In this episode, Project Runway boldly went where they haven’t gone before.
The first tip off was when Heidi shows up in an Uhura-like dress to inform them they won’t need their models for their challenge. Hopefully, the stylist is aware a red dress with black collar trim evokes classic Star Trek. Or, perhaps I’m showing my geekiness.
Rockerfeller Plaza is where they go for this unexplored frontier. They don’t need their models and given that Project Runway gives the designers very little or no information before they receive their challenges, their imaginations run wild. They meet Tiki Barber of the Today Show, and none of them, except for Pint Size, know who he is, especially when it comes to his former career. After Tim Gunn introduces him, Tiki drops the bomb: they have to design an outfit for him to wear on the Today show. This is enough to throw them all into a panic. Menswear? Drama is guaranteed, as we’ll get to Ricky later.
The flipside of the menswear panic is that they get to work with male models, which most of the models enjoy. Well, most of them with two exceptions. We get another reminder that Tom of Finland, Pocket Edition is straight when he says whatever. As for the other, who would have thought Bjork Lady was such a prude? The biggest surprise she gave us was when she turned away and had her model undress out of her sight. It’s nice to know she’s faithful to her boyfriend, but this is just unprofessional.
Unfortunately, Bjork Lady’s weirdness is limited to how she handles the fitting. There’s also her doing yoga in a confined space, but that is now routine. Her outfit turns out to be safe and on the Eddie Bauer side.
Some of the looks are dated. Harry Potter shows us what and 80′s queen he is with the shoulder zipper on the shirt. Andy Warhol creates late 80′s dandy, while Otho makes a suit more appropriate for MC Hammer in his heyday.
Pint Size makes the best constructed outfit in the group, but it doesn’t win. He should have tucked the guy’s shirt in.
Who says gods don’t make sacrifices? Abercrombie God takes off a pair of shorts and destroys them to use them as a pattern. Apparently, that’s not all the clothing he loses in order to win or get some attention, as my friend Chris points out. Originally, he planned to make a three piece ensemble, but must give up one in order to have a complete outfit to send on the runway. All of his sacrifices pay off as he wins the challenge.
Rami, that tasty Jerusalem artichoke, calls Abercrombie out on using his shorts as a pattern. He doesn’t raise a big enough stink to tell Tim Gunn about it, but he brings it up in a fun moment (for us anyway), when he tries on the muslin version of his pants. Needless to say, it fits him very nicely. Kudos to him to actually creating his own pattern and creating pants that actually fit on a man.
Ricky has the emotionalism of Andrae from Season 2 (without his flitty grace) and some of Raymundo’s personality (without being too out there), and he doesn’t fail to disappoint in the drama department. When Tiki’s wife visits the workroom, he shows signs of being overwhelmed and stressed out. While in the sewing room, he gets into a bitchfight with Carmen, Martha from Dr. Who, has her moment when she’s about to go. Ricky stresses over fucking up in the zipper and Carmen sings, “Don’t go home too soon.” Ricky sings back, “Shut the fuck up” and “Don’t go home too soon.” Carmen then says “Wrong note, bitch.” I’ll definitely remember that one and use it in the future. She’s very close to losing her cool, but holds back. She should have erupted and stopped short of smacking him. Then she would have been guaranteed a few more episodes.
Ricky stays, but he has to take some harsh criticism on his sloppiness. Tiki is nice but very frank. Nina Garcia, however, is much more brutal, especially when she says, “This looks dull, Ricky.” Ricky’s shirt is shoddily done, but Carmen has no shirt at all (and the pants are bad too). The kimono drape she does to pass as a shirt underneath the model’s jacket doesn’t pass with the judges at all, and it seems Ricky did sing a right note for once.
