Project Runway 11/4/21--"Flower Power" summary

 

Previously on “Project Runway”: the designers were asked to make a “hauntingly chic” gown and mask for a masquerade ball. Katie used what appeared to be cotton and string, but because she was sure she was going home, she was safe and also the judges told her she did a great job. Chasity made a nude illusion gown with black appliques and fans, which was very dramatic and beautiful and was the clear winner. Kenneth also had sheer but then a bunch of satin in a weird cape thing that looked sloppy and unnecessary, so he was sent home. (click for more)

Chasity is thrilled to have immunity, but she wants to win again and keep the momentum going. She reads some letters from her kids. Did she already get mail or did she bring them to read when she needed encouragement? Anna is going to keep pushing herself, after being in the top. Bones was in the bottom, which I think was maybe not 100% based on actual quality but on shenanigans. He's thrown off because he liked his look.

Everyone finds a huge amount of flowers everywhere, outside, filling the workroom, on the dress forms. Elaine is waiting for them to introduce them to Lewis Miller, who is apparently the “Botanical Banksy” and does something called the Flower Flash, which is where you just like, fill a trash can with flowers or whatever. I don't know. Elaine has some weird leather harness thing on and it's throwing me off. Anyway, Lewis is amazing because he makes people smile through beautiful flowers or whatever. The designers must make a “high-end fashion look” that “embraces” floral print. Not use the actual flowers? Then Elaine says that this is the best group of designers they've ever had, which I question. Also this is the “make your own print” challenge. They will each get a graphic designer to work with. Your look must be runway, not ready-to-wear. Also it's a two day challenge, which everyone celebrates, even though haven't they all been two day challenges? Also it has to be because you need time to make the printed fabrics. They get 1 hr 15 min now to work with their designer (what an odd amount) and they won't be going to Mood. It's one of those situations where they can only use “supplemental” fabric that isn't the print, so they just have a bunch of bolts in a corner somewhere.

There is a serious fight over models, just grabbing cards. Prajje asks to trade, and I think he's asking Coral again, but she says no. They're also all tearing apart the floral arrangements. Anna is spray painting and dipping the flowers in paint. Kristina has a bunch of flowers on the ground and then she's laying down and taking pics at odd angles. Shantall is freehanding her print. Katie is in her element, as in Zayden, who makes his own prints all the time. Darren wants to play it safe, which is just orange and red with black outlines of flowers. It's not a bad print, but it's not super exciting. So the graphic designer conversations are all on Zoom. Bones says you have to have an eye for prints, and he doesn't use them a lot. Sabrina wants to put flowers in specific spots on her model's body, and it sounds like she wants the print to do the work and not sewing? Katie doesn't often work with a designer, I think she just makes her own things. There are several shots as if her designer doesn't understand her. Chasity is planning to make her print but shred it and then put some leather. Zayden's sketch looks like a jacket with a huge collar like a flower. Sabrina feels her print is very intricate and if any of it isn't perfect it won't make any sense. All of her confessionals today are about how important this challenge is to her because of her escaping Afghanistan, which I'm sure it is but it would help if she would mention flowers or something when she's telling the story. So far it's just how hard it was to flee the country. Shantall wants to make a suit. She talks about how hard it is to be a mother and a professional. Katie brags about her unique point of view of a normal mom but also an artist. I think that's what she's saying.

In the morning on Day 2 darren describes his print as “the background of Spongebob” which is hilarious. And true also. Shantall interviews that she's feeling the age difference between her and some of the other designers. Darren interviews that doing fashion for Spongebob is the dream.

Everyone arrives to find their prints waiting for them. Kristina is thrilled with her red on pink print. It's a little abstract but it does still read “floral” for the most part. Katie is mostly happy about what she got, which is red and orange swoopy flowers on a lavender background. She says it's more pastel than she wanted, but I don't think it's very pastel at all. Aaron's fabric is all yellow with all the red and pink roses down on the border. Anna unrolls her print which...looks like blood splotches. It's red and white but it doesn't look like flowers, it looks like you put some blood on a white background but didn't cover it completely. There is also a side discussion by Bones in confessional about how he's her TV husband? Chasity says that Anna is the pimp in the house? I don't know. Shantall made a black and white checked print with I think some small subtle flowers drawn on. Prajje has a dark blue background and orange flowers. They're so regular it looks like a tessellation. Octavio has one of the plus-sized models and he says he picked out a flowy fabric. They had their choice of fabrics, but they only get five yards. So everyone is being very careful about how they cut things.

Christian time. He loves how much color there is. He also yells at everyone that this is a fun challenge. Sabrina has a big jumpsuit and she tells Christian she wants a jumpsuit and a burka. So a modern take on a burka, which is the head covering that covers the whole body, with just a netting or mesh part open over the eyes. She wants to reclaim it. Her print placement has worked out, because there are roses over each boob and over the crotch, with green on the stomach. She says she wanted the flowers there (the bust and “the cookie part”) to accentuate feminine power. I was going to point out that it's not powerful if she can't even say vagina, but then she mentions to the producers “you can't say vagina can you?” so maybe she thought it would be censored. Christian asks if maybe she can make it more tasteful. A black background with red flowers on the crotch is not very elegant. Darren I think is making a circle skirt. Coral is making macrame. Kristina is making a robe, which is good because Christian thinks her print is boudoir. Zayden's dress has a great shape but the panels in the front don't line up with the print. Octavio is probably making another sack dress like last time. Anna is to sure if her model will be able to move her arms. Bones shows Christian a crop top and A-line skirt and Christian is disgusted. Aaron has pants and a jacket, but they look old somehow. He tells Christian he's got a bunch of flower brooches he can put on there, and Christian waves his hands around and makes a face. Not great. It's Katie's challenge, but she seems to have made pedal pushers with a ridge? A top with a Peter Pan rounded collar? It's not elegant or youthful. It's costumey. Yeah it's really not good. Shantall's print is cool, but it doesn't read as floral so she probably needs to put some design elements that read floral. Prajje has lost a little of his print because of how the seams in his garment have to be, but it's still cool.

Model fitting. Katie is draping some kind of skirt and telling her model she taught herself so she's not sure how to do all of this. She's kept the weird jacket with the round collar and stiff sleeves so it still feels dated. Kristina needs to do more because right now it's just fancy fabric in a kimono. Darren's skirt is too boring. I like his outfit, but I also like 50's style fit-and-flare dresses and they're not high fashion. Anna must be perfect because it's simple.

Suddenly Christian yells “It's time for a twist!” Everyone freaks out for thirty seconds until he says “Just kidding!” Heh. Chasity was about to go step on his toes. Shantall is making petal-shaped sleeves in her jacket. There is a lot of running.

At home, it's nearly midnight and everyone is sitting around talking about all the work they have to do still. Katie is still freaking out about how her design is different and she doesn't have formal training and whatever.

Runway Day. Shantall calls home for her son's birthday. She's emotional about not being there. But she brings the phone into the common room so the other designers can say hi, which is really cute but also that never seems to happen. It's nice to see them being friends.

Three hours to work. Chasity isn't worried about fit, but she wants to make sure she gets enough strips of the print on her bodice. Katie is freaking out because something ripped, and she needs to put the scalloped ridges on things, and she had already cut the fabric for pants so it's not like she has more fabric. Darren is just adding ruffles to his skirt, instead of making a new one. Christian scolds Aaron for having wrinkles all in the bust of his jacket. Some guy Vincent is talking about makeup. Hmph. Prajje was going to put a bow somewhere, and a bunch of painted fabric, but he decides to leave it out.

Guest judge is Gigi Hadid. Two things: Brandon calls her “the most recognizable face in fashion today”, which I'm not sure is true, and she's wearing a blazer with fake flowers pinned to it. Not like, I cut the blooms and pinned the flower heads, but I took fake flowers with stems and pinned them randomly all over. Shantall: three piece suit in silver and navy checks. There are flowers drawn on also, but they're pretty subtle. The pants are not that skinny, but they fit well. There's also a jacket and vest. These have curved hems, so for example the sleeves on the jacket sort of wrap around her arm and are longer on the outside. They do kind of look like petals. Aaron: wide-legged pants, a bandeau top, and a short sleeved jacket. Most of the pants and jacket are yellow, with a border of red roses at the bottom of the pants. The bandeau top is all flowers, and then the jacket has flowers all down the front (liking the opening where the fasteners would be). The sleeves are a little puffy and there are small lapels, like on a shirt. It doesn't look that old anymore. Anna: the top looks like she took a stiff rectangle and wrapped it around the model, so it sticks up around her shoulders. The skirt is triangular, with something stuffed in at the hips to make two sharp corners, and then tapering to her feet. The print is mostly mottled red and white and it doesn't read that floral to me. But the shape is cool.

Bones: one shouldered crop top, with a bunch of extra fabric hanging down from her shoulder like a cape. And then a black pencil skirt. The print is nice, a multicolored mostly abstract print. There's a “reveal” but it just looks like she can detach part of the cape so it isn't so full. And then you have a piece of fabric you can swing over one shoulder for no reason, but you have to hold it there. AND I highly suspect that once again he's asked his model not to wear a bra. Coral: her print is pink flowers on a black background. The top is open down to her navel, with narrow sleeves and some shoulder pads and a peplum. There is macrame criss-crossing her chest and torso, but a couple of those straps have those plastic clips you see on fanny packs. The skirt is just a loose sheer skirt in solid black. The macrame makes some fringe which is interesting but I can't tell if it's a belt or on her sleeves or what. Chasity: short dress with a miniskirt and huge leg of mutton sleeves. The sleeves and the giant shoulders are solid print, which is a pink/purple abstract print. The rest of the dress is strips of the print and strips of black with silver studs, criss crossed all over for coverage and sewn to a black sheer fabric. The back is open and looks great.

Darren: bright orange and red print with black graffiti flowers on it. The top is a high-necked crop top with a ruffle down the front and long sleeves. I can't tell if the sleeves are loose or if they don't fit right, because it almost looks like they're narrow in the bicep and much looser from the elbow to wrist. But not like a bell sleeve, just wider. The skirt is weirdly lumpy and there are bits hanging off it. Like he put on a ruffle and part of it hangs down like a handkerchief hem, but only the one little triangle so it looks like you just didn't cut the hem properly. He just sewed fabric on top of his skirt and it shows. Octavio: this is a black and white print, which is guess could be floral. It is miles and miles of fabric, sewn into a full dress with a mullet hem. There is a high neck (with a tie in the back) that hangs down over her chest in a cowl drape. The hem is weird, because it looks like there's sheer black fabric underneath, but instead of a clean hem, all the black and some of the print is shredded.

Sabrina: bodysuit in green and pink. The green is leaves, and is mostly the torso. The pink and red flowers are on her chest and right over her crotch, and then down the legs. I thought the sleeves were just going to be long sleeves, but they are actually slit to the elbow and then then hang down almost to the floor, with more of the pink flowers and a band of some black. Around her hips is a solid pink skirt, sewn along her waist but not all the way around her body, so it's open in the front. I'm not sure about how it's attached because it seems a little like curtains at the seam. Then finally the model is wearing a veil, solid pink flower print with a square opening for her eyes. Just covering her face though, not her hair. It's pretty bold but it's a lot. Katie: the print is a purple and pink mottled abstract print. It's not that bad but it is slightly 80s, I guess. The top of this look is wide lapels and wide elbow-length sleeves. Not loose but like big tubes, they hold their shape. There are strips of scalloped fabric, like brick-a-brac, lining the lapels and down the front of the jacket where the buttons would go, and there are several stripes down the sleeves. The skirt looks terrible. It's a knee-length skirt, and I guess she's tried to make it interesting, but it just looks like it's full of static and it's sticking to itself. So it's all bunched up in the front, and there's a solid red fabric along one side that's bunched up too. It's real crafty and then the model has a headband just like Katie wears.

Prajje: long gown with a mermaid skirt and a deep V top. The skirt looks very narrow, and there's a lot of volume below her knee, but she's walking OK. The V comes down to her navel, and there are big puffy sleeves that look like stiff fabric on her shoulders. Open at the bottom, not actual puffs. And there's a keyhole in the back. The print is orange and light pink flowers on dark blue and it looks great. Zayden: very short tight dress and a sleeveless jacket. The print is big red flowers with black accents. The jacket is mostly a big collar that comes up behind her head and frames her face like a hood almost. When she turns around you can see that her back is exposed. As if the dress is strapless and the “jacket” is just a big donut of fabric she's put her head through. Kristina: loose dress in red, and a robe in the pink and red floral. I'm not sure what this red fabric is but it looks like a shiny plastic tablecloth. The neckline is square with straps but it moves as if she just cut a square out of the fabric instead of a bodice with straps sewn onto it. The robe is a robe. I think there are drawstrings at the wrists. The red is maybe a dress over pants? I can't see it very well. Honestly the red fabric ruins the whole thing.

Kristina, Sabrina, Darren, Shantall, Prajje, and Katie are the top and bottom this week. First up is Kristina. Someone says it's well made, which...no. So it is a dress over wide pants. The jacket has drawstring ruffled sleeves. They love the dress, but it looks so cheap. The movement is great and it's a good print. Nina gushes about the eye mask. This is dumb. That dress looks like cheap plastic. Shantall loves prints and she says she was inspired by her grandmother. The back of the vest is just two wide straps crossing over each other. The tailoring is perfect. Shantall says it's navy blue and lilac with yellow accents. It's wildly different from what everyone else did, but it's still floral. Her risk paid off. Brandon loves that she lined the sleeves, since everyone was going to see the insides of the sleeves. Shantall cries because it's her son's birthday. It's an amazing look but I don't want to feel like she won because it's her son's birthday because I thought we were free of that when the show left Lifetime.

Darren is on the bottom. In the Scrap Bin Aaron says that Darren has made a circle skirt for every challenge. He legit says he was inspired by Spongebob. He's proud of his design. He wanted his silhouette to be easy and effortless. Nina is bored because she's seen this before. Elaine tells him that he's not translating his vision into his garments. They do like how on the back of the top, it's cut in such a way that the black flower drawings frame the keyhole opening nicely. Sabrina is in the bottom. Aww. She knows there is room for improvement. She tells her story about how empowerment and reclaiming the burka. Gigi loves the print itself, but the skirt is not great. Sabrina tells the judges that she put the skirt on because she didn't want to offend any women. Huh? I guess because the bodysuit is tight? So she takes it off (pretty easily, like was it safety pinned on or something?) and of course everyone raves about how amazing it is without. You know how this always goes. If only she hadn't put the skirt.

Prajje is next. He says he lost some of the print, but it was more important to fit the dress properly than to make sure the print was intact. He is of course on the top. Elaine thinks this silhouette is flattering on everyone, which is hot garbage. Mermaid skirts do not look good on everyone. Low Vs that prevent you from wearing a bra do not look good on everyone. Prajje admits he had like, a bow and some other things that he left off, so they make a huge deal about how smart he is for editing. He's also got a print that has a direction, but he's placed it to make vertical lines down the skirt and horizontal on the ruffle at the very bottom. Brandon loves the hair and makeup. Poor Katie says she ran out of fabric, and the skirt really isn't her, and they show a closeup of the skirt so you can see that not only is it all bunchy but each fold is outlined in one of the scalloped stripes. She tells Gigi those are all leather, because Gigi thought they looked like felt. It's so crafty and not high-end. Then the bullshit starts because of course they are amazed Katie made what she's wearing now, and then it's all “well Christian told me not to do this” when they say she should stick to what she knows and “well Christian isn't here” but are we really pretending if she had sent this poor model out in that crafty top and a pair of knee-length pedal pushers with more scallops that she magically wouldn't be in the bottom? You can tell her “stick to what you know” all you want but Katie doesn't know high end fashion. She knows she doesn't. I guess the message of “don't blame Christian” is a good one, anyway.

Somehow Kristina had a fresh take on a floral challenge and the dress had a beautiful shape. Hmm. Prajje tailored his dress, the model could walk in it and that's important. Shantall had a modern look and it was graphic, but Elaine wants to remind them that Shantall's print was not really floral. Nina seems to be arguing that Shantall made three pieces you could wear individually. OK but they were specifically told not to make ready-to-wear, NINA, which you should know because Elaine is the one that told them and she's right there. I wish they were still doing that thing where they looked at each piece very closely, because Christian would be around and he could tell them what he told people and like, “this is so much better than what she had before”.

Sabrina ruined the look with the skirt. The print is good though. Darren knows how to design but is not a designer. Gigi says your looks are either for editorial pieces or to sell, and Darren's look does neither of those things. Katie blamed Christian, but she also picked out that leather scalloping which was terrible.

The winner is Shantall. Hmm. See, they argued about it, and then Nina's argument doesn't make sense, and it feels like she won because of her son. And Elaine makes sure to say she's made her son proud. Anyway she's won immunity. Her suit was great, but it wasn't very floral is all. All the bottom three had problems, as we know. Darren is out. Sabrina and Katie are in. Darren has a whole speech about how this has changed his life and thank you for seeing something special in me. He's much more aware as a designer. One last awkward parting flirt with Christian about he's going to see more of Darren.

Next week: Johnny Weir! Tara Lipinski! I think they're designing for these two and working in pairs.