Season 5 of Project Runway began last night,with a salute to challenges past. Tim Gunn took the new flock of designers to Gristedes,the supermarket where the very first challenge was given,to do their own version of choosing items from that store to make an outfit from. They even had a special guest judge,Austin Scarlett,from Season 1 who was the winner of that original challenge.
I didn't get into PR until the middle of Season Two,but did recently catch an episode from S1 with Austin Scarlett,so I at least know who he was(it was the Emmy dress episode)and was thrilled to see him here.
There were a lot of interesting choices made and quite a few safe ones,too. A good number of folks went for the tablecloths,which caused Tim Gunn to warn them about appearing to be "slackers" in the front of the judges.
Despite that blunder,we did see some cool outfits;Daniel Wilde made his dress out of Dixie drinking cups that he melted together with an iron,with muslin as the background material. I really liked that one,plus his model had a bit of a Betty Boop look to her,which enhanced the whole outfit. The judges really were impressed with it as well.
What won the challenge(and immunity for the next round)was Kelli's two piece skirt and top that showed off her creativity big time. The skirt was made from vacuum cleaner bags that she used bleach and dye on,to make those marbleized patterns and the top was coffee filters that had been strategically singed.
Kelli even whipped up a closure in the back that was made from the coils of a spiral notebook,nice! She really put a ton of effort into this piece and rightfully deserved the win,altho I did think that Daniel's drink cup dress would get it instead. The judges' impressions of that number appeared to be quite high.
One of the low points was Stella's trash bag dress that Heidi properly pointed out did look like something she felt that she had to throw together. Stella,who specializes in making denim and leather ensembles for rock 'n' roll clients(and in her words,"hookers,pimps,anyone who's tough enough to wear them"),kept whining about how her "fabric" was so flimsy. That's because you bought the cheap brand of garbage bags there,honey!
I'm sorry,but with a budget of $75,there is no excuse for her to have snapped up the inexpensive brand,none whatsoever. If she had invested in some Hefty bags and maybe added some twist ties,that outfit wouldn't have looked like something even a seasoned dumpster diver would turn her nose up at.
I had to feature Blaine's outfit here because no words in any language can truly describe this bizarre thing. "What the hell is that?!" just keeps running thru my head every time I look at it.
Blaine insisted on calling that outfit "girlicious" but no female in her right mind would want to wear that monstrosity in public unless she was given some sort of compensation for it,or in this case,trying to win a competition. As hideous as "Girlicious" and Stella's Garbage Bag Gown were,they still managed to stay on the show because something even worse loomed on the horizon.
The first PR designer sent home this season was Jerry Kim,for his shower curtain/raincoat number that was both weird and creepy,not in a good way either.
That whole get-up was very sinister looking;I would not have been surprised if Jerry's model had asked folks at one point, "Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?" That's how serial killer chic that sucker was. Even Nina Garcia said it looked like the perfect out fit to kill someone in,while Michael Kors quipped that the dress underneath the jacket resembled a "Handi-Wipe gone wrong". Should be quite a season here,with a start like this!
On Shear Genius,the hard as hell Shortcut challenges continued as the stylists were given clients to start on and then as the rounds went on,had their person go from one stylist to the other. It was pretty hectic,for both the stylists and the ladies getting their hair done. Dee won the challenge,which earned her not only first choice in the Elimination challenge but the wrath of Charlie,who was not pleased about losing out here. Dude,you won two in a row,let the others have time to exhibit!
That bout of ill will came quickly back to haunt him,as Dee was allowed to assign models to each stylist for the Elimination challenge and he was dead last. The assignment was to give the client a hairstyle that she could easily maintain on her own and to prove that she could,the judging was done the day after. The models were given a half hour to recreate their new look,with no help from the stylist allowed.
Charlie didn't bother to add any color changes(which was also part of the challenge) or give his gal a better cut. Her hair was shorter,that's it. Even Jaclyn Smith sniped at Charlie about being lucky to have immunity this week.
Even tho Nicole had given her client a look that she was able to restyle in eight minutes,the winner of this challenge was Glenn. Glenn did do a nice job and was overwhelmed by her victory,mainly due to the special prize for this round is a photo spread Nexxus ad for both stylist and model in Allure magazine.
Meredith was shipped home,for her heavy hairstyle that one of the judges said looked like a squid. I totally agree,it weighed down the model's face and was not something you would want to maintain on a daily basis. Meredith didn't take her dismissal well,claiming the judges were prejudiced against curly haired people. Uh,no,I think they're prejudiced against people who give others crappy hair-dos because it suits their odd little agenda,dear.
The gang on Design Star this week had to face the dreaded kitchen remodeling challenge,which has been one of the biggest hurdles for past contenders. Things were even made harder,with a double elimination to worry about and the annoying Tracee being made the team leader.
The good news was that the kitchen was finished on time(a first for this challenge)but the bad news was that the results were blander than mayonnaise spread on white bread. Tracee spent so much time shopping on day two for supplies that she didn't get back in time for the back splash to be tiled(and why did she buy those throw pillows,for a kitchen/dining room makeover? I didn't see them represented in either room after they were done!)and everyone else was so focused on getting the kitchen completed that they didn't add much color or creativity to the end results.
Tracee was booted out(hurrah!)and Mikey V. was sent home,too,for his lackluster hosting skills. He seemed like a good guy but Matt does have more personality on camera than him:
RANDOM NOTES:
THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR: The Final Four went to Vegas and met up with Paula Deen for a Bobby Flay "Throwdown" challenge. The cooks were paired to make their own signature dishes as well as the signature dish of their partner. During the prep time,the cooks had to answer questions from the judging panel and do an interview with Dayna from Extra.
The only person who seemed to get the challenge was Aaron,he made a better chicken parm than Kelsey did(very exceptional,since he nearly forgot to make the dish!)and his own offering of stuffed pork loin earned the praise of Paula. I was hoping that Lisa would be sent home but Kelsey got the boot instead. She did impress me with her very gracious acceptance of that news and should be a role model for other reality competition competitors to follow:
THE MIDDLEMAN: This show keeps getting more offbeat and funnier with each episode. If you haven't checked it out yet,maybe this reel of clever quips and creative versions of expletives will lure you in to the goofy gravy goodness:
1 comment:
Project Runway- I gave in and watched it! They are a motley bunch but I like the challenges. I liked the candy one and the cup one. Jerry's looked like something Dexter would find fashionable and garbage-bag girl could have done so much more even if the bags weren't what she wanted. As it was, she deserved to be on the bottom but the right person left.
Shear Genius- the Ronald McDonald short cut challenge client's hair was the worst. I agree that the right person was sent home- Meredith's do just looks unfinished.
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