Project Runway in Nutshell #3

Challenge: design a three piece outfit for INC. brand at Macy’s and the design that wins will be displayed at the Macy’s flagship store and put in production for the INC. line.

Model Mix-up Time – Uli took Keith’s model (*snark snark*) and half the designers chose new and half stayed with their original choices.

Tim informed the designers they would be working in groups of three and team leaders would be chosen by the Macy’s guy, Mehmet, who would pick the leaders depending on sketches and presentations which they had a half hour to pull together.

Angela: “I don’t really sketch as part of my design process so this is really hard.”
Laura did not announce she was an architect! A first!

Mehmet picked 1) Robert because he liked his sketches. 2) Bonnie because she understood the customer (keep this in mind as the synopsis unfolds). 3) Keith because of his color presentation. AND 4) Angela because of her Empire State Building inspiration.

Cut to immediate reactions of most everyone stating emphatically they DO. NOT. WANT. TO. BE. ON. Angela’s team, especially Jeffery (aka The Neck).

Teams are:
Keith - Alison and Jeffery

Bonnie - Uli and Bradley

Robert - Kayne and Vincent

Angela - Michael and Laura

Cut to reactions: Michael – “oh my god!!” and Bradley – “I felt like the boy who gets picked last for the ball game.”

DAY 1
15 minute team pow-wow.

Material shopping where: Angela showed she can take suggestions and work as a team player. Keith smarmed his way into getting $ off his purchase (“I always break the rules if I can.” – keep this in mind as well).

Back at the workroom: Bradley felt Bonnie was hounding him “because of his beard”. Actually she was hounding him because she had watched him work on a shirt for 2 ½ days and get nowhere. Keith delegated all the difficult work to his teammates (and they complained to the American public).

Back in the apartments: The men were discussing Keith’s competitive strategies and Kayne decided to go to the producers and tell them Keith is in possession of design books. The producers called in Tim to be the heavy. Tim told the American public that not only does Keith have design books, but he has also been internetting and went off somewhere during production hours. Tim asked Keith to leave.

Cut to Keith’s reaction: “I didn’t expect this. My reputation is tarnished forever. My friends back home are going to laugh at me. I didn’t use the books for an unfair advantage. I still had a lot of tricks up my sleeve.” And off he went, taking his arrogance and smarminess along with him.

DAY 2
Tim broke the news to the designers. Angela displayed her talent at imitating the “wide mouthed frog”. Laura summed it up succinctly by saying “Keith, what an asshole. I’m glad he’s gone.” Tim told Alison and Jeffery to “carry on and make it work”. Alison had to go off for a recovery cry but came back all determined to go out with all guns firing.

After Uli and Bonnie tell Bradley that he is the only one responsible for the pants and if they don’t work out, they are throwing him under the bus, Bradley stated “I am a squid without an ocean, an eagle without a sky”.

Robert’s team deals with the fact the design is looking “flight attendanty” and Vincent’s disagreeable behavior was making me hark back to his teaming up experience with Angela.

Angela was off merrily making rosettes again while Michael and Laura discussed how “they can’t stop her from hanging herself” and “wait until the fuckin’ runway” – yes, Laura added truck driver to her inappropriate repertoire. After all the bitching behind Angela’s back, Laura actually suggests the rosettes (“the granny circles”) be the buttons on the jacket. Angela is totally on board with this and it appeared the team, despite their dichotomies, is working out quite successfully.

Tim does his rounds and Bradley’s pants refuse to cooperate and go into “filled diaper mode”. Tim suggests he “steam them”. I had to giggle at that point as a visual of steamed poopy diapers floated across my mind’s eye!

RUNWAY DAY
Laura stated “Angela was a good team leader.” Which I actually agreed with.
Jeffery and Alison were feeling confident.

After everyone’s outfits go down the runway, evaluations immediately take place.

The two team with the highest points were Angela’s and in absentia Keith’s.
Angela’s team was told “the outfit looks expensive, vibe was good, fashion-right, the matte and shiny pairing worked as did the grey and pink, the lining was a great idea, and they liked the idea that you could buy the whole outfit or each piece separately.”
Keith’s team was told “love the pant, groovy factor, very hip and active, nice synergy, and modern looking.”

The two teams with the lowest points were Bonnie’s and Robert’s.
Robert’s team was told “were you thinking of an older customer?, don’t see the jacket and the rest of the pieces working together, the skirt had a ‘fanny slit’, the team missed and the outfit was boring.” Vincent stepped up and said Robert was passionate about the design and he that he supported him.
Bonnie’s team was told “who wear’s a cowlneck nowadays?, the brown tweed pants look cheap and dowdy, the outfit is straight out of the 70’s, doesn’t feel fun, and the outfit needed a twist and attitude which it did not have.”

The highest point team had to wait until the next day to see who won.

Robert and Bonnie were the two standing alone. Robert “was too conservative and the outfit had odd proportions.” Bonnie “was not fashion forward, colors were wrong, and design was stale.” Bonnie was deemed out.

NEXT DAY
Angela’s design was in the window. She felt “good and validated”.
Jeffery was uber-disappointed.