Project Runway All Stars 6/23/23--"Toying with Fashion" summary

 

Previously on “Project Runway All-Stars”: the All-Stars were asked to “fix” their worst looks from their original seasons. No one was very happy to see their designs again, especially Bishme, who was thinking about his sister's cancer diagnosis and how she passed a couple of months ago. Mentally that's where he was when making the original design and seeing it put him right back there. Kayne made a dramatic skirt that was actually both black and white and not just black, and he won. No immunity though. The bottom two were the two designers from Season One, Kara Saun and Nora, because neither of them have really sewn anything for nearly 10 years. But Kara Saun's garment was better made so she got to stay and Nora was eliminated. (click for more)

So now it's 11:33pm, and Christian is telling everyone left that tomorrow they'll be going on a field trip. “Meet me at Rockefeller Plaza first thing!” This means alarms are going off at 5:45am. When they get in the vans Kayne finds the camera mounted in the corner (so they can record them at all times, of course) and curses.

When they are all getting out of the vans, there is a pink RC Jeep racing around in circles. Mounted to the top of this car is a sign with Christian's head and the words “FOLLOW ME”. So now 13 adults are walking down the street behind a pink toy car. Which of course has a GoPro on it. It leads them to FAO Schwartz, which I thought was in Times Square but no. Christian is in a random aisle. Time for the unconventional materials challenge! Everyone knows and is various levels of excited or horrified. Your look should be “whimsical”. It's a two day challenge. Do not make a dress out of stuffed animals. You have 45 minutes and $2000. Oh wow. They pick bears randomly for model assignment.

Prajje has grabbed a bunch of boxes but I'm not sure what he's got. He went home on the unconventional materials challenge so he has decided for redemption. The first time he went to FAO Schwartz as a kid he thought it was a magical place. Aww, that's cute. He wants to buy some clothes? It's probably for American Girl dolls. Brittany interviews that she has always been a “high-maintenance queen”. She and Fabio discuss if she should buy a stuffed dog with a pom-pom just so she can get the pom-pom. Kara Saun is buying what look like coasters. Christian yells at Hester for buying like five giant plush bears. “If I can make clothes for teddy bears, I'm sure I can make clothes out of teddy bears” OK except for the part where Christian specifically said NOT to do that. Korto runs down the stairs with at least a dozen plastic pails. Mila buys drones? Sure. Rami has bought kites, which I think is still fabric. Anna is shopping for her son. Laurence has no idea what to do, because unconventional is “not exciting”. That's true, you'd never do this in real life unless this was your whole clothing line. But you know when you sign up for this show that at some point you will have to make clothes out of random bullshit so don't get on your high horse about it now. There are a lot of stuffed animals about.

They have eight hours today to get started. Bishme has a pile of floor pianos. Everyone sketches for a while. Fabio has playing cards. “Magic” cards? Not Magic the Gathering but from a magic set. Korto also has floor pianos but I think she's planning on ripping them up. Suddenly Laurence is going to cooperate and do a good job. There is a lot of noise because there are power tools everywhere. Hester is making a skirt out of key chains I think. Kayne has umbrellas, but he's using the metal ribs for structure for the skirt. I thought he was going to use the fabric.

After a couple of hours Christian comes in, hopefully to yell at everyone for how many stuffed animals there are. Kayne is planning a reveal with his stuffed animals like a fur stole. That might be OK. Mila wants to make a skirt out of jigsaw pieces, and a fur hoodie for the top. Christian doesn't like the top. Mila tells us in confessional that her first time on the show, she would never have picked out stuffed unicorns, but there's a softer side of her now. We see her last unconventional materials challenge, which was made out of paint tray liners, cut up into small square tiles. She wants to try something new. Brittany is smashing teacups for “beading” for the bodice of the dress, and then part of a tent for the skirt. Christian yells at her because it's basically fabric. Then he yells at Fabio because playing cards is too easy. Do something to the cards. Fabio's response in confessional is, “W O W, maybe a little too dry for me, could have used a little lube, but I guess what he's saying makes sense.” But he's still going to use the cards.

Rami has the most stuff out of everyone, and therefore the most options. Kites mean a lot to him, and it's personal to use them now. Viktor has cut all the heads off the dinosaurs he got. Christian is like, are you going to put them on the shoulders? No you're not. Viktor shows him the sketch, which is one head on each shoulder, facing out, with fur mittens like a Muppet. Christian laughs and then says he likes it. Be campy but still cool fashion. Laurence has boomerangs, cut up into hexagons, with fur circles, wired together. But she doesn't want that to be the whole thing. Prajje spray painted the floor pianos like graffiti. One sleeve will be a chair and one will be an activity blanket. It's a lot. After Christian leaves, Brittany figures out something to do with her skirt so it's not just fabric from a tent. There are some toy puns and then they go home.

In the morning no one is on schedule. Not a surprise. They have nine hours today. The workroom is a disaster. Hester interviews that Fabio and Brittany have busted out the hot glue guns, which means they won't win, because a good unconventional look doesn't need a glue gun. No one asked. Viktor's dinosaur sleeves are fun, but he wants to make the skirt out of the boomerangs and he needs to beg and steal them from everyone else to have enough. In the sewing room, Brittany asks Viktor if he's using...something. Little piggies? I don't know what she's talking about but whatever. Bishme then asks her if any of those little piggies went to the market. They sort of have a conversation, but he's facing away and she's not interested. Eventually he's like “damn!” because he keeps having to repeat himself, and she screams “don't scream at me!” and I guess it's supposed to be obvious they're all joking but it's not that obvious. Immediately after this someone says that clip will be in commercials out of context, which is hilarious because that was the exact clip before the last commercial break.

Model time. There's some crazy stuff going on, but the models seem up for it. Anna is giving her model a pacifier? Christian is speechless. There is also some kind of thing with chains and cut up clear umbrellas maybe? The dress itself is the back of the pianos, so it's a dull gray plasticky material and it's wrinkled. Then the chains are draped around artfully, with the umbrellas hanging off it like godets. Those are the triangular panels you put in a skirt for more volume. She needs to be more herself.

Now it's time for frantic working. Anna is adding ruffles to her plain dress. It didn't have any embellishments before. Viktor doesn't have enough boomerangs. Korto has some, but he says he doesn't know if he will get them. It's not clear if she said he could have her leftovers and she's not done so he doesn't know how many there will be, or if he simply hasn't asked her yet. Last time they were both on All-Stars there was some drama which is why I wonder if he's even spoken to her about it. I don't remember this drama and I can't find it, but the clip looks like he decided to snub her and ignore her on the runway or something. He tells her he's in trouble because he doesn't have enough boomerangs, and she's like “oh, take the rest of the yellow”. See. All this drama and it was because he hadn't bothered to communicate and ask yet. To be fair to him, he does follow that with an apology for how he acted on that last season. That was really mature. Laurence can't do the tiling over her whole garment because there just isn't time.

The designers all go to a bar, which is completely empty except for them. Anna sits outside and calls home to say hi to her husband and son. Aww. Anna returns to the room and announces she called home and she didn't cry. She's going to cry now though but she didn't cry on the call! Hee. Kara Saun and Laurence discuss how they have so much work to do.

Runway Day. Mila has to make her whole top, so if it's messed up there's no time for troubleshooting. Rami has made a big poof out of the kites, but I think they were maybe butterfly kites with a design that has loops and circles, and he's cut some of them out so there is some texture. Christian does a gather 'round just to list off the prizes for the winner of the show. Why now? It's the third episode. Also they will get six months of PR representation, which is nice. Kayne seems to be making a long string out of stuffed pandas glued together ass-to-mouth, human centipede style. Not even flattened and sewn together. On top of this he is spray painting red over their eyes because villain. What. Mila has a plain skirt with strips attached at the waist, and so the lining shows all the time. She seems fine with it. Christian yells at Kayne to hurry up and dress his model because she needs to try on the garment. Anna has spray painted the gray dress a bronze color. Kayne finishes by sitting on the floor and cutting the hem of the dress at the last possible second.

The guest judge today is designer Stacey Bendet. Viktor: a knee-length coat covered in yellow tabs. It's the ends of those three-pronged foam boomerangs, but it kind of reads as bananas. There is a green belt and some wide yellow lapels. The sleeves are a light green made out of stuffed dinosaurs, with a dinosaur head on each shoulder. It looks pretty good, but there is a slit up the back which goes maybe too high. The model isn't flashing anyone or anything, but it's pretty high.

Fabio: a sculptural dress made out of playing cards. I'm not sure if there is muslin underneath or not, so he at least covered all of it if there is. It fits very well, and from what I can see, he even made sure the pattern of cards matches up. So it's not just cards thrown on, there are fans of cards and patterns. It looks like the back part comes down from her shoulders, but also attaches to the hem of the dress. Imagine if the dress had a train, and you took the train and attached the end to her shoulders, but it was stiff. From the back it's a giant leaf, but the front it's a normal-looking skirt. Prajje: a jacket, bandeau top, and cropped slim pants. It looks like fabric with a print. I can't tell what anything is made out of because all of it has been painted.

Hester: OK over her shoulders are two bears. But they're not even cut up. I think Hester just took the heads off and sewed the necks to some fabric, so they would hang over the model's shoulders. Then there is a black bra top and black miniskirt. There is a metal belt with a bunch of shit hanging off it. Key chains and I think magnets. She takes off the bear thing and there are epaulets on her shoulders, in red with black knobs, and the back of the bra top has more key chains. The model throws the bear thing at the designers, which I think is just unnecessary, like Hester's weird eye fluttering when the model came out. I guess it's fine. Anna: the whole dress is covered in ruffles. It's just a sleeveless V-neck with a miniskirt, but the ruffles look nice and they dangle to the ground like a car wash skirt. On one shoulder some of the ruffles stick up like three inches, but just a big loop like she forgot to tack it down.

Korto: a slightly cropped jacket in black and white. The design is kind of geometric, lines and stuff, and across the shoulders and down the arms is some fringe. The skirt is short but also very full. There's some wire in it somewhere so it bells out in parts (not all the way around like an actual bell). On top of this is a blue plastic track winding around like a roller coaster, and I think little cars. The skirt itself seems to be some kind of fabric and then plastic with evenly spaced small holes over it. The collar of the jacket sticks up in kind of a cone shape. Like a high collar but with lapels. The back of the jacket is a swing coat in the same stuff the skirt is made out of. Bishme: there are big triangular shoulders with attached sleeves, but it's not really a jacket or coat because I think the arms are all that are there. Then a strapless sweetheart bodice and pencil skirt, with a swath of fabric around her hips. It's all in black, although the bodice is kind of shiny. Then attached to her back are big loops of wire like wings. There are a lot of different textures going on, things pasted to the black but I'm not sure what they are.

Brittany: a strapless dress that hits at the knee. The bodice has a split top, where there is a narrow V between her boobs but it doesn't go down to the waist, and it's a mosaic of broken teacup tiles. The skirt is all pink ruffles and very full. Kara Saun: a short full dress, I think with a mullet hem and a high neck. From a distance it looks like shiny fabric with metallic rainbow circles. The back is big pieces of plastic fabric, in folds and tiers for a lot of volume. I can't tell if this is the back of the dress or a separate piece. The top is colored macarons set in neat rows? And this high neck comes all the way up to her chin. The skirt is full and maybe pleated but also the plastic that's on the back.

Laurence: a short sleeveless dress that hits above the knee, in a dirty olive green color. It's just a loose dress, there isn't a lot of shape to it, but the hem is purple and then the cool hood goes over it. There is a pink placket over her chest, and the hood is pink and yellow with circles of fur. It's a pretty ugly dress. Rami: a one-shouldered sheath dress made of I think all kite fabric, but cut into stripes of different widths, in red, white, and black, and a little yellow. Along the top, by her face, is a different fabric that I think is from a butterfly pattern. It's a strip of black with rounded columns of different colors. Then on that shoulder is a big burst of fabric, the butterfly pattern, but with some of the colors cut out so it's not all solid fabric. It moves pretty well.

Mila: white fur top with short puffy sleeves, and a blue knee-length straight skirt. Over the skirt are strips of jigsaw puzzle pieces, glued together and attached at the waist. It gives a car wash effect but you can see all of the underskirt. I think the back of the top is full and maybe is tails? Kayne: so this girl walks out in a pink and blue tent. Like a literal tent that Kayne flattened out and then cut a hole for her head and sewed a hood on. So she tears that off and underneath is a tight red mermaid gown. At her hips are weird pointy parts that I think is where he was putting the umbrella ribs. Down the center of the dress is a panel with black and white chevrons in different widths. Around her arms she has a stole made of panda bears attached end to end with all their eyes spray painted red. The top of the bodice is a strapless inverted V. It fits wonderfully.

Fabio, Kara Saun, Hester, Anna, Bishme, and Korto are all safe. I wish they had spoken to Hester but whatever. Prajje was in the top. They're impressed with his paint job, and he's so happy to redeem his last performance. Very cool. Kayne is also in the top. He has some story about how Disney movies always have the evil woman but she has a disguise? The chevrons are from the pianos, and they line up perfectly. Nina likes the bleeding pandas and Brandon is skeptical of Nina. Mila was a low score. She talks about the jigsaw skirt but when the model is standing still, you can see that there are nowhere near enough jigsaw strips to cover the skirt. It's like she put them in front and then ran out and just stopped. It moves well though. Nina complains about lacking a point of view or a story and Mila is all “fantasy and magic” which is vague. But this skirt looks half done and you're going to complain about the story? At least Brandon says it's not finished. Rami is somehow in the bottom. Really? Hester just sewed whole stuffed animals to her shoulders and that's safe but an actual dress is in the bottom? Rami also gets emotional because of what kites meant to him as a kid. They tell him it's messy and loud. It doesn't look poorly constructed. Whatever. Brittany is in the top and she curses and Brittany's act is kind of getting old. These ruffles are a lot of work and impressive. I guess Anna's ruffles are not. It is a cute dress. The last top score is Viktor. He says he left the dinosaur heads intact so they'd know what that was, and then when he reveals the boomerangs everyone is very impressed because they had no idea what was going on. It's elevated and chic. So that means Laurence is in the bottom. Nina wants to know why she didn't try. Laurence says she did try, and Nina is all “but did you tho?” Oo. Laurence explains that “whimsical” is not really part of her vocabulary. Nina answers with “why did you want to come back to Project Runway?” It's not looking great. She wanted to show how she's grown? But also you don't do whimsy and you won't try?

Nina says Rami was not the worst. It was stiff on the bottom and didn't fit, but he also had a story and put a lot of thought into it. Also it was completely finished, unlike Mila and Laurence. Does Laurence even want to be here? Nina says there are people with that attitude in the fashion business, but her skills aren't doing a lot either. Brandon says her look was “crickets”, aka boring, which I don't hate as slang for boring. Mila's skirt wasn't finished and there wasn't a clear point of view to save it.

In the top, Brittany was able to make a couture skirt and the bodice was executed very well. Brandon does complain that everything she did, was done on top of muslin which is too safe. Kayne's dress was very well constructed, and fun, and had a story, but is maybe not a winning look. Brandon says he had a vision of Nina wearing that dress going into work. Viktor and Prajje both look like high-end designer outfits. Prajje knows his art is where it's at, and how to use it. But Viktor had impeccable construction and tailoring.

Kayne and Brittany are in. The winner is Viktor. He kisses up to the judges, thanking them for their advice last challenge because he wants to learn and get better. Elaine reveals he's also won a prize: a sewing machine and surger. I love that they kept that a secret until now. Prajje is also in. Rami is in. Laurence didn't put herself into her design and it was uninspired. Mila's outfit was unfinished and didn't have a point of view. Laurence is in. So Mila is out. She really thought she'd be safe, because she had a concept and “the passion for it”. She's upset. Christian does not Save her. She just wanted more time.

Next week: formal gowns “fit for royalty” and teams. My recording cut out then but you know how a team challenge goes. Arguing and drama.