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Jillian had some of my favorite pieces in the finale. I liked her collection a lot, but there were some definite misses. I didn’t think her collection was as cohesive or successful as Christian’s when viewed as a whole, but if her entire collection had been as strong as her strongest pieces, she probably would have won.

This was the first look of Jillian’s that I really liked. I love the knit jacket; it has a good amount of interesting detail without being overdone. I like the pairing with the camel/gold trousers. And I have to give Jillian props for her styling again - I really loved what she did with the hats in this collection. HATED IT. First, it looks like lingerie, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it also reminds me of something Ricky would design. Jillian, I expect better from you. It’s also reminiscent of the dress she made to go under the black jacket in the museum challenge, but far less successful. In the museum challenge, the gold lame was balanced and offset by the jacket. With nothing to tone it down, this dress just looks tacky. And I really hate the bust detail. What the hell was she thinking on those sleeves? It’s such a home-sewn look. The point at the top of the sleeve is weirdly spacey, and the combination of oversleeve and fabric just scream “bridesmaid” so the overall effect is scifi bridesmaid. So, so, so awful. And yet without that detail, the look is very ordinary and I don’t see any design sensibility at all. I LOVED this look - one of Jillian’s best. Wearable, stylish, different without being too over-the-top. It’s funny to me that Tim Gunn was concerned by this look, because I really thought it was so strong. I even like the hat on the model that I didn’t like on Jillian - it works with this outfit and since it completely covers the model’s hair it’s not so overwhelming. But the star is really the sweater. Okay, Jillian clearly loves the ruffled coat look and has made it her metier (see photos below). I loved the version she did when she worked with Victorya, and I’m not unhappy about seeing a shorter version of the style, but I’m not sure this interpretation adds much: it’s got the scifi sleeve caps and armor-holes in the arms, but both of those additions would best be left out. All in all, I’d rather have seen something totally new.This is another look I really liked. The sweater is fantastic and wearable. Jillian had several pieces that could go ready-to-wear with no translation, and this is one of them. I really disliked this. Way too literal an interpretation of the armor idea. This didn’t work for me, either. The styling on the top seemed dated, and the skirt was just wrong - I didn’t like the way it moved, and it seemed like it would just always be in the way. Plus, it doesn’t connect to any of the other designs. This was another look I really liked. I love the color and the draping around the neckline and sleeves is just gorgeous. I like this short version and think it could also work as a long gown. Lovely. Meh. More succesful than the short, gold version. But I don’t love it. Still looks like a Ricky design to me.

Not a bad coat, but not one of my favorite pieces. Without the knit headpiece and the hat, it looks a little ordinary.

This isn’t a bad look, but again, kind-of basic. I think Jillian was showing her skills more as a stylist than a designer with this look.

As opposed to Rami, who should really focus on gowns, Jillian’s calling is sportswear and outerwear. I would really love to see her do a collection of knits - I know I’d buy them!

I’m discussing Rami’s collection first because it was my least favorite of the three finalists. To keep that in perspective, I still think this was a really strong finale, and Rami did some beautiful work. I just don’t think his collection measured up to Jillian’s or Christian’s overall.

I don’t like the panel on the skirt - it’s not flattering. The dress is so fitted around the waist and hips and then gets full down below and it just draws too much attention to hips and the crotch area.

When I saw this coming down the runway, I thought “matronly.” That color might work for something else, but it makes this suit look “mother of the bride.” I didn’t even notice the basketweave detail on the back of the jacket until the judges pointed it out after the runway show.

I still really like this one. I think it was the most successful of Rami’s more casual pieces.

She looks like a linebacker. The cut of the vest and the extra volume in the arms and shoulders make this tiny little model look really wide - imagine this look on a woman who weighs more than 90 pounds. Yikes!

This was a little more successful than the blue dress, but without the paneling at the waist more attention is drawn to the shoulders, and I think those proportions are a little odd. Her shoulders look padded.

I think this outfit could have benefited from different fabric choices. I don’t care much for this combination. The skirt seems a little over-constructed, but not as much as some of his other pieces. I think I might have really liked the blouse in another fabric.

I actually really like the blouse, but I think the pants are very unflattering. With the tight waist and tight legs, there is too much volume at the hips. Again, if you can make a 90 pound model look wide, you’re in trouble.

This one just didn’t work for me. I like the detail and drape around the neck and bust, but the fitted waist and pants were just wrong. This struck me as a good candidate for Rami to show his draping skill - if he had used the neck and bust detailing in a gown, it might have been lovely.

This is a gorgeous gown. I think it would have been better in another color. The olive is too drab for such a striking design. But I have no other complaints about this one. Beautifully conceived and executed.

The whole time this dress was on the screen, all I could think of was “what is going on down near her knee?” I don’t know what he did to the gown to get that funny little pooch of fabric, but it completely ruined the line of this dress for me. Otherwise the dress is fine, but not my favorite. The fabric combined with the style make it a little too reminiscent of an Oscar statuette.

I LOVED this gown. Gorgeous, unusual, stunning. This is the kind of thing I want to see on the red carpet at the Oscars - really beautiful dresses that are a little different and not at all boring. This look is very French. Fabulous.

I still think this dress is gorgeous, in spite of the hip detailing. What I’ve noticed from both of the last two episodes is that I really don’t notice the hip detail when the model is walking. Anyway, the construction on this gown is amazing and I think it’s very, very beautiful.

I think Rami’s gowns are his strength. I felt that he tried to take the judges’ criticisms seriously and move away from draping in his final collection, but I think he over-corrected in his separates and the construction was a bit too heavy. And wasn’t it interesting that he didn’t show the blue coat from his 3-look competition with Chris? He also didn’t show the gold coat that he showed during Tim’s visit. Apparently he had enough pieces made up that he could edit out the ones that didn’t get a good response.

Surprised? Me neither. I was pretty well convinced that Christian would pull off the win (although both Rami and Jillian had it in them to pull off an upset). Overall it was a strong finale. All 3 designers had looks I loved - I have to agree with the judges that Jillian had some fantastic knits. Rami’s gowns were beautiful. Christian’s collection was just SO Christian, and really cohesive. Anyway, I have to work early in the morning, so I’ll save my outfit-by-outfit analysis for the weekend. But I will say that the finale was much more satisfying than I thought it might be mid-way through the season.

You know, after seeing three looks from both Rami and Chris, I was a little ambivalent about who should go on. I really liked elements of both collections, and thought they both missed on some points. However, based on the additional looks we saw during Tim’s visits I’d lean slightly more towards Rami. Having said that, I’m going to miss seeing Chris’s collection on next week’s show, because I’m sure it would be interesting if nothing else. I know he and Sweet P both got to show at Bryant Park, so I’m going to look at those collections online after the finale - hurray for the Internet!

• Rami: I didn’t care much for the coat - it was just overdone. The dress underneath looked pretty, but simple. I loved the second look, though. I thought his final dress was very pretty, but you could kind-of tell it was designed on a mannequin instead of a human - it looked rather unwieldy coming down the runway. I confess I didn’t even notice the hip detail until the judges pointed it out, but looking at pictures I think that Michael Kors was right and it really widens the hips. I was happy to see some different techniques from Rami and I’m sure his collection will be very accomplished technically, but I don’t know if it will wow me.
• Chris: okay, put aside the human hair thing for a minute. If I didn’t know it was human hair I’d never guess. From Tim’s visit it was looking like he overused it, but in the looks he showed on the runway it seemed to work reasonably well - not that I’d want to wear something that hairy, no matter what it’s actually made of. The first look was interesting, but I think had a little too much going on. The proportions weren’t quite right, but it was definitely creative without being too far out there. His second look was a very simple style, but the way he used the trim punched it up a lot. The third dress showed a pretty interesting use of materials (other than human hair), but it was really obvious the model couldn’t walk in it. Overall I think Chris did a good job of using his theatricality without getting too campy.

Oh, and a couple of other things:

1. I’m dying to trim Heidi’s bangs.
2. What the heck was Jillian wearing on her head?

If the boring reunion episode didn’t satisfy your Project Runway jones for this week, head on over to the Bravo website for the Sew-not-over online challenge. 12 of this season’s designers (including all 4 finalists) did a 3-look collection and are competing for a $10,000 prize. Not sure why Victorya, Sweet P and Simone didn’t participate, but it’s a nice bonus to see these mini-collections.

• Rami: kudos to Rami for not draping 3 dresses. I didn’t love his looks, but he did show more range which I was VERY happy to see. The 3rd look (dress) was probably my favorite - didn’t like the jacket in the 2nd look at all.
• Jillian: her looks were well-executed, but not very cohesive as a collection and pretty forgettable over all. I hope this is not an indication of what we will see from her in the final (I have studiously avoided looking at any of the pics from fashion week online - it’s killing me!).
• Kevin: meh. The first look was cute but simple, and I didn’t care much for the 2nd and 3rd looks.
• Jack: he made 3 cute, wearable looks. I like most of what he did, but I don’t love any of it. There’s no sense of a design point of view, nothing to identify the designer at all. Very off-the-rack.
• Carmen: her 3 looks were cohesive, but I thought the 1st (the ninja look) was pretty awful. What is Carmen’s obsession with the genie pants? Her other two looks were better - she could have punched up the colors a bit. Still, it was one of the more interesting and ambitious collections, so I give her props for that.
• Marion: I thought Marion did a remarkably good collection, and I’m wishing he didn’t get auf’d so early in the season as it looks like he might have produced something really interesting. I didn’t love everything about it, but it had a strong, unified aesthetic, and I freaking LOVED the feather skirt in his 3rd look - definitely my favorite single piece from this challenge.
• Elisa: for someone so kooky, she put out a really boring collection. There was no unity in her designs, and she didn’t use the opportunity to show anything new. Meh.
• Ricky: didn’t care much for his collection, but OH LORDY I can’t believe he sent his models out in those stupid hats. Yeesh! The proportions on the first look were really unflattering. The second look was just trashy.
• Christian: his collection definitely had some of his signature elements, but overall it was a softer and far more colorful collection than I was expecting. It was interesting, and I’m wondering if part of my negative reaction towards this collection had to do with the super skinny models in super tight, wildly patterned leggings. Leggings on someone so skinny just look a little wrong, and when you draw attention to them with so much color and pattern I think it emphasizes the wrongness. I wanted to stuff those girls with pasta and bagels.
• Kit: I think Kit found a good balance between wearability and aesthetic. I really like her collection a lot. Her looks were definitely accessible without being ordinary. I loved the black skirt and sweater combo, and her LBD was really cute, with a lot of visual interest.
• Steven: well, I guess Steven is a good dressmaker, but I’m not sure about his design abilities - he didn’t show anything that hasn’t been seen a gazillion times before. Pretty dresses, but a really boring collection.
• Chris: hated the first look - terrible, unflattering proportions. The second look struck me as Chris trying to be Laura Bennet. The third look was a toned-down version of both the avant garde challenge and the art challenge - he really likes that asymmetrical proportion, I guess. I think I don’t like Chris toned down - I’d rather he fail spectacularly than fail by being boring.

Well, I hope Runway continues this trend in the future - any extra fashion they can squeeze into the season is okay by me, and it was a good way to supplement a pretty lame reunion show.

Reunion show. Meh. Not too much to say about this one. Victorya needs to pull the stick out of her bum. Jillian appears to have more of a personality than was generally shown. They did a montage of Ricky crying - what a shock. Carmen needs to lighten up. Kit was kind and gracious.

I was surprised that Christian won the fan favorite - like most of the cast, I thought it would be Chris. I guess I sort-of expect people to vote for a long shot, like “I think this person has talent, but I know s/he will never win.” But last season they voted for Micheal Knight, and until I saw his collection I thought he was a strong candidate for the win, so what do I know?

Enough with the time=wasting. Bring on the fashion. Can’t wait to see the full collections!!!

I love clothes. For years I worked in a very casual office and wore jeans and t-shirts to work every day, but when I went back to school and started on a new career I started taking more of an interest in my wardrobe and now I’m officially hooked. It took some trial and error, but I’ve developed a pretty good sense of what I like and what works for me. I still experiment a little, but I generally come back to the same style formula and thus avoid any major fashion disasters. Or so I thought.

The other day I put on a dress that has been hanging in my closet for a couple of months. It’s really more of a summer dress, but we were having some beautiful weather and I thought I could get away with it. I put it on and looked in the mirror and was utterly horrified. I do not know what I saw when I looked at myself in the dressing room mirror at the store, but I cannot imagine what possessed me to buy this dress. Between the neckline, the dress length and the sleeves, it cuts me off at all the wrong places. I am 5′7″ but this dress makes me look about 4 feet tall. Seriously. Hobbit city. I tried layering it over other stuff and that just made it worse. This isn’t something that would be changed by losing or gaining a few pounds, either. The proportions are so completely wrong for me that there is no hope for redemption. I really don’t know what possessed me to buy this dress. It was on sale so I didn’t waste too much money, but still…sheesh!

I generally buy most of my work clothes and basics at Banana Republic, but I’m a recent convert to pants from the Basics line at Zara. They fit beautifully, are reasonably priced ($40-60), and the quality for that price is very good. Good news for the tall folks out there (I’m talking to you, Erika and Victoria): these pants are long. I had to have mine hemmed, but it was totally worth it. Love them!

Well, Runway made it back into my good graces (for now, anyway)! I really liked the challenge this week. It actually had to do with fashion - imagine that.

• Chris made a striking and gorgeous gown, and I thought it was a very well-done interpretation of the painting he chose. Yes, it was too reminiscent of the design he did with Christian. While it wouldn’t be uncommon in a fashion show to see several interpretations of the same striking element, in a competition like this one it’s more important to show range.
• Christian amazed me by making several pieces with really impeccable workmanship. I agree with his win here 100%, and I think more than any of the other designers this season he’s shown his ability to meet challenges and keep his own aesthetic at the same time. He’s definitely had some misses, but my money’s on him to produce a really cohesive collection that shows his point of view and is still interesting. His outfit was fantastic - a very clear nod to the painting, but he made it his own. Very cool.
• Rami - yawn. Based on this challenge he should have gone home along with Sweet P. Whether or not he CAN do anything besides drape is immaterial, since he obviously won’t. He was my early favorite this season, but I lost interest awhile ago. I really think he should have chosen something else for his inspiration and tried to stretch. Big mistake. I know he has skill, but I’m still kind-of pissed that he’s moving on in the competition as he shows no desire to grow.
• Sweet P’s dress was clearly the weakest this week, and that was pretty much what I expected. She does a really nice job making wearable dresses (although this week’s wasn’t that great), but I don’t think she has a strong vision as a designer.
• Jillian’s outfit didn’t bowl me over, but I liked it a lot. I thought she did a great job of interpreting her art piece and making it her own. It wasn’t as creative as Christian’s look, but very well done. I’m excited to see her collection at Bryant Park. I haven’t loved all of her pieces this season but she’s wowed me a few times, and her designs are generally more wearable than Christian’s.

Right now I’m betting that the real competition is between Christian and Jillian, and I expect Christian to take the win. Jillian could pull it off, though…

I was so dispirited by last night’s episode that I couldn’t summon up the energy to do an evaluation of each costume, and I’m still not going to bother. I’ve been largely uninspired by this season of Project Runway, and I’m worried that last night may prove to be the moment when the show jumped the shark. I’m sorry, but there’s just nothing about that challenge that has to do with fashion. It was stupid. How can you even pick a winner from those ridiculous costumes? What are the criteria? Again, nothing to do with fashion.

I’m not sad to see Ricky go, but he didn’t deserve it based on last night’s challenge. Yes, his costume looked like a bathing suit and the cover-up was a joke. It still wasn’t the worst outfit up there. If you’re going on the basis of the designs, I probably would have sent Rami home. The judging on this show is becoming a total joke. At least keep up the pretense that it has something to do with the clothes on the runway. I can accept that the judges and I might not see eye to eye, but some of the decisions are becoming blatantly ridiculous and I’m just frustrated.

Win me back, Runway. There’s still hope.

Project Runway, I wish I could quit you.

So this week’s challenge was to create an iconic Levi’s look out of…Levi’s. Okaaaaaaaay. It doesn’t seem to leave a lot of room for inspiration, as I think the designers proved.

• Christian: the kid’s attitude bugs me, but he gets the win in my book. The outfit is very Christian - he has a consistent viewpoint, but he’s showing more variety than, say, Rami. I really like what he did with the jeans. I wasn’t in love with the jacket, but I still think it was the best thing going this week.
• Chris: his garment was nicely constructed, but I agree with the judges that it had a dated look and to me it just lost something in the taste department.
• Ricky: I’m sorry, this dress got the win? Give me a flippin’ break! It’s a cute little dress, but there’s not much to it. I didn’t think it stood out from the competition at all.
• Rami: I didn’t like this outfit. Zipper trim was done to much better effect by Jeffrey last season, and I thought this outfit also looked dated. Plus, the proportions were weird. I think the judges were so wowed by the fact that Rami didn’t drape that they were blinded to the actual garments.
• Victorya: I think she has more talent than some of the remaining designers, but come on! I look at that trench and I cannot for the life of me figure out what she spent her time on. That’s a one or two hour project, at most. Take a jean jacket, add a skirt, change the collar. I expected much better from Victorya and I thought she deserved to go home on this one.
• Sweet P: she is showing herself to be very capable at designing cute, wearable dresses. I’m not sure she has much range, but I was surprised at how well she pulled this one off. Even though I’m not a fan of patchwork and multi-colored denim looks, I liked this dress. Again, though, it’s just a cute dress. I’m not wowed by the design.
• Jillian: I really think she and Victorya both took a big risk by doing something so close to what they did last week. This coat didn’t work for me, but it was at least more ambitious than Victorya’s.

Last week’s challenge was so great that I can’t help feeling let down this week. Overall the designs were pretty unexciting. Meh.

Excellent challenge this week - finally! I loved that they got to do an avant garde look, I loved that they had to interpret it for ready-to-wear. I’m not wild about team challenges, but I can deal with it in a situation like this.

• Rami & Sweet P: I really liked Sweet P’s ready-to-wear dress. Cute, wearable, but still interesting. As for Rami - dude, enough!  Show us something we haven’t seen before or get off the show! Two big problems with his outfit: he’s done it before, and it just didn’t meet the challenge. There was nothing avant garde about the dress he sent down the runway. I know he has talent, but I’m tired of talented people getting a pass when they screw up, and he did.
• Christian and Chris: fabulous! I loved that they used both of their strengths and created something that was really interesting and still very beautiful. I’m amazed that they were able to pack 45 yards of fabric into that dress without making the model look like a mountain. Loved it. The ready-to-wear look was cute, the blouse was interesting, but obviously the star of this show was the avant garde look.
• Kit & Ricky: I am sad to see Kit go - I feel like she had a lot of potential, and I would much rather see her continuing on than Sweet P or Ricky. I did not like her dress at all - it just looked like a big pastry to me -  but I thought she made a better attempt at avant garde than Rami did. Ricky’s ready-to-wear dress was just a dud. Meh.
• Victorya and Jillian: I completely loved their main outfit - the trench was fantastic and I really liked the ensemble underneath. Even their ready-t0-wear dress had more going on than I was expecting, but I don’t think it was quite as successful as an interpretation of their main look - it really lost the punk edge. Even so, they were a strong contender for the win.

This was a tough call in the judging. I gave the edge to Christian and Chris because I think they went farther with the avant-garde look and were really successful with it, but I loved both of the top two looks a lot. As far as the losers, I’m conflicted. Rami’s design was more workable, but didn’t meet the challenge and was really lackluster, considering the competition. Kit’s was a failure, but more adventurous. I started the season really liking Rami, but now I’m bored with him. He needs to show some range. At this point I don’t have a real favorite, so I’m just hoping we see more great challenges.

Well, I thought that it would be all uphill after the candy bar challenge last week, but I guess I was wrong. The prom dress challenge this week made for a lot of uninspired design.

• Sweet P: pretty dress, pretty color, definitely mature for high school. I thought the seams in the front made it pucker a little oddly, but overall I liked this dress a lot. It was very glamorous, but I just don’t think it showed enough of an individual style to get the win.
• Victorya: I think Victorya did the best job of making something fun and age appropriate. I’m not a big fan of this style and I thought it made her model’s boobs look lopsided, but it was the best of the bunch this week.
• Chris: another grown-up dress for a teen. And you know, I can’t fault the designers too much for that - I’m sure almost all teens want to look older than they are. On my tv the color of this dress was a little more subdued, but in the photos it’s more of a bright chartreuse, which I actually like a lot - it brings a little more youth to the design (and acutally a little more Chris to the design as well). Pretty dress, but again, not unique enough - it could have been done by anybody.
• Kevin: he just missed the boat on this one. I don’t think the color would have been a problem if the design was better. There was nothing about that dress that said “prom” to me, and it didn’t fit his model very well. I have to agree with the judges that it looked really cheap and tacky.
• Jillian: we didn’t get to see much of her dress on the show, and looking at a picture doesn’t give me much either. Kind-of mermaid-y.
• Christian: dude, get over yourself. He had the elements to make a fine dress, in fact, I think he could have pulled off something really spunky and cute and different, but he blew it. I don’t care if your client is “difficult,” there’s no excuse for how that dress looked, especially in the back. Quit whining, suck it up, do the work for Pete’s sake. The more I look at the picture, the angrier I get, because it’s just sloppy. And the only reason it was sloppy is that Christian was pitching a fit.
• Kit: I give her credit for going for a youthful color and style, but I thought the halter straps going to the waistband had a suspender look which I didn’t much care for, and the color stripes made me think circus tent.
• Ricky: from a few close-ups they showed I suspect this dress had more detail going on than we could see; the color and design combination definitely didn’t read well on camera, but my biggest objection to this dress was that it looked really stiff when she was walking. It looks like it should move, but it doesn’t.
• Rami: I liked the dress from the front, although the back was a little less flattering. I think he would have done better with a different color choice. I don’t think it was as bad as the judges made it out to be, and it really did sound to me like he gave his client what she wanted, but I think he probably could have done his signature draping in a younger style.

Well, I’m glad that’s over with. Hoping for something better next week.

Runway’s back! Hurray! I’ve been having withdrawals for the past 2 weeks. This week’s challenge was pretty good - I enjoy the unconventional materials challenges (as long as there aren’t too many) because it forces the designers to be creative in different ways. But dude, over-the-top product placement in the materials this week. Lame.

• Ricky: I have mixed feelings about this one. The design was well-executed. I’m not a fan of bubble skirts - they always make the body proportions look weird, even on skinny models. Ricky’s design was costumey, and too literal - his model just looked like a big Hershey’s kiss. Even so, it was one of the more interesting things he’s done.
•  Chris: this was one of the most wearable designs. I liked it. I agree with the judges here - Chris did a really good job of reining in his theatricality on this challenge and came through with a very successful design.
• Kit: to me Kit was trying to achieve something similar to Rami, but with less success. I like the idea of making a studded belt with rolos - it’s clever, but I’m not sure it worked with the proportions of the dress. Overall, this dress looked really busy to me in a way that Rami’s didn’t, and the color combination didn’t work for me.
• Elisa: this dress was a mess. It wasn’t cute or flattering, and those sleeves - oy. Elisa is kooky but I liked her; she always handled criticism with aplomb, which few Runway designers can say.
• Kevin: a little blah. I think when you go this straightforward with your design you have to be impeccable in the construction, and Kevin wasn’t quite there on this one. It wasn’t really bad, it just wasn’t great.
• Christian: this was reminiscent of Michael’s coffee filter dress from Season 3, but not as interesting. The style of the dress was incredibly simple and I didn’t think the use of materials was special enough to bump him up into the top three.
• Sweet P: lucky she didn’t get auf’d this week. I probably would have kicked her off over Elisa, for the sole reason that there really wasn’t any design sensibility in her dress at all. It was a nothing.
• Rami: fantastic - glad he won. He did such a good job of taking wacky materials and making them look fabulous. Really flattering and well-made dress, but also very interesting with a lot of detail. My favorite by far.
• Jillian: kudos to Jillian for pulling off the edible materials. I thought the dress looked pretty good standing still, but the top was so stiff that when the model was walking it moved against her rather than with her. Creative, definitely, but not very wearable.
• Victorya: I didn’t dislike this as much as the judges did. Not her best work, but nowhere close to as bad as Sweet P and Elisa. I think she did herself a real disservice with that bizarre walk she asked her model to do. It just drew attention to the wrong things and made it look like the model was afraid the dress was going to fall apart. Weird.

Welcome back, Runway. I missed you.

Pretty good challenge this week; PR seems to like these challenges where the task really isn’t evenly weighted. So much was determined by the clothes the models brought with them. Even so, design is a creative endeavor. Quit whining and show me what you can do!

• Sweet P: cute dress, but nothing special. She had a lot of fabric to work with and maybe could have done something more interesting.
• Jillian: attractive dress, although I didn’t love it as much as the judges seemed to. I was surprised she got away with using so little of the original fabric - that didn’t seem very fair.
• Ricky: cute, wearable. Basically, he took the same pieces and gave them shape. It wasn’t innovative, but it was well done.
• Chris: I think Chris is this season’s Kayne. He’s capable of doing good work, but he needs to learn to edit himself.
• Christian: I loved this outfit. I would wear it, and yet it totally looked like Christian’s style to me. I think he deserved the win.
• Victorya: this dress looked pretty “mother of the bride” to me.  I know she was limited in her materials, but nothing about this looked like Victorya’s style to me.
• Elisa: take out the middle layer and you have a passable outfit. The long tunic bisected her model at the wrong place and added bulk. Not flattering.
• Kit: not a bad dress, and I liked how she used the original fabric, but it didn’t wow me. It looked like something you could buy at Forever 21.
• Kevin: I really liked what he did with the top. Leggings were a safe but boring choice. Still, he did a good job of reusing the original materials.
• Steven: poorly conceived and poorly constructed. I honestly think Steven gave up as soon as he saw that he’d have to work on the wedding dress. He definitely had the most challenging outfit, but I really think he could have done much more with it. And the dress that he did make was so simple that there was no excuse for not finishing.
• Rami: very attractive and wearable outfit, and a great use of the materials. I would have rated his outfit higher than Jillian’s and it was more to my taste than Kevin’s - he should have been in the top 3.

As far as Jack is concerned, I’m guessing that he’ll show up in the cast for the next season. Just a hunch…

I have to vent about this episode. I thought the challenge was interesting. It’s the first time I can remember that we’ve really seen a mini-collection before the Fashion Week episode. Trying to unify 3 different out-of-date trends AND 3 different designers’ takes on those trends makes for an interesting dynamic. But they spent so much time on the drama behind the scenes that the clothes really got lost in this episode. The two top teams were dismissed with no discussion, so all we got to see of their finished product was a brief glimpse on the runway. Total bummer. Come on, Bravo - I’m way more interested in good design than bad. I want to hear from the winning designers. I want to hear why the judges picked one good design over another. Cut 5 minutes of the stupid conflict and drama and show me some more clothes!!!!

• Jillian: I agree with the win for this team. I thought their collection was the most cohesive and did the best job of interpreting the trends. I was surprised by how much I liked Jillian’s overalls look.
• Rami: his dress was the least interesting of the three looks, but very well executed and a good fit with the others. Plus, he did a good job of updating the poodle skirt idea.
•  Kevin: I loved the shorts and top look. Nicely done; interesting but wearable.
• Christian: I thought his team did a good job. I don’t think their looks were quite as cohesive (the colors were, but not the styles) and I really didn’t see the trends they were supposed to be updating. Maybe it’s just the combination of the color palette with the tv camera, but where were the pleather and fringe? And there really wasn’t anything zoot-y about the suit. Christian’s suit jacket seemed to have a slightly odd fit, but otherwise I can’t fault it.
• Kit: I like the outfit, but I think the prints in the black and white palette just got muddied on screen.
• Jack: cute basic dress and leggings. Probably the most wearable of the 3 looks for this team.
• Chris’s team: really the only unifying element of this team was the color palette, and even that wasn’t done very well. Chris’s jacket was just awful. The dress underneath was nicely constructed, but nothing special and certainly not good enough to save it from the jacket. The interpretation of the shoulder pads trend was too literal and the fabric choice was just wrong.
• Sweet P: I loved her dress. It was a fantastic interpretation of the baggy sweater trend, and it’s totally wearable. Great look, great texture. If it had been an individual challenge, she would have been a contender for the top spot. I thought it was funny that Donna Karan was the guest judge as this look was very reminiscent of DK style.
• Steven: where was the design in this outfit? It looked like pajamas.
• Ricky’s team: totally underwhelming. The collection didn’t hang together. In my opinion, these three designers had the easiest set of trends to combine, and they blew it. Ricky’s dress was not a great design, but he could have done a better job with it.
• Victorya: Victorya’s dress and Ricky’s both looked to me like someone’s sketches for a new Wonder Woman costume. And I really didn’t think Victorya’s construction was as good as she’s capable of.
• Elisa: probably the best of the three dresses, but also the simplest and the one that stood out most from the other two.

All in all, I was interested by the challenge but really hope to see more fashion in the future.

Okay, menswear challenge, without teams - it’s a crazy difficult challenge for a bunch of designers who usually do women’s wear. With women’s clothes, if you’re not very skilled or are in a time crunch there are still lots of shapes and styles you can do that are pretty forgiving and hide flaws. Not so with pants. They show all the mistakes and are not easy to fit. Maybe if David Beckham had been the guest judge some of the designers might have tried a men’s skirt, but for an on-camera look for Tiki Barber or most any other celebrity, you have to go with pants. Plus, two pieces for an on-camera look is pretty minimal. Jack did a nice job of making his two pieces pretty interesting, but ultimately it’s just a shirt and pants. My sister pointed out that this would have been a perfect team challenge - two people could do a better job of getting out a 3 or 4-piece look that really works and is interesting. As it was, most of the designers were lucky just to have a finished product at all. I also noticed that most of the models were walking as though they were afraid the clothes would fall apart.

I went back to the photos on the Runway site, because I wanted to see more of the details, but with all the dark colors the pictures weren’t very helpful. I was surprised more of the designers didn’t go with a knit shirt or sweater option - definitely easier than a tailored shirt. Here are some impressions:

• Carmen: it was a mess. If she had done a better job on the execution and made a shirt, the design probably would have been good enough to pass this round, although still not inspiring. I did like her color choices.
• Christian: he made some interesting choices for a tailored look, but the jacket was poorly fit (mainly the sleeves) and so it looked sloppy.
• Kit: boring color combo, but I like the idea of using fleece; that was very smart. It’s much easier to work with than suiting fabrics, and adds a less conventional texture. If she had made more interesting color choices, she might have pulled off the win.
• Rami: I actually really liked this look, but I think it might have been a bit too casual for an on-camera look for Tiki Barber. Also, the proportions were great for his model, but probably would not have suited Tiki very well.
• Sweet P: what can I say? That shirt was a disaster. She’s lucky she made it through.
• Steven: not a bad look except for the ascot, good choice on the knit, but if I remember correctly when the model was walking, the pants were a really poor fit (I think the crotch was way too low).
• Victorya: props for trying to do something a little different with the jacket, but the look didn’t really work for me.
• Kevin: the lavender was a bit much, but otherwise I liked the look and thought it was Tiki-appropriate.
• Chris: I don’t think head-to-toe black works on-camera, and I don’t like collarless jackets. The construction looked fine from what I could see, but this look was just passable for me.
• Jack: I liked his fabric choices and thought the execution was good; this would have been better with a third piece; without a vest or jacket it just doesn’t seem quite polished enough for a tv appearance.
• Ricky: the judges said it all; even if it had been finished, it would have been a boring black suit.
• Elisa: execution seemed good; I wouldn’t choose the look for Tiki Barber, but I think she was wise to do a knit shirt.
• Jillian: I don’t remember noticing any construction issues with this one, and I’m amazed that she pulled off a 4-piece look. Maybe a bit boring, but a lot better than some of the other stuff we saw.

Anyway, it was an interesting challenge, but largely interesting because of the process and not so much for the results. I would rather have seen a slightly easier challenge with better chance for good results - as mentioned above, make this a team challenge and it becomes much more do-able.

Interesting challenge this week: create a 2-piece look for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten line at Steve and Barry’s, spending no more than $15. I can tell you, as someone who sews, that the idea of trying to do 2 pieces for $15 gives me heart palpitations. It’s one thing when you’re mass producing and can buy fabric in bulk, but for a one-off it’s a very difficult thing to do. Fabric is getting more expensive, but you could probably still pull it off except that when you add in buttons, zippers, whatever other notions you need, you’re bound to go over budget. Maybe the designers get some of that stuff for free, I don’t know. Maybe there’s a stock of zippers and buttons at Parsons…

Anyway, it was a team challenge, so with only 7 designs we got to see a little more of each one:

• Rami (with Jillian): boring. Disappointing after last week, and his sketch looked a lot more interesting than the actual outfit, which was basically a big belted shirt with leggings. Meh.
• Christian (with Carmen): butt ugly jacket. Dress was fine but boring. Deservedly in the bottom two. Carmen surprised me - I had her pegged as the tough type, but she’s a cryer.
• Ricky (with Jack): I really liked this dress - I would totally wear it. Is it the most inspired design ever? No. But it’s still very good.
• Elisa (with Sweet P): Although I’m not a fan of capes in general, I thought Elisa pulled off a very interesting design that looked way better than her sketch. I’m glad she’s still around. Spit marks aside, I have hopes that we might actually see some good and interesting design from her.
• Kit (with Chris): cute, wearable, but unmemorable. Still, I thought it was a better fit with the Bitten line than some of the other choices.
• Victorya (with Kevin): another cute, swingy dress. Victorya strikes me as the type whose construction will always be impeccable and who has a distinctive, but possibly narrow style (sort-of like Laura, but for younger tastes). We shall see. I liked the vest.
• Marion (with Steven): I’m torn. I didn’t like the fringe-and-flashdance look, but I didn’t think the outfit was as bad as the judges seemed to. And there have been far bigger turkeys on Runway that didn’t get the boot (e.g. the jumpsuit Santino made for Kara Janx, or the ice-skating outift he made for Sasha Cohen that looked like a turkey costume). Still, based on his two looks for this show, I can’t say I’m really sorry to see him go.

I was happy to see SJP on the show - a much better “icon” than some from past shows (Miss America, anyone?). Hope it bodes well for the rest of the season.

Belated Episode 1 recap: Season 4 of Project Runway finally started last week, so I am a happy camper. I love this show, in spite of my hatred of nearly all reality tv. I really don’t like to watch people being bitchy and melodramatic, but I put up with it for Runway because I love fashion and I love watching the creative process of people who are, in many cases, still learning and developing their own point of view.

I was happy that they skipped over the tryouts this season and went straight to the competition. However, the challenge confirmed my suspicion that most designers on the show do better with a bit more structure. Ask 15 different designers to make a skirt using only black and white fabric, and you’ll be amazed at the variety and ingenuity. But ask the same designers to just show their point of view and you get…not much. Think of Michael Knight from Season 3 - he did great in so many challenges, but his collection at Bryant Park was not good.

The one difficulty with an individual challenge for 15 contestants is that you don’t get to spend much time with each design, so my initial impressions were vague and I had to rely on photos online for filling in the details. Here are my impressions:

• Jillian: meh. Not bad, but not inspired.
• Christian: the design was fine, but the color palette seemed a bit old lady to me.
• Jack: cute dress, but nothing special about that design. Looks straight off the rack.
• Kevin: meh. Didn’t like the fabric choices.
• Chris: nothing spectacular about the design, but I liked his color palette and fabric choices.
• Marion: couldn’t believe this one didn’t end up in the bottom two. Hideous and unflattering.
• Kit: Well constructed, but ugly. Didn’t like the design or the fabric combinations.
• Steven: simple suit with a few interesting details. Nothing spectacular, but I’d like to see more from him.
• Carmen: bleh. Looks like a genie costume.
• Sweet P: not the most flattering silhouette, and her fabric reminded me of a shower curtain, but not too bad overall.
• Ricky: boring, but not as bad as Marion’s dress. Thought he was more deserving of a pass than Marion.
• Victorya: Cute, stylish, not too original, but I liked it.
• Elisa: cut off the train and it’s actually an attractive dress. I’m curious to see if she keeps veering towards the crazy or can be reined in.
• Simone: sad to see her go so soon; I suspect she could have done better. On this challenge if she had just skipped the little jacket and finished her dress, she probably would have passed.
• Rami: quite lovely draping and construction. I wasn’t wild about the flower, but it’s a minor quibble.