Hat's Off to You

Mad Hatters

Philip Treacy is the guest judge this episode, and he brought some of his fabulousness to the runway, as the designers will have to design their look around one of his hats. You may have seen some of his work, but not known who he was. Most famously of late, his hats have been worn by her majesty Lady Gaga:

Actually, just google Philip Treacy and Lady Gaga and you'll see she goes goo goo for his hats. It's rumored that she asked the Irish designer for an internship so she could make her own hats.

The designers get to choose the hat they want to design for and all stay with their models instead. Hmmm interesting. They want to stay true to their girls...what if their hat sucks? They only have one day to design and $150 at Mood.

At Mood, Mondo is hearing voices from the fabrics. Ivy is inspired by the hospital's curtains, since you know, she was there at the beginning of the episode.

In the workroom, Kristin gets spanked. Foreshadowing?

Again, the extra 30 minutes add more random crazy moments in the workroom, and all around trash talking by the designers. Is it needed? Probably not.


Casanova
Donna Karan 1988?
Who is Casanova? Is his English bad or is he messing with us? What is his style exactly? Yes, this is a simple dress, but as it's under that Whoville hat, the dress doesn't need to scream "Look at me!" Casanova might have had the best strategy here, make some weird garments to get noticed, but not kicked off, and then make chic clothes in between. I love how this dress is draped. On another week this might not be strong enough, but here it is perfect.


Ivy
I wish Ivy would stop talking so much, but mostly I wish Ivy would use some bolder colors. These drab muted colors need to go! These safe looks are also still fine while there's more designers, but eventually the judges will notice that she is, well, kind of boring.


AJ
Cute take on a church lady look. The dress really compliments this hat and they seem to go together as far as I can tell. Perhaps not amazingly original, but it looks great to me! Very wearable and fun.


Mondo
I love Mondo. This is not my most favorite look, but he does take risks and I love him for that. This reminds me of J Lo's fly girl outfits for some reason and there's A LOT going on. So much that you can't even tell that she has a mustachio painted on her face. Is that a Project Runway first? Work it Mondo!


Andy
Going for the ferosh look here. I wonder why this wasn't a top contender? This look as a whole is pretty fabalishous. That hat with the luxe looking fabric and the cute shoes, she looks like she's going to an art gallery opening, and fighting for your attention.

Gretchen
Gretchen will be at Fashion Week, unless she gets screwed by a team challenge. I don't really like this, but it works fine for the challenge. It almost seems the judges wanted some crazy looks to go with these crazy hats, and crazy they got here. The feathery print is a lot to go with the hat, but the sash calms it down. The leggings scare me. The beige all in one color or maybe black would have been fine, but wow the bottoms are weird. Was she trying to make this poor girl look like a bird? It really doesn't matter, this girl will make it to the end, because they don't kick you off for being a know-it-all-bitch.
Peach
Oh look, Peach made a cute little print dress. Again.
Peach you better snap out of it! This is an amazing hat and your model is GORGEOUS and you put on this "short tight and [not really] shiny" piece of work! Peach, I expect the next dress to be covered in GD diamonds that you pulled out of your ass à la Tim Gunn style!

The Bottoms:


Christopher
Christopher got a FIERCE hat and was on the right track here. This coat dress is pretty ferosh! Although does he always have to belt the dress? Can he make a dress without a belt? The weird skirt thing his model wanted was not helpful and the leggings with the boots do make it look piratey. Perhaps he should have done some black tight pants with some cute heels instead and just let the coat with the hat pop. I don't think this should have been a bottom look. The judges didn't like the heaviness of the fabric, which I can kind of see, but it looks like means it to be more of a coat than a dress.

April
April was on the right track. It looks like she remade her tuxedo jacket disaster again to show that she can make clothes and make them cute. The diaper...is well a diaper, or "peel-away-panties" as Michael Kors called them. The back of the diaper looked horrendous and she added a zipper as well. However, the judges liked where she was going with this. Perhaps some super short black shorts or a striped micro mini would have suited the top better. I'm all for people wearing more booty shorts and less pants, so make it work!

Kristin
It was only a matter of time before Kristin went home. She is really not a good sewer and it shows again on this look. I can see where she was going as far as the shape of the dress, it does look very orchid-like. Auf Weidersehen Kristin! The judges seemed very reluctant to kick you off. Although you seemed nonchalant about leaving, I'm sure it was hard to leave.

Valerie
Valerie got a super fun "hat" to work with. The possibilities were so endless, it must have been a little overwhelming.
The zipper in the back of the dress was incongruous, and Tim Gunn told her not to use them, but Heidi seemed to like it, so go figure. I thought it was pointless. The judges seemed to like all the things that Tim Gunn did not like about it. Philip Treacy was not quite sold on it, so that may have cost her the win.
I thought the dress was a fun cute look, but not really with the mask. And the jacket was distracting, not cute, just there. I wouldn't have this look in the top, but I do love Valerie's looks in general, she is definitely a talent.

Michael D.
The two Michaels make it to the top!
When Michael was making this, it looked like the top was made out of cardboard. I thought perhaps it was the under part of the look to make it poof out, so I was surprised to see the finished look on the runway. It looks great with the hat, the skirt is a fun pop of color and the judges were impressed with the technique. Overall a stunning look and I wouldn't have been surprised if it had won.

Michael C.
Michael C. does the call home that means either A. He gets kicked off or B. He wins. This time it was because he won. He had to scrap his first hideous idea, and made this one very quick. The judges swooned over the color of the dress. I think it worked well with the hat, and it was a fun look that complimented the hat well and it doesn't fight the hat. However, was it the best look?? I think it was a good safe look and he was smart enough to not present his first idea that was messy, but I don't see it as the best look. However, the judges disagree and this was zee winnah! Poor Michael, he was so freaking happy to get compliments from the judges and came back to the other designers who all had WTF looks on their faces.

(According to Casanova "Every girl in Puerto Rico has this dress in her closet")


Lifetime, Lifetime, Lifetime.....
I don't even want to talk about this moment, just don't let it happen again.