Project Runway Season Six – Finale Pt.2

Worst season of Project Runway ever — and the very worst part? A thoroughly unlikable bitch won the season — as predicted by your’s truly after Ra’mon was unfairly ejected from the competition.

I know, I know. This isn’t like “So You Think You Can Dance” where people get to vote for their favourite dancer and not the best dancer (which is how Joshua won season four when it should have been Katee) — no, this season was a sham where the permanent judges were AWOL for most of the season and were not true witnesses to any sort of growth of the designers.

Do I find the finale three of this season talented?

At best, all I can really say is that they’re all right. They can turn out decent clothes, but I felt like what I was looking at wasn’t particularly innovative or fashion forward — if anything, a lot of the clothes that came down the runway looked like the overpriced clothes you’d find at Banana Republic. Clean and chic, but nothing you’d put on the front cover of Vogue or Elle and think, “Wow.”

I think the one scene that truly exemplified the reason why this season was so piss poor was when Carol Hannah, still sick, breaks down and stars sobbing. Chris, who was one of the few designers I genuinely liked as a human being, was the only one who showed any spark of compassion and empathy — the other designers just stood there like expressionless robots.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not complaining about their lack of compassion for Carol Hannah — what I’m complaining about is their lack of personality.

So, Irina won — but do you seriously see her being on the same level as someone like Christian from Season Four? (Granted, last season’s winner, Leanne, was equally dull and drab and boring. Total yawn-fest.)

For all of Irina’s nasty words and high opinion of herself, I just don’t see the sort of fashion forward thinking in any of her work to vault her into the top of the fashion world. So what if she won Project Runway Season Six? She still came across as vile and ugly, personality-wise and her clothes were boring, but marginally “better” than the other designers’ outfits.

Her “winning” collection was pretty shapeless, ugly and boring. It was all black, for one — which was a bit of a yawn-fest. But then there were a lot of bulky shapes like the following:

Wow. Unflattering much? This is the sort of thing you should never wear — unless you like having people talk about how fat you look behind your back.

This model looks like she’s wearing a Yeti costume.

She looks like she threw on a rug because it was a cold day.

Seriously — haven’t you seen this a million times over in retail stores?

Not a fan — nothing else I can say about this. At least it wasn’t as shapeless and flat out ugly as the other outfits.

Surprisingly, Carol Hannah was the first one kicked off and not Althea. Carol Hannah showed more of what she was always capable of: pretty dresses — and really, at this point, I want to see more than pretty dresses. I want to see something different and innovative.

Pretty, but boring. Plus, I feel like I’ve seen this before — it’s like an unfortunate-looking bridesmaid’s dress.

While I like the colour of this and think it’s elegant, I don’t think I’d settle on this as a first choice if I had a special occasion that required a ball gown.

This was beyond unflattering.

I get what she was trying to do here — prove that she can do more than just dresses. But you know what? It’s not enough.

Yet another signature Carol Hannah ball gown. Yawn.

Althea, on the other hand, didn’t exhibit any of the sci-fi theme that she was going for — it didn’t translate in her collection at all. Instead, what I saw was more of a Banana Republic-type collection…nice, stuff I’d probably wear, but nothing incredibly exciting.

This reminded me of Irina’s collection — I thought the model here looked like King Kong.

I liked this outfit — but all of the outfits pretty much looked like this.

Anyways…to cap off for this season, I really have to thank Heidi for kicking off the wrong designers and allowing the boring ones to stay behind. Really, Heidi was the only constant in the judging panel this season and she showed extraordinarily bad judgment.

But, then again, she didn’t have much to work with in terms of talent, so perhaps she couldn’t be entirely blamed.

All I can say is that this season was horrible and it was almost enough to make me want to give up watching Project Runway altogether.

Fingers crossed that new seasons will fare better!

Project Runway Season Six – Finale Pt. 1

This season of Project Runway has left me feeling “bleh” at best.

I get how most people would want either Carol Hannah or Althea to take the win because they’re not as crusty and disgustingly unclassy and lacking in manners as Irina, but is “niceness” the qualifying factor for the win? Nope.

If we go by wins alone, then the obvious frontrunner would be Irina.

Tim visits Carol Hannah in the suburbs of New York first — and I’m surprised ’cause her fancy new digs look like she’s one of those Real Housewives people. (I’ve never watched the show — you have to know where to draw the line when it comes to watching crap.)

Tim’s arrival provides some much needed perspective — or at least that’s what I think. If Tim tells you that the little cape you’ve designed looks matronly, then you lose it. It’s really that simple.

It’s hilarious watching Tim in the kitchen, all properly dressed up in his impeccable suit, with an apron draped on top.

Next, Tim visits Irina in Manhattan.

I can’t say I’m surprised when I see Irina has a yappy little dog. Crusty, unfriendly people tend to have pets and develop unhealthy bonds with them because the unconditional love provided by a dog is easier to deal wtih than the unpredictable whims of actual human beings.

When she says that she wanted to draw inspiration from Coney Island, I was a little surprised — Irina doesn’t strike me as a fun person, at all.

When she brings out a few t-shirts that have prints on front, I was a little surprised — it seemed really tacky. That being said, the rest of the items looked okay.

Irina was a little disappointed that Tim’s reaction wasn’t as positive as she would have liked — but you know what? It’s better to get constructive feedback than to just hear positive things all the time. How else can you grow?

Tim later throws a wrench in Irina’s plans because ten days before Fashion Week, he calls her up to say that the Coney Island prints aren’t allowed because another artist owns the images and she has to come up with something else.

Finally, Tim visits Althea in Dayton, Ohio, and she’s actually really receptive of seeing him.

Some of her pieces look weird and Tim tells her they look too costumey and like it’s stepped right out of the wild west.

When they all reunite, the awkwardness between Althea and Irina is just embarrassing. They parted ways badly and they can hardly wait for Carol Hannah to show up — but Tim tells them that she’s sick with a stomach virus and therefore can’t come because she’s contagious.

Oh the drama!

Four days until Fashion Week, Carol Hannah’s still missing in action — it’s just the two girls in the work room and evertyhing is realy quiet…until Carol Hannah actually shows up.

I really feel her because I’ve been sick for the last couple of weeks and I’m still not feeling 100 percent. It’s so difficult to function when you’re plagued by illness.

When Tim makes the rounds, he questions Althea, asking her if the items she’s showing him are cohesive and for the same customer. A lot of things are matronly-looking.

Irina looks over at Althea’s collection with her evil, slanted eyes and makes her little passive aggressive, snide remarks about how Althea has copied her yet again — how Althea has a “good memory” and has copied what Irina has done in past challenges.

I swear to God, the more Irina talks, the more hateful she seems and I just really don’t want her to win. Evil people should never be allowed to succeed (though, they often do).

Irina’s collection has a lot of black — you know, like her shrivelled-up coal-like heart and soul.

I’m really, really surprised when both Nina Garcia and Michael kors show up to provide a bit of constructive advice — seriously,, this feels like the first time the judges are actually seeing the designers seeing as both judges were MIA for most of the season. It makes me wonder if they’re really in a position to judge when they haven’t even seen the growth of the designers throughout the season.

It definitely feels like the judges and designers are meeting for the first time.

Pompous Irina, of course, doesn’t want to take any of Nina’s advice into consideration.

When she tells them that an all-black collection is really difficult to get a good editorial on, Irina freezes somewhat — but you know her. She’ll just dimiss what you have to say because it doesn’t fit with what she’s doing. Why take the advice of someone who knows something about the business?

Heidi also makes a visit — this, of course, is to unveil the “surprise” which is simply to make another outfit. (Of course. They always do this.)

Christopher, Gordanna and Logan are brought back to help — which is a slap in the face to those designers, I think. If I was booted out, I don’t think I’d want to come back and help.

Althea chooses Logan, who she’s worked with before. The camera pans to Carol Hannah, who bites her lip in disappointment. (Insert eye roll here.) Irina chooses Gordanna, who’s her new BFF, and Carol Hannah is “stuck” with Christopher, though I still feel like Christopher was the strongest out of the three that were brought back.

I can’t wait for the finale — not because I want to see who wins but because I’ll be glad when this season draws to a close.

Project Runway Season Six – Episode 12: The Art of Fashion

Frankly, I was surprised that they didn’t bring back all of the previously booted designers for another chance to compete again.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m beginning to feel like Project Runway was a little off this season — the challenges didn’t seem overly bizarre or challenging and a couple of them seemed downright recycled.

The ‘bad guy’ for this season is obviously Irina and while her personality is thoroughly detestable, that’s not exactly a reason why she shouldn’t win.

The judges have consistently liked her work and the remaining designers have been lacklustre and not particularly memorable or outstanding.

For the final challenge, we have a recycled brief from season four: draw inspiration from a museum — this time around, the Getty Center is used as that source.

The models join the designers as they wander around the Getty to serve as muses.

I didn’t really get this — I mean, yes, we now have “Models of the Runway” and we have to churn out an episode for that show as well, but the models didn’t really add anything to the inspiration gathering.

Just judging from what the designers trot out in the sketches, you just know that none of them would have had a chance against the season four contestants.

In some ways, I can’t help but wonder if this is the season that’ll make me want to stop watching “Project Runway.” (Like how season five of “So You Think You Can Dance” made me want to give up on the show altogether even though this current season boasts far superior dancers.)

The tension in the work room is palpable — it’s surprising that Irina and Gordana are now “friends” seeing as Irina doesn’t seem capable of being nice to anybody.

There seems to be three camps: Irina and Gordanna are now “friends”, Carol Hannah and Christopher have buddied up now that eye candy, Logan, has been kicked out, and then there’s Althea, who’s been feeling the tension from Irina, who accused her of ripping off her design.

Carol Hannah tries to keep out of it, opining that everybody should just focus on their work instead of nitpicking over stupid things.

When Gordanna starts in on her, passive aggressively making her little comments, I just can’t help but feel like she’s being immature and idiotic. (But then again, I don’t think anybody seriously ever saw Gordanna advancing to the finale, so it’s easy to just dismiss her.)

Tim really pushes the designers by questioning their outfits. He worries Irina by saying her outfit sort of looks like road kill and then asks Althea why she chose to construct the outfit the way she did. (There’s a lot of puckering and the fabric just doesn’t look like it’s being put together in the right way.)

“It’s definitely not a ‘wow’ outfit,” Alteha says of Irina’s design — but that can be said about all of the outfits that are headed down the runway.

I just feel like, with Michael Kors and Nina Garcia missing from most of the challenges, the wrong designers were sent home.

Michael was AWOL again and it didn’t seem like he missed much of anything.

Each outfit that came down the runway seemed boring. Nothing stood out. I failed to see how any of the outfits were inspired by something from the Getty Center.

There was no creativity, no innovation, and no “wow.”

In the end, Irina, Carol Hannah and Althea were voted into the finale:

Carol Hannah’s dress was well executed, but Nina was concerned that she was playing it safe.

Irina’s outfit was a bit “old lady-like” because of the length.

Althea’s outfit was dubbed a bit of a “mess fest.”

Christopher and Gordanna were sent home:

The judges thought Gordanna’s outfit was a perfectly made dress but Nina thought she didn’t take much of a chance on the design.

The upper part of the dress was beautiful, but the judges thought the bottom of the dress was too heavy.

I was actually horribly embarrassed when he started crying on the runway while he tried to explain why he deserved to go to fashion week because he was able to see beauty where nobody else saw it.

Project Runway Season Six – Episode 11 – The Best of the Best

At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Irina is going into the finale — and that she wins the whole thing.

When Althea says that she thinks the strongest out of the last six designers are herself, Irina and Carol Hannah, I can’t help but agree.

While Christopher started off strong, he’s been consistently in the bottom in the last couple of challenges. Logan has never won a challenge and Gordanna just doesn’t seem to be a particularly daring or innovative designer — nothing about her (so far) has really stood out in my mind.

This week, the winning looks are on the runway when the designers meet with Heidi.

She announces that the challenge is to create a companion piece to their best look.

It’s interesting to note that Logan is the only designer who doesn’t have a winning look on the runway — I can’t help but wonder if this is his time to go home. I mean, this isn’t exactly the sort of competition where you can coast by under the radar — this isn’t Survivor. This is all about finding the best designer — and can you even be considered a contender if you haven’t even won a single challenge?

When Tim visits Logan’s work station, however, he delcares it in the “wow” category.

Someone who isn’t a major hit in comparison is Althea, who’s pissed off with Logan because the collar that he’s working on looks incredibly similar to what she designed for the Christina Aguillera challenge.

To rub salt in the wound, Tim doesn’t like what Althea is currently working on.

Althea’s pants initally look like a disaster — they’re tight at the bottom and become voluminous on the top.

“Right now, it looks like it’s waiting for a diaper,” Tim tells her.

Althea finds an ally in “Mean-a Irina” (the nickname the other designers have given to her behind her back), who’s always a hater.

The big drama for this particular challenge seems to be the fact that Althea and Irina think that Logan is an idea thief.

Althea decides not to say anything — and neither does Irina, who later decides that Althea is the pot calling the kettle black, seeing as the sweater looks suspiciously like what Irina trotted out for the previous challenge.

The judges, however, call the designers out on their obvious copying.

“Now, who had the sweater idea first?’ Heidi asks.

Irina jumps on this and does dagger eyes at Althea when she insists that this was in her original design.

She does this passive-aggressive thing by saying that there’s a lot of “resemblance” in a lot of the designs among the designers. She sort of does this innocent thing where she asks, “I can understand when there’s twenty designers, but with six designers, how can you not see the resemblance?”

She doesn’t stop there. She adds that she had the knit-wear look in the previous challenge as well.

However, Althea sill takes the win, which induces a lot of eye rolling from Irina.

Logan’s design gets slammed by the judges.

“It looks like a fashion project from a student,” Nina tells Logan.

Project Runway Season Six – Around the World In Two Days

 

I really hate building up suspense over nothing — though, when Heidi told the designers for this challenge that they’d be meeting with a “top designer” and the reveal wound up being Michael Kors, it was sort of a more pleasant surprise than expected because Michael Kors has been pretty much AWOL for this whole season.

He tells the designers about some of the locales that have inspired his collections and for this challenge, the designers pick one of those locations and create a look based on that.

I thought the challenge was a little ho-hum.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I also watch “Top Chef” and I just feel like, with that show, you can actually get a sense that the competitors on this current season are actually the best of the best.

But with this season of Project Runway? I don’t get that. I can’t even really say that I really like any of them a whole lot.

Yes, Irina’s horrible, but apart from that, the others are just really lacklustre. I’m a little surprised that certain designers are still around — Gordanna, for one, and Logan, for another.

The latter has yet to win a challenge and I have a really hard time picking out any of his designs from memory.

Sometimes, I wonder if any of the designers have actually watched Project Runway before — there’s no sense of time management for some of the designers.

Tim actually has to tell Gordanna to simply move forward with something because none of the garment is actually made. Logan also worries Tim because there’s a lot that’s not done yet.

Irina actually points out the wasteful time management factor — and I find myself nodding in agreement, but then she opens her mouth and talks trash about Christopher, opining that his garment looks more suited for an Amish woman.

Right.

“They’re getting by on the bare minimum,” Irina says, as she casts an evil eye around the workroom.

Every single shot, she’s got her pointy nose up in the air and her eyes narrowed in obvious distaste as her mouth pinches and purses.

I really, really don’t like her, but I do think she’s pretty striking. It’s just a shame that she’s got such an ugly personality.

How often do I complain about tacky behaviour? It’s the one thing I cannot stand in others — yet, I’m seeing more and more (in the real world) that it’s often those who know how to kiss ass and have a really high opinion of themselves that manage to get ahead.

When we get to the runway show, this is the first time in a long time that our Project Runway panel is fully in tact — both Michael Kors and Nina Garcia are present and I can’t wait to hear what they have to say.

Irina, to my everlasting disappointment, wins this challenge — though, I have to agree with the judges that she took the interpretation and managed to create something that had runway power…well, compared to the other garments that went down the runway.

I was disappointed by a lot of what I saw. Christopher’s outfit was a plain little dress and Michael Kors points out that it doesn’t look anything like something from Santa Fe.

When he starts to rapidly blink, I can’t help but feel bad for him and wonder if it’s his turn to go home.

Like, while Logan’s outfit was fine, I don’t think it was necessarily “young Hollywood.” They just looked like your basic pair of pants and top that you might find at Club Monaco.

(I did like the denim pants.)

“It’s just basic clothes,” Nina tells him, while Michael says, “They’re clothes — not fashion.”

The outfit by Nicolas is even worse — it doesn’t have anything to do with Greece. It looks like an ordinary pair of pants and shirt — just like Logan’s.

“Where’s the fantasy in this outfit?” Nina asks.

Michael says he thinks Nicolas got confused and picked the wrong Greece — that he was probably think “Grease” (as in the movie).

Ultimately, Nicolas is sent home.

Project Runway Season Six – Episode 9 – Sequins, Feathers, Fur

The designers meet Tim Gunn and Bob Mackie, the “sultan of sequins” — and you know the designers all think that he is the special guest, but when they reveal that the designers are creating an extravagant stage look for Christina Aguillera, the designers’ jaws drop.

“This is not fashion,” he cautions the designers, telling them that a stage look is something else altogether — that the design has to be eye catching from the very back of a theatre and also exquisite up close.

With $300 and two days to work, the pressure is on right from the start as the designers go nuts, buying anything that’s even remotely shiny at Mood.

Nicolas rejects that strategy and opts to work in the same manner as Bob Mackie, choosing several design elements with the hope of putting things together in an interesting couture look.

Irina opines that you can tell the difference between the designers who know what they’re doing (given their fabric choice) versus the designers who didn’t know what they were doing (deer-in-headlights look).

“I really don’t know what Carol Hannah bought,” Irina says, telling the camera that all of the stuff Carol Hannah bought was cheap “crap.”

Admittedly, Carol Hannah had grabbed a whole bunch of things and figured she’d put things together back in the work room.

Gordanna, who has immunity, seems to struggle the most. The fabric she chose just fell apart every time she tried to cut it. The beads scattered along the floor at her feet and she had to simply walk away from the garment and then opted to start from scratch the next day.

Some of Tim’s greatest hits from this particular challenge:

To Chris: “Here’s my general disappointment: there’s a primness to the whole look. If you’re going to have a reveal it should be super sexy slut. This is 1999 in the costume department as a Halloween outfit.” (I love how it’s not just disappointment. It’s general disappointment.”
To Nicolas: “I thought you’d moved your winning look here for inspiration. This is a new look? Good God, this is like deja vu!”
To Shirin: “This looks like student work. It looks like it’s for a sixteen-year-old’s really bad prom.”

Irina, of course, has to add her two cents. She opines that Shirin’s look is “bargain basement.”

When all the models flock around Carol Hannah’s design, Irina shoots her the evil eye and mutters to her model, Celine, “Carol Hannah annoys the fuck out of me. She’s so mediocre.”

She claims that, if you’re going to be mediocre, you should at least have a great personality behind everything…which is a really cheap, really low thing to say.

I loved, loved, loved it when Nicolas said, “Irina’s a really good designer — the only problem with her is that she’s a bitch.”

Enough said.

While I find her unkindness to be tacky, I have to agree with her in that, better designers have been sent home. But this, to me, is the fault of the judges — who, for the most part, were not the fabulous Nina Garcia and Michael Kors.

So…blame the piss poor sorry excuses for judges this season for sending home genuine talent and keeping the crazy ones around.

Nina Garcia, thankfully, is back this week — though, Michael Kors is missing in action (again: do you think they’re feuding or something and that’s why they’re never together?) and Bob Mackie shows up in his place. (Okay, okay…it makes sense for him to be there.)

Christina Aguillera, of course, shows up…and wow, she’s totally glam. Remember when she went through that “dirty” phase and she had all those stupid tattoos and was trying to be this edgy, aggressive, hot woman but she was just trashy and gross?

In some ways, it wasn’t surprising that Carol Hannah won the challenge — while her dress was a little too long (I just see Christina wearing something shorter on stage for some reason), I think that it was the most glamorous look that came down the runway.

Shirin, who is eliminated, is told by Heidi that her garment looks like a witch’s outfit.

Project Runway Season Six – Episode 8 – A Fashionable New Beginning

I think Logan has a point at the beginning of this episode when he says that, because Irina’s won two challenges and has been in the top, this has boosted her confidence — and I think confidence plays a big part in anything that anybody does.

But with Irina, she’s always been sort of (okay, totally) arrogant and over confident, thinking she’s all that, when in reality, she’s just won two challenges. I don’t even think she really deserved the last one.

This week, the designers are thrown a slight curveball when Heidi brings out new models, all decked out in wedding gowns. It’s the wedding dress challenge — from the Canadian version of Project Runway.

The designers are charged with redesigning the wedding gowns into a new outfit.

It’s hilarious when the divorcees come into the workroom and poor Shirin, who was stuck with the woman with the plainest dress (and also with the least yardage out of everything available), was listening in barely concealed horror as the woman started telling her she wanted to look like “Cher, half-breed.”

Seriously, this woman looks and sounds crazy — like, no wonder she got divorced. Nobody likes to be around Crazy.

She’s talking about feathers and a headdress. Um, does she think she’s trying out for the Lion King or something?

“I’m trying to be polite but at the same time there’s no way I can!” Shirin says, adding that the whole point of the challenge is to win.

Another woman tells Nicolas that she doesn’t want certain fabrics because she doesn’t want any animals to “suffer” for the project.

Um…yeah.

Tim throws another wrench Shirin’s way when he tells them that they only have $25 and can only get two yards of fabric.

I’m not a designer, but I think the way I’d approach this is by dying the fabric from the original dress.

Shirin spends a lot of the time complaining instead of actually trying to come up with something. (But, really, does that surprise anybody? Shirin’s new name should be “Whiney.”)

I get what it’s like to feel stuck, as she says she is, but I think Tim’s comment that the feathers she bought seem simply to be “stuck on.”

He reminds her that Shirin’s “model” isn’t the one who’s at risk of going home.

When Shirin starts to cry, Tim shows why he’s so wonderful (and why I totally, totally heart him) by giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder and telling her to take everything off the table and start over again by playing around with what she had like she was playing with a paper doll.

When you’re stuck, you’ve just got to shove everything off the table and start on a fresh new slate. That’s what I do when I get stuck on a Professor Layton puzzle. (Not the same thing, but you get what I mean, right?)

Some of the designers, like Logan and Epperson seem to miss the point of the challenge by trying to get out of using too much of the fabric from the wedding dress. I think the challenge should have been more specific by saying that they could only use the fabric from the wedding dress.

(Though, Heidi chides Epperson and says, “I thought I was very clear: make an outfit from the wedding dress.”)

When Nicolas was outfitting his model, I hated how insincere he was, telling his model how it was so “her” while privately saying she thought it was the most hideous thing he’d ever made — but this was what she wanted.

It was obvious that she liked it, because she actually said she wanted to have his children. (Gross!) When the camera cut to Nicolas making a wide-eyed shake of the head, I couldn’t help but laugh, though.

Sure, he’s totally camp (like, playing up the gay factor or something…unless, that’s his real personality, ’cause then, that’s just unfortunate to have a voice as whiny and shrill as Shirin’s and a huge ego that rivals Irina’s) but that moment was funny.

I had a feeling that the designers who’d be in the bottom would be Shirin and Logan because they were showing more of these two designers than usual. I mean, as cute as Logan is (I still think he needs to get a hair cut), you don’t usually hear much from him.

I thought Carol Hannah did a fabulous job with the reinvention — the dress was so chic and light and feathery.

I think she should have won. I mean, Gordanna’s dress was nice, too, but I just liked the texture on Carol Hannah’s dress better.

“This dress is edgy and chic — but also does great things for her body,” Michael Kors says.

Gordanna’s outfit.

I’m so glad that he’s back — I totally dismiss what the other judges have to say. I don’t care who they are and therefore, don’t really pay attention, either.

I mean, the chick filling in for Nina is from Marie Claire, but all I think is “not-Nina” and call her and the other chick that has filled in for Nina that name.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t view Marie Claire as a fashion bible. I think if they’d had an editor from Vogue fill in, I’d take it more seriously…but really, who reads Marie Claire, anyway?

In the guest seat is Tamara Mellon of Jimmy Choo — I don’t understand why she’s there. This isn’t a shoe challenge.

They’re both very *yawn*.

Besides — it’s Michael who delivers the bons mots.

“It’s a metallic hefty bag — just cinched,” Michael says of Christopher’s dress. (And literally, as soon as he says that, I cock my head and think, “Yeah. It sort of does look like it.”)

Heidi and Michael both warn Christopher’s model not to wear her dress on a first date because he’d turn around and leave.

The judges are also unhappy with Logan and Epperson’s dress, envoking images of Oktoberfest in Heidi’s mind.

Epperson’s model looks like a pirate’s wench whereas Logan’s outfit is simply unflattering.

Logan’s outfit.

Epperson’s outfit.

In the end, I really think Logan should have been sent packing — yes, he’s a cute kid, but being a cute kid doesn’t cut it. Epperson, at least, has had some very memorable outfits sent down the runway.

Ultimately, the judges show poor judgment and make a bad decision once again.

Skipping ahead to next week’s scenes, I notice Nina’s back…but Michael seems absent.

I’m gonna throw this out there: are Nina and Michael feuding or something? Is that why we never see them in the same episode and we’re subjected to these poor, lacklustre stand-ins?

Project Runway Season Six – Episode Seven – The Sky Is The Limit

“All I can tell you is that your next challenge will be colourful,” Heidi tells the designers cryptically when this episode opens up.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but are the challenges a little lacking in terms of crazy creativity? What happened to designing clothes out of gardening supplies or food? (Okay, okay, it’s been done before, but surely, there’s something interesting and different that can be done.)

This week’s challenge seems really ho-hum — though, trust me, I understand that the win is huge. The designers have to create two garments for Macy’s INC in the colour blue and which must be ready-to-wear.

The win is big: their outfits will be sold in select Macy’s stores nationwide.

Each designer is given some time to pitch — of the five that are chosen, they get to choose partners for yet another team challenge where the winner will not gain immunity. (I mean, the prize is big enough, isn’t it?)

Althea, as one of the team leads, gets to choose first and she picks Logan — which makes me automatically wonder, “Are you choosing him because he’s good or because, like, every other female on this show, you’ve got a crush on him?”

I don’t know about Logan — yes, he’s cute, but he’s sort of underwhelmed me. There’s this bland niceness to him. (And apropos to nothing, the boy needs to cut his hair.)

The flirty behaviour coming from Althea makes me think it’s because he’s hot. (As is the general consensus by most of the designers.)

Althea, however, doesn’t say this.

“So many people here have such big personalities, it’s kind of nice getting away from the drama,” Althea says to the camera a little later.

Another team lead, Irina, is ambivalent about picking a partner, so she tosses it back to the two remaining designers, Shirin and Gordanna to see who wants to work with her. Gordanna opts to go with Irina and Carol Hannah is stuck with Shirin — whom I suspect is well on her way to annoying the shit out of every designer left in the competition with her general loudness.

Cue scene of Shirin marching through the fabric store, shouting, “Denim! Denim!” like a robot, thinking she’s being all cute, when in reality, she’s just being annoying.

Louise wins the “Moron Award” when she misplaces the money she was given for fabric. I get that things can get really stressful with each new challenge, but if there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s spazzy behaviour.

A top contender for spazziness is Shirin. What is up with the annoying baby voice?

Shirin actually reminds me of someone at work — she’s one of those fools who likes to play up the fact that she doesn’t know what she’s doing and thinks it’s perfectly okay to not do anything.

I just find the team challenges really interesting because I think it’s truer to how things work in real life. I can’t stand it when the designers bitch behind each other’s backs instead of really trying to work with each other — I think that’s why I initially really liked the dynamic between Chris and Epperson.

Chris doesn’t seem like the confrontational sort, but I have to wonder if his innate niceness might also get in the way of being more of a decisive leader.

Most people want to be liked, but I think that a good leader knows how to delegate and actually lead without coming across as an unreasonable control freak.

And here, we would turn to Irina — not a good communicator. Constantly barking at her team mate, Gordanna, telling her that she doesn’t like something but failing to give direction just makes me think Irina nasty. (Nasty as in a vile human being.)

Okay, great. I understand that she has a high opinion of herself, but that doesn’t always translate to being a success in real life.

When Tim arrives to check in with them, Irina simply shoots down everything that Gordanna suggests. Tim aptly says that the two definitely seem to have a lot to discusss still.

Instead of leading and helping, all Irina can do is criticize and talk about what a disaster it is.

Um, hello! You’re the team leader! You have to take responsibility for both outfits going down the runway.

The bitching and crass commentary doesn’t extend solely to her teammate — Irina glances over at Carol Hannah and Shirin’s outfits and says that it looks like something from a discount store.

God, I totally hate this woman — in the words of Liz Lemon, “I truly dsilike you as a human being.”

I’ve probably said this again and again, but I think there’s a way you should behave in front of the world. Like, seriously, doesn’t she stop to think about how goddamn bitchy she’s going to come across to the whole world?

(But then againg, being a bitch, I guess she wouldn’t care.)

When we hit the runway, I’m so glad that Michael Kors has returned — though, Nina Garcia is still AWOL.

I really hate having these unfamiliar judges — especially the magazine editors who, for the most part, are total nobodies to me. Yes, I understand they’re in the fashion journalism industry, but over six seasons, you come to expect Nina Garcia there.

I’m dismayed that Irina is deemed the winner. Odious human beings shouldn’t be rewarded.

She does this whole passive-aggressive bit where she “nicely” tells Gordanna she should have been more vocal.

Michael agrees and says that, at the end of the day, there are two designers standing up there as individuals.

This is where I beg to differ.

I’ve worked with some really incompetent “leaders” in my time and I can tell you this: in the real world, when you have an incompetent boob for a boss, your whole team takes a hit because you’re being led by a crazy person, who is essentially the face of the department.

I think if you’re doing a team challenge like this one, the team lead has to step up and give proper direction. I would not have rewarded Irina with a win for this challenge solely because she showed exceedingly poor leadership skills.

What I love about Michael Kors’ return is just how great he is with the sound bites.

For Louise and Nicolas’s outfits, he says, “This truly looks like a bridesmaid’s dress with a shower louffa rouched up at the front of it. No girl wants to wear that dress.”

When he starts in on Chris and Epperson’s outfits and calls one a “table cloth” and the other a “disco pumpkin,” Chris starts tearing up and I felt really, really bad for him.

See, he is a good person.

But, as we all know, in real life, bad things happen to good people all the time and the evil often win.

I had a really scary moment where I thought, “Oh dear God, the judges are going to kick out another good designer for one bad outfit, just like they did with Ra’mon last week.”

I’m beginning to hiss, “Idiots!” at the TV like a complete mad woman.

I think all of the judges must have drunk the Crazy Kool Aid this season with some of their choices.

I do think Louise was the right pick for this particular challenge to be sent home. I’d like to think that it was because Michael Kors was here that they didn’t send home Chris…I mean, that’s the only reason I can think that they sent Ra’mon home last week. Poor Heidi was alone with nobodies and that’s why she made a stupid decision to get rid of Ra’mon.

Project Runway Season Six – Episode Six: Lights, Camera, Sew!

Holy crappers.

Finding who got kicked off for this challenge, I did not see it coming because I thought for sure that this designer would be in the final three.

This week, the designers have to create a look inspired a movie genre and nobody wants to do the western genre, leaving unlucky Shirin and Epperson with the last pick and ergo, getting stuck with that genre.

Seriously, though — how hard could it be? I’d actually go in the direction of Nicole Kidman in “Australia.”

I thought Nicolas had an interesting point when he was talking about Louise — but it could have applied to almost anybody in the competition. At this point, you really need to have some sort of game plan and need to know everything about the point of your outfit instead of just creating something and bumping along without a map of how to get to Bryant Park.

When Tim visits everybody in the workroom, most designers have a story to go with their outfit — which is fitting seeing as the challenge is all about creating a look inspired by a movie genre…and what are movies really? Stories.

“Tim is truly a mentor,” Chris says, talking about how Tim will try to steer you in the right direction without actually telling you what to do.

All I can say is, the man clearly knows his stuff. He’s able to to eyeball an outfit and tell you if the design isn’t entirely in keeping with the period you’re designing for.

The nailbiter moment of the episode revolves around Ra’mon who, with two hours to go, decides to start from scratch after seeing his Sci-Fi inspired outfit on his model and realizes that she looks like Kermit the Frog.

I’m stunned by what Ra’mon has turned out — the body suit is this horrible shade of pale green and he’s got this scaly-looking thing that he’s got on top of the body suit in these odd patches.

I’m freaked out because I actually think Ra’mon is really, really talented and I think he’s a lot better than some of the designers that are still in the competition.

Tim even told Ra’mon that the outfit could either be spectacular or a hot mess…and what he’s got going on looks like a hot mess.

I guess it’s not really surprising that Ra’mon was sent home in the end with this:

Nicolas ends up with his first win with his Sci-Fi/Fantasy look:

Crossing over onto “Models of the Runway,” I’m actually thrilled with Project Runway’s decision to force all of the designers to switch models.

Next week should prove to be very interesting.

Project Runway Australia Season 2 Finale

Being Canadian means I don’t get to watch Project Runway Australia unless I manage to get my hands on video floating around the web — and that’s not always easy to do.

Take the finale, for instance.

Haven’t been able to take one look at it — which is why there hasn’t been a post about it.

I think by now, we should all know that Anthony was the winner of Project Runway Australia’s second season.

In some ways, it’s not a surprise based on what I saw from the last episode. Lauren, I figured, was the dark horse who might very well win it all, but based on what I saw, I just don’t think it has the same sort of polish and uniqueness that Anthony’s did.