The Fashion Farm

The Saint Tim Gunn has answered my prayers and Project Runway is back!

I almost wept tears of joy into my Manhattan as I saw this little show I fell in love with, come back to the fabulosity of what it was before the season-that-shan't-be-named.

The designers are taken to a farm where Tim is standing with some naked chicks wearing burlap sacks. The challenge is to use only the burlap sacks with assorted trims to make the model an outfit she could wear to an industry party. This is combining two challenges in one, as the model as client can end up being a train wreck, and how in the hell do you make a chic look out of burlap? Tthe saying goes, "She could look good in anything, even in a burlap sack". I am imagining the designers throwing on some buttons and cinching the waist with a cute ribbon. How is that gonna be good?

This episode, the models get to choose if they want to work with last week's designer, or go with a new one. Mila is super offended when her model chooses Anthony. Honey, have you heard his squeal? 'nuff said.

The workroom this episode is a mess with designers dying fabrics and throwing trim. Darlings, I was so completely amazed at the looks these designers did in one day with a burlap sack. This is what I love, taking materials you wouldn't think of and making them into something amazing.

Starting with the "safe" designers:

Anna's lookI really like how she used the potato to make a print looking fabric.


Love Anthony's look. How upset was Mila when her model chose him over her? Wow. I looked really closely at these looks on Lifetime.com with the magnifying glass thing and am just simply amazed at how they took burlap and made it look like a movable, workable fabric.
Gorge!


Maya went all out on color. It's hard to tell how much is trim and how much is the burlap. However, I do like her overall styling.

Speaking of overall styling, I love love Jonathan's styling here. His dress design is overall very simple, and he really relied on the trim for the look, but it works.

Janeane's look:
( I think the producers are keeping this gal, not only does she cry, she also talks to herself.)



The added challenge here was that most of the designers dyed their burlap so it would look more like fabric. This meant dying and drying and dying and drying and sewing all in one day.



Jesse went for it, and was the only one to make pants.
Emilio had immunity. He is obviously a talented tailor, but I just I don't love this look. It reminds me of a afghan my dad kept over his humungo speakers.

Ben's look

A cute young look. Why does this girl look pregnant though?


Seth Aaron's look.

I thought this should have made it to the top 3. It was different, he relied more on his design aesthetic than what color the "fabric" was, and it's just really cute and hip.


Now for the bottom 3 designers.

Ping.

Oh Ping.

Oh! Ping......

Tim explained to Ping that the runway is elevated, so be careful you don't show the judges your model's chacha. He didn't mention don't show the buttocks though....

There have been designers on previous seasons that have gone farther in the season than I agreed with. They are usually annoying and are kept around for entertainment value. I feel Ping is different. Yes she's weird and quirky and not the strongest construction wise. But she has a different view point and she's just-Pure. Would I have been surprised if she was kicked off this challenge? Not at all. Was I rooting for her the whole judging? Yes. You can't get rid of my Ping yet!

On the runway, Ping tried to blame the color of the burlap against the whiteness of the model's skin! The model was very sweet and said she liked the look.

Jesus is back in the bottom. Tim warned him that he was "skirting the challenge" by covering his burlap in ribbons. It's more than that though. The dress is not an interesting design, the colors are terrible again. And the back is unacceptable: the zipper goes on top of the dress and there was one butt cheek with a pocket which was not complimentary. Alas, the judges couldn't say no to Jesus.

Pamela's look:
Pamela did a good job making her burlap look like denim. Unfortunately, she committed the biggest crime on Project Runway: she made her model look FAT*. As sweet Alison learned in Season 3, do not make your model look like a fat Minnie Mouse or fat anything. *Fat being bigger than a size 0 on a model.

Sorry Pamela, but you're Out.

And for the top 3 looks, we had:

Jay
He almost didn't finish his look! I really liked how this came out. It seemed to take a lot of work to make the look. Using the different pieces like petals and trimming each one with the blue ribbon was super ambitious.

Jay is the winner! I did appreciate the design and execution of this look, but it was also not finished up top, so for that reason I was surprised it won.

Mila's look:

I was not into this look. Girlfriend was seriously butt hurt that her model chose Anthony instead of her, so she was working hard for the money. Luckily Tim talks her out of using some random lime green tulle around the edges of her garment. I'm not sure why the judges didn't call her out on the poor fitting up top. They had to keep blurring her right breast! (Is it any surprise that Heidi liked this look?) Michael called it "Edgy and Hot", I just don't get it.

My favorite look was Amy's.

This is flowy, so cute and she relied mostly on the design of the look, rather than dying the fabric. I loved everything about it. In my opinion she was the winner.

Designers, hopefully you have learned that you should listen to Tim and strongly consider his advice. He does know what he's talking about!