Project Runway - 7/23/08

Suede is still talking about Suede in the third person and it is annoying the piss out of me. Stella drank a strange concoction of spirulina and wheat grass and exclaimed about her excitement to not be sent home for literally putting trash down the runway.

No time for chit chat, off they go to the runway!

The designers get to pick their models, after they were assigned them for their first challenge. The model that was eliminated had kind of weird posture and scrunched up shoulders, so I was not sad that she was eliminated.

Their challenge is to make a cocktail dress for their models as their clients. What fun for the models. Tim tells them in the workroom that they will be using Green (environmentally friendly) fabrics for their dresses. As an added zinger of a twist, the models are going to shop for fabric, with a budget of $75. Wow.

At the fabric store, a lot of the girls grabbed the same kind of fabric, and they carried it back to Parson's in environmentally friendly Mood shopping bags. The designers had 30 minutes to talk to the models about their designs and then until midnight to finish the dress. Some of the designers were talking with their models and listening to what they wanted, and others, like Stella, had no interest in serving their clients.

Super Tanned Annoying Blayne got the hot pink fabric (and I think it is jersey).

Suede talked a lot to himself in third person while he was cutting lots of bias strips and sewing them together. Others found his propensity to talk in third person really obnoxious, too.

Tim entered for his critique, and was concerned about Korto's dress (he thought it was inside out). Suede's dress looked a little like a sewing machine exploded, but Tim said he was excited about it. Wesley had to work with satin, and so did LeAnn. Tim noticed and told LeAnn to take an editing eye to it.

There is no immunity for the challenge, but the winner will have their dress manufacturing and sold by Bluefly.com, and a young glamorous Hollywood woman will be guest judge. Is it Mary-Kate Olsen, seen on the Elle cover earlier? Time will tell.

Stella was so annoying. She wanted nothing by leather. Cause a leather cocktail dress is perfection. Blayne, ironically, with his tanned hide, was picking on Stella's leatha fixation. Wait a few years, bucko... you'll be leatha.

In the morning, there was an insane amount of work to be done. I saw bodices without skirts and skirts without bodices and things with no connections. Stella's dress, though not leatha, is pretty. Daniel particularly wsa right down to the wire, and so was Wesley (who's fit was awful). Safety pins were pulled out. Model's butts were steamed. Literally.

Runway time!

The guest judge is Natalie Portman! Much more fashionable, in my opinion, than "I stole this from a homeless person" Mary-Kate. Natalie has her own Vegan shoe collection, so she knows a thing or two about environmentally friendly design. Next to Heidi, she looks about the size of a pack of playing cards (height-wise). She's itty.

Keith's dress: I do not like the half-drawn-up roman shade ruffling in the skirt at all, but it was pretty.. it was a little too poofy for my taste.

Terri's dress: It looked well fitted and classy. I really liked that dress.

Wesley's dress: It looked half done and very badly fitted. The zipper looked like it needed to be zipped up a few more inches, and the thing bunched all over the place.

Jerrell's dress: This one was different from a lot of the others, and it had a lot of neat detailing. It was pretty nice.

Jennifer's dress: The orange and the grey weren't great together, but Jennifer made a nice flowy looking dress. Not half bad.

Daniel's dress: I am just not a fan of pockets in a cocktail dress. The rest of it was pretty cute, though. I don't like the empire waist.

Joe's dress: He had the same brown satin as a couple others and it looked right on his model. He fit it well, and he had some interesting detailing. Nicely done.

Suede's dress: I cannot imagine sipping a cocktail and nibbling on goodies in that dress. It was interesting, though, with his woven bias strips and crinoline.

Kenley's dress: It had a very Shakespearian collar, and somehow it worked. A cute dress by Kenley.

Kelli's dress: Kelli was feeling like this was out of her normal comfort realm, and it looked it. The model chose a couple of weirdly juxtaposing fabrics, and I am not sure if they really work.

LeAnne's dress: Again with the brown satin, and she also has pickets. There was a lot to it, but it looked like a kid's jumper.

Stella's dress: Not too bad! Better than a trash bag, that's for sure. A little simple.

Blayne's dress: His hot pink jersey and off the shoulder giant sleeve made this look like something designed by Mattell, circa 1983. It did not help that his model has long blonde hair and could pass for Barbie.

Emily's dress: She was short on fabric, so the dress was short, and even so it was really cute with some neat detailing.

Korto's dress: As I'm sure Tim was worried about, the dress with the exposed seams/pleating just looks inside out to me.

Keith, Terri, Jerrell, Jennifer, Daniel, Joe, Kelli, Blayne and Emily were all called forward, and they are safe (but neither winners nor losers)

Kenley's dress got high marks, and the model loved it. The judges loved the belt Kenley sewed on.

Wesley blamed his model essentially for not getting enough fabric, and his bottom seam was badly sewn. Nina Garcia said "Shiny, tight, and short is the quickest way to look cheap."

Stella's dress was called much improved and nicely done.

Natalie said that Korto's dress looked inside out, and Nina said it looked like she had wings, and the other judge (shoot me, I forget his name) said that curvy girls don't want fins off their hips. As a curvy girl, I agree.

Suede is pulled out of third person long enough to talk about his dress. Natalie loved it and thought it was unique and wanted to wear it. Nina said she could tell he worked and thought about it, and the other judge appreciated how he made it different from the other satins. Heidi also loved it.

LeAnne's model said that the dress wasn't what she envisioned, and Natalie said it looked a little Peter Pan. Others agree and think it is all over the place.

In deliberations, they apprecitated Stella's biker chick chic, and Suede's work was commended. They also loved Kenley's and thought it was the only one who used the fabric the right way.

Wesley's was made badly, and Korto's fins were all wrong. LeAnne lacked editing, and just threw everything she knew how to do on a dress.

Stella is the first one safe, and I think she deserved it. Suede's crazy dress won the competition, and it gave him the chance to congratulate himself in third person. Kenley was also sent to safety, followed by Korto, who immediately burst into tears.

Wesley's was called unflattering with a poor fit, while LeAnne's was called a "school project" for doing so many things on one dress. And that means that Wesley is out. See you at the reunion show, Wesley!