Project Runway Episode 4 - Tears, Sweat & Chinese Food

Darn, I like Chris! I'm kind of disappointed to see him go. We hardly got to see his work, plus he seemed like a nice, funny guy. From being the last designer to make the run across the field to the fabric grab in the first episode, to blubbing over that girl from Square Pegs, to his joke from this episode that Project Runway should have a signature perfume that would smell like Tears, sweat and Chinese food. Bye Chris.

The challenge this week was to take Bad Fashion Trends of the past and update them. Each designer chose a bad fashion trend - most of which were from the 1980s, proving once again that it was a horrible time for fashion - but hey, what's wrong with 'Poodle' skirts? Then the designers were put in teams of 3 and they had to create 3 designs incorporating the bad trends in updated looks.
We had Kit, Jack & Christian who dubbed their team 'Team Star' doing Zoot suits, fringe and pleather. Then there was Kevin, Rami & Jillian doing flaired pants, poodle skirts (again I ask, what is wrong with Poodle skirts?) and overalls. Jillian happened to be wearing overalls when they had to choose the Bad fashion trend, so of course she chose overalls as her outfit. I like overalls and my dream outfit is a pair of 1940s overalls. Sweet P, Chris and Steve did big sweaters, dancewear and huge should pads. And team 4 was Elisa, Victorya and Ricky doing neon, cutouts and lingerie as outerwear.

The team of conflict was Victorya, Ricky and Elisa. Elisa caused no conflict at all and continued to grow on me. The bitchfest was between Ricky and Victorya. Ricky didn't cry in this episode, but Victorya came out of her quiet corner to bitch and boss. Now I swear that she said at the beginning she didn't want to be team leader, leaving Ricky as leader. She did most of the leading, or at least most of the complaining through the whole competition and the 3 outfits came out a bit mismatched, Elisa's being the best of the 3. Ricky speaks Elisa's language. With his experience as a dancer, he said that dance instructors and artists like Eilsa speak the same kind of airy-fairy way. So he knows how to talk to her. Victorya and Ricky cut each others throats on the runway when asked who should go. But unfortunately Chris was the one to go.

Steve came out of his quiet corner to do an impression of Tim. Not as good as Santino's impression, but funny all the same. The outfits that he did with Sweet P and Chris were mismatched and his outfit didn't really represent dancewear very well, Chris' shoulder pad jacket was odd, but Sweet P's sweater dress was nice.

'Team Star' of Christian, Kit & Jack didn't have much drama, but they seemed to be having alot of fun working together. I have to get a second good look at their outfits to really comment because as usual, you barely get more than 3 seconds to see them on the runway. Christian coined the phrase 'They're either going to die over it, or die because of it' - I wrote that down, but I forget why he said it! (yes, I take notes when I watch)

There was a little drama in the Jillian, Rami, Kevin team, mainly because Jillian was concerned about Kevin getting done in time. But she was not as bitchy as the previews made her seem, just genuinely concerned and worried. They were the winner (see above) with the flaired legs pants, overalls and the poodle skirt (what the hell is wrong with a poodle skirt!) Look at the 3 images above though. Jillian did the overalls with the flaired legs, Rami did the dress with the full poodle-style skirt and Kevin did the last outfit, which is really cute, but I'm not sure which of the 3 looks he is supposed to be representing, I guess the highwaisted shorts have wide legs? I thought the denim-like fabric that they used was a little odd, but the designs themselves were really good. I think Rami is still my favorite designer so far.

Oh yeah, and Donna Karan was the guest judge. Ehh. Is she still that popular in current fashion? All I could think of was 'Jugs'. In one of Kathy Griffin's shows she talked about interviewing Donna Karan at some fashion event, and Donna wasn't getting any of her jokes. So finally Kathy said to Donna Karan 'You have huge jugs, you could totally be a waitress at Hooters!' (I love Kathy Griffin) So I was trying to work out some kind of joke about the judges being 'Mother, Jugs & Speed' - Donna being Jugs, Michaels Kors being Mother, but then I didn't know how to apply Speed to Nina. So I let the joke go, but it's still kinda funny.

I don't know what to say about this season of Project Runway. I am excited at the beginning of each episode, but there seems to be something missing, I'm not sure what. If it's that the energy of past seasons is missing, or maybe there is just no real standout personality yet to be really enthusiastic or pissed over.


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