Previously on “Project Runway”: the designers were supposed to make streetwear More than one designer wanted to make something personal and meaningful, which would involve a particular model. Specifically, Prajje wanted a Black model because he was making a Haitian-inspired design. It didn't look promising, but with Christian's meddling he got what he wanted. Kenneth waited several more hours before deciding he'd also like a model that looked like him. When he asked Meg to trade, she got pissed and passive-aggressive. Prajje called her out, which resulted in Meg yelling at Kenneth for not defending her, and eventually Meg quit the show. Kenneth changed his design, but it didn't matter because no one was sent home since Meg quit. Prajje won. (click for more)
Look, Meg was out of line. Kenneth should have asked her earlier, and I also agree with Meg that she had to trade or look like a terrible person. She would have gotten shit for not trading. But the people who are arguing that Meg is the victim? No. Kenneth did not bully Meg. And he certainly did not pressure her in the same way a rapist would by continuing to tell her she could say no if she wanted. That is an argument I saw. Anyway, I was apparently in a weird Internet hole of people defending Meg. I do not agree. Kenneth should have asked earlier but he is not a manipulative person who turned on tears to get his way and then gamed the system by wearing his kimono design and also showing his vest. Either he didn't make an Asian design and the trade was pointless, or he wore the kimono so he could “show” two designs, meaning he made something Asian. OH I am just getting pissed again. Let's move on.
Everyone sits in the Scrap Bin and drinks. There is a lot of red wine around. Then the lights go out and everyone shrieks. Guys. There are still lights on everywhere else on set. Then Christian shows up with a flashlight and a cape to shout “Happy Halloween!”. Everyone shrieks again and comes back in. This is dumb. Christian points out to them they are NOT making costumes. He does a fairly decent dramatic laugh but the contestants react as if it's the funniest thing ever. Guys he's not a judge. You don't have to kiss his ass. Anyway, the twist is that they have a field trip right now and they'll find out their challenge there. Run and get in the van! Sigh.
Anyway they drive everyone to the Bartow-Pell Mansion which looks appropriately creepy. It's supposed to be haunted. Darren says he can see dead people. Bones is letting everyone else go first because you know the black guy always dies first. They're still drinking? I guess someone got them wine when they showed up? The lights go out again, except not really because there are a million candles around, but these people act like it's pitch black. Christian appears in a painting like this is the Haunted Mansion and tells everyone they'll be spending the night here for “inspiration”. The challenge is to make a “hauntingly chic” gown and mask for a masquerade ball. Two days, no costumes. Prajje is thrilled to have immunity. He is not afraid of ghosts so he's not afraid of speaking to them. They lay out the model cards and all decide with no drama that we're shown. But someone does ask if everyone is OK with their models, I assume so they can trade now.
They wander the house with candelabras (don't worry, they look electric, these people are not wandering with live fire) and there is an appropriate amount of night vision and discussion of ghosts. Everyone goes back to the main room to sketch. Anna's aesthetic is “dark and romantic” so she's thrilled. Eventually at 1am they go sleep on cots in one of the parlors. Of course there are random noises but you know everyone is going to be fine.
Everyone makes it to Mood where Christian jumps up from behind the counter to try to scare them. There is less shrieking here than when some of the lights go out. $500 today. Bones's sketch looks like his model will have a lampshade on her head. He says they were all allowed to bring one fabric from home, and his fabric is the color of the carpet in the house. Darren is making a red gown. I think most people are making either red or black and Christian yells about it. Kenneth has an olive green and he's told he's the only one. But I think Christian also tells him that the fabric is hard to sew.
As people start to sew, we see a couple shots of people's dressforms falling apart. Really it just looks like general clumsiness, picking up the form and it's not attached to the wheels at the bottom, stuff like that. Of course Katie tells us they decided the ghost from the mansion (whom they have named George) has followed them. The lights flicker and actually go out, which seems exceedingly fake. Zayden starts talking about voodoo and Marie Laveau. He's making a very body-con red gown. Chasity is pinning black floral appliques to her dress form.
Christian shows up to investigate and be dramatic. Octavio wants to make a black dress that is not really showy? But divine? Christian just kind of “hmm”s at it and leaves. Darren gets “Christmas present”. He has not been doing well, considering that he's made one outfit in two challenges and it was in the bottom. He's wondering if he belongs here. I don't know if he's really begging for reassurance or if he's just expressing general doubts. He's not giving up. Christian tells him he just has an execution problem. Bones's fabric from home is a dark greeny-gray that looks almost like velvet. It might be satin. It's gorgeous but he wants to put some gold satin in a poof. Maybe just work with what he's good at, which is shapes? We get shots of his two outfits, which just reminds me that he doesn't seem to like his models to wear bras.
The fabric Zayden shows Christian is some fabric that will show every flaw and wrinkle. He's got another fabric, but I don't think he likes it as much. Coral is also using her fabric from home, which is a black with a silver print. It's ovals, but they look like stylized bird skulls actually, in two columns. Kenneth has his green, but also a long sheer piece in a fabric with a print like squares. Christian decides to ask him what scares him, and it turns out Kenneth used to have a bunch of pet rats. I don't know. Not sure how this conversation relates to this gown. Katie has a white bodice with thin black horizontal stripes she's tacked on. Christian calls it “Popeye goes west” and asks her how this is haunting. Katie says in confessional that color is very important and she doesn't do black. Sure but you could do a deep color that isn't black. Isn't that what Christian was complaining about in Mood? It's her mission to get people to wear what makes them happy and not to wear black just because it's slimming. In the last hour of the day there is plenty of working.
Day Two. Zayden meditates on the bed, while the cameraperson lurks in the doorway. It's shot with half the doorframe in the shot, like they're not supposed to be there. Just stand in the doorway. Katie has a striped print and then she's going to incorporate some pink. I think she's going to use the stripes she had cut out to make stitching. She's really in “teacher told me I'm doing it wrong” mode.
Model fitting. Chasity has a sheer with the black flower appliques, and then over her chest is a fan of white pleated fabric. But all the flowers she's planning to hand-sew. So she's hand-sewing the whole gown, basically. That's...a lot of work. Christian says he's rooting for her, and Chasity asks if he didn't root for her last week, and he's basically like “you're gonna need it this week”. Chasity is really thinking of her dad today, because they used to do a lot of Halloween stuff together and she lost him suddenly. Darren is wrapping his model's head in red sheer fabric, and Christian jokes with her that no one wants to let her show her face, since last week she had her face covered also. Octavio's gown is a band at her chest, and then a band at the knee, but loose between those two bands. It reminds me of a bubble skirt somehow. She needs to be able to walk though. Zayden's gown has some bunching, and his model walks pretty stiffly, but he's confident. Kenneth has sewn his olive fabric to the sheer but it's all uneven and the construction is not good. Christian points out that he needs to fix it so it doesn't look terrible up close. Anna has a long veil with ruffles sewn on to make loops and swirls. The problem is right now is the veil is covering the dress so you won't be able to see it. Katie is not sure how to make a mostly-white dress “haunting” and she's freaking out. I think she's painting on it.
Runway Day. Katie has not slept well and she reveals in confessional that she's packed her stuff. I think we're spending too much time on this for her to actually go home, right? Three hours with models today. Bones asks Christian if he should accessorize with a gold bedazzled skull purse, and Christian just sighs and walks away. Zayden's model can't walk in his dress. I think it's too tight at the knee. Bones has gone all out on his mask because he's not supposed to make a costume for the clothing. Kenneth has some hand-sewing to do but he seems pretty confident. Katie...has wrapped cord around her gown? I don't know, we only see it briefly. Chasity has a lot of sewing left to do, it seems like. Now Zayden can't get his gown zipped up? But that wasn't the problem? He's reduced to cutting stuff so she can walk normally. He's pinning stuff backstage.
Taraji P. Henson is the guest judge. Coral: long black gown with a poof of tulle or at least a bunch of black fabric at her knee. The silver oval print is subtle, so it's not a really loud print. It fits really well. At her shoulders there is some long fringe, and the mask has fringe also that covers her mouth and chin. Prajje: red off-the-shoulder gown. The skirt is full but also a lighter fabric, that seems a little sheer but not like she's not wearing anything. It moves beautifully. The top is red satin, a strapless bodice and a second piece with beading at the top that wraps around her upper arms and attaches at the breastbone. Instead of a mask she has a big pieces of dark red lace over her whole head, with feathers at the top and a collar almost. Shantall: long silver strapless gown. It's all silver sparkles, and the skirt is slim and has cutouts in a chevron pattern, that look like tiger stripes. The bodice is pleated so it looks like two leaves over her chest. There are sheer elbow-length gloves and the mask is silver with wings.
Octavio: black strapless gown with a lot of volume. It's gathered like a bubble skirt, but the gather is like, halfway down her thighs, and then it's a regular skirt from there. Maybe a little mullet hem so she can walk. She's got a choker made of fabric, and when she turns around you can see the top of the dress also ties, so the back is open and the bow is hanging down in the space. His mask is hard to see but I think it's just a black mask with a piece of tulle hanging down. Bones: it looks like a long slim gown, with a high slit in the skirt and a high neck and no sleeves. Over the bodice is a one-shouldered top in a bronze leather (vinyl I guess). It's folded to create some volume near her face. The dress is a gray-green, and the slit is lined in gold beaded fringe, and then the mask is all gold beaded fringe and a ton of feathers. Zayden: tight red strapless mermaid gown. It really does show all the wrinkles, and the bottom moves strangely. I know he cut some stuff so she could walk, but whatever he did makes the bottom flare of the dress too stiff or something and it looks wrong. Plus his model is clearly still walking very carefully. There are two panels of matching fabric in the back, like coattails. She's got a headwrap of red and black, and a simple black mask, and she's carrying what looks like a red fan with gold chains and a voodoo doll hanging off it.
Kristina: black gown with thick straps, and a full skirt. Down the front is a large panel with a sequined design. Just like, a big square of a design in black and white sequins and then alternating stripes of red and blue paillards. Like she sewed another fabric on this dress. Her “mask” is sunglasses with silver beaded fringe glued on. It's weird and not particularly “haunting” but this is the first I've seen of it so I'm assuming she's fine. Sabrina: black gown with a ton of lace. All this lace is sewn in stiff folds, making wings over her shoulders, putting a ton of volume in the bodice. At the knee it looks like just plain black fabric. I don't remember seeing this gown either, which is probably good for Sabrina since it's a plus-sized model and generally the judges hate it when they're not showing as much skin and shape as possible. Aaron: one shouldered black and silver gown with a slit up to her waist. It looks like he made a gown in silver and then put sheer black over the whole thing, so you only really see the silver at the slit in the skirt. There's some fabric hanging down from her shoulder, and some of the silver at the bottom as she walks. I think she's wearing knee-high boots too.
Kenneth: I know this is supposed to be green, but in this lighting it looks brown. It's a dark/black corset and then sheer black fabric with little green squares as a skirt. Over this is the olive/brown fabric, attached at her breastbone and then sweeping over her shoulders to drape down her back like a cape. There's another piece that hangs down over her hips, but not in the front. So as she walks down the runway, the brown flows behind her and you see a bodysuit and her legs, covered in the sheer. There's a lot of the brown fabric, but we can't see from here if it's constructed properly. Also the “mask” looks like he just draped some of the sheer fabric around her head, and there are matching sheer gloves. I know everyone is supposed to have a mask and they all do, but some of them are just basic so I skipped the description. Darren: red gown that seems to be ankle length? The bodice is shiny red, basically two triangles from her waist to her boobs, with sheer sleeves. The skirt is layers of red sheer fabric, and it is a weird length. Over her head is more sheer red, with what look like gold hoop earrings over the eyes and a strip of fabric over the mouth. Do you know what this makes me think of? It reminds me of Lydia's red wedding dress in “Beetlejuice”.
Katie: white dress in two fabrics. One fabric is a gray and white stripe, which almost looks like a bedspread. The other fabric is white, but she's painted red all over it like blood, I guess. Then there are black strips of fabric criss crossing everywhere. So I think the red and white fabric is a bandeau top and the skirt from the waist to the knee. Also the sleeves down to the elbow. The skirt is straight. Then the striped fabric is draped over her chest, lots of volume, then a ruffle at the elbow, then lots of ruffles in the skirt from the knee down. The black strips are mostly on the red and white part of the skirt, but she's put a few across the model's upper chest, on top of the ruffles. There's a mask, but also I think a sheer black fabric wrapped loosely around her head. Chasity: long slim gown in a skin-toned sheer fabric. Over the whole gown are black appliques, in flowers. On the front and back of her torso are several stiff fans, of white fabric with black edges. The fans are kind of sheer, but stacked on top of each other, and they come up over the bottom of her face. For some reason there are two thin strips of white going from her chest around to just above her butt. I thought they were holding the fans on at first but I don't think the placement is right so I'm not sure what they're for. Anna: her model comes out covered head to toe in a sheer black veil with ruffles sewn on. They almost look like flowers, but I think they're ruffles. At the end of the runway she takes off the veil to reveal a sheer gown. I mean really sheer, it's just one layer of black tulle making a corset top and skirt.
Anna, Bones, Kenneth, Chasity, Zayden, and Octavio get called out. I think these are the top and bottom. Brandon tells Katie that even though they didn't call her name, he loved her look. Really, Brandon? It's not a gown. It looks like cotton and so it doesn't look formal enough. Why are we singling Katie out to tell her she's awesome? Can't she just be safe and feel relief she's not going home? I smell shenanigans. Anyway everyone else gets to leave.
So we're back to this “a random model walks out but we don't say who so you can be surprised you were in the top” thing. Anna's model comes out. Brandon loves the veil and they rave about how fashion it is. Nina says that it's dramatic and that's certainly true. I'm not sure how you can tell a piece of tulle is gorgeous but sure. Octavio is up next in the top. Yeah that's fair. The proportions are perfect, and Taraji loves a pocket. Octavio reveals that it's tied at the top, and then there's a drawstring at her knee to gather up the skirt there. That's pretty impressive actually. Nina tells him that this is his aesthetic applied to a gown and how great it is that he can do that. Zayden is in the bottom, and as he's talking about his inspiration and they're panning up the dress, you can see how ill-fitting it is. It's all wrinkled and bunched. He tells the judges about cutting things so his model could walk, and when he tells the judges he had planned to have black tulle coming out from the bottom of the skirt, they of course say how great that would have been. But she couldn't walk, and then that drew attention to the construction issues. Nina hates the fabric choice because it's unforgiving.
Kenneth is in the bottom. He talks about snakes or whatever, and then they ask him about the mask, which is weird because who cares about the mask. It just looks like the sheer fabric gathered over her face but whatever. The back is dramatic but the front is too weird. Nina thinks it looks unfinished, because the brown looks like it was just draped over the sheer. Yeah the front has the brown sewn to the sheer in like, four places, but I can see how it looks like he just attached them wherever so it didn't fall off. Apparently Bones was in the bottom? I didn't think it was that bad. Nina is disappointed. She says it's showgirl. I guess? When the model turns around you can see a swag of fabric hanging down from one shoulder, and some straps. Taraji says there is too much going on. Brandon agrees, saying there are too many ideas (I guess if he had just shown the green dress but not the bronze bodice piece that would be better) and then his mask is too much. Bones claims the mask was last minute which we know is BS. But they take it. Chasity starts by saying she did her makeup very nicely today and now she's going to cry. Heh. Taraji is so excited, and then Nina is all “did you know Chasity was almost eliminated?” OK but she shouldn't have been in the bottom in that challenge and we all know it. There is somehow a back zipper on this dress, even though there's a fan attached in the center of the back. It's amazing.
They're blown away by Chasity. It's dramatic, glamorous, mysterious. Brandon says that he was intrigued by Octavio's look as soon as it showed up behind the scrim. It's a strong point of view and they like it and want to see more. Brandon also claims to have almost cried at Anna's look. It is very high fashion, even though it's basically lingerie. It's very hard to choose a winner.
Zayden had the right idea, and the right design for his model's body, he just failed at construction. Kenneth's gown was not flattering and it looked unfinished. Plus they are thinking about last week's disaster. Nina floats the idea that maybe he just needs more time to mature as a designer. They rant about how Bones did too much. The mask was too much and I guess the bronze piece was too much.
The winner is Chasity. Taraji comes up to hug her and show her the judging card where she just wrote “OMG”. She's so glad they saw who she really is. When they praise her she feels it's her father speaking to her. Chasity also wins immunity. Anna and Octavio are in. Zayden is in. Nina tells him to think about execution, as Kenneth and Bones hug in the background. Kenneth's look felt unfinished. Bones made a costume. Kenneth is out. Yeah that's not surprising. I felt like they would have gotten rid of him last week for that vest, but didn't because of the whole drama with Meg and how that would be kicking him while he was down, so to speak. This look was not good. Bones is in. Kenneth is sad to leave because he knows he can do more. It's made him stronger. Christian comes in and tells Kenneth he's one of the sweetest designers. Aww.
Next week: floral prints, what seems like a lot of actual flowers. Fake flowers? It doesn't seem like they're making dresses out of flowers like an unconventional materials challenge, but maybe using some of them.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment