any decisions, because of course it was a team meeting. Did they leave Nancy out on purpose? It's hard to say. Maybe not, they could all be backpedaling now because it looks bad, not because they got caught ditching her. Brittany also points out what I just did, which is that Nancy was free to join them outside, it's not like they were hiding. Nancy talks about overcoming obstacles and being a winner. Nancy certainly needs to be more aware of what's happening, because it's not like they were hiding from her, and in the end nothing constructive happened at this meeting. But no one is sorry they didn't include Nancy which is a dick move.

Runway Day. Sergio starts talking about genderless clothing and that's his version of punk or whatever. Team Chaos is still making accessories. Melanie is much happier with her look now. Nancy has a lot going on. Christian notices and tells Team Chaos they need to put all their models together and see what is happening. Because this collection is a lot of black, with one print and then the pink, which is not found in the print? And then Dayoung's shift dress which honestly doesn't really look flattering in this shot. Dayoung says she's going to do more embellishments. Brittany tries to tell Nancy that something doesn't go, and Nancy flat out refuses to change her look. Then she tells Christian she needs to fit her garment and walks off. Christian doesn't know what to do at this point, because he just watched Nancy refuse to participate. Sergio gets annoying when he explains to Christian about how they've been working together so well, but it's kind of deserved at this point. I know Nancy feels ostracized from her team, so I can see why she doesn't want to listen, but it is a team challenge. And I know people feel Brittany was picking on Nancy this whole episode but I don't see how Nancy is above the group criticism and is justified in walking out of the meeting. Team Chaos is all doing their own makeup colors and whatever, so the whole meeting they left Nancy out of was pointless. No reason to get mad about a pointless meeting, but then no reason to give someone on your team an excuse to feel left out.

OK Karlie's skirt is very short and last week she specifically didn't want a skirt that was too short. Team 2 is up first. Marquise: white shorts, a hot pink shell and a black jacket. She has a studded belt, and then hot pink pumps with black lace socks. You can clearly see the black zipper on the shorts, although he tried to hide it. It looks like he didn't sew the seam properly. Chelsey: strapless jumpsuit with jodhpurs. The wide parts of the pants at the hips are a black panel, and then the rest of the jumpsuit is in the black and white stripe. There is some hot pink detailing around the waist and the chest, outlining boobs and extending into straps. Melanie: a hot pink minidress, with a black jacket overlay. The top part fastens at the waist, and then it's shredded into a car wash skirt that ends at the knee. All of the black part is sheer. And a purse in the stripe. It's weird but probably not the weirdest we'll see tonight.

Shavi: short skater dress in the stripe, with thin black straps and a piece that hangs behind her, like she's wearing a wrap that she's let drape from her elbows. A skater dress is kind of like a baby doll dress, but with a normal waist and not an empire waist. It's fitted through the bodice, but the skirt is very full and hits above the knee. This skirt is so full and short that when the model spins I'm worried she'll flash everyone. The bodice has a V of sparkly black fabric that sticks up a little bit, like fins, and is outlined in a thin stripe of pink. It's a cute dress. The back looks like it closes with big gold safety pins. Sergio: pants that have panels of the stripe on the outside of her hips, and black in the center. They're slit up the front, with safety pins and tiny pink ribbons holding them shut so it's only really open to her knee. Then there's a long sheer...peplum? Train? It's attached to her ass, and then doesn't quite hit the floor, but it's a sheer black piece with a ruffle. The top is basically a black bra with the black sheer making a T-shirt. The seams of the T-shirt are hot pink, and there are more safety pins and ribbons around the neckline. There is a pink zipper all the way up the back. This is certainly a cohesive collection.

Team Chaos. Dayoung: so what she ended up with is still a black sleeveless shift dress, with a short skirt. But now there is a lot of silver embellishment all around her bodice and waist, outlining like, a belt and her chest. There's kind of a deep V, and also a black platform boot. Her model looks short and wide, sadly, but the embellishment really was necessary. When she turns around, there are chains hanging off her waist, but draped in a scalloped pattern. It's better, but still not great. Brittany: dusty pink pants and a jacket, with a black corset. I'm not sure it's truly a corset, as opposed to wrapping black fabric around her torso. The jacket has very pointy shoulders, and there are a bunch of chains hanging off the bodice. The pants are almost down to the floor, for that hooved look. I think the black is faux leather, and there are some straps and whatnot. Some flaps at her waist that I think are the jacket not being cut straight across. Delvin: black faux leather camisole, and a skirt made out of the print they ended up getting, which is an off-white background with big black squares/windowpanes, and accents of yellow-green. As far as I can tell, there is no pink in this print. It's a very flowy skirt with a handkerchief hem. The camisole has a bunch of pleating detail, and there's also a wide, low-slung belt.

Victoria: it's the same pointy-shouldered jacket she's been making, although there doesn't seem to be any side cutouts. Plenty of silver zippers and chains and whatnot. I think there's' a very short black skirt, with some extra fabric hanging off one side like a scarf and a double ruffle. The only color in the whole outfit is a piece of the off white print in the scarf thing. Sadly when the model turns around, the way the hanging part is positioned it looks like she's shitting fabric. Geoffrey: I think he also has jodhpurs, that he's like, tucked into boots. Then a high necked, long sleeved top with strong shoulders and some faux leather and spikes. One shoulder is kind of shiny, for contrast. There's a wide belt too. It's very punk...I just feel like it should have some kind of color. That's “Cyndi Lauper iconic 80's style”, right? Nancy: black leggings, I think in the faux leather, which are not quite as tight as they could be. Then a shredded sheer skirt that matches a big wrap that's around her shoulders like a cape. The bodice is a sparkly fabric that we haven't seen yet, that kind of is the green from the print, and which looks like they wrapped a length of fabric around the model. The cape/wrap/whatever is gathered and almost quilted. There's a big shiny belt buckle that was the thing Nancy refused to remove. It's a lot of black in this collection.

Team Chaos...is the winning team? I'm sorry, the fuck? You can't have a mix of punk and pop (how they described the aesthetic multiple times) and then award the win to the team with mostly black. With two all black looks! This team was a hot mess. Brittany, Victoria, and Geoffrey get to stay. This is because you're going to give the win to Geoffrey because of storylines, aren't you. This is the exact bullshit I thought we had moved past when we came back from Lifetime. Melanie, Marquise, and Sergio are the bottom.

Victoria talks about punk and how that's power, and how a pop of color has more impact than a lot of color. I get it. Punk is important. But Cyndi Lauper's style isn't only punk, which is the whole point of this challenge. She mixed punk and pop to make something unique. I feel like everyone ignored the pop and they're being rewarded for it. Also I was wrong, there are some hip cutouts on this skirt. Cyndi tells everyone that in 1986 everyone started wearing black with pops of color but the over the knee boots make it modern. So we're going to use this sentence to justify all this black. Fine. The back of the jacket has an inverted V, which is actually well done. The judges praise Victoria for being “true” to herself, which is what they say when someone always does the same thing but the judges like it. Or they like her, or something. Geoffrey has the balls to tell the judges he was confident, and that he decided to drown out the color. Then he has a tearful monologue gushing about how amazing Cyndi is and how she moved him. Everyone loves it, even though it's a jodhpur, and somehow having different fabric makes it modern? Cyndi vaguely gestures at the knees and says “this makes it modern” and I have no idea what she's talking about. I really do not understand this judging. Am I being too literal? Is this all “modern” and I don't agree because I want vintage? Anyway, the judges feel it's modern but still 80s and they can't praise Geoffrey enough. Brittany did actually make a corset, but she wanted some big shoulders and a belt. Nina loved the contrasts between the pink and the black, which make it more modern. Cyndi says she had a belt like that once, and this feels like something a young person would wear. Brandon says he appreciates she chose color, but the legs are too wide and the back of the jacket isn't perfect. But she did take a risk and she stands out. Even though we said they won, we have to have a stupid conversation about how no one was the leader and how they think this is a cohesive collection. Yeah, because it was all black.

Sergio loves his top. Nina says it doesn't connect at all. She doesn't get the ruffles or the pants, or the fact that the pants are split and have safety pins. Cyndi says she'd never wear it. Sergio then says he dresses women 40 and up (dude, stop talking) so all of his stuff will look more sophisticated. “Even if you don't agree, that's who pays my bills.” You did see what happened to Tyler last week, right? “If you don't like it that's not my problem.” Yeah, that's going to go over well. At least Tyler was funny. Brandon tells him that no one forced Sergio to sign up for the show, and maybe shut up and learn something from your critique. Marquise says the team supported each other, and he changed the shorts to white so it wasn't all stripes. Elaine thinks his look is maybe too 80s and not modern enough. His jacket has some pleats and safety pins, but Karlie flat out tells him that Geoffrey's jacket is way better. Is it? I guess. Marquise explains that he didn't have white closures, so no zipper or button. Melanie gets yelled at for “skating by”, and that they haven't seen anything from her, but then there's this, which isn't good. This was hard for her because she has a minimalist aesthetic. She loves her skirt and her purse. Brandon tries to be funny and says it's a darling purse that would sell really well at...Melanie interrupts him to shout “Mervyn's!” Brandon agrees. Mervyn's was a department store we had when I was growing up, that I would say fell between JC Penny's and Sears in terms of style and cost. Melanie hasn't found a challenge that has fit her aesthetic yet. She felt put in a box. Cyndi tells her not to blame the 80s, then says her skirt didn't have structure so it flopped around like a car wash. Yes, that's why that style of skirt is called a car wash skirt. Elaine feels there were many references to pull from for the 80s, which is true but they were supposed to pull from like, one. Right? I'm still so irritated about this, you guys.

Back in the Scrap Bin, Nancy is still bitching about how she was disrespected and left out. But she's going to move on and bring her positivity back. Sure. Brittany, the only one who used color, gets criticized for a poor fit and for not being as impressive as Geoffrey and Victoria. Karlie feels so many women could wear Geoffrey's top. It's bold and confident. Brandon's seen it before, though. But Victoria has done something new and fresh? You've seen Victoria's look in every challenge so far! But they think Victoria's look is very editorial and good stagewear. Listen, making an updated 80's punk look is a perfectly good challenge. But do not specify that you want Cyndi Lauper 80s style because her style was not just punk. You said “punk and pop” a bunch of times. Also even though I know no one agrees with me about how this doesn't fit the challenge, I think we can all agree that Victoria has made the same jacket for every challenge and therefore it is not NEW or FRESH.

No one can remember anything Melanie has done, and Elaine is very mad, because you had an entire decade for inspiration and if you can't find anything then you shouldn't be here. Again, she does NOT have an entire decade. YOU narrowed down the focus. OK I have to just get through this. If you don't agree with me please let me know because this is the first time with this set of judges that I feel like we're back to the old “judges on crack” producer interference judging and I thought we were past that. Anyway, Melanie is boring and Marquise also sucks but at least he had an idea. The shorts are terrible. Nina does not like Sergio, though, and of course everyone is offended about how arrogant he is. The top didn't go with the bottom and it was all very confusing. Back in the Scrap Bin this nimrod is telling Brittany that when people are confused by your look, then you really are changing the world. He actually says that.

Oh and then we have to have a PSA from Cyndi about her psoriasis and fabric choices. Yes I have seen those commercials. Shut up, Bravo.

Brittany is in. Geoffrey wins, because you knew he was. He's the one with the personal story, so OF COURSE he wins because now everyone can feel warm and fuzzy about it. I mean Cyndi is claiming many women could wear a pair of jodhpurs and a tight motorcycle jacket with pointy shoulders. I guess the silver lining is Victoria didn't win for making the same jacket. But she's in. I have watched too many seasons of this show to just 100% believe this is a vindication for Geoffrey, that he freaked out for the whole episode and that he just happened to have the best look. Melanie is out, which you also could have guessed by how she actually got screen time this episode. Sergio and Marquise are in. Melanie is disappointed because she doesn't feel like the judges ever saw what she could do. Brittany promises they all know her. Christian tells her that her technical skills are amazing. She's pissed she didn't take more risks.

Next time: Make any look you want using your “heritage”. So basically, the challenge Melanie has been waiting for to make something that fits her aesthetic yes I'm salty about it! Some iPads, and tears, so I guess family videos. Sergio refuses to show Christian what he's doing because it's “personal”.

So I find it very telling that we're spending a whole segment on the aftershow with Cyndi Lauper by herself. Even the producers don't think Melanie has enough of a personality to fill in the same time as everyone else. Every photo of Cyndi they show has wild colors. They shittalk Sergio for a minute, because of course. They love Geoffrey, also of course. At least Cyndi points out it's all covered up but still stylish, which is a good point. They claim that Cyndi was the tiebreaker but also that his hero worship didn't sway them at all. Then they look at a pic of Geoffrey in Cyndi Lauper drag, and she says she doesn't see herself in that pic. Oh it's pretty good.

Then we actually talk to Melanie, who is floaty and detailed. But if she had used color, it would have been completely different. She went into the workforce early, and she was trying very hard to be serious so she stopped using color. The 80s to Melanie is a time when things were deregulated and stuff like the environment started to suffer. But she was born in 1990, so. Now it's game time, I guess. Match up other designers to songs. This is...lame. I mean is Geoffrey “Relax” or “Under Pressure”? Come on. She thinks Delvin is going to win. But he needs to get specific about who he is. His construction is amazing, so if he can get it together it could take him far. Then we find out she gave yoga classes in the penthouse. How come we didn't see any of that? They do some poses in the chair and Christian is dumb about it. It's cute. OK honestly I welcome disagreements on this one. Someone explain to me how you can do Cyndi's style without color or pop style, or find me an example, or something.