Project Runway 9.17.09

Carol Hannah wears a whole lot of mascara.  It's almost frightening.  Johnny vows to never be in the bottom 3 again.  Good luck with that.  Althea wants to keep up the winning.  Irina is shocked at Althea's win.  So am I, honestly.

Heidi greets the designers looking chic.  Tim is going to bring them on a field trip, and "the answers will all be in black and white."  Tim brings them to the LA Times building.  To the presses!  Boothe Moore, the Fashion critic from the Times, explains to them that they have to use pages from the newspaper to create their next look.  They have news, business, sports, calendar, and image sections.  Nicolas hates it, because I don't think he has ever seen the show before, and doesn't get that wonky challenges are part of it.  They have three minutes and a plastic bag to get as much paper as they can get.

In the workroom, they have dyes, glue, paint brushes, and markers, and they may use muslin, but it can't show.  Tim told them about some of the history of paper dresses.  They have until midnight THAT SAME DAY to finish their garment.  Yipes!

There is a whole lot of fun pleating going on, and paper mache.  Shirin is really loud and Nicolas thinks she's like an 11 year old kid.  Johnny is planning on doing a dress of oragami, and paints it with fabric dye.  Nicolas thinks it looks like a piece of wrinkled up paper painted with pig's blood.  Pleasant.  Ra'Mon is excited.  Louise is making a headline dress.

Enter Tim!

Gordana's dress is too much of a political statement than a dress.  She has another look, though, which is a work of art.  Tim told her to work on that one instead.  He urged Althea to look at the paper upside down.  Irina has a discarded design, and Tim reminded her that there was a paper trench coat in 1968, so it can be done.  Tim worried that Johnny's dress looked like an craft project gone awry, and he started over.  Nicolas has a good trajectory, according to Tim, but he wants to make sure it is interesting but not costumey.  Christopher wants a show stopper, and Tim thinks he could have it if he can make it happen. 

Time for model fittings!  Johnny told his model that his dress was ruined by a steamer, which was not true. In fact, it just sucked and he had nothing.  Two hours left, Johnny started doing a crossword puzzle instead of dealing with his design.  Not good.

Next day, they have a little time before the Runway Show.  They have 2 hours to get hair and makeup done and get fitted.  Tim urged them not to stall out.  Gordana is feeling confident and her outfit is pretty cool.  Carol Hannah has a gorgeous looking dress but had a hard time getting it off the mannequin and on the model.  Tim tells them they can bring an emergency repair kit with them to the runway, including lots of tape.


Runway Show

Tommy Hilfinger, Zoe Glassner, and Eva Longoria Parker are joining Heidi on the judge's panel.  I miss Michael and Nina.


Logan's dress is very fan-like at the bodice and he says it looks like bamboo leaves. 

Nicolas' dress is not very interesting, but it is recognizeably a dress.  That's something.


Christopher's dress is kind of awesome.  He called it a play on hard and soft and I totally think it worked.


Ra'Mon's dress was very interesting, and looked good.  Nothing grand, though.


Epperson made something with huge kimono-style sleeves, and it sure was something.   It had structure and form.

Johnny's dress looked like a strange arrow was pointing at the model's neck.  Faces were all over it.  I wouldn't want an eye staring at my bust from my tummy, but that's me...

Gordana's dress is very beautiful, and I love that she didn't use any muslin in it.  Very skillful.  I wouldn't think it was paper.

Carol Hannah's dress is gorgeous.  I love the skirt.  It's very interesting.


Shirin's dress was neat.  It looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland, with it's folded skirt.  Shirin was happy it didn't fall off.

Irina made a trench coat and it looked great.  The ruffles on the collars and sleeves were really net.

Althea's dress looked like feathers.  I loved the design.

Louise did a very interesting neckline, and the dress was cute, but nothing special, in my opinion.

Johnny, Nicolas, Christopher, Althea, Gordana, and Irina were called forward.  The others were sent away as safe.

Althea was going for fans, and Eva Longoria Parker liked it a lot.  Tommy Hilfinger called it pretty genius.  Zoe thought it was exquisite.

Gordana wanted to create a conventional look with the unconventional material.  Heidi was a little bored by the wearability of it. 

Irina immediately thought trench coat, and Eva loved it.  Tommy loved it, but didn't like seeing the tape.  Zoe loved the collar and sleeves.

Heidi wondered how much time Johnny spent on the dress.  He told the steamer lie again.  Heidi thought she looked like a hooker.  Eva didn't like the pointy thing, and the dress looked much better when it was folded down.  Johnny went off about how beautiful his other dress was.

Nicolas tossed him under the bus, and let the judges know that Tim hated it.  He got his due, because the judges weren't seeing punk rock in his dress.  They were seeing cockroach.


Christopher's dress got great marks.  It is a definite wow.

In the end, Irina was the winner of the challenge.  Christopher and Althea are safe, too.  Gordana, though in the bottom 3, joined them.  In the end, it was Johnny and his excuses going home.  Nicolas will live to gloat another day.  Tim told the other designers how miffed he was that Johnny told his "preposterous work of fiction" about the first dress.  I can't blame him.

Can't wait to see next week!