This week on "Project Runway" the challenge was to create a high-fashion look with a companion everyday look. Each designer was assigned a certain aesthetic to work with, including crystal, velvet, metallic, and bright. Though throwing the designers through a loophole was a part of the norm, the prize for the win sure wasn't. What was it you ask: $20,000 dollars to slap around in their bank accounts.
The designers were each given $300 dollars to complete the high-fashioned look and another $100 for the day-look. Well the dough was lenient, the time was not. They had to complete these two looks in the space of two days. So naturally no pressure, right?
What surprised me most about this challenge, and then the looks that it produced, were some of the designers' ideas. Andy South, following his non-traditional profile from last week, turned out a metallic-warrior look, complete with a helmet and faux-leather pants. His companion look was a classic little-black-dress with metallic lining to tie it in with the warrior plates. I personally thought that the high-fashion look was peculiar, but the judges loved it. Not only that, they thought his helmet completed the outfit.
Gretchen Jones, a winner of two previous challenges, took the most difficult of the four choices and went with velvet. Not only did this put her at a high risk of turning out something hideous, it also could have gone way downhill in the way of fashion. Instead, she turned out a magnificent bohemian dress, complete with hand sown beading on the back and little feathers over the entirety of the dress. The day-look had the same bohemian layering to it, but the slit along the legs was graceful and the drape of the dress was beautifully done. Her looks placed her in the top three.
April Johnston, a girl addicted to the color black, actually made two looks that I thought deserved better recognition. She produced a detailed black jumper with a fur collar and a low-cut bodice. I thought her ready-to-wear look was beautiful with its butterfly sleeves and metallic lining. The judges declared her in, both a good and bad thing because every designer wanted to score this week's win.
The bottom three: Michael Costello, Valerie Mayen, and Ivy Higa. While Michael's being in the bottom three was no surprise, I was amazed to see Ivy there. Last week Ivy produced a garment that landed her in the top. Valerie, on the other hand, has been in the bottom for the last two challenges.
As it was, Michael made a horrible scarlet dress complete with a twenty foot train that looked like a bridesmaid dress on steroids. Add his oddly shaped draping of the fabric and it was bound to be a disaster. But again, to my dismay, the judges found something to admire in his hideous creations and he was declared safe.
Valerie, sticking a little bit too literally to her aesthetic of crystals, created an angel costume complete with a skewed halo attached to the poor models shoulder. She then turned the tables for her day-look and made a tuxedo black dress, the exact opposite of her high-fashioned look, though just as unattractive. Ivy disappointed me and the judges with her strange blue prom dress, complete with chiffon sown in strange ways across the front of the dress.
I thought for a moment that the judges would be sending both Ivy and Valerie packing because they couldn't decide who had made the bigger mess. In the end it was Ivy that was chosen to be 'out.' I personally think Valerie was the weaker link, and surprisingly, she thought so too. Valerie cried to Ivy in the back room, claiming she was the one that should have gone home.
Mondo claimed the win again for this week with a couture dress that was as equally bizarre as Andy's. His pattern choice was zigzagged fabric with vibrant colors as the backsplash. The whole thing, in my opinion, was a bit over the top, but the judges all agreed that it was his stellar construction techniques that pulled his dress from crazy to high-fashion. Mondo scored a place in the top last week and it seems as though he means to remain there.
