Tough question of the week: would you rather create a dress that was badly made or horribly out of date?
I would go with out of date because I can always play the retro card. Of course, retro is what the Project Runway constants get in this challenge, and they get the worst of the 1980′s trends (with a little bit of the 1970′s for good measure). If the recent return of tunics, leggings, and skinny jeans wasn’t enough, the designers are faced with updating hideous ideas such as neon, underwear as outerwear, dancewear, baggy sweaters (essentially a take on the tunic), and shoulder pads. Making these trends look fresh, not merely retro, is their challenge.
Pick the leader was definitely the game played by several teams. They all know from episodes past that the leader faces the chopping block if they fail, so no one is quick to take the lead. Victorya very much wants to take the lead; however, she doesn’t want the responsiblity. This becomes a major source of problems later, as Ricky takes on the role of team leader. With Bjork Lady, he’s very successful in communicating with her using language like sculpt the fabric. Victorya, however, turns out to be the passive-aggressive dragon lady (I’m Asian, I can say that). With Chris‘s team, Sweet P and Steven also seem nervous with the prospect of elimination and thrust leadership upon the big fat gay guy.
Jillian, who has the panache to pick the out trend of overalls while wearing overalls, finally gets some screentime. In the past three episodes, she’s been in the background, competent enough to be in. This time, we get to see her as she interacts with Rami and Kevin in planning, designing, and execution of the garments. Kevin is a source of drama as his shorts aren’t perfect on the fitting of the model. Jillian’s worried, though Kevin manages to make good on the the design flaws in the end. Thankfully, he doesn’t issue another proclamation that he’s straight. He’s far too busy for that. In the end, Jillian shines as she and her team win the challenge. The elements of the poodle skirt, overalls, and short skirt comes together well.
Gotta love how Harry Potter makes observations. He knows that Celine Dion and the the guy from Beetlejuice is in trouble and he says, without hesitation, that their works are bad. As usual, he’s in his own little universe regarding his own work, but his team’s collection was very good.
Chris and his team revisit shoulder pads. Perhaps Steven or Sweet P should have forcibly swapped trends with him early on because Joan Crawford was on his mind. His cropped jacket with the shoulder pads doesn’t look bad at all. However, it looks a little too authentically 1980′s. There isn’t much cohesion (beyond the color scheme) and it is hard to see the outfits as part of a complete collection. It probably doesn’t help matters that he’s wearing a horrible shirt in the presence of Donna Karan (this week’s guest judge) and the usual fashion luminary judges. A definite fashion don’t: Tommy Bahama* or anything resembling it. Poor guy winds up going home, though his dress was the better made between him and Ricky.
Alas, poor Ricky. At least he doesn’t have a meltdown when faced with elimination. Unfortunately, no delightful bitchfights this time (Carmen’s gone), but he has to deal with the contentious Victoria, who simultaneously wants to take credit and avoid responsibility when facing the judges. Ricky saves her dress from booby squash and gets her to work a better fit, but he can’t seem to save his own creation. His dress looks like it was pulled out of the hamper. A few minutes on the ironing board or with a steamer could have helped. I gotta hand it to Bjork Lady. She stands by Ricky as a team mate. She may be weird and on her own world, but it’s not Planet Bitch.
Perhaps Ricky will emerge as the next Santino. His construction was often criticized (culminating in the shoddy construction of Kara’s jumpsuit), but he definitely got it together for Fashion Week. Steve, however, is jockeying for to be Santino as he’s also weird in some dark way. He repeats Santino’s antics of impersonating Tim Gunn. Santino’s version was much funnier. He created the story of Tim and Andrae (Andrae… Andrae…), and his voice was much more dead on. It was hilarious. Steve’s act just falls flat.
*I’m referring to those awful camp shirts. Tommy Bahama in general is Dadwear.
