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It's the final runway challenge before Fashion Week and like many seasons, the contestants buckled under the pressure. Heidi tried her best to prevent that by allowing the contestants to stay at the Mandarin Oriental's Presidential Suite overnight, giving the contestants two days, and $500. Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced the challenge: design a look that was inspired by a New York City Landmark. I'm still waiting for a designer to use either the New York Public Library or St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Inspirations
Michael - Statue of Liberty
April - Brooklyn Bridge
Mondo - Brooklyn Bridge
Andy - Central Park
Gretchen - Lower East Side
I didn't think that the Lower East Side was considered a "landmark" but none of the dresses that were created had any direct inspiration. This challenge has been done before and the dresses previously had more passion and more flair. None of the dresses looked like $500; they all looked like they could have been done on a $100 budget.
The contestants' two work-days didn't tell us much. With less people, one would think that there would be more focus on the designs. For most of the episode both Michael and Mondo didn't have a dress and Andy's was magically done. We focused on several ideas that didn't happen (Michael's basket-weave shrug and Mondo's attempts at cutting sequin) and watched Mondo sleep.
How the judges loved the dress Michael made was beyond me. Not only was it a very easy dress, the slit was too high, and the whole ensemble looked like a 1980s dress. I guess he was lucky that Heidi likes slutty and that Gretchen and April bombed. Several seasons back Michael Kors would have said, "You could see what the girl had for lunch wearing that dress." Simple dresses can be sexy and fashionable, but a flowing black dress wouldn't be enough to convince me to allow Michael into Fashion Week. Watching the underdog make it through the season was interesting, but don't convince the audience that a simple black dress was enough.
For weeks now, Mondo and Andy both were a lock for making it to fashion week. The fact that Andy was done early and Mondo took a long nap was enough to convince anyone that they were fine. Mondo proved that he didn't need colors. Andy, on the other hand, really needs to get past the "Super Bitch Warrior Woman" designs that he's been labeled with. I didn't see Central Park, but luckily I also didn't see the Chinese prostitute that Gretchen suggested.
In retrospect, Gretchen's story line made sense. The bohemian girl started off with her guns blazing and then buckled and ran out of steam. Her role during the whole show was edited as the "villain" of sorts, but she was really one of the mean girls. This week's dress for her was horrible. The top was a throwaway, the skirt had that tacky leopard on the inside, and the jacket was odd to me. The levels of the stripes and how the jacket didn't fit right upset me as well.
April never had a chance when she picked black and dark fabric. Her dress looked like a pregnant woman's Paso Doble dress I would have seen on 'Dancing With the Stars.' While her cutouts were interesting and I appreciated that she cut out the heavy amount of zippers, the bunching in the stomach was odd. If I judged based on of the top half only, she would have survived Gretchen. If anyone had a chance to look at April's decoy collection, you would have seen that she can do non-black, joyful clothes.
Christian Siriano was an interesting choice for final runway judge because Michael, Nina and Heidi kept putting him in his place. He also pointed out that he only saw one dress and could only judge off that. He appreciated April's idea and design and mimicked the Idiot vs. Idiot Savant argument that Gretchen had about Michael's dress. I had a feeling that Christian's opinions didn't mean much to the other three, but it was nice to see a Bravo season contestant on Lifetime.
Next week is Part 1 of the finale. Who do you think will make it all the way? Leave comments below.
'Project Runway' airs Thursdays at 9PM ET on Lifetime
For more information:http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/10/15/project-runway-season-8-episode-12-recap/
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