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Category: "episode 3"
Klumalicious
The episode kicked off with the designers chitchatting back at the Atlas probably no more than a few hours after the most recent elimination, where they said goodbye to James. What started off as a simple "Team Keeping It Real is kicking @$$" conversation, quickly turned into a roast of the "weakest" designers, most notably, Kate. But Kate proclaimed that she isn't going to play Miss Nice Girl anymore:
As the designers make their way into the workroom at 1407, they are greeted not only by Tim, but by baskets filled with items like rose petals, pink peppercorns, mandarin oranges and jasmine leaves. Tim then tells them that for this challenge, they'll be creating something for a "very important client." (VIC? Let's go with that.). And in walks none other than Heidi. IT'S THE HEIDI KLUM CHALLENGE. DUN DUN DUNNNNN.
Heidi goes on to tell the designers that as a team, they'll be designing garments for the launch of her "very feminine and sensual" scent, "Surprise." Each team will be responsible for designing four garments for her "Surprise" TV and print ad, and two looks for a press event. After all a woman needs options, right? Or to put it in Heidi terms:
It Takes Two
It takes two to make a thing go right. It takes two to make it outta sight.
If that was only true about this episode! Just when the remaining designers thought they were out of the clear after finishing the dreaded unconventional challenge last week, Tim Gunn dropped another bomb of (almost) equal magnitude on them — this week, they'd be working in pairs. ::Grunts all around::
For whatever reason, and I know the selections were completely random, but I really pleased at the pairings. Except a Gunnar/Christopher partnership would have made Cunnar (?), Gunstopher (?) fans like myself do a little happy dance. Can you imagine the dra-ma?! Nonetheless, I thought the pairs would make (hopefully) good designs and (more importantly), good television. I was half right...
Before I get into the nitty gritty of the episode, I have to give it up to my girls Laura Bennett and Mila Hermanovski. Both ladies are official "Project Runway" bloggers (Read Laura's thoughts on the episode here and Mila's here!) and neither spilled the beans to me that they'd be in the episode along with Anya Ayoung-Chee, Kenley Collins, April Johnson, Irina Shabayeva and Valerie Mayen. I love a good surprise, so thanks.
For the most part, I felt like the designers started the day on a high note. Each pair seemed to find a happy medium between their individual aesthetic and were able to divy up the work accordingly. But that didn't last for long. Let's fast forward to when Tim Gunn and the all star designers sashayed into the workroom. For some pairs like Melissa and Dmitry and Ven and Fabio, it was smooth sailing. But for the other pairs, it was anything but. Between Andrea and Raul choosing the wrong fabric for a dress to wear to the Emmys (I emailed Mila and told her I was impressed how well she kept her cool!) or Elena storming out of the workroom because Buffi was taking too long with the pleats, it got ugly.
Oh, a personal catfight highlight of mine, you ask? Christopher's "laxidasical" impersonation of Andrea — laugh and all. Spot on. Another one? Irina's bitch fit on Gunnar and Kooan. Girl knows what she likes. I can appreciate that.
And now the dresses. I have to be honest. I wasn't blown away by any of them. My personal fave was Sonjia and Nathan's gold dress for Valerie. I thought it was very Emmy-appropriate. Why they weren't in the top two and Gunnar and Kooan were, blows my mind. It's not that I didn't like Ven and Fabio's dress, it's just that I think for something as special as a major award show, it would have fell flat on the carpet. No one would be talking about the dress the next day, as Michael said. (I would also like to point out that guest judge Krysten Ritter had the same sentiment as me. Another reason why I'm convinced we should be BFFs. Love "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.")
As for the bottom two, I don't disagree that Alicia and Raul's look was the worst. And I do agree that Raul should have been the one to go home. I also think if Christopher and Andrea were able to get it together as a team, their dress could have been something special. And obviously Christopher realized that. Tug at my heartstrings with those tears, why don't cha?!
My final thoughts on the episode:
-Ven, show some excitement! You just won two weeks in a row! You sound so serious! Talk with exclamation points!
-Did you catch Raul say, "Bye Brittany!"? Who's Brittany and Tiffany?!
-Holy cliffhanger, Batman! I can't wait to see what's in store next week! (Okay I may know what happens, but trust me when I say that Andrea's not the only designer making her mark on the competition next week!)
Who do you think should have gone home? Raul or Alicia? Or both?
Almost Curtains
The first team challenge on this season of “Runway” allowed us all to see how well the designers can compromise to reach a common goal: dressing a 700-foot-tall woman. Given the literal enormity of this challenge, the teams needed to be mindful of not making a giant costume (this is a model wearing stilts, after all), but to treat this as if they were dressing a tremendously tall person and make everything proportionate to that. And it seemed like that was the key to succeeding in this challenge. Those who made something costume-y ended up in the bottom, and those who made a ready-to-wear look were rewarded.
The walk is always critical to any great model, but the fact that some of these stilt walkers were walking like a tall, drunk John Wayne in a swimming pool wasn’t doing anyone any favors here.
As for the team pairings, you could tell which unions were doomed from the start (Bert and Viktor) and which would be complementary (Anthony Ryan and Laura Kathleen — a.k.a. Team Two First Names). Even though Josh M. (sorry, THE Josh) and Julie ended up in the bottom on this challenge, I’ve decided that they need their own show ASAP. I would watch those two in the workroom together any day making crazy romantic Mexican-hat-dance Liberace matador outfits. Please give us more!
After a 4:30 am breakfast midnight snack and Red Bull chug, the designers were off to the show’s first outdoor runway presentation.
This episode reminded us of the great divide between the self-taught designers and those who went to school for formal training. Team Bryce and Fallene (who behaved almost like they were a brother-and-sister team) should have done a better job of sizing up their strengths and weaknesses. Yes, Fallene doesn’t know how to cut on the grain. We get it. This was made abundantly clear. But if Bryce was the master of all things grain, whole wheat and otherwise, wouldn’t it have behooved them to transition her to the skirt to get the final look they wanted? Instead, we ended up with more soundbites from Bryce and a really tall bad dancer’s warm-up getup. (All that was missing was the leg warmers, some bandaged-up feet and the neck cut out of an oversized T-shirt. What a feelin’!)
How do you solve a problem like slightly lobster-color Bert? Not with those correctly-identified-as-”Sound of Music”-curtains fabric. I’m not sure what was worse: that tapestryesque fabric on the top, or the material on the skirt? In the words of fellow blogger Laura Bennett, SERIOUS UGLY. I’m sure Bert is wise and learned and well-read, but he missed the book that taught him that their garment was heinous. And I say “their” because it was a collective effort. Just like Team Two First Names should have JOINTLY won for their success, Bert and Viktor should have been jointly accountable for their failure. They both had a hand in that garment.
In the end, it’s time for Fallene to head back to hairdressing, and Viktor is spared. His Week 2 Wee Wee Pad dress that slipped under the radar last week may have saved him.
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