Project Runway Wrap Up

Against all odds, I’m going to go ahead and say that so far I like the new 90-minute format of Project Runway. The first thing I noticed were extended screen times for the prize sponsors—meh, but hopefully they won’t need to repeat that every episode. Afterward, the extra time seemed spread pretty evenly. A chattier intro for all the designers, a little more time spent on Tim’s critiques, a little more time spent in hair and makeup, a little more sweating, a little more judging. They’re also really taking the gloves off and straight-up psychologically torturing the contestants. These poor people have no idea what to expect. Literally before they’d even gotten to set their bags down in their Lifetime-provided NYC digs, Heidi and Tim appeared to dole out the first lashing of the season. They had everyone reach into their own luggage and pull out one item of clothing that they would want to incorporate into a project. Then they had to pass it to the person to their right, and that’s their item. Now, why Casanova would choose to select his brand new Dolce & Gabbana pants that he’d never worn and which he went to great pains to announce cost, like, $1,070, is beyond me. Later the judges entertained the idea that he is either deaf or doesn’t understand English very well—originally from Puerto Rico, Nina Garcia translated for him at one point during the judging, though frankly he still didn’t seem to understand the question very well. No matter: Casanova is in the running for most colorful character amongst the contestants. Anyhow, so with their neighbor’s garments, the designers stopped home to unpack and freshen up went straight to the sewing tables to create their first challenge in only five hours’ time. And how did hometown girl Gretchen Jones do? Hit the break for that kind of talk or you’ll scare the Spoily McSpoilerson police. In the meantime, check out the extend-o version of her workroom conference with Tim:

So Gretchen that she has very specific ideas and a clear picture of what she wants. Ditto on a shot in makeup of her earnestly describing the natural fresh look she wanted. It can’t hurt that she’s been on both sides of the runway through her modeling background. Anyhow, more on Gretchen over on the other side.

WOW. So they didn’t even torture her about it. Just right away they declared her the unanimous winner of the challenge, accolades all around, including from cool-girl judge Selma Blair. Extend-o!:

Team Portland’s looking mighty fine coming out of the gates. Even though I’ve known Gretchen as a designer and personally for years (we first met when she was juried into the Mercury‘s first Installations fashion show way back in 2007, along with Leanne Marshall. Hey Bravo, hey Lifetime, how ’bout a little finder’s fee?), seeing her glide right in and ace the first test despite all the cruel shenanigans is a serious confidence booster… not to mention that on the whole her competition kind of sucks. Just about everyone else sent utter disasters down the runway. The only one besides Gretchen’s that was impressive given the time constraint was Andy’s crazed goth caped avenger costume. But as Selma said, Gretchen’s was something someone might actually want to wear:

Gretchen’s:

Andy’s:

Another worth revisiting is Casablanca’s, which was nothing short of amazing, inspiring Michael Kors’ famous wit:

Ack! Casanova’s got to get over the language barrier because he must not leave the show! We want more Casanova! Thankfully the judges agreed, and spared him. Though the fact that Jason did not get sent home after being given a kimono, which is so much fabric he could have done anything, was so distracted by the boner his model was giving him that he ended up just stapling it backwards onto her is simply astonishing. Instead, McKell was sent packing, because she has dreadlocks her design sucked, and her styling really did her in. But seriously? This gets you fired and a stapled-on backwards kimono gets a pass? WTF!? And look at these cruel bastards laughing at her:

Jesus! I’m glad she’s going home just so she can get away from their mockery and get back to her nine month old baby where she should be. Gyah! If this episode is indicative of what’s to follow, I think Project Runway is starting to get kind of dark, and I kinda love it.