Thursday, September 28, 2006

Project Runway in Nutshell #10

Beginning of the show, we are treated to all the designers rationalizing their existence and why they should win… Blah Blah Blah.

Model Mix-up: Uli pulls a Zulema and steals Michael’s model muse, Nazri, from him. She justifies herself by saying you gotta take the best for yourself.

Challenge: delivered by Nina Garcia. Designers are to create an outfit that conveys their point of view as a designer and it needs to communicate a story. Designers have “complete creative freedom”. They have 30 minutes to sketch, 2 days to complete, and $250 to spend. Homework is to think of three words that encapsulate their POV.

Ideas: Jeff wants to go all romantic with a red, white, and blue outfit. Uli can’t make up her mind and tells us she is just going to have a fabric speak to her. Laura states she is going the “no risk” route and does what she does only better (so the neckline should be below the navel then). Michael has been thrown for a loop and is all confused coz he “can’t find his WOW factor” so he settles for some eggplant colored satin thingie.

Day 1: Audience is treated to Jeff’s perspective on everyone. It was rather funny but I didn’t write it down. Later he does a TieDye Superman impression in Uli’s kitchen witch dress. Michael finally finds his WOW factor after tons of sketches. Uli decides to start from scratch and takes the dress apart.

Tim saunters thru and reminds everyone that they need to “stretch themselves, wow the judges, step outside their boxes and surprise the judges, and for goodness sake, don’t bore Nina!”

Day 2: Tim tells them they need to complete their three word homework and outfit by 5:00pm, and then they will be sent out into the streets to take pics of their models in the outfits to “illustrate their stories”. Winner will be photographed by a big name photographer and featured in ELLE magazine. This means Uli doesn’t have an entire day to start over like she originally thought. Designers half-heartedly bitch about not having the full 2nd day to finish coz 6 additional hours could be the deciding factor between crap and haute couture. During picture taking time, Laura battles an elevator and gives up. I kept thinking they would pull the emergency stop button or “door open” button, but no. Pregnancy hormones definitely affected her ability to process.

Laura’s words: glamour, confidence, elegance
Michael’s words: sexy, sultry, sensuality
Uli’s words: fun, life, adventurous
Jeff’s words: provocative, irreverent, romantic

Runway time: Tim tells everyone how proud of them he is.

Uli’s review: (blue and white tiedye short dress with slit in front and tail in back) Heidi loved the new shape. Guest judge found it fresh, she could see it in a magazine, and liked the “teaspoon of skin” the slit in front revealed. Nina was thrilled that it wasn’t long and flowy and pleasantly surprised. MK hoped she gives more than a slew of print dresses for her line. I thought for someone who had no idea what she was going to do, had to start over, and wing it to put something together, she did well, it was different. But I have reservations. Winging it seemed to bring Uli to the next level. Without that pressure, I can see Uli sliding back into her loose boobie printed flowing look again.

Michael’s reviews: (some sort of crisscrossed neckline, long eggplant satiny affair) MK stated Michael’s sportswear is the way he should continue to go. Heidi thought the dress was not flattering and the keyhole cleavage wasn’t executed well. Guest judge thought he went far to past sexy. Nina liked the way Michael presents pieces and edits himself but he didn’t do that this time and he shouldn’t do evening stuff. I think Michael thought about it too much and muddled himself and his design up. He should have thought about the designs that he won and reached beyond those. I hope he does this for his line.

Jeff’s reviews: (blue V-neck top, red cumberbundlike middle, and white drawstring sacklike skirt) Guest judge labeled it dowdy and amateurish. MK said it’s not provocative but too pretty and Jeff, who usually has something to say, didn’t have anything to say. Nina was confused and surprised in a not-so-good way. Heidi thought it looked unsophisticated and milkmaidish. I thought the bottom was highly unflattering, gathering the bottom of a skirt just makes an ass look huge. I also thought it was boring. Considering Jeff’s ego, his line will probably be over the top Gwen Stefani.

Laura’s reviews: (pink flesh-toned, plunging neckline, beaded dress) Nina said it wasn’t a surprise but maybe Laura needs to get this silhouette out of her system before she can move on to something new. MK kudoed the workmanship and said it was chic, but Laura needs to broaden past the cocktail dress coz he doesn’t want to see 12 plunging necklines and beads on the runway. Guest judge stated this dress has been editorially seen many times over. Heidi said she’d wear all of Laura’s designs, but thought she was confined to one note. I thought Laura was the most consistent designer. Yes she stayed with one idea, but isn’t a line basically variations on one idea or silhouette and then the next collection is more or less than the collection before?. No one really jumps all over the place, especially when just starting out. And, really, how out of the box can you be if you want to sell your stuff? Most of the wild stuff is one of a kind and you don’t see it walking down the street or on the red carpet (unless worn by Bjork).

Winner: Uli
Out: No one. Everyone is going to Olympus Fashion Week. Tim is happy because “he was sweating bullets about who was going to have to go home”.

2 comments:

Madpuppy said...

I was a bit disappointed that everyone won last night. I had pegged either Jeffrey or Laura to go home, with my money being on Jeffrey.

Laura's finished product is nicely done, but she always does the same design- neckline plunging past the navel.

I figured Michael would have the hardest time. On the first episode, when they were all auditioning to be on the show, Michael didn't have any original designs- all his clothes were based on past competitions from the show. He is great when he has a specific assignment, but I think has trouble finding his own voice.

Deborah Boschert said...

I was so disappointed with Michael. Clearly he's been living in that apartment with a bunch of men for too long because all he could think about was barely covering the boobies and "making the white girl look like she's got some booty."