Michelle Lesniak Exits Project Runway All Stars in Punk Rock Fashion

Last night at the Back Stage Theater, the semi-secret upstairs lounge was standing room only (hope you enjoyed all the extra seating, semi-full main room of Blazers fans!) to watch Portland designer Michelle Lesniak on Project Runway All Stars‘ last episode before the season finale. Lesniak was there, handing out raffle prizes and sharing behind-the-scenes details at commercial breaks. At one point she started talking about the fact that in contrast to the original show, upon arrival All Stars seemed kind of “dirty.” She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but what she meant became clear by the end of the episode.

It was a sparkly dress/red carpet/Marilyn Monroe/etc challenge, and of the four remaining competitors, Michelle was one of the two “in the bottom.” In a twist that had obviously been planned ahead, the judges’ feigned an inability to decide whether to kick off Michelle or Helen, and forced them to compete in a final challenge right there on the runway, where they had an hour to cannibalize from looks that had gotten their fellow contestants kicked off in the season’s previous challenges.

In the show’s edit, and as reflected in the O‘s takeaway, Lesniak handled it all pretty gracefully (and it should be noted that she won a hastily inserted but adorable canine-fashion mini-challenge earlier in the episode), but I was so glad to have been there to hear her take on it last night, which puts things in a slightly different light…

… You hear this all the time from PR vets, but the contestants are subjected to long hours and sleep deprivation, especially because something like shooting 30 minutes in Mood ends up, according to Michelle, taking three or four hours: They have to empty the store of regular shoppers, allow for union-mandated breaks for the crew, set-up, etc. Those eight-hour design challenges end up being part of 20-plus-hour days, and the designers are frequently running on just a few hours’ sleep.

This challenge was one of those days, and when Helen and Michelle are confronted with this “twist,” which was baldly bullshit, the exhaustion and anger on both of their faces was plain to see. Helen lost it, sobbing about how “fucked up” it was to have to tear up someone else’s work. Michelle noted that what they didn’t show was that she sat there for the first half of the allotted hour basically giving the finger to the whole farce before getting started. (Luckily, they left in the part where she hilariously comforted Helen by suggesting she just cut up “the really ugly stuff.”) She told us that she’d had a running joke all season with her fellow contestants about making a “pantcho”—a pair of pants attached to a poncho—and that’s what she decided to do as a final “fuck you” to the whole cruel, petty enterprise.

Sorta—she used a pair of pants and re-worked them into a bizarre off-shoulder, asymmetrical poncho thing, paired with a skirt and tank. As she pointed out, it actually had more design work going into it than Helen’s demure shift dress, but at this point Michelle was just cracking up, probably delirious, giving in to the ridiculousness of the whole thing. What could have been a sad scene was a room full of people laughing their asses off at the judges, who looked like total assholes. It was probably my favorite moment in all of the whole long, sordid Portland/Project Runway affair, even, and the perfect note to end it on.

Cuz… can we end it yet?

Michelle won’t be attending the next week’s finale screening—she’ll be giving a TED talk at Oregon State instead (NBD). She’ll also be unveiling her newest collection on Wed, Feb 25th at the next installment of Fade to Light. If you’re interested in Michelle’s reality (as opposed to “reality”), I suggest you attend.