The Big, Top Designers

This week, their last challenge, Heidi tells the designers that they will be taken to a tent. The tent ends up being the Ringling Bros. Circus at Coney Island.

Cue cheesey circus music and Tim Gunn enters. (Tim seems a little perturbed to be in this non-fashonista tent.) The designers watch their very own circus and act like they've never seen a circus before.

The challenge is to create a high fashion look inspired by the circus.
A gay circus to be exact, much to the delight of Jay. :D

The designers get to spend 2 days on this challenge, a luxury in the Project Runway world. Most of the designers grabbed striped fabrics for this challenge. Anthony however, chose a color inspired by the twirling girl on the rope. He's hoping that's gonna work as well as the girl's moves.

In the workroom, Emilio is in love with his dress and tells everyone that he's coming hard. Ok then....let's move on to the runway....



The winning-est look this week is Emilio. Yes, Emilio is annoying. Yes, he's an ego-maniac. This week, he proved that he was the only one that understood the challenge. It was to be a high fashion look inspired by the circus, but not look exactly like a costume worn in the circus. Most of the other designers went too circus costume, I didn't feel it was high fashion. There is some great debating on the internets if this look is the best or not. First, take this dress in, and then look at the others. My vote is that he is the winner. Is it the "best of the season" as Michael Kors stated? I don't agree with that, my vote is for Seth Aaron's black and white jacket.

However, kudos to Emilio for this look and convincing the judges early on that he deserved to go to Fashion Week.


Seth Aaron.
*earmuffs time*
What in the fuckety fuck is this creation?? Where did Seth Aaron go? Is he designing for the Hamburglar? The coat seemed like an over-sized version of another jacket or combo of jackets he's done before. Michael pointed out the crotch issues on the pants; the looked like a "man needs to fill out the front of them". I understand that Seth Aaron usually uses black, and he figured he needed some circus colors so he added the yellow and red, which I don't feel works all together. That with the over-sized collar and I just don't like this look. Of course I want Seth Aaron to go to fashion week, but this final look was super disappointing to me.



Nina is not crazy about this look. I have to agree. There's too much going on at once. As the guest judge stated, there's too much shine, too much going on. It looks so costumey and just off. Something about the color combo and the fabrics she used all together kind of irk me. There's no one thing I hate, just compiled together I don't like it. I do enjoy the black part of the jacket, and I do like the high collar for some fun.


The arch enemies Mila and Jay end up tying for the last spot. This happened to Chris March and Rami Kashou in another season. It's strange that they did this (the 2 will have a design off right before fashion week to see who moves on), because both of them made it far enough to show at Fashion Week anyway, and it was obvious from the 2nd or 3rd episode that both of these designers were going to make it to the end. Why not just do Top 4 as they've done in some other seasons?


As for Jay's look, there are elements I like and elements I don't like. First of all, Jay has a thing for these pants that are low and have a wide waistband, which wouldn't be flattering on someone who has any kind of hips. From his sketching and talk in the workroom, I thought he was going to make more exaggerated pants, more like what he wears himself- wide leg and big. I don't know if that would work with such a short jacket, but nonetheless Nina seemed to like these pants. As for the jacket, I really like it...for the most part. I don't know why he makes certain tops so freaking wide apart. I don't know of any woman that would want that much space across her chest. Besides that, I love the detailing, very Michael Jackson.

If the judges were basing who goes to Fashion Week solely on these 2 final outfits, I would say that Jay deserves to go and Mila to be Out. However, if they're going on overall designs from the season, I would say it is a tie.


"Damn. Lesson learned." Anthony was brought back to us only to be taken away again. Anthony is funny, because he gets the challenges, and then goes, hmmm, I think I'll make a pretty dress. If he had been on last season, when all the challenges were "Make a Pretty Dress", then he would have made it. However, he won the 2 challenges that were to make a pretty dress for Heidi and didn't do so well in the other ones. Apparently he chose a terrible fabric to work with, and his color was an odd choice for the circus. Apart from that, to have 2 days to make a look, and come out with this, is strange. It doesn't seem fitted enough, almost too big for the model. Out of the 5 looks, this one was one I just didn't feel worked with the challenge, and it wasn't that amazing besides.


Auf Weidersehen Anthony! Again....

Stacked, packed and ready to attack!

Sew Not Ready

This week's episode answers a question about the designers showing at Fashion Week. It was noted that the top 10 designers got to show at Bryant Park; a lot of decoys to catch up on due to the fact that the fashion weeks are still behind due to the Lifetime/Bravo war. For some reason, although the beautiful Maya was doing even better than Top 10, she did not show at Bryant Park. Strange indeed.

This was answered last night, but it was not for any dramatic reasons; no health scare, no cheating with sewing books, etc. She simply didn't feel "ready". She just got out of fashion school and does not want to go to Fashion week and show something that's not "her". Well. How mature is that? It does feel a little like a cop out, as Emilio stated- she should have made the most outrageous piece and gone out in a fiery explosion! However, Seth Aaron sympathetically told viewers to F off if they didn't understand that they are doing 18 hour days 7 days a week under the scrutiny of cameras and judges, and to come try it themselves. Have I mentioned that I love him? <3

And then....a ray of sunshine walks in....Anthony!!! *commence little girl squeals* Our Alabama Mama-Jama comes in and it's like he never left us. I had heard another rumor that Lady Gaga was going to be a guest judge, but alas, they are designing for some non-committal red carpet look for frau Klum. Heidi wears some interesting looks on the show, but her red carpet looks are usually basic and pretty, so this shouldn't be a problem for Miss Anthony. He did win the previous Heidi challenge this season.

Mrs. Samuel nee Klum walks around with Tim Gunn this time around, which although intimidating and annoying for the contestants, is a probably a good thing.

Jonathan has the worst time with this critique, as Heidi calls his intricate cut-away technique "curtains". This drives Jon crazy and he scraps his idea and tries another look. Unsatisfied with that one....he scraps it at the 11th hour (literally-it was 11:30) and goes for a 3rd look. Sometimes, you can get away with doing this and get the safe pass, but unfortunately, we're down to 6 designers, and there's no one to hide behind. Jay has the best time with the critique, as Heidi shoes her the assets up close.



Onto the runway....

Mila "I lost my bangs-twin" Hermanovski
Mila does a really strange look. She gets gunmetal gray and gold to do a "different" look. For some reason, she picks the least red carpet look length of dress, it's neither short nor long. It doesn't fit well, and honey, when you're designing for Heidi Klum, the first area she goes to is the bust area. The straps were too wide, the length was all wrong and it was not exciting at all. I'm not hating the back, so I'm wondering why she didn't make it a floor length gown?



Jay "I like big butts" Nicolas Sario
Jay went for the second area you don't want to mess with: the butt. He tells us "I guess I just like big butts!", well you cannot lie, because you made this skinny model's ass look voluminous. I also don't like how the bust fits on her andI hate the bottom, I don't know why he likes these poofy looks.



Emilio "Judges love me" Sosa
And the first winner of this challenge is Emilio. *groan* In fairness, this IS a red carpet worthy look. The problem is that Emilio just won the last 2 challenges, and he didn't really have the best look either time, so this win is deserved, but not appreciated by moi. This did fit really wonderful in the front, it hugged the body, and I did love the fabric he used, the sparkle is the wow factor here. I did not like the little exclamation point on top. Perhaps a little something else for the embellishment I would have loved more, that little jut of fabric was more distracting for me than appealing. Interesting how much Ms. Alba knew about the building of the under gown to make this look amazing. But then again, how many red carpet looks have I worn? For the record: 0



Anthony "Stacked, packed and ready to attack" Williams
The second winner is Anthony!!! *more little girl squeals* Anthony is wishing that every week they were designing for Heidi. When this look came out I loved it, but thought the judges would think it was too plain. When Jessica Alba said she loved it, I thought, wow this really was made for Jessica, not Heidi. So it really came as no surprise that our Anthony would win the challenge for Jessica Alba. Congrats Anthony!


Seth Aaron "I lost my model to Donna Karan" Henderson
And the third winner is Seth Aaron for his red carpet look for Miss Q! Seriously, why did they not like this look? Am I as blinded for my appreciation of Seth as the judges are for Emilio? I know it's dark, but Heidi's dossier showed black gowns, it's a red carpet look with fine detailing and it looked impeccably tailored. I could see her wearing this, or even better-Dita Von Teese. I know Heidi also wears a lot of red, so perhaps if this had been a more vibrant color they would have seen the detail in this and had more of a "wow" moment? I thought he did a good job of editing himself too. I also didn't appreciate that they wanted more drama in the bust area. Hello, then don't have a 100 lb. model showing off the gown with no bra on. You want a wow moment, put someone with a wow curvaceous body in it!!!



Jonathan "Eleventh hour drapey project" Peters
Jonathan. What a rough week for Jonny boy. His Amy left, then Maya, and he got ripped a new one on the last challenge. And then he goes for the opposite effect of making something he "hates that the judges will probably love" and it just failed. Poor guy. This dress is clearly not red carpet, although I could see Heidi wearing this somewhere else, due to the shortness of it. The front is just so bad, I'm sure he knew he was going home as soon as it turned the corner. The judges loved the back drapy effect. Of course the hem was atrocious, he made it in 30 minutes.

Jonathan was a designer with such a big heart and a real passion for doing something different with his clothes. As overworked as his looks could sometimes be, he did do some amazing looks. We will miss you Jonathan!


Check out Maya's interview with Tom and Lorenzo: http://tomandlorenzo2.blogspot.com/2010/04/t-lo-interviews-maya.html