Project Runawy - Driven to Product Placement - Episode 7 Recap !

So I know it’s been a bit since I dished about and recapped the previous night’s Project Runway, but I have missed it so and apparently so have you readers so here we go.

For a very quick recap, Daniel was sent home in Episode Six for his lack of creativity and flamboyance in his drag queen outfit. Joe took home the prize that night and her seriously deserved it. Honestly, I think its insanely hillarious that the straight dude from Detroit is the designer who took home the prize that night. On the previous challenge, Episode Five, the designers had to pair up and create an outfit for Brooke Shields’ cahracter on that NBC’s Lipstick Jungle. Kelli and Dan produced the worst outfit, which was in Michael Kor’s words “Slutty, Slutty, Slutty” and Kelli was sent packing.


So last night, Episode Seven, greeted the designers with an interesting individual challenge. They were to pillage “car parts” from a bunch of Saturn Hybrids (HELLO PRODUCT PLACEMENT!) from some rooftop in Murray Hill and create a “fresh look” with it. Basically what Tim Gunn said was that since almost all the designers used tablecloths in the first challenge (Supermarket Madness) they wanted to see serious “out of the box” stuff here. All around I think most people did quite well on this challenge and it seemed that they took Tim’s ideas and criticisms to heart. The only two who truly messed up in my eyes were actually the bottom two, Keith and Stella, but more on them in a bit.

In my opinion, Korto, Terri, Jerrell and Leanne knocked this out of the park and I think those could be the final four. Terri created an ensemble that could have been Stella’s but it was made much better than Stella could have. Her biker chic look was just deemed as safe by the judges since they can only pick out three. I think the outfit as a whole was very wearable, but didn’t have that “what the hell is this made with” feel the other top three did. Jerrell made a bustier and a skirt with real car parts and it looked incredibly futuristic. Korto’s seat belt woven coat was breathtaking and beyond well done, but the overall shaped of the coat was similar to other pieces she has already made this season, which is what probably separated her from a win. Her coat was lauded over by the female judges as something “they would want to own in many colors”. Laura Bennett, one of the final four designers from season three stepped in for Nina Garcia last night for the runway show and she adored the coat. And finally the winner was Leanne. Her leather, overly constructed, yet streamlined dress was beautiful. It fit her model incredibly well, looked unlike any other pieces up there and the silhouette was now. Rachel Zoe, incredibly skinny stylist, future Bravo star and guest judge last night, said it was “ready for the Paris runways”. Joe’s wasn’t terrible, but it was way too “designed by a straight male” for me. It definitely fit the Saturn concept, just wasn’t great. Suede and Kenley’s were truly forgettable and those two were lucky Stella and Keith were around. And Blaine, who I usually can’t stand, ended up in the bottom three for an ill fitting gown which personally I liked but the judges couldn’t stand. He was safe for another day. For some reason, Stella, the designer who uses leather, grommets, chains and all other kinds of hard ass biker crap in her designs decided to create some Conway looking version of a Thierry Mugler bandage suit. Not so cute. It was ill fitting, poorly constructed and not well thought out. It was a bore to be honest and didn’t really represent Stella. And then there is Keith, who whined and pouted the whole episode about the judge’s “not getting his aesthetic” which is code for “why does everyone think I stink?”. Ugh his self pity party was boring me and his designs were pretty bad overall. It also doesn’t help when you yell at the judges, tell your model she can’t sit in the garment and then talk to both the model and judges like they are dirt really isn’t the way to win this competition. Michael Kors gave him a swift kick in the butt and the judges sent him packing.

Here are my favorites...












And my not so muches....












Next week it should be a whole bunch of other whining about something. All in all the season is moving on as a meeker version of it’s original self. There has been a lot of chatter this go around, from myself and other bloggers, that Bravo just wants this season to just go away and have the show leave for Lifetime. The challenges are uninspired. The designers I think are actually a bit more accomplished than previous seasons, but without exciting challenges there is no way to showcase their talent. And with that idiot Blane adding “licious” after ever word and Suede speaking in the third person, I am sometimes pondering throwing my TV through a window. Andy Dehnart over at MSNBC.com looks deeper into how moving networks and possibly cities might actually get this ship sailing the high seas again.

And as always, check out other recaps at:
- Blogging Project Runway
- The Cut on NYMag.com
- Brian’s blog on AfterElton