Brow Beat: Slate's Culture Blog

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 14

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters gather to dish about the show. This week, the three finalists showed their collections at Bryant Park. Seth Aaron Henderson was declared the Season 7 winner.

Jessica Grose: So it came down to the predictable final two: Seth Aaron and Emilio. In one corner, we have the spiky-haired softie from Washington state! In the other corner, the hard-edged meanie from the Bronx! Will the forces of good or evil prevail? Seth Aaron showed a ‘40s military-inspired collection that was excellently designed. You could tell, even without HD, how well-constructed every single garment was. Emilio's collection was colorful and vibrant and reminded actress Raven Symone of the '90s. Mila's collection was a distant third to the guys' work, which is no surprise. Though the judges barely criticized her mod collection, I thought it was frumpy. Her mohair top with patent leather looked like it belonged to a Muppet at a leather bar.

Frankly I thought this finale lacked drama—all the clothes were competent and sophisticated, but nothing was exciting, and they didn't even include a cruel twist at the beginning of the episode. In prior seasons, they've made the final three construct last-minute outfits. They could at least have made them make a hat out of a planter or something. What did you all think of the winner: snappy or snoozeville?

David Plotz: I agree completely with your autopsy, Dr. Grose. Competent, attractive, a little dull. I loved the color in Emilio's collection, at least until he brought out that skin-tight teal mini-dress. And I was very taken with the clever acute angles all over Seth Aaron's collection. Weirdly, I think I preferred those many variations on the black coat that Seth Aaron showed Tim during the home visit last week. Those had more drama, for all their sameness.

June Thomas: I thought the lack of a totally unsurprising surprise twist was a huge surprise! It was always deeply weird that after giving the designers three months to make 10 looks, the judges would then ask them to make another one in 24 hours. (Seth Aaron produced so many, he could just have re-made one of his discards.)

I have to admit I was surprised by the decision and by the collections. I didn't really dig Seth Aaron's collection—and isn't "1940s German and Russian military" another way of saying Nazis and Stalinists? That's So Raving! It was exactly what I would've expected from him. The leather bondage straps, the visual hazard pattern combinations, the oversized checks. The colors that neither went together nor clashed.

I loved Emilio's color story. I agreed with the judges that it was a little too heavy on sportswear—too much Burlington Coat Factory outerwear, but that teal, red, and olive color combo rocked. (And seen from a distance, the E Sosa fabric was actually kind of nice.)

I admit, too, that I liked Mila's line. The rougher styling did make a difference, though I don't know why she kept that horrid, bulky dickey. (And, Faith Hill, shame on you for praising it.) I love the idea of shadows inspiring a collection. I'm a sucker for a good story.

David: Am I imagining things, or did Heidi flinch when Seth Aaron said his collection was inspired by German (and Russian) military outfits from the '40s? Coming soon to a mall near you: The Third Reich Collection, by Seth Aaron.

June: She definitely flinched (or the editors definitely inserted a flinch), as well she might. Springtime for Hitler wear.

Jessica: June, I also liked Emilio's line the best. As we've noted in earlier episodes, Emilio has the most business acumen of the lot of them.

David: What did you think of the existential doubt when they mused about what they were judging: Creativity? Who has the "most to say'? Consistency over the season? They seemed surprisingly flummoxed.

Jessica: The move to Lifetime and Marie Claire has rendered them all chronically confused. I don't think anyone on the show—the producers, the contestants, the judges—knows what they are looking for at this point.

June: Jess, didn't the constant emphasis on wearability drive you crazy? Is this a contest to find designers or a contest to find the clothes that'll be in Daffy's next year? Next season, I wish they'd ban the phrase, "I'd wear that."

Jessica: Yes! Ban the phrase! Are we worried about Proj Run becoming a cult of personality the way America's Next Top Model is? It seems like a lot of designers were met with high praise if "Heidi would wear this" or yelled at if "Heidi would not wear this." It's almost Tyra(nt) levels of egotism!

It was also clear that Tim Gunn was chastened by his initial run-in with Emilio, when Emilio wouldn't take any of his advice. He crept up to Emilio as he was preparing his line and said meekly, "Haven't we seen this before? I am not saying this in a bored, hostile way."

June: I think Emilio's Mylar-like gold dress was the only gown in the final three collections. That seems odd after two seasons obsessed with red-carpet or "industry-event" challenges.

My favorite parts of the collections were linings. I loved the black-and-white stripey lining inside one of Seth Aaron's jackets, and the red lining in the mustard-colored coat Emilio's muse model wore reminded me of a bullfighter's capote.

David: The linings were awesome. So were the tights—Seth Aaron sent out two awesome pairs, particularly that wide-striped black-and-white pair. 

Jessica: What did we think of guest judge Faith Hill? I need to say up front that no one compares to Posh in my mind, as finale guest judges go.

June: Much too much "I'd wear that" from Faith Hill for my taste, but, my, she's beautiful. Definitely a kind judge rather than a harsh Posh/Joanna Coles type.

David: I thought Faith Hill was awful! And not at all beautiful. "Impeccable"? Yes. Gorgeous? No. My gold standard of celebrity judges is Milla Jovovich, incidentally. 

June: Will you watch next season? Even with so-so challenges, bland contestants, and confused criteria, I'm still excited to watch people sketch out their ideas and make clothes. It's a talent that still seems magical to me, even after seven seasons.

Jessica: I'm on the fence. I have a full reality TV watching schedule to attend to, June! Those Real Housewives wait for no woman. To draw me back in, they're going to have to start getting edgy again. I'll take five loony Pings over a competent-but-boring Jonathan any day.

David: I will probably watch again next season, but I worry. The formula is too hard-coded. They need a new shtick. Maybe do it as one-on-one challenges every week? Maybe divide into teams? Maybe give different contestants different challenges? Maybe force them to change garments with another contestant three hours before the end? Maybe force them to redesign after the runway show each week?

The reason I was most surprised the Seth Aaron won is demographic. As June has noted, an African-American or Latino has never won PR. Emilio would have been a double first. And Seth Aaron is a demographic and tattoo doppelganger of Season 3 winner Jeffrey Sebelia.

Jessica: The triumph of the neck-tattooed! David, maybe you will be voted America's Next Top Magazine Editor if you get one.

June: We should mention that an issue of New York magazine to which our own Hanna Rosin contributed a fabulous piece won a National Magazine Award tonight (see "Personal Service"), and she managed it without the aid of a neck tattoo. Go, Hanna!

Jessica: Totally go Hanna! Celebrate like this.

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 13

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters gather to dish about the show. This week, Tim Gunn visited the four remaining designers as they worked on their Bryant Park collections. Mila Hermanovski and Jay Nicolas Sario each showed three looks to decide who got to show at Fashion Week. Mila made the cut.

Jessica Grose: There's so much to discuss this week: Tim Gunn on a trampoline at Seth Aaron's; Mila's black-and-white apartment, replete with black-and-white doggie; Mila and Jay's incredible awkward fake détente ... the list goes on. Mila will be going to Fashion Week, even though all the judges complained that her looks were too retro. I think that this choice, coupled with the fact that Tim Gunn criticized Jay's line for not having something in it that Heidi could wear to the Oscars, shows that Proj Run has zero interest in the avant-garde at this point. What did you all think of Mila's win? And, of course, of Tim Gunn on a trampoline?

June Thomas: You forgot another of the big moments: Michael Kors giving Heidi Klum a Yiddish lesson. He was so right, though, Jay's work was ongepotchket to the max. His outfits looked like a space station's Quidditch team uniforms. So many straps! So many buckles! Much too much of everything. Do you think Jay spent a lot of time hiking while he was designing his collection? I haven't seen that many gaiters since the last time I read a mountaineering supply catalog. His models all stood with their hands in their pockets, because he insisted on building a miniature Sydney Opera House right on their hips.

I take your point about the avant-garde, Jessica, and I'm really surprised to find myself agreeing with the judges, but I thought Jay's looks lacked elegance. For all their familiarity, Mila's ensembles were chic and stylish, and I loved the big military-style coat that her muse model wore. Is she going to be a great designer? Even a moderately successful designer? Not a chance. But did she make three good outfits that didn't look like they got tangled up in someone's sports closet before the model arrived at the runway? Absolutely.

Jessica: You're right, June, Mila's three looks were much more cohesive, though, I felt, borderline dowdy.

Hanna Rosin: I would never have picked Mila. Feels like affirmative action to me. She and Donna Karan both can stock Bloomingdale's with outfits for my mother, who is a stylish lady but nearing 65. I'm with Michael Yiddishkeit Kors. Better to start with more and pare back. When a writer turns in a B-plus story—solid, professional, predictable—B-plus it stays. But a writer who turns in a raw, overstocked mess with sublime details, I can make into something. Leather shin guards! Loved those. 

What did you all think of Tim Gunn's advice? Felt to me like he had been reading some self-help of the Machiavellian school. It was very focused, all about how to win.

David Plotz: I'm just going to gloat, again, that I picked all three of the Bryant Parkers at Week 2. I thought Mila's outfits were hideous—vast and shapeless. The model in the Oreo cookie dress looked like she was simultaneously drifting in a sea of fabric and choking on the choker. And that stripey coat vibrated like a old-timey TV test pattern. Even on our crystal-clear HD, it nearly sent me into seizure.

June: David, I'm docking points, because unlike Hanna and me, who picked our final three, you picked four, thus improving your chances of gloating 11 weeks later.

Jessica: Tim was too harsh on Seth Aaron! I did not think he had to "reconceptualize the entire thing." His look was his aesthetic just as much as Mila's was hers—why didn't Mila get ragged on for being predictable?

How much did we love the Seth Aaron fam playing Pictionary? I especially loved that his wife is a reg and his teenage daughter is sulky.

Hanna: I also loved those early Seth Aaron pics. He's a blond! It was like seeing the young Lady Gaga. They were all so normal once. And here I thought you're supposed to get less weird as you age. It bodes well for Mila if young people start out looking matronly and then age into the Seth Aaron aesthetic. That's her only chance of being current.

Gaiter. I just had to look that up. I'm so glad to know what those are. All that time, I thought the girls in the Delia's catalogue had just let their legwarmers slip down too low.

June: I fear this season has seen the death of Tim Gunn's influence. I still learn a lot when he advises the designers, but very few of them seem to pay him any mind. I do think he went overboard with Seth Aaron, but given how many outfits SA had made, I think Tim just wanted to make him pause and think before he made another 27 full-body looks.

David: I find the whole "Make Tim Gunn surrender his dignity" shtick—there's another Yiddish word—a lowlight of the home visits. Didn't he have to ride a tandem bike a couple of seasons ago? It's like watching politicians throw out the first pitch at baseball games. They have to do it, but it embarrasses everyone concerned.

Hanna: It's hard to maintain your authority when you are flopping feet-up on that trampoline. The problem with Tim Gunn losing his influence in this season is that it will solidly hand the victory to Emilio, who has resisted Gunn the hardest. They were nearly at blows in that workroom. 

I guess what's important about Tim Gunn, as a cultural icon, is that he makes taste seem much less arbitrary. He makes it seem as if there is some benign force that guides us into a true understanding of what's correct and incorrect. If that's gone, what do we have left? Snarky Michael? Bitchy Nina? Paris Hilton? 

David: Hanna and I were both somewhat alarmed at the new, softer, ditzier Nina Garcia. Hanna wonders if Nina—perhaps seduced by one too many Lifetime ads—has dosed herself on Abilify and thus lost her psychotically OCD, vicious edginess.

Jessica: Seeing Mila with both Tim Gunn and a cute doggie made me feel more warmly toward her, like she actually has human blood pumping through her veins.

June: True, she looked a lot less Romulan tonight.

Do you think the producers were messing with us about Emilio's collection? Every time they showed it, it looked awful. Such unappealing colors and cuts—and yet another textile design that incorporates his not-yet-famous name. Surely it can't be quite so fug.

Jessica: I thought it looked like the Designing Women wardrobe closet c. 1988. RIP Dixie Carter!

David: Definite bait and switch! Also with Seth Aaron, who will surely not show 10 different patterned black leather jackets.

Jessica: Though I prefer Jay, I wasn't devastated to see him go. Obviously Mila is not winning this. Will it be Seth Aaron or Emilio?

June: Who'll win? Let's think strategically. Project Runway has had only one winner of color—Chloe Dao in Season 2. At least two white guys with aggressively asymmetric haircuts have taken the big prize. So, Emilio?

David: Emilio.

Jessica: Definitely Emilio.

Hanna: Before I make my guess, I want to say one last thing I've been saving all season. I think Heidi Klum is the first genuinely hugely pregnant person I've ever seen on television. I mean, she was huge by the end, her face getting a little puffy, and still she managed to doll herself up and walk up to that runway. A victory for womankind.

As for the winner, I think Emilio.

David: It is somewhat sad and amazing how little I have actually learned about fashion from watching five seasons of PR and doing this dialogue with you wonderful ladies. I still can't tell a gaiter from a gator and dreadful from "impeccable."

Hanna: Well, David, I think it's a rare day when a man finds a boxy checkerboard wrap appealing. Put Heidi—now minus her baby bump—into that short dress of Jay's and you'd call it impeccable.

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 12

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters gather to dish about the show. This week, the challenge was to design a high-end runway look inspired by the circus. Emilio Sosa and Seth Aaron Henderson will show in Bryant Park; Mila Hermanovski and Jay Nicolas Sario will design full collections, but only one of them will be selected to show their looks. Anthony Williams was sent home.

June Thomas: Oy! The circus brought out the big flop in all of them as far as I'm concerned. I saw three weird costumes, a nice but dull dress, and something made by someone I can't stand. The problem is that at this stage, I have built up such strong feelings about the designers—hate him, like him, pity her, don't get him—that it's really stopped being about the clothes. Emilio's certainty about his oversized talent is so repulsive to me that I can't judge his work fairly anymore. (And the judges' unconditional love for Emilio is making me question their taste level.) Am I the only one among us with this problem?

Hanna Rosin: June, I am so relieved to hear you say that. Not so much about Emilio—I feel like it's sort of beside the point to hate the loathsome on reality TV—isn't it all in the editing?—but about the clothing. I watched and rewatched the runway, and I just couldn't see what they were seeing. I thought Mila's outfit was just dreadful. The actual ringmaster—or, as she called him, "ringleader"—looked much better. Seth Aaron's was an improvement over hers because at least there was some concept and drama behind it. But, still, not something I'd praise. And yes, Jay's get-up was Michael Jackson. Which is not tasteless—Marc Jacobs made a few Michael Jackson-like jackets this fall. But it's not original.  

Jessica Grose: June, you are not the only one, but I feel this way about Mila. I cannot even look at her face anymore without going into a fugue state. But today I thought her outfit was legitimately icky—the bright pink wasn't especially circusy, and the entire outfit looked like a costume. Pardon me if this is already common knowledge among the Proj Run intelligentsia, but I found this New York magazine profile of Emilio from 2002 that made me like him much better.

Hanna: Oh, Jess, you're just falling for that could-have-ended-up-face-down-on-a-street-corner-in-the-Bronx shtick. Would you forgive Mila, too, if she didn't have such a posh way about her?

Jessica: Never! But what I did notice about Mila and Emilio this episode is that neither of them will take any guff from Tim Gunn. For this I perversely appreciate them.

June: Jess-i-ca! I am a full-on Tim Gunn worshipper. Keep that up, and you and I could end like Montagues and Capulets in a couple more e-mail messages.

You've put your finger on something there, Hanna. I feel bad about hating Emilio because I know I'm falling for reality TV producer manipulation. It's the first rule of television-watching: Don't fall for their tricks. But I have, and I hate myself for it. It just makes me so mad to see the enmity between Emilio and Tim.

David Plotz: Can we pause, Emilio-like, for a moment of loathsome self-congratulation? In Week 2, we each predicted who would be going to Bryant Park, and all of us got two right: Emilio and Seth Aaron, and I—if you will pardon me while I'm even more Emilio-esque—also picked Mila. (All of us bet on Amy instead of Jay.) That proves one of two things: 1) We should all be editing for Vogue; or 2) PR has become awfully predictable.

I share your dismay with clown night, June. Seth Aaron and Mila should be forced to wear their looks as punishment. Seth Aaron's Mad Hatter outfit was mildly preferable to Mila's Harlequin horror, but both should have been burned. Emilio's dress was gorgeous, but if Michael wants to call that his favorite look of the season, he should also have the decency to remember that Emilio made by far the most egregious outfit of the season, too, his hardware-kini, for which he ought to have been immediately auf'd.

Hanna: There were a few choice gay-boy moments this episode. Tim Gunn bonding with Jay over variations on bitch. And then the moment Michael Kors went up to touch Anthony's fabric, and then recoiled, declaring it "poly crepe de chine," which I guess to fashion people means dog shit. 

Jessica: I loved it when Heidi waddled over, about 18 months pregnant, to also disapprove of Anthony's terrible fabric.

I thought Jay deserved more credit for his outfit. It was wonderfully made—I want those pants! And the shoulder detailing on the jacket reminded me of this Lolita Lempicka number my mother bought in 1988, so I had warm feelings toward that as well.

Hanna: I agree, Jess, about those pants. They were fabulous, although they lacked a little runway drama. The lines on that whole look were very sexy—the neckline and the volume around the hips.

June: OK, I guess we should talk about the clothes. Totally agree that Mila's was like a bad-taste explosion. The worst part, even worse than the migraine-inducing stripe-fest, was that hideous flash of yellow in the bodice. It was the color of urine, and about as tasty.

Hanna: To me, the worst part was when the model turned around, and then you got a serious stripe headache. I appreciated Cynthia Rowley's interpretation of Seth Aaron's look: the magical volume rigged up by hidden wires. Very clever and circuslike. Made me forget that the model's teeny head was being swallowed up by a white vampire collar.

David: I hope they fire whoever cut that sponsorship deal with Ringling Brothers. This should have been a midseason challenge—like the pro wrestler challenge a few seasons ago.

June: What do we think about the weird "Mila you're in, and Jay Nicolas, you're also in" decision? It feels cruel to me. I know it has happened before, in Season 4 with Chris March and Rami, but still. Jay has consistently made better garments than Mila. I wish they had just sent her home and been done with it.

Hanna: To answer your question, June, it is absolutely cruel. But there you go, being a human again. It makes for some wicked drama, knowing that one of those two—both of whom have three-quarters of a right to be there—will be absolutely devastated in the coming episode. You want to tune in for that, right?

Jessica: Don't you think it was pretty cruel to bring Anthony and his sunshine back only to quash him again?

David: Nah! He got to dress Jessica Alba!

June: At the beginning of this season, I thought Jesse LeNoir was the contestant who knew he had zero chance of winning the series but wanted to get a bit of attention so he could land gigs on third-tier cable shows as a "former Project Runway contestant." Now I realize that's Anthony's role. He's likable. He's larger than life. (It's too bad Season 1's Jay McCarroll is on Celebrity Fit Club right now, because that would be a perfect fit for Shaka Pudding, as I swear he called himself last week. Or was it Chocolate Pudding?) Anthony is Mr. "Have Quips, Will Show Up for Scale and Full Access to the Catering Van."

David: I can't work up any enthusiasm to talk about the clothes this week. It was a crummy challenge, and I have glumly concluded that none of these guys is going anywhere as a designer. Seth Aaron may fill a niche somewhere—servicing the small but thriving community of urban vampires and punk nostalgists—and Emilio will make some OK clothes, but none of these guys has charisma or genius. They should have ended PR after Christian Siriano won Season 4. It's been all competence without genius since.

Hanna: David, I see a Malcolm Gladwell debate about the nature of genius in here somewhere. American Idol is having this crisis, too. Where is the one-off, the genuine star? Why can't we "discover" someone like we used to? But why not modify that thinking for the age of recession? Think of these shows as elaborate job interviews, where the best man or woman who displays talent most consistently wins.

David: But I think American Idol is coping much better. Last season, it gave us Adam Lambert, who didn't win, but who is a genuinely new kind of talent. And this season it has at least one singer, Crystal Bowersox, who mesmerizes.

June: Since David brought up our awesome record as spotters of designing talent, should we offer some more bold bets? I'm guessing that Jay wins the third-place runoff, and Seth Aaron takes the big prize. (OK, I admit, that last one's not a prediction; it's a wish.)

Jessica: I think Emilio takes it all. And, June, I thought Mila's inclusion in the final four was affirmative action all the way.

David: Jay definitely wins the runoff. (His two advantages—self-made and creative—easily trump her single one: sole woman.) Emilio takes the prize barring some major screw-up. Seth Aaron is too niche.

Hanna: I also think Jay wins the runoff, just for being "current." Mila can have a nice life designing for Upper West Side rich ladies. But I say Seth Aaron puts on the most dramatic, consistent runway show and takes the prize. (And then Emilio has the better career.)

David: Do you think Seth Aaron makes his kids dress like his models? Do they have to wear freaky leather jackets to school, when all they want is a little Gap?

June: We'll find out next week when Tim Gunn makes his home visits. Talk to you all then.

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 11

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters gather to dish about the show. This week, the challenge was to design a red-carpet look for Heidi Klum. Emilio Sosa and Anthony Williams were the winners; Jonathan Peters was sent home.

June Thomas: Jessica, may I have your attention? This week's show had so much drama, it should win a Tony. Tim Gunn gave out more bad news than George Clooney did in Up in the Air.

What did you think of Maya's decision to withdraw—smart self-knowledge or, as Emilio so charmingly put it, is she just a quitter? I tend to think it's a bit of both. Good for her for realizing that she wasn't ready, but I hope she knows that she probably won't get another chance in the spotlight. I wish she'd done what one of the other designers suggested and created a crazy, visionary outfit that—and he didn't say this—would get her kicked off. Would it have been better to go down in a blaze of glory than to pack up her scissors and walk away quietly?

Jessica Grose: June! I was actually a tad disappointed at the lack of histrionics in Maya's exit. As a longtime watcher of reality TV, I expected a complete mental breakdown, a death in the family, or at least a mild illness to be behind her early departure. Instead, we just have her stone-faced with Tim, saying that her "vision" was not clear enough for her to proceed. Though there were no fireworks, I did believe her story. I think she made the right decision. And if Season 1 winner Jay McCarroll, who is now on Celebrity Fit Club, is any indication, the Project Runaway spotlight is no great shakes.

And anyway, Maya's leaving allowed Anthony to come back! What did you think about his return?

June: Well, it suits the show, since he brings much-needed sound bites in his ample wake. I wasn't knocked out by his garment—it felt pretty blahk-and-white to me—but that makes two "design for Heidi" challenges that he has won. (I know, his dress will be worn by Jessica Alba. That's a bigger deal than being worn by Heidi Klum, right?) Emilio works my last nerve—he clearly didn't get the modesty gene—but I have to admit that his dress was, as Michael Kors put it, impeccable. Boring enough to keep the focus on the person wearing it and beautifully made. It made me wonder why we don't see more dresses just like it on red carpets.

Jessica: I felt the same way about Anthony's dress! Maybe it looked fantastic in person, but the black and white looked blah to me on television. Agreed on Emilio's look, as well—it really fit his model perfectly. Jonathan's auf'ing was well-deserved. His dress looked like a Philip Lim after it had been torn apart and defaced by monkeys. After last week's "dirty tablecloth" fabric, it was clearly his time.

June: Defaced by monkeys or defecated on by monkeys? I was just relieved that he listened to Heidi's feedback about his precious cutwork technique. She said it made her think of curtains; I was reminded of my grandma's sofa. Either way, it was not going to work.

I will miss Jonathan's supremely expressive hair. Today he started with a big Hawaiian wave, but by the end of the show it was more like a question mark.

What do you think is going to happen to Anthony next? Mila has deserved an auf'ing for two consecutive weeks, but she's been kept around for affirmative-action reasons. I am now feeling like he's going to outlast her.

Jessica: Oh, lord, I hope that Anthony outlasts Mila! I am having trouble looking at her these days, her sour puss darkening my TV screen. Her dress this week was boring, and the fit was tacky. As Nina said, "It looked like something the Housewives of New Jersey would wear." But the fit apparently wasn't as bad as Seth Aaron's dress, which made Heidi sad. She said, "The cleavage isn't done in a way that looks glorious." And we know that one should always make Heidi's cleavage look glorious. To not do so is a crime against fashion and nature.

June: There were a lot of crimes against bangin' bodies this week. Michael Kors was more than a tad ethnocentric when he declared that no woman wants her butt to look big, but no woman wants to look like she's wearing Elizabethan pantaloons. Jay made the weird hip extenders, and he needed a lesson in how bras and breasts interface from Heidi. It just seemed weird that having now been around her for 11 weeks, none of the designers made anything that showed off Heidi's best assets—her titsets—all that well.

Jessica: I can forgive Seth Aaron for his gown, since he was told after he had already started making it that his model had booked a DKNY campaign and couldn't be there the day of the runway show. I liked his garment—a simple black dress with punk details—as it was coming down the runway, but when the models were standing there for judging, I thought it made his model look wide. This new model had a different body type, and since his fit has been so good in other weeks, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was thrown by the loss of his original model.

What did you think of guest judge Jessica Alba?

June: Ooh, good point on Seth Aaron. His dress didn't look good, and fit and styling has always been his long suit. The late substitution explains the lack of pop: He made it work, but it was never going to look spectacular on such a different body type. (It makes me smile a little to suggest that Cerri is anything but skin and bones, but it's all relative, I guess.)

I kind of fell in love with Jessica Alba. I didn't quite get why she got to do a silhouette-behind-the-screen entrance-—I can't remember any other guest judges getting an introduction more elaborate than a basic "sitting in the chair next to the picky Colombian lady is ..."—but she seemed both kind and discriminating. I love it when beautiful people act like there's any way they might ever get a little heavy around the hips or could go out for dinner with their husbands.

Where do you stand on the one-day challenge question? As much as I hate to agree with whiney contestants, it does seem ridiculous to give them so little time for a red-carpet challenge. What's the big hurry? Did Parsons need its classroom back or something?

Jessica: I'll bet because the challenge was so simple—design a red-carpet gown—not to mention rehashed (how many times have they designed for Heidi at this point?), the producers felt they needed to throw in the extra twist of time constraint to keep it marginally interesting. I, too, liked Jessica Alba's down-to-earth attitude, though I usually prefer a bit more sass in my guest judges. (Posh was the be-all, end-all of guest judges.)

So, what do you think is going down next week? They really are getting down to the wire. Though I hate to admit it, I think Mila's going to stick around. I'm calling a Mila, Emilio, Jay, Seth Aaron final four. If it's not a gown-based challenge, our sweet Anthony may not be long for this competition.

June: It's like choosing between prunes and chitterlings—except I love prunes, and although I've never had chitterlings, I'm a big offal eater. Neither Anthony nor Mila is going to win the competition, so I wish they'd just let them down gently instead of putting them both through another 28-hour stress fest. Plus, the late challenges are usually boring—big glamorous gowns instead of "make something fierce out of human hair, pig viscera, and a tartan fleece blanket."

Jessica: Maybe we can suggest a prunes and chitterlings challenge for next season. Or lemons and pigs' feet? Make it work, people!

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Postscript: Jessica and June discovered Maya Luz's Web site late last night. They've developed a new theory behind her departure.

Jessica: Maya is hawking these hideous S&M-themed “Ball and Chain” purses on her Web site.

June: Purses? WTF?

Jessica: Even worse: she describes her aesthetic as "Fashism.” You have to read the mission statement.

June: Are you sure it's not an April Fool's thing? Racial supremacy puns are always such a good idea for foolin'.

Jessica: This is what Maya says about “Fashism” in her Web site bio:

After a recent trip to Los Angeles, Maya created quite a buzz in the streets and boutiques of Rodeo Drive with her ‘Ball and Chain’ evening bag, which epitomize her most recent collection: Fashism, inspired by the fashion victim, and the manipulation of beauty. Plucking, tweezing, slicing and cutting have become the conceptual springboard from which Maya has created a unique style that reflects her personal take on the prevalent attitudes surrounding the beauty standard.

June: OMFG, she's a fetishist. I'm sure she'll go far. The handbags are heinous, but those photos are kind of hot in an “I need to seek therapy” kind of way. The sad thing is that she never made Heidi a top that was essentially a crepe bandage with some holes in it. I bet Heids would've loved it.

Jessica : It's not really that surprising that Maya has an S&M dark side. That precision bob she sports...

June: It's not. Everything falls into place now.

Jessica: Maybe she left Project Runway because she was missing her dungeon.

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 10

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters gather to dish about the show. This week, the designers had to design their own textiles and then create original looks using those textiles. Emilio Sosa was the winner; Anthony Williams was sent home.

David Plotz: Those PR producers certainly know how to suck the joy out of the show, killing off Amy and Anthony in consecutive weeks. Anthony's Southern Queen act had grown on me, and though he certainly wasn't getting anywhere near Bryant Park with his closetful of cocktail dresses, I don't see why we have to endure another week of doleful Jonathan or Mila the Underminer instead of his joyous self.

I loved this challenge, which did a nearly perfect job in separating the four excellent remaining designers from the three crummy ones. Maya, Seth Aaron, Jay, and horrid Emilio all designed spectacular prints and, except for Jay, extremely interesting outfits. Any one of the three finalists could have won. It is a testament to Emilio's skill that his dress overcame the wretched egomania of his autographed print. But I would have given the crown to Maya, whose dress was, as one of the judges said, like electricity. It was a summer lightning storm in a dress.

Jessica Grose: David, I, too, miss the Magical Elves, the production team they had for PR when it was on Bravo. It was never more apparent than during the first scene with guest judge Vivienne Tam, when they had this one awful voice-over from her shilling for Hewlett Packard and then a harsh cut back to her smiling idiotically.

Hanna Rosin: The HP shilling was OUT OF CONTROL this time. I thought maybe Tim Gunn was going to have HP tattooed on his eyelids by the end.

D: The product placement has gotten so out of hand that I am actually going to tout rival products, just to punish Lifetime. I love the way they designed those dresses on their amazing iPads, powered by AMD chips, and I thought that the Maybelline lipstick worn by Emilio's model was stunning!

H: I actually want to praise the editing of this particular episode. They did a good job of planting confusing hints about who was going to get kicked off, thus creating a little suspense. When we saw Seth Aaron call his (surprisingly normal-looking) family, I was suddenly worried about him. And then Jonathan was sweating and panicky throughout, while Emilio was getting all that bad feedback. I really wasn’t sure whom the gun was pointing at throughout.

D: The Seth Aaron phone call home was a neat bait-and-switch, but I knew it was going nowhere when they made it clear that it was his birthday, and thus deserving of a special phone call, and when Seth Aaron said something to the effect that he would drown his own children in Garnier Fructis conditioner if they interfered with him winning the show.

J: Back to the fashion: I also loved Maya's design, particularly the detailing at the neck. And while Seth Aaron's design was not to my taste, it was incredibly well-made and had a strong point of view.

H: Oh come on, Jess, I saw you sporting a yellow tie just the other day.

D: What did you guys think of Tim's rather cruel takedown of Emilio's print, especially his insinuation that it encoded Seth Aaron's initials? It was the rare moment when Tim looked like a jerk. For all his viciousness, Emilio didn't deserve the derision.

H: I thought the reaction to Emilio's dress was quite interesting. The dress itself was a great juxtaposition of graffiti and vintage cut. But I don't think it's just the garment that they were reacting to. I think they suddenly saw Emilio as a professional who knew how to market himself. Like suddenly they had a vision of ESOSA ripoff handbags being sold on 47th Street 10 years down the road

J: I completely agree that darling Anthony should NOT have gone home. Nina said Jonathan’s outfit looked like a "dirty tablecloth"!

D: Nina's reaction to Jonathan's dress was so striking because it was the only genuine emotion I think we have ever seen from her. You get the sense that Michael Kors and Heidi could be hacked to pieces in front of her and she would merely sigh. But she seemed genuinely heartsick at the fashion crime committed by Jonathan.

H: Let's just re-create the dialogue, because it was so painful and dada:

Nina: "I feel sad"
Jonathan: "Is sad not an emotion?"

J: I liked the 1950s horror movie tableau Michael Kors painted in reference to Jonathan’s disaster: "Your husband helps you back into your straight jacket."

H: Mila has gotten strangely lazy and self-satisfied, but now I bet she is starting to panic. I dread the next episode, because she was already in high evil mode this episode. Next week she will be stealing people's scissors.

D: Which one of the top four won't get to Bryant Park? Seth Aaron is a mortal lock. I think Maya will sneak in too, because they will want to keep a woman. Then it comes down to Emilio versus Jay, and that's tough. I suspect Emilio gets that third spot.

J: I choose Jay over Emilio for Bryant Park—Jay never completely misses, but remember Emilio's pink bikini/washer monstrosity?

H: I bet they let all four of them go.

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 9

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters gather to dish about the show. This week, the designers worked in pairs to create a look inspired by a New York City neighborhood. Emilio Sosa and Seth Aaron Henderson were the winners; Amy Sarabi was sent home.

Hanna Rosin: Theme for today's show: How hard do we have to push on the "Mila is awful" theme before the viewers actually start to feel sorry for her? Suddenly, we were all transported to fourth-grade kickball, where our deepest anxieties are realized when no one wants us on their team—and they are all talking to each other about it. And then they let Mila describe her aesthetic as punk rock and made her model do the embarrassing "I'm at an Ozzy Osbourne show" hand gesture. And, sorry, that jacket may have been nice and well-cut and all, but it was not punk rock. My mom would comfortably wear it.

June Thomas: It wasn't punk rock, but I have to say, I liked it. It did use her usual black-and-white lines, but instead of my usual response—"Oh, Mila, more color blocking?"—I just thought, "What a cool-looking jacket."

David Plotz: Even I wouldn't have saved Amy tonight. But she's still a gloriously decent person and a better designer than some of the remaining contestants. Because her work is so time-heavy, she always falls behind. 

HR: "Time heavy"? "She falls behind"? I'll tell your writers to use that as an excuse next time they miss their deadlines. She made a belted pumpkin dress—good to go with those clown pants, maybe. The judges had it right: She gets lost in her method and fails to envision the final result.

JT: Ooh, you're right, Hanna, they'd make a great ensemble! Perfect for the Crazy Town Carnival. It always speaks well of an auf'd designer when several of the survivors are reaching for the tissues when she departs. Heck, even Tim seemed positively bereft to see her go.

I could see the elimination coming when Amy laid out her pleats. It was a neat idea, reflecting the blocky architecture of the Upper East Side, but it was the clown pants fish scales all over again. Still, I'll miss her.

HR: This was a night for fabulous slivers. My two favorite details were those whiskers on Seth Aaron's jacket and then those red slits on Maya's skirt. Very classy. And I would wear Maya's jacket. That was lovely: the belt, the sleeves.

DP: Did you notice my favorite moment of the night? It came when Tim was instructing the contestants to use the Bluefly.com wall. He said, in a tone that seemed half-bored, half-aggrieved, "You know the drill on the Bluefly wall." At that moment, I felt how strongly Tim stands in for the audience. He is just as sick of the egregious, intrusive product shilling as we are! I wanted to take Collier Strong's fashionably bald head and rub it with sandpaper—and then tickle him to death with L'Oreal Paris mascara brushes. 

HR: But David, it's not just L'Oreal Paris. It's Studio Secret. And without it, how will I get professional results at home?

DP: If it's such a secret, should they really be talking about it on national television? Now everyone will know about it! 

I am still convinced that Emilio is a smug fraud. The great work on those winning designs belonged to Seth Aaron. Emilio made a very long and boring gown and handed Seth Aaron's model a yellow purse. 

HR: I go back and forth on Emilio. I think he's no good under pressure and threat of failure—he turns into a smug jerk. But he may be basically OK. And that dress had some things going for it—the zipper, the lining. It did not move quite as nicely as it should have, and it seemed to have a little too much material around the hips, but it was interesting. I have to say, though, it's getting harder and harder to judge in detail, because, as June pointed out last week, they barely show the clothes anymore. I wonder why that is.

JT: Tonight I was struck by Seth Aaron's dynamism. There was a certain usefulness in Emilio being there to apply the brakes to the creative freight train, but, yikes, he whipped up an amazingly well-fitting denim suit in the time it would've taken me to sharpen my pencil. As the judges pointed out, there was too much going on in the suit, but individually, all those little touches were genius. And it was the touches—the golden thread, the zippers—that brought the two outfits together so well. That's what won it for them tonight.

HR: Yes, fussy was out, speed was in. What we learned about Seth Aaron tonight is that he's fast and impatient as a designer, which turned out to be good.

DP: You know who deserves serious props? Jay and Mila. They hate each other. They have radically different design sensibilities. But they worked together like adults, without the drama Emilio wished on them. All of us, at some point in our lives, have to work with people we can't stand. We should all behave so responsibly. They, much more than Emilio and Seth Aaron, deserve the cooperation prize. 

JT: It was only when Anthony pointed it out that I realized how little Maya speaks. I wasn't crazy about the red panels in her skirt, but the top was lovely. I also loved Anthony's paper-lantern effect. It was evocative and astonishingly subtle for him. I think that they might have won if there had been any cohesion between the two looks.

DP: I loved the origami dragon, too. But Anthony has already won for doing a cool, three-dimensional shoulder detail. I don't think they could have given him a second victory for the same trick. 

JT: True, but it's not the first time Seth Aaron has made a tight suit with a bunch of details—though he didn't win for it before, which may be the difference.

HR: I must admit, I am utterly baffled by the idea of three-dimensional origami draped randomly over a black dress. I would never wear such a thing. It seems so art project to me.

As current and former New Yorkers, what did we think of the neighborhood stereotypes: glazed duck and dragons for Chinatown, posh bitch for upper East Side, weirdo in top hat for downtown, and then fried chicken and kooky old lady for Harlem. Were those acceptable? Why didn't they go to Brooklyn, damn it!

JT: Eh, the stereotypes are useful for when they sell the show to Mongolian state television. I was relieved and impressed that the designers didn't really use them in their designs, for the most part at least. I'm glad they didn't come to Park Slope, my Brooklyn neighborhood. The mind boggles to think how Amy would've incorporated a stroller into her look.

HR: A Bugaboo? No problem. They come in orange, and the hood billows out.

JT: You know what I loved best? Seth Aaron's oversized tartan tam o'shanter-meets-African-headwrap hat. Now that I'd wear.

HR: Would you wear it with only one chandelier earring, June?

JT: Yes, but only because I still can't find the one I lost in Amy's wig bag last week.

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 8

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters gather to dish about the show. This week the "Garnier challenge" was to design a look inspired by one of the elements. Jonathan Peters was the winner; Ben Chmura was sent home.

Hanna Rosin: I suddenly have a strong urge to rush out to the CVS and buy some Garnier Fructis. Anyone else feeling that?

June Thomas: For some reason, I want to go to Paris on a blue fly.

David Plotz: Ben made many mistakes tonight, but none more serious than his phone call to his husband. It's an automatic death sentence. It's like being the coed in the horror movie. The phone call signals weakness, an unwillingness to sacrifice everything—loved ones, children, the outside world—to fashion. Did Laura Bennett, the redhead with five kids, ever call home? I don't think so.

JT: We know Ben is big on comic-book heroes, and panties over pants work for Superman, but on his model, that jock-strap look was, as Heidi said, bizarre.

I was hyperventilating, worrying that Amy might be sent home. Sad to say, it would've been deserved. That horror of an outfit said absolutely nothing about fire. (In a challenge where all the designers seemed to resist an obvious interpretation of "their" element, Amy's was the least connected.)

HR: David was feeling that same panic. But jeez, you two. The clown pants. This totally bizarre wig bag. How many lives does a cat get?

JT: I know, I know. The judges were right: Amy gets too attached to a concept and she loses sight of beauty and elegance. I can't even try to excuse this week's weird effort. Well, let me try one thing: Why are we still having one-day challenges so far into the competition? With a little more time, she could've started over. Tight time constraints reward safe choices.

DP: If they had booted Amy, I would have withdrawn from this conversation in protest.

But even setting aside my crush on her, which grows stronger every week, I didn't think it was such an awful dress. It had a crazy, weird ambition. It certainly outpointed Anthony's tedious interpretation of charcoal, or Mila's Benetton outfit, or Emilio's literal-minded jungle.

HR: Well, to be fair, I feel that this challenge was Brüno-bait. Ask them to design based on the elements, and you will get back lots of strained fashion nonsense, such as "uncontrollable laughter" and "inside an explosion." Of course, this can wind up being sublime, but in this case, it didn't. This was definitely the worst crop on the runway so far. The ones that were interesting were really, really interesting, but the rest were a total mess. What did you guys think of Seth Aaron's leather manga wear?

DP: Leather manga—great phrase! I am not a big leather guy myself (nor do I like tickling), but Seth Aaron's leather thrilled me. He took a hard material and made it swoop and swing with energy. The swooshy shoulder details won the night.

JT: I wasn't knocked out by Seth Aaron's piece. A black leather suit with a monster bum flap to represent air—excuse me, midnight air? If you say so, man. It felt too hard to me, but I can't in good conscience put any of the other entries above it.

HR: I'm with David. I loved the way the light bounced off the leather in Seth's jacket, and the fabric moved in little waves. I was not so enamored of that shelf in the back; it seemed a little like carrying a toilet seat with you. But I forgive the high concept because the challenge was so high-concept.

JT: I would have sent Mila home this week. The stretched-out turtleneck and yoga pants were beyond boring, and the vest was just self-consciously off-kilter. I found her look unforgivably bland. Surely that's a worse sin than excessive conceptual ambition?

DP: Wasn't it odd the way they accused Maya of plagiarism? That ensures she won't win the whole competition and probably won't make it to Bryant Park. I don't know enough about fashion to know if it was a fair cop, but fair or not, it's devastating. That will stick to her. I bet that within three weeks they accuse her of making another too-derivative garment and bounce her. Which would be too bad, because she makes lovely clothes.

HR: I don't think they were implying a knockoff, the way Kenley stole that feather wedding dress concept from Alexander McQueen a few seasons back, although I'm not sure about that. I think they just meant an aesthetic similar to Nina Ricci's—structured dresses with airy ruffles.

JT: They should at least have shown us some of the Nina Ricci garments they thought had influenced Maya. It's bad television not to.

What did you think of Jonathan's win? He definitely had the best narrative. The romance of laughter is a lovely idea, and he did some great phrase-making—"laughter is transparent, and laughter envelops you"—but I wasn't that sold on the dress. Cerri looked washed-out to me.

DP: Both Hanna and I have nattered on about our mystification with one-sleeved dresses, so I won't revisit that. But even besides the one-sleevedness of Jonathan's dress, I just didn't see much to like (or dislike). On television—even in hi-def—it was very indistinct. Whatever magical details it had were not legible at 1,280 pixels.

HR: I quite liked Jonathan's dress. It did not translate well on television, but I think it was interesting to take pale and run with it, adding shades of rose and pink, rather than work against it. Having just seen The September Issue, I'm sold on Grace Coddington's romantic view of the world, and his dress would have fit perfectly into one of her shoots.

JT: I don't mean to whine about another timeless Project Runway trope, but when we're down to nine designers, surely there should be a little more time to linger on the garments on the runway. Do we need all those waking up at Atlas moments or worried looks in the workroom? I had to hit replay several times just to see the outfits.

HR: I agree, the setup for this show was particularly lame and unnecessary. Here are buildings! But you will be making the opposite of buildings! Plus, they gave hair guy way too much airtime, enough to get out the whole phrase "infused with the latest in beauty technology."

A question for you both: How do you think this Mila-Maya friendship will work out? Do you believe evil Mila when she says she'd be happy if Maya won?

DP: I believe nothing that Mila says, not even the and a.

JT: It is beyond pointless to complain about manipulation on reality TV, but that rivalry—or is it a friendship?—seems particularly manufactured. They look alike—and although the producers are kind enough to leave it unsaid, surely we're all thinking, "Wow, Mila could be Maya's mom!"—but their design aesthetics are totally different. Would Mila be happy if Maya won? I doubt she'd be happy if anyone else took the prize. But all this is just a distraction from the big event: Amy's elevation to design superstardom.

HR: You Amy snobs! Just because she's ethnic and nice. I'm switching to Jay's team.

JT: He's ethnic and nice, too!

HR: Maybe it's All About Eve, and Maya will have the last laugh.

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 7

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters gather to dish about the show. This week the challenge was to create an unconventional look from hardware materials, along with an accessory to complement and enhance the look. Jay Nicolas Sario was the winner; Jesse LeNoir was sent home.

June Thomas: Well, we got the challenge we had been wanting, something with unconventional materials that really pushed the designers to be creative ... but I can't say that I enjoyed it. Perhaps because I feel cheated about the elimination.

David Plotz: That was a travesty. I don't see how they could possibly allow Emilio to continue after that obscenity of a bikini. Nina obviously saved him, but why?

Hanna Rosin: Well unfortunately you can't kick people out for mild dishonesty or unpleasantness. If Emilio had only said: Well, I had this idea, and it didn't quite come together, so I rigged up this Valley of the Dolls slutsuit—in other words, if Emilio had been Anthony—we would have forgiven him. But instead he pretended that he had planned it that way all along.

What I found most unappealing about him is that he is one of those fashion snobs who insists on "sophistication."

DP: I was so moved by Anthony's corny, but totally apt, remark about Emilio's horror: "One thing that never goes out of style is making a woman look like a lady." This is why Anthony will be going home in the next two weeks, but it is a wonderfully humane sentiment, and it did capture the fundamental vileness of Emilio's look, which is that it was prurient trickery, trying to disguise its incompetence and lack of innovation with pure sluttiness. And that's why he should have gone.

HR: David, one nice thing about this season is how Anthony always comes through (as a personality, not as a designer). He walks that edge of being a gay mama's boy front-pew Georgia cliché, but then he always tips back into the genuine.

JT: I didn't feel like the judges were playing fair this week. Although I never expected Jesse to get very far, he has surprised me in the last few weeks by turning out some genuinely creative looks. Jesse's outfit had an interesting shape and a couple of nice touches. Emilio's ensemble was indecent. I couldn't bring myself to examine it too closely for fear of seeing the model's lady bits. Jesse was sent home because the judges didn't like that his clothes looked like hardware, but Emilio's washers and bolts? What were they but hardware? (And what was Emilio's accessory? As far as I could tell, other than a bolt on a string around her wrist, there was nothing to Emilio's look but a skimpy swimsuit.)

HR: But, June, other than that belted lady noir look from the kid challenge, what memorable thing has Jesse produced? He was one of the buzzed-about contestants before this season started, the Thurston Howell of the bunch. And he pretty much faded into the background. I do have the sense that Emilio—despite this hardware breakdown—is the more evolved designer.

JT: I've not been a fan of Jesse's—he was often unlikable. His pre-series buzz was that he didn't really belong—he was someone who wanted to be on a reality show rather than someone who wanted to be in fashion. Other than the Madeleine dress for the kids challenge and a couple of things that you saw only if you slowed down the super-fast runway shows, he was definitely middle of the pack. You're right that Emilio has a much better chance of being a real designer. All that said, I still think that Emilio should not be on the show after what he sent down the runway tonight. We know that contestants get booted from Project Runway for one bad garment. And that was a very bad garment.

DP: As always, the unusual materials challenge brought out the best in the best designers. Amy could easily have been a fourth finalist with her dignified sandpaper dress. (If Mila's skill is color blocking, whatever that is, Amy's is clearly building texture with layering—sedimentary dresses.) Jay's trash bags were gorgeous. Maya's necklace was the coolest thing I've ever seen. And even Jonathan and Ben made their copper beautiful.

JT: Jay's garbage-bags-to-leather trick was all the more miraculous because, as Heidi said, we've seen it tried before. In Season 5, Stella almost went home early because she couldn't work magic on trash bags. Jay did, though, and I loved seeing him make the fit work. (And what a sound bite his model provided when she told him, "If you need me to Crisco, I will.") Tonight, Jay solved a problem, and Emilio most certainly did not.

HR: Fashion-wise, I thought this was the highlight for this season. Jay's faux-leather outfit was amazing. Mila's kicky skirt was awesome. And I'll eat my hat if they don't start selling key necklaces on the streets of midtown Manhattan this summer.

JT: Tonight I was glad I didn't have to choose a winner: I loved all the top three designs, and I agree that Amy's sandpaper-and-grommets creation was gorgeous. She has a gift for finding subtly beautiful color combinations. (She does seem incapable of designing a garment with an even hem, however.) I also liked Maya's look—and I hate that she didn't get any perceptible reward for her fabulous accessory, a part of the challenge that was important enough that they put a jewelry designer on the judging panel ... until it didn't suit the storyline, and they forget all about it. Mila's dress felt costumey to me—at least in the bodice—and it was obvious that it was made of hardware store materials, but the skirt had fabulous movement. Her accessory was a joke, though. That wasn't a cuff. That was a tag stuck around her model's wrist.

HR: So disagree about the cuff. What a witty idea, to turn a mini metal sign into a bracelet. The key necklace was more beautiful, but the cuff showed a rare flash of humor.

JT: I admit that the color scheme was right. I guess I'm feeling a bit burned by the whole accessory challenge. We didn't even see most of the designers' accessories. What was Jay's? His braided belt?

DP: I have been watching American Idol for the past couple of weeks, and one striking difference between the two shows—which are in some ways very similar in their respect for virtuosity and hard work—is how obviously intelligent (in a verbal, smarty-pants way) the Project Runway contestants are. We heard so much witty cross talk this week—Anthony's quip, Emilio and Jonathan's riff on everyone being in the bottom 10, Jonathan and Amy joking about copper. PR contestants would make great dinner party guests, in part, I suppose, because so much of fashion is being able to tell a story about fashion.

HR: That's a great observation, David. I think it also has to do with the kinds of people who go into fashion and the kinds who become singers. Fashion people tend to have spent their adolescence as outsiders and oddballs—gay boy in an oversized family hiding in the closet sketching; girl who spends too much time alone in her room making collages. Singers, meanwhile, are the opposite types—showy, center of attention, popular, or at least desperate-to-be-popular types.

DP: You guys have not taken my question! Why did Nina save Emilio? What did she see there?

JT: I think Hanna is right that Emilio has done more in previous weeks (though not in the last two or three) to show that he has what it takes to make it in fashion. It cannot have been anything in tonight's design. Yes, the styling was bold, but that's because it was a smoke screen.

DP: If by "have what it takes to make it in fashion" you mean saying vicious things about fellow competitors, bragging unjustifiably about his own talent, and brazenly lying, I guess you're right.

HR: I also think Nina was seeing something there. Jesse pulled the oldest trick in the Project Runway book—throw out the word futuristic to explain away the Tin Man. Emilio's was indecent—and he was indecently humorless and dishonest about it—but it does take some kind of eye to combine aluminum washers with hot pink string.

But before I come close to defending Emilio, I want to remind us all that he described that look as "strong and sexy." That was really his final crime. Barbie and the Valley of the Dolls are many things, but strong and sexy are not among them.

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 6

Jessica Grose: This week was a big improvement over last week. Including children was a genius twist—the little buggers certainly were charming, especially Anthony's vampy wee one. The top designers are really pulling ahead of the pack: The tailoring on Seth Aaron's modish motorcycle jacket was impeccable, and the design on his kids outfit was whimsical and sweet. As you predicted last week, David, Janeane was auf'd, and good riddance to that Debbie Downer. Her "taste level" as the Proj Run judges often put it, was not up to snuff. Janeane is so down on herself that in her exit interview, she said: "I'm going to be international in the next two years. Not huge, but around." With that kind of attitude—not to mention her sub-pardesign skills—she is destined for mediocrity.

David Plotz: I knew Janeane was gone as soon as they showed her on the phone with her husband. That always telegraphs: I'm done.

I'm sure I can't be trusted, because I have a crush on her, but I thought the banishing of Amy to the bottom two was absurd. Her kid outfit was incredibly cute in all respects, and the petal clown pants were courageous.

June Thomas: I'm with you. I was mad at the judges for not respecting Amy's risk-taking. And I loved her kids outfit—it felt sophisticated andage-appropriate. And that's without noting some of the horror shows that thesafe designers snuck by the judges. Emilio has lost it for me. His kid's dress looked like a combination nightgown/communion dress, and the adult outfit that was supposed to "correspond" with it was straight-up hooker.

D.P.: Totally agree about Emilio, who seemed to have sized his ugly communion dress for a 10-year-old, not a 6-year-old. No daughter of mine would be permitted in Jonathan's scratchy yellow horror. Jay's outfit would be perfect for a little girl—a little girl who spends most of her time in S&M-themed wine bars.

J.T.: The ruffles on Jay's ensembles were technically impressive—I wanted to stare at them like some kind of optical illusion—but the colors felt way too dark.

J.G.: I agree about Amy's kids outfit! It reminded me of something from the now-defunct kiddie store Oilily. I thought the colors were vibrant and fun.

D.P.: I mostly loved the little girls, but the couture-ing of children is a generally repellent phenomenon. Whenever I see children tarted up in fashion magazines, I want to stick my daughter in a potato sack. I'm all for little girls dressing cute, but I hate the idea of indoctrinating them with fashionism. They will learn it in due time—why rush it? And why praise it?

J.G.: I don't think this was indoctrinating them with "fashionism." The majority of little girls like dressing up—this wasn't the tarted-up ickiness of Toddlers and Tiaras. These outfits were age-appropriate, and the girls appeared to be excited for the opportunity to prance down the runway, not as if they were pushed into expressing themselves.

BTW, Plotz, when I was 10, I coveted a pair of jeans shorts with brown leather fringe. Make of that what you will.

But back to the designs—I thought the way Jesse's designs worked together was quite clever, but good God, I hate his stupid hats and his untied bowtie. Does his little cap not make you want to punch him in the face?

J.T.: Until tonight, Jesse's only role in the show was to draw my hate. He comes across as a selfish, unserious person. But I have to admit, I'm a sucker for an untied bowtie. It's a look I'd sport myself if I were a little more confident.

Still, I liked his kids outfit, with its askew lines and the lovely gray and red palette. And all praise for the jacket, but I didn't like his adult look. It was poorly made around the bodice, and he seemed to use the same belt that Ben did last week—though I suppose there's only so much to choose from on the Bluefly.com Accessories Wall (TM).

J.G.: It would be adorable on you, June, and not raise my ire. Maybe it's just his smug, annoying face beneath the chapeau.

What did we think of guest judge Tory Burch? I thought her Quaalude delivery didn't add much to the proceedings.

J.T.: Tory Burch was a human-size dollop of prettiness sitting in the guest judge's chair, but she contributed nothing beyond that.

D.P.: Besides Amy, the dresses that meet my dress code were Mila's dress, which was dull but fine, and Jesse's (though I thought the adult outfit was slightly Nazi stewardess). Seth Aaron certainly deserved to win—I loved the watermelon-shaped pockets—though I personally am not a gigantic fan of little kids in hoodies.

J.T.: I loved the whimsicality of Seth Aaron's kids look, and I'm glad he won. I'm hoodie agnostic, but it did seem as if there was too much stuff bunched up around the back of his adorable model's head. All that fabric reminded me of the ultra-padded Olympic snowboarders uniforms.

D.P.: Curiously, though Janeane certainly deserved the boot, I didn't object to her sacky red kid's dress. It wasn't fashion, but a girl would look fine in it.

J.T.: There was absolutely no doubt that Janeane had to go, but her looks were inoffensive. Her adult jacket, the one that Michael said looked like a "home ec. Project," was far from the worst thing on the runway tonight. But Heidi was right: It's a design competition, and producing garments that women will look "fine" in is not the point of the show.

J.G.: I thought Kors was on fire tonight with the quips. I particularly enjoyed when he called Jonathan's models "Conceptual toilet paper twins."

D.P.: Jonathan's pitch-perfect imitation of Kors early in the hour inoculated me against the quips. Jonathan's mockery made it obvious how formulaic Kors' one-liners can be.

J.T.: Amen. Best Project Runway impression since Santino's Tim Gunn.

D.P.: We've barely mentioned what I think was the truly stellar design of the night, which is Seth Aaron's mod, fake-houndstooth, adult jacket. Wow that was cool!

J.T.: It was gorgeous, and he styled the hell out of his model. Her look was edgy but nothing that would scare the kids.

J.G.: Agreed! Best thing that's been on the runway all season.

D.P.: So over the years, P.R. has done moms, pro wrestlers, teenage girls, formerly fat ladies, heart disease victims, and now little girls. I am worried that there is only one place left to go next season ... dogs.

J.G.: They did dogs in Season 3. And drag queens.

D.P.: Oh, my God, you're right. Then it will probably be the homeless.

J.G.: Tyra's already done a homeless challenge on America's Next Top Model, so they'd be following in her big, brassy footsteps. 

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 5

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters will gather to dish about the show. This week the challenge was to design an outfit for Heidi Klum to wear on the cover of Marie Claire magazine. Anthony Williams was the winner; Anna Lynett was sent home.

David Plotz: I always thought those stories about the viciousness of fashion magazine editors were just self-serving industry propaganda, but apparently not: Guest judge and Marie Claire editor Joanna Coles was gratuitously derisive and cruel. Her cut of Mila—that her dress was "the color of hospital food" was just mean. 

That said, I am less and less impressed by these designers as the weeks pass by. Except for Ben's, whose bold kimono dress would have won my vote, the outfits were worryingly bad—a whole mess of mini-dresses cut an inch below the crotch! All that beige! Emilio's French maid in the boudoir dress—he seemed to have forgotten that red dress week was last week. 

Where did all the color go? Why did they all run away from it, except Ben and Anthony (and boudoir Emilio)? I think they heard Coles warn about black and assumed that type wouldn't show up on anything other than ecru. 

About Anna's and Janeane's outfits, the less said the better. I was hoping Heidi would take them both down at once and save us a week. Janeane obviously deserves auf'ing—why not get it over with?

June Thomas: Not that I want you to take any cues from Joanna Coles, David, but I loved the way she showed off her editor's eye, getting Emilio to whip out his scissors and hack at his dress to make it work the way she wanted it.

Hanna Rosin: I agree, June, but that kind of chilly self-confidence is terrifying. I bet by the end they weren't sure they wanted that cover.

DP: That was one of the greatest moments in Project Runway history. I disagree that it massively improved the dress, though I suppose it slightly diminished its underage-girl-gone-bad quality and made it just slutty. But I, too, loved seeing the action. Do you think they judged the dress as he sent it down, or the dress as they amended it?  

HR: I think they bristle when contestants refuse their advice, so they judged Emilio's dress post-snip. And in this case, they were absolutely right—it did look very Teen Beat with those tie shoulders, while without them it just looked Victoria's Secret, which, I suppose, is preferable. But overall I found that dress completely uninteresting, and the feat of making jersey go hard did nothing for me.

I think they keep Janeane because she is the necessary counterweight to Mila. They are at opposite ends in the spectrum of self-awareness. Mila has none, and thus is pleasantly, cluelessly evil, a stock type in reality TV who can't fathom why no one ever gives her a hug. A hundred bucks says she lives alone, like Kenley from Season 5, and has an overbearing father. Janeane, meanwhile, is crippled by self-awareness, incapable of sewing a stitch without dissolving into piteous self-doubt.  

JT: "Hospital food" is an odd British obsession, by the way. (Young hooligans often ask each other, "Do you like hospital food?" Followed, inevitably, with, "Because that's what you'll be eating when I'm finished with you.") Nina pointed out the bigger problem with Mila's dress: The color blocks acted like a giant arrow pointing at the crotch. On the plus side, that dress was one of the few to show even a bit of cleavage.

One of the things that bothers me about PR contestants is how clueless they sometimes seem about the basics of the industry they supposedly want more than anything to break into. About half the designers seemed never to have seen the cover of a fashion magazine before, much less that of Marie Claire. And worst of all, they didn't seem to know much about the woman they were designing for. Heidi Klum has been on Project Runway for seven seasons now, and every week she wears short, figure-hugging dresses (who can blame her), usually in strong colors. And yet when tasked with designing an outfit for her to wear on a magazine cover, several of them turned out pale, flouncy numbers that were totally un-Klum.

DP: That seems a very finicky form of criticism. The show is not supposed to pick the most knowing insider. It's supposed to give everyone a chance. Plus, aren't the judges always saying: You're the designer—you can't design just to please the client. They were giving their "point of view"—which happened to suck, but whatever.

JT: I disagree. The show positions the contestants as people who want to work at the highest levels of the fashion industry, not in a mall show. These would-be designers who don't know magazines and design styles are like wannabe journalists who don't read. They have to know trends, they have to be aware of other collections, and they see that stuff in fashion magazines.

HR: It's not so relevant whether they are insiders or not. Mean Joanna instructed them before the challenge on the basics of a cover outfit. And more than half of them completely ignored her advice. If they were her assistant, they would definitely be fired.

DP: What did you think of Anthony's winning dress? I didn't get it. But I think men are constitutionally incapable of understanding dresses with one shoulder strap. Two straps, I get. No straps, I get. One strap? It upsets my sense of physics. And symmetry. 

HR: Well, you can't help but hope for the best for Anthony. As a person, he is like his dresses: costumey and overdone. And I was sure this would turn out to be another garish mother-of-the-bride thing. but then somehow those folds fell exactly right. 

JT: I was shocked at how well Anthony's dress turned out. It was looking messy and a bit hopeless when Tim Gunn went through the workroom, but the color was perfect, and the Frank Gehry-like structure wasn't garish or costumey, just interesting.

Of the other top men, I liked the length of Emilo's dress, but that was about all. And as Joanna Coles pointed out at the beginning, in all likelihood it would be cropped anyway.

I've been enjoying Ben's pieces so far this season (though mostly in the screen captures on Tom & Lorenzo's blog—since this was his first time in the top or bottom three, it's the first time we've really had a chance to stare at his work). He's very superhero-influenced. I loved the colors, but a) someone needs to tell him that Madame Butterfly is a tragic character, not really someone you want Heidi to channel (unless she's going to kill herself as the photographer takes the last shot); b) he needed to show a bit more cleavage; and c) that big chunky belt was heinous.

HR: Disagree! I loved the belt. Without it, this would have been much more Wonder Woman. And I liked the idea of Heidi as superhero. I vastly preferred his dress over Anthony's, but it was much more my style than hers. What did you guys think of Seth's bullet suit?

JT: Seth's S&M suit seemed wrong for the challenge. I could imagine Heidi wearing it at a fetish night somewhere, but not on the cover of Marie Claire. It might work for Mistress May I Monthly, though.

DP: One more word about Anna: Has any designer in the entire history of humankind, ever designed a pair of shorts that looked good? 

JT: I can't recall any special shorts—Mychael Knight made a pair on Season 3 that the judges oohed and aahed over, but they just looked like a saggy too-short pair of shorts to me. Like sad Anna's.

Any theories about Jonathan's negligee? Again, clueless; totally wrong for the magazine and the subject.

HR: Oh God, the romper. He even described it as a romper, the idiot. That's so spring 2009, or so infant 1899.

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 4

After each episode of Project Runway's seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters will gather to dish about the show. This week, the challenge was to design a signature dress for Campbell's "adDRESS your heart" program, and the clients were women whose lives "have been impacted by heart disease." Amy Sarabi was the winner; Jesus Estrada was sent home.

David Plotz: Can we just pretend that episode never happened? All that shiny red fabric. All that crass-even-by-reality-TV-standards shilling for Campbell's. All that phony do-goodism. And then all those extremely ugly dresses. Give me burlap any day. 

June Thomas: Amen, brother. I just feel bad that this week's Project Runway was pre-empted for an hourlong Campbell's soup commercial. There were too many elements to the challenge—the dress had to be suitable for a fancy gala, be predominantly red and incorporate the Campbell's logo, and, as they mentioned so many times, the designers were working with "real women." (As wonderful as those real women no doubt are, I gained a new appreciation for the way the emaciated professional models make clothes look great.)

Hanna Rosin: I actually had hopes for this one. Remember a few seasons back when they did the shameless promo challenge at the Hershey's store? That produced some of my favorite dresses ever, made of layered candy wrappers and licorice. The problem here was that they weren't shameless enough. They should have gone Andy Warhol on them—made them incorporate actual tin cans and limp noodles.

JT: Hanna, you're making me wish Ping was still around. She could've made a kick-ass tin-can dress.

HR: After the endless reminders that these were "real women," I wasn't sure if we were supposed to pity them more because they had heart disease or because they were "real," which in fashion just means fat, right?

DP: The real women Campbell's chunky soup challenge. Rearrange those words as you see fit. 

I will say this for the real women: They do reveal which designers can't actually, uh, design. That thing--that extra-wide load thing--that Anna sent down the runway was evidence that she and her wispy la-di-da pretty face need to go home. She can't make a dress. 

JT: I would love to pick a fight with you, David, but I agree completely. Anna's dress was the opposite of flattering. I would've sent her home before Jesus--sure, his tacky little number looked like something from the opening ceremonies of the Sex Worker Olympics, but it fit and it was flattering, which is more than could be said for Janeane's, Anna's, or the really vile ensemble from this week: Jesse's shiny white majorette jacket and paneled skirt

HR: I think disease is a real problem for reality television, because it sucks the life out of the show. Deep in their hearts, the designers were pissed that they had to design for these frumpy non-famous post-ops. But because they had "heart disease," nobody could say that. So, except for one bitchy Mila comment about her model being a "really tough fit" (again, fat), the episode was a dud.

And did Jay actually say, "I've never met anyone in my life who died"?

DP: Be fair. He did caveat it: "I've never met anyone in my whole entire life who died and came back to life." 

June, what are the events at the Sex Worker Olympics? And will it be carried on NBC? Actually, in their horrific bloody red ugliness, a lot of these outfits could pass for genuine Team USA Olympic uniforms. 

JT: Let's just put it this way: If Jesus' model had carried a tray of drinks in one hand and a pingpong ball in the other, she couldn't have looked any trashier.

Did either of you see anything that you liked tonight? I agree with the win—Amy did manage to create movement and elegance, but it was still a pretty boring design. Other than Jonathan's silk layer cake of a dress, which stood out mostly because he eschewed bright scarlet, the others all seemed ugly.

DP: I disagree about Jonathan's, which, except for being eggplanty rather than bloody, was bad wedding-store dress. I liked Mila's star-spangled fire engine. I worry that Mila is going to poison Amy before next week's episode, but I still think she's the best designer they've got.

I wasn't gaga over Amy's winning dress, but I am gaga over her. It's been a long time since there has been a PR contestant I really liked. Amy has a dignity and charm about her. It may not win her the competition against ax murderess Mila and quietly vicious Emilio, but I am all in for her. 

JT: Ugh, I hated Mila's dress. The story of the stars—the classic Campbell's branding elements—was great, but the dress itself was horrid. Those puckered old stars made me weep for old glory.

HR: I think they can't kick Anna out for the same reason they can't complain about the heart disease patients. It's like kicking a puppy. (And they can't ever kick Janeane out, because she will threaten to jump off the roof of Mood.)

I have become kind of interested in Emilio, though. He's been offstage since the first episode, but he's been amping up the bitchiness at an alarming speed. I feel like they are preparing us for an Emilio showdown. But I'm not sure with whom.

DP: Janeane and Anna remind me of the girls I tried desperately to avoid dating in college. And Maya reminds me of the girls I tried desperately to date. And Mila—a grown-up Maya—is a very useful reminder of how lucky I was that the Mayas wouldn't date me. 

HR: So, David, am I an Amy or a Maya?

DP: You are a total Amy!

Previous chats: Weeks 1, 2, 3

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 3

After each episode of Project Runway’s seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters will gather to dish about the show. This week, the first part of the challenge was to create a high-end, signature look in teams of two inspired by 10 iconic outfits at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute. The second part of the challenge was to create a mass-market look for less inspired by another team’s signature look. Mila Hermanovski was the winner. Ping Wu was sent home.

Hanna Rosin: I have to say, I am a total sucker for team challenges. They are bad for the fashion but excellent for tension and drama. The looks—with one exception —were pretty forgettable. And that second challenge was kind of pointless and messy. But this episode produced some of the best lines of the season so far: "I'm just trying to rein in the crazy" (Jesse on Ping) and "We're designing for the vice president of McDonald's” (Anthony).

David Plotz: I totally disagree with you, Hanna. We've seen exactly this episode of P.R. a dozen times before. There's the team leader whose ego is too big. The team leader whose subordinate is relentlessly, systematically undermining her. There's the team where one person can't sew. Oh, and then there's the "surprise" second challenge, which is supposed to come as a shock to everyone but is just as formulaic. If we wanted to see how reality teamwork is supposed to work, we should have tuned into the season premiere of America's Best Dance Crew over on MTV. I caught a few minutes of it, and enjoyed the team spirit—and the fashion—a lot more than I enjoyed tonight's P.R. episode.

H.R.: Well, we've also seen Nina Garcia do her little wave 100 times, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. And we've never seen the team challenge where the lady named after a tabletop game falls apart at the hands of Thurston Howell. Also, weren't you touched by Seth? What a gentleman not to sell out Anthony, when it was clear he had nothing to do with those looks. Makes me think he gets high a lot and preserves a permanent mellow.

Jessica Grose: I am somewhere in the middle between Hanna and David—I thought the episode was more sparky than the premiere but less interesting than last week's burlap-sack challenge. I knew it was going be a magnificent disaster when Ping said into the camera, with a straight face, "I am very good at giving clear instructions." However, I wish they had made more use of the Met, which has so many better sources of inspiration. It's a frickin’ art museum! I don't know why they're being painfully literal this season—make a dress out of a burlap sack! Design clothes that are inspired by ... other clothes! I wasn't even very impressed with the winners—but more on that later. What did you think about the rest of the clothes?

D.P.: Maybe it's how everything was filmed, but I thought this was an indistinct, blah bunch of outfits without a surprise in the bunch. (But let me just take a quick bow. After Episode 1, I predicted Ping's ejection in Episode 3.) And you're right, Hanna. Though I continue to wish Anthony back to the dinner theater he has escaped from, his McDonald's line was one of the funniest moments in Project Runway history.

Mila's victory was deserved, don't you think? She's a festering, vicious, open sore of a person, but I sympathize with her. I'm turning 40 this weekend, and seeing her, at 40, looking as if she's a billion years older than the young hottie designers (Maya, Amy, annoying Janeane) really makes me root for her. And she's a hell of a designer. I love the way she always uses a flash of color to line the inside of her pieces.

J.G.: I have to disagree with you, David—strongly! I hated Mila's look. I thought it was reminiscent of a German street sign, and it reminded me of a dress that Kara Janx made in season 2 of P.R. that was inspired by “no trespassing” tape. Mila and Jonathan’s look for less made their model look like a pregnant teenage hooker.

H.R.: I understand the appeal of Mila's jacket, "sportswear-inspired," etc. But it was not a museum piece. And she is such a consummate underminer. I'm waiting for the day she has her Wintour-inspired fit.

I preferred Maya's skyscraper on the shoulders, and their second look was quite nice. In general, I thought this episode was heavy on jargon, maybe to make up for any instinctively pleasing looks—"signature," "multifunctional," "hard and soft," "luxury and fashion-forward." Also, I think the money threw them off—they had $500 to create their signature look. Designing on the cheap seems to give them a sense of urgency and freedom. This time they were weighed down.

D.P.: That sinuous, eel-like shoulder of Maya and Jay's dress was a highlight for me, too. So was Amy and Jesus' jigsaw puzzle dress and Mila's jacket. Everything else left me unimpressed. And a shocking number of looks gave the models big asses.

J.G.: I was really bowled over—as Nina Garcia was—by Maya and Jay's look for less. I thought the pleating on the bodice was miraculous.

D.P.: Before we go, I wanted to mention a new deplorable trend: Talking models. The emergence of Models of the Runway is really messing up P.R., since the girls now seem to feel they are integral to the show, not just decoration. Last week they were the clients. This week, Ping's model sassed. Next week it will probably be Freaky Friday, with models and designers changing jobs.

H.R.: I have a different pet peeve that's been bugging me all season: the endless hugs. It used to be they hugged each other only when someone got kicked out. Now they've lowered the hug bar. They hug all the freaking time. I don't know whether it's gay Anthony; or whimpering, needy Janeane; or stoner Seth. But they are always hugging. Is this increasingly true on all reality shows, and I just never noticed?

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 2

After each episode of Project Runway’s seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters will gather to dish about the show. This week, the challenge was to make a party dress out of burlap sacking. Jay Nicolas Sario was the winner, and Pamela Ptak was sent home.

Hanna Rosin: Now that's a Project Runway. A fantastic challenge, executed in many interesting and surprising ways. A little bit of hating and drama. Ass flaps and a flash of nipple. Plus, I think they made the wrong decision on both sides, which always gets me exercised. But before I get critical, didn’t you both think that was the best challenge in a long, long while? 

David Plotz: I totally agree. Those were stunning dresses tonight, and so environmentally friendly. It was locavore fashion, consuming low on the food chain.

June Thomas: I wish it had been one step further from "make a pretty dress," since it was basically "make a pretty dress in a difficult fabric," but I agree that it led to some gorgeous garments (and a few monstrosities). And it was worth it to see Tim Gunn's full-body shudder when Jay did a cartwheel in the muddy field.

H.R.: What do you mean, one step further? Isn't it always effectively make a pretty dress? That was burlap, for God's sake, as old as Moses, as Emilio said. And it produced a handful of amazing dresses in many shades.

J.T.: I like an unusual materials challenge, but I prefer it when they have to make a beautiful garment out of something that isn't fabric—like groceries or parts of a car. One definite upside of the challenge was that the material took dye so well—some of the colors and effects were truly spectacular. I really loved Amy's petal effect, for example. The trick of making a really sophisticated look from a very basic fabric was a good one, but I wanted to see them braiding fronds that they grabbed from a florist’s stall or the sweepings from a hairdresser's salon.

D.P.: Michael said of Mila's dress, "The boys will like it," and speaking for the boys, I certainly did (though I found the repeated blurring of the model's right nipple irritating). Mila has the potential to become reality-TV royalty. Her apparently vast talent is inextricably knotted to a seething, passive-aggressive fury. Did you catch that moment, after her model abandoned her for Anthony, when she hissed at him, "It's funny she would pick you over me." Anyone who says "it's funny" like that is someone who would push you under a truck. Yet that very reservoir of rage must drive her, because she certainly made a knockout dress.

H.R.: Oh, David, you are so harsh. A girl needs to process. It's humiliating, having your half-starved, no-talent wench of a model leave you standing out there in the hayfield, the wind whistling past. She had to take it out on someone.

J.T.: At first, I thought that Mila was wasting energy stressing out about something a model had done (and taking it out on Anthony was smart if you're "playing the game" and messing with your opponents' heads, but it’s not at all fair—Anthony hadn't done anything to make Mila's model bail), but I agree, it helped her get to her rageful place, which is apparently where her creativity resides.

D.P.: And it sure didn't hurt Anthony, whose red dress was a legitimate contender for the top three, I thought.

A moment about my favorite dress of the night. Amy's burlap flower was incredibly brave. It made the fabric do all the work. And the dye job—a frame of black, fading into a mist of brown, fading into the tan burlap—mesmerized me. That was the coolest bit of work of the night.

J.T.: I also would've given the nod to Amy for the petals, the subtle styling on the halter straps that Lauren Hutton pointed out, and the way she made this very stiff fabric seem soft and flowy. I was not as wowed as the judges were by Mila's look—there sure was a lot of burlap covered up on that dress. Of course, it was tight, short, and shiny, which are Heidi's three favorite qualities in a garment. Jay's feathers did nothing for me—partly, I think, because his dye job was so dark, so the fiddly bits really didn't show up well on television.

Seth's hooded dress was exquisite. And I speak as someone who does not care for his self-presentation (though his hair was less offensive this week). I know I shouldn't be so affected by the way the designers dress themselves on the runway, but I can't help it. I loved Jonathan's vesty look—very Simon Baker in The Mentalist—and Jesus' bow-tie was adorable.

H.R.: I'm with you on Seth and Amy. Especially Amy. I was way more impressed by her ability to transform burlap into something flowy and subtle than by those tedious black feathers. And you have perhaps hit on why they did not kick out Jesus—that cute baby Elvis meets Pee-wee Herman look.

I'm still a little puzzled about why the judges are giving Ping such a wide berth. That was a tedious, ill-fitting dress. And the model's crack was showing, a fact the camera emphasized several times. Is it just the comic relief? Or is there some potential there?

J.T.: Ping not being sent home for that garment is one of those decisions that makes me doubt the integrity of the competition. That skirt was an abomination. I am grateful for the new insult "ass flap," but I don't ever want to see another. That was not "edgy," as one of the judges suggested; it was ugly, amateurish, and ugly again. (And her model was an idiot to stick with her—she had the chance to go with another designer, and she should have.) It must be producer manipulation. Next week is a team challenge, so the producers knew that whoever was paired with Ping would be in for a whole world of drama. I can see no other reason to keep her.

D.P.: It is mysterious that they booted Pamela Ptak (I just like writing her name), when they could have booted the ass-flashing nursery-school project that Ping made, or the second astonishingly tedious dress from Jesus. Incidentally, Jesus has now referred to himself in the third person two weeks in a row, which is in itself justification for expulsion.

J.T.: Third-personification apart, what did you think of the judges' critique of Jesus' dress? It's legitimate to ding him for covering up too much burlap, but I thought they were wrong to say that his dress was "mundane and matronly" and to complain about the colors. Maybe he used too much ribbon, but I thought it looked great—the undulating layers of that beautiful green color really popped against the brown. It felt very painterly to me.

H.R.: Jesus is not going to rise to the occasion, designing as he does for his mom's friends. His future is at the neighborhood hair salon. I felt the same about the winner. I understand the value of the trickery—making burlap look like feathers. But the final result was not all that interesting—not nearly as edgy as Mila's, or as nice as that pair of red dresses, or even that bitchen Red Riding Hood get-up from Seth.

D.P.: Seth. I'm beginning to hate that guy. Did you catch his snigger at Ping's bare-ass dress?

H.R.: Also, the dude wears nail polish. David, could you ever love a man who wears nail polish?

J.T.: I would've kept Pamela over Ping, but the ass-magnification powers of Pamela's dress were spectacular. Too. Much. Butt. And I know she was very proud of producing a color that evoked denim, but many of the other contestants created more interesting shades.

H.R.: Well, June, you can't complain about Pamela's dress and forget what Michael Kors said about Jesus' dress. Too. Much. Butt. juxtaposed with No. Butt. At. All. The colors were fine by me, but I hated that ass-ymmetry. Especially on the back side.

JT: I was not in love with the back of Jesus' dress. All that focus on the zipper was a very bad idea.

D.P.: Not to reveal my mannish ignorance too much—keep in mind that I did not know the difference between a skirt and a dress until I was 21 years old—but what the heck is hambre or ombre or hombray? And why were we supposed to be so impressed that Ptak was ptakking it?

H.R.: Well, hombre. It's o-m-b-r-e. And here's a video demo. It's sort of like making Jell-O, and then dipping fabric in it. I've tried it before, but I ended up with colors nothing like those nice reds and grays.

D.P.: Is it too early for us to predict our top three for the season? I don't think so. I have my money on Amy, Emilio, Mila, and Seth. You ladies care to join me?

H.R.: Uh, that's the top four, David. Harder to pick three. I'll knock Mila off your list, since Tim Gunn complained about having too many women last time.

J.T.: My ridiculously early pick for the top three would be Emilio, Seth, and Amy. How spooky that we all predict the same Fashion Week finalists, but remember, there are lots of designers whose work we really haven’t seen yet.

Previous chats: Week 1

Click here to comment on this post.

Project Runway Post-Show Chat, Week 1

After each episode of Project Runway’s seventh season, a gaggle of Slatesters will gather to dish about the show.

June Thomas: The first week of Project Runway is always a bit of a blur. The producers have to introduce 16 designers—and get them down the runway. That doesn't leave a lot of room to signal who's the kook, who's the no-hoper, and who's the bitch. But this episode was particularly turbo-charged, and it was great.

There was a lot less of the manufactured suspense that we're used to having in the announcement phase. Instead of a lot of shots of Heidi looking sadistic and the contestants looking nervous, Heidi just announced the winner (congratulations, Emilio Sosa), and a minute later, it was “auf Wiedersehen, Christiane King.”

Hanna Rosin: I have to say, I could have used a little more tension. As a challenge, "make a dress that reflects your design aesthetic" was a little flat, the equivalent of my editor telling me, "Write something." It's as if, after the disaster of last season, they have to remind us of the original formula, "make it work" and all.

That said, they did wring some drama out of Janeane Marie Ceccanti and Seth Aaron Henderson. She is like a walking Abilify commercial, and you can't imagine her making it through the season. Her outfit was also utterly forgettable, practically institutional.

Seth was the surprise of the evening. The whole episode I was trying to pin him down. Is he Pirates of Penzance? Vegas lounge lizard? Dan Zanes? It never occurred to me he would make a fine dress. Did you guys like the dress, by the way? The back was lovely, I thought, but the front was straight out of the Delia's catalog.

David Plotz: June and my beloved wife, Hanna, I'm honored if a little scared to be permitted to bring my Y chromosome to this discussion. Lifetime's commercials—vitamins specially formulated for women, weight-loss pills for women, calcium for women, cereals for fat women, hair-care products for women, based-on-a-true-woman’s-story movies (The Pregnancy Pact!) suggest that I am not Project Runway's target audience. But if Slate can have three women write about Friday Night Lights, it can certainly allow a guy into the Project Runway conversation.

Seth's gingham milkmaid hooker dress didn't interest me as much as his architectural hair, which was not even the most vertical of the Season 7 men’s, suggesting we have finally reached the grim cultural moment when men spend more time on their hair than women do. 

Heidi, who seems to be a one-person pregnancy pact (what is this, her fourth kid?), seemed a little more robotic than usual in the premiere. She's surely bored with saying exactly the same thing week after week, season after season, and I felt like her boredom was showing. I don't know how many more seasons they can do with exactly the same formula, same words, same catchphrases, same everything.

J.T.: David, I think it can go on forever as long as they sign up talented contestants and the judging makes sense. After all, we tried change last season, and look how that worked out.

I did not think that Seth deserved to be in the top three, but perhaps that's because I'm sad that the judges like him. One look at the way he styles himself—I swear his runway outfit made him look like the ringmaster in a satanic circus—and I immediately took against him. But every reality show needs someone viewers love to hate. (I did like the back of his dress, well, other than that monstrous red zipper. I hated the fabric, though. It read very old-lady to me.)

Let's talk about the winners and losers. In every Week 1, only six of the contestants count: the top three and the bottom three, whose dresses we actually get to see for more than a millisecond. The rest are just extras.

I was glad Emilio won. He seems like a nice guy, but most important, he made a beautiful dress that was lovely to look at and showed off his technical skills. It was another short challenge, which is something I don't care for in general—would it kill the producers to give the designers enough time to think and to make properly finished garments?--but it did separate the contestants. In just over a day, Emilio managed all manner of braiding and appliqué and complicated inlays. The dress looked like something young women would want to buy, but it also had an expensive, high-end look. In fact, it was one of my all-time favorite Project Runway dresses.

D.P.: Totally with you on Emilio. Loved the dress. The other designer I wanted in the top three was Anna Lynett, the artist who made that very sunshine-y cute dress.

H.R.: June, you say only the top and bottom three matter. But I thought there were some real doozies that got away. Jay Nicolas Sario—one of three people on the show to refer to himself in the third person—had that dress with poof-balls stuck on it, an homage to paint-ball victims everywhere. And right after that came Pamela Ptak's pink flying nun. Those two definitely stuck with me. 

J.T.: At the bottom of the pack, I would have been fine with any of them going home.

The judges were right about Jesus Estrada’s dress—not sexy, not fashionable, dated—but I kind of liked the chiffon train. Anthony Williams was safe because he brought the sound bites—“I’m sweating like a Baptist preacher”—and made a naked appeal to demographics when he described himself as "black and gay in the ghetto" and started ragging on the Miss America pageant. But he got the worst note that the judges can give: They questioned his “taste level.”

D.P.: I am already over Anthony, who seems like a character in a canceled sitcom. Ping Wu, too, is going to wear out her welcome soon; she’ll probably be auf'd by Episode 3. I'm most looking forward to either the success or failure of Type A egomaniac supervillain Pamela Ptak (who probably fired the other vowels in her last name just to keep the "a" in line). Her pink dress, with its gasp-inducing absence of a back, had the odd effect of making her model look simultaneously naked and fat.

J.T.: Ping is clearly this season's wacko—and although I can't see her lasting too far into the show, she's interesting and amusing, and she certainly has a point of view.

H.R.: I was sure that Ping was going to end up like Elisa, that yoga freak from Season 4 who spit on her fabrics. Especially after she started dancing in front of the mirror and giggling into her wrist like a Japanese teenager. And that weird tea cozy head thing? Her outfit did not translate on TV at all. It was impossible to discern its construction; it could have been strung together by that single suspender for all I know. But then the judges decided it had a kind of eccentric Rei Kawakubo charm and declared her the artiste of the show. To me, it was a lesson on the arbitrary nature of taste. It really could have gone either way.

J.T.: I totally thought of Elisa the spitter when I saw Ping. Despite being the contestant who appears to have the least-developed command of English, she spun a good story about her clothes. That always wins over the judges—and it does feel like a necessary talent for someone who wants to be a "real" designer. High fashion can be very conceptual. If you can conjure a whole world for your clothes to fit into, you can get around that whole "wearability" question.

H.R.: Yes, June, but isn't that where Brüno comes in? ("My collection is all about stones and hopping toads ...") And remember what happened to Malvin the egg man from last season? He was high concept, too.

J.T.: Christiane was the first person to be kicked off the show. Her dress was just too generic (and the blue fabric was garish—that old "taste level" thing again). Project Runway is a tough place for black women—I'm still feeling bad about Korto’s fate in Season 5—but Christiane’s outfit was boring and badly made, and that should earn you a ticket home.

H.R.: I have to bring up the subject of ethnic hierarchies on the show. They do seem to prefer the Persians. The woman who sewed my wedding dress was a Persian seamstress, so I understand it’s in the blood. But the show seems to accord the Persian women a certain authority and respect. Other ethnics, meanwhile—Ping, Anthony, Jesus—are played for comic relief. 

Click here to comment on this post.

Project Runway: We Have a Winner!

"It'll be better next time" is a phrase that rarely brings the reassurance the speaker intends, but it's the best thing that can be said for Project Runway. The book is now closed on Season 6, which was beset by legal problems, second-rate contestants, uninspired challenges, inconsistent judging, absent judges, too many one-day contests, and the wrong venue. Let's pretend it never happened and hope that Season 7, back in New York and with Michael Kors and Nina Garcia guaranteed to be on hand for all the challenges, will induce a case of selective amnesia.

But first, the formalities: Thursday night brought the second part of the finale (and someone needs to tell the folks at Lifetime that "finale Part 1" is like "a little bit pregnant"—it is or it isn't the finale), and there was only one question left unanswered: Who would win? The collections had been out there since the Bryant Park shows back in February, and Tim Gunn had explained the meltdown shown in Lifetime's promos for the finale in a fabulous interview with the Los Angeles Times. After an avalanche of faint praise (Nina Garcia, "I thought they all put a lot of time and effort into their collections"; Heidi Klum, "It really looks finished"), Heidi named Irina Shabayeva this season's winner.

Despite Irina being the clear favorite going into Fashion Week, her victory was by no means assured. The judges praised Althea's coolness and her talent for connecting with "the street." They enjoyed Carol Hannah's impeccable draping and tailoring and her willingness to play with color (at least in comparison with the others—the whole show was like a scene from Pleasantville). What won it for Irina was that her collection was the most cohesive. Too cohesive, perhaps—every single garment was black, which doesn't photograph well. As Nina Garcia observed, "It gets very little editorial, black." Still, Irina had a story—"My collection is all about New York. ... What it takes to survive in this city as a woman. It's about comforting and shielding yourself"—and she paid attention to detail. She was the only designer who had made hats to accompany her looks, for example, and, overall, her pieces looked as if they belonged in Bryant Park rather than at a high-end fashion show in a suburban mall.

Still, there is one unresolved issue. As Tom & Lorenzo, the kings of Project Runway commentary, revealed earlier this week, the T-shirts that garnered Irina so much praise weren't exactly all her own work. The slogans were copied from "Reasons To Love New York," a December 2008 piece in New York magazine.

Oh, Gucci, maybe Season 6 isn't over yet after all.

Previous Project Runway Recaps: Week 1, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12

Click here to comment on our Project Runway recaps.

Project Runway, Week 12: The Final Challenge

The final challenge involved a trip to the J. Paul Getty Museum, where the designers were told to create a look using the Getty Center as inspiration.

Only three of the five remaining contestants could go on to Fashion Week in Bryant Park, and they didn't make the judges' jobs easy. John William Godward's sexy 19^th-century painting "Mischief and Repose" inspired Irina to create a dowdy below-the-knee dress in what looked like sea-foam crepe; an ornate French bed led Carol Hannah to design a full-length gold gown; and the Getty's architecture drove Althea to produce a pleated-pattern skirt that, according to Tim Gunn, looked like "a panel of puckering." Nevertheless, they won the right to show 12 designs in New York.

Christopher stared at some algae-spotted rocks and conjured a garment typical of his style: a cute top paired with an unnecessary corset and an absurdly heavy stiff long skirt. Gordana was inspired by Monet's The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light to make a gorgeous dress in silk organza that everyone agreed was both beautiful and clearly connected to the original painting. They were the final designers of the season to hear Heidi intone the words, "You're out."

Stats
Number of times Tim Gunn said, "Make it work!": Tim was far too busy reminding the designers how much was on the line to utter those three little words.

Number of crying contestants: Even Irina got a catch in her throat. Who would've thought that Althea was the most tear-resistant contestant!

The Contestants
Gordana may have lost her grip on the fan favorite prize this week. She and Irina ganged up on Carol Hannah, and she didn't thank the judges when she bade them "Auf Wiedersehen." But her biggest error was to make too much of her humble origins in the former Yugoslavia. Believe me, I know very well that the race of life has a staggered start, but her rivals were a self-taught gay man from the sticks of Minnesota; an autodidact from Charleston, S.C.; a big-haired bottle blonde from Dayton, Ohio; and an immigrant from the Republic of Georgia. Not exactly the Harvard Sewing Class of 1999.

The Judges
Talk about womanpower! With Michael Kors absent, and only one male contestant in the final five, Episode 12 was an estrogen explosion. Fashion designer and former Design Star judge Cynthia Rowley and "supermodel and style icon" Cindy Crawford took their places next to Nina Garcia.

The panel didn't make much effort to disguise their true feelings. The praise for Irina's ugly dress was comically faint: "I liked the inspiration that she chose" (Rowley); "She had a very clear vision, and it definitely did refer to the painting" (Crawford). Nina didn't even dissemble, declaring it "very old lady." Irina is the clear leader of this year's middling pack, but if this had been a normal week, she would have made her first appearance in the bottom three.

I hear America screaming: When Nina confessed, "I don't know who Gordana is as a designer," you could hear Project Runway viewers across the land yell, "Maybe that's because you missed five weeks of judging!"

Did the judges send the right people to Fashion Week?: Yes. It has been a mediocre season, but the three designers who are heading to Bryant Park are the ones with the strongest points of view. I haven't liked a single outfit that Althea has made, but aesthetically and trendwise, she fits into the fashion world far better than Christopher or Gordana.

Bold prediction for who'll take the big prize: At this stage, the smart money has to be on Irina.

Previous Project Runway Recaps: Week 1, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11

Click here to comment on our Project Runway recaps.

Project Runway, Week 11: The Creative Juices Runeth Dry

June Thomas is out of the office today, so Torie Bosch is filling in for this week's Project Runway recap.

Is it almost time for Bryant Park yet? Everyone seems to be running low on fresh material this week. The bad-tempered designers are accusing one another of swiping ideas, and the challenge itself is to "create a new look based on your best look." That's "best look" as defined by the judges, and a dreary collection of garments it is. There's not a single vibrant outfit, as each is gray, black, or brown. Surprisingly, no contestants quibbled with what the judges determined to be their best work of the season. I expected more whining.

Althea's high-waisted black pants, which bloused out before hugging the calf, gave her the win. Logan's attempt to complement his silver-and-black gown from Episode 1 resulted in something from a bad sci-fi movie, and he was booted.

Stats
Number of times Tim Gunn said, "Make it work!": Nada! Though we did get a clipped "Use your time exceedingly well." Maybe he's testing new catch phrases.

Number of crying contestants: None! Carol Hannah spent much of the episode looking on the verge of bursting into tears at any moment, but perhaps her eyes were just irritated by mounds of liner and eye shadow.

Was Logan shown sans shirt? Nope! The PR gang didn't even give us a chance to say goodbye to the pecs. 

The Contestants

Each voices some variant of the phrases "The pressure is on" and "It would be awful to make it this far and be sent home," which is a bit of a head-scratcher. Hasn't the pressure always been on? In the early episodes, doesn't everyone say how terrible it would be to get auf'd before showing what they can do?

Our designers can barely stand the sight of one another at this point. Althea and Logan bicker about whether her pants look like the jodhpurs that got Malvin canned. (They do, a little.) Irina asks of Christopher's look, "Why is one dress throwing up the other?" Althea accuses Logan, without actually saying it to his face, of copying the zipper collar she created for the Christina Aguilera challenge. During a meal break, she and Irina engage in a low-voiced hate-chat about how much they loathe Logan while shoving food in their mouths, but Althea apparently realizes later that she overreacted. In a talking-head, the fury seems to have passed: "I was a little annoyed, but I personally like how I used it better anyway, so. ..." Later, Irina complains that Althea stole her idea for a voluminous sweater and refuses to help Gordana locate a hook-and-eye.

It's clear Gordana is going to be at the bottom from the moment pictures from her childhood in the former Yugoslavia are flashed on the screen. Those forays into the designers' personal lives are a clear indicator that someone's struggling. Touching back story = weakness.

The Judges
The game of musical chairs continues. Michael Kors is nowhere to be seen, but Nina is in town and cranky as ever. Sitting in for Kors is Season 2's Nick Verreos, whose orange face I'm happy to see again. And as guest judge we have actress Kerry Washington. Her critiques are thoughtful and on point, but she can't match Nick, who's been practicing his zingers. Gordana's black skirt and gray blazer, he says, would look right on "an office worker in Warsaw, Poland." Yikes.

In a heated exchange, Nina and Heidi disagree on Irina's luscious brown outfit, with a brocade dress and oversize cardigan. Nina thinks the dress is too tight, making it look a bit cheap; Heidi would beg to differ. While the exchange was perfectly polite, their faces were chilling. Perhaps the tension was merely an expression of how fed up they were with the crabby designers: Althea and Irina made veiled, passive-aggressive references to the Great Collar and Sweater Idea Theft of ‘09, and Logan committed the fatal error of admitting, before being asked a single question, that his look was "on the brink of costume." Have you learned nothing, Logan? Don't feed the judges their lines!

The Results
Garment of the week: Irina's. I'm a sucker for that warm brown, and the too-snug brocade dress was pretty. Plus, the other five looks were drab, ugly, or both. The fatigue from sleep deprivation, total isolation, and constant demand to come up with new ideas-and the awful challenge of revisiting old looks-is showing on all of them.

Should Althea have won? No, those pants were dreadful. While the judges praised Carol Hannah's little black dress as something "we all could wear," perhaps a dozen people in the world could sport Althea's look without appearing foolish.

Should Logan have been eliminated? While his look wasn't quite as "innovative and out there" as he claimed, Gordana should have gotten the boot for her "sad, drab, and dated" creation, as Heidi said.

Bold prediction for who'll be auf'd next: Gordana. She seems to have given up-just let her go home.

Previous Project Runway Recaps: Week 1, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10

Click here to comment on our Project Runway recaps. 

Project Runway, Week 10: Tim Gunn and the Seven Dwarfs

For the "Michael Kors challenge"—so named because the assignment was handed out in Kors' Rodeo Drive boutique—the designers had to choose one of seven possible locations and design a look that "embodies who you are as a designer and also embraces that locale."

Irina won for an outfit fit for an Aspen ski lodge—brown jersey pants; a knit top with three-quarter sleeves, a huge cowl neck, and an open back; and a faux-fur vest. Nicolas was eliminated for a wrapped white shirt and tight gray pants that evoked nothing whatsoever of Greece.

Stats
Number of times Tim Gunn said, "Make it work!": Zero. That phrase is, like, so Bravo!

Number of crying contestants: Christopher is perpetually on the verge of tears, but guest judge Milla Jovovich came closest—she broke down at the very thought of sending someone home.

Logan sex object watch: This week, there were way too many design disasters to waste screen time on a silly subplot.

The Contestants
The judges didn't see Santa Fe in Christopher's ensemble, but they also failed to spot the subconscious inspiration for the white shirt, blue top, and beige skirt that he produced: Snow White. Meanwhile, the contestants turned into the seven dwarfs: Bitchy, Peroxidey, Greasy, Raccoony, Sexy, Self-Deprecating, and Lost.

The Judges
Hallelujah! For the first time since Week 2, the dream team of Klum, Kors, and Garcia reassembled. In the guest spot, actress and designer Milla Jovovich was constructive and informed.

The designers must be physically and creatively exhausted, because many of them sent very basic, uninspired clothes down the runway. And the judges certainly noticed. Nina asked Nicolas, "Why would I want to go into a store and spend my money on this?" Faced with Logan's bland white jeans, tank top, and vest ensemble, Michael Kors declared, "They're clothes. They're not fashion." The same outfit drove Jovovich to declare, "Listen, if this was called Project I Didn't Mind It, he would win."

The Results
Garment of the week: Carol Hannah's Palm Beach look was striking, though I liked that dress even better the first 10 times Uli made it on Season 3.

Should Irina have won? Eh. Her symphony in camel was a very literal interpretation of Aspen luxe, but she produced three well-fitted and impeccably finished location-inspired pieces, which is at least two more than the other contestants managed.

Should Nicolas have been eliminated? For sure. He completely ignored the assignment. Michael Kors was right when he told him, "You got the wrong Greece. [This was] Grease the movie."

Bold prediction for who'll be auf'd next: Christopher. Even with this season's wackadoodle judging, a string of four consecutive bottom-three finishes has got to be considered foreshadowing.

Previous Project Runway Recaps: Week 1, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9

Click here to comment on our Project Runway recaps.

Project Runway, Week 9: Beware of Flying Sequins

This week's challenge was to design an extravagant stage look "in the style of Bob Mackie" for Christina Aguilera. Mackie—the designer of over-the-top costumes for Cher, Tina Turner, and many more—told the designers to create a "staggering" look that could be seen from "miles away."

Carol Hannah won for a long black dress that combined sequins and feathers. Shirin was eliminated for a long black dress with white sheer and sequin inserts that Tim Gunn dubbed "Guinevere meets Vampira."

Stats
Number of times Tim Gunn said, "Make it work!": Zero.

Number of crying contestants: Zero. Shirin was too stunned to so much as sniffle.

Logan sex object watch: Carol Hannah admitted to being distracted by the man at the other end of her work table. She gushed, "Logan's my friend ... who's really hot." (If only he had a personality to go with those looks.)

The Contestants
Apparently, excessive exposure to sequins and shiny fabrics can be detrimental to designers' judgment. Only Nicolas and Irina seemed to realize that Aguilera's performances might involve dancing. Nina accurately pegged Christopher's bustier and sparkle pants as a tame retread of Aguilera's 2001 "Lady Marmalade" look.

Nicolas' first nondeluded observation of the season: "Irina's a really good designer. The problem is she's such a bitch."

The Judges
Qué alegria, Nina Garcia was back! Bob Mackie warmed Michael Kors' chair, and Christina Aguilera was a gracious guest judge.

Most passive-aggressive compliment of the evening: Nina to Althea, "It's a nicely made dress. I don't know if you thought if she might have to move and that a train might be cumbersome?"

Bob Mackie's philosophy in brief: "Onstage, a short dress can go right up to the crotch and be perfectly fine. Put diamonds on the crotch, and you're home free." 

The Results
Garment of the week: This challenge played to Nicolas' costuming strengths. He clearly understood Aguilera's taste and needs, and after a parade of somber, black numbers, Aguilera seemed grateful for his "fun" outfit. Mackie praised Nicolas for making a dress suitable "for a singer who needs to get around the stage fast and dance and move."

Should Carol Hannah have won? No. Her dress was too dark, too heavy, and too figure-concealing. The combination of textures Mackie enjoyed so much wouldn't be visible three rows back, much less from the third level of a stadium.

Should Shirin have been eliminated? No. Her dress was completely inappropriate for Christina Aguilera, but this was her first stumble in the competition. Christopher's cheap, poorly fitting, ill-conceived ensemble marked his third consecutive appearance in the bottom three.

Bold prediction for who'll be auf'd next: All those bottom-of-the-pack finishes would suggest Christopher is doomed, but recent eliminations have been so random, the judges may as well be pulling names from the button bag.

Previous Project Runway Recaps: Week 1, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8

Click here to comment on our Project Runway recaps. 

Project Runway, Week 8: Send in the Divorcées

Finally, the designers were untethered from their models. They were tasked with transforming the wedding dresses of recently divorced women into hip, cool outfits. (Tim Gunn's announcement, "Designers, I'm sending in your divorcées," was funny only the first three times he said it.)

Gordana won for a pieced dress made from the lining of her client's gown, which she dyed gray. Epperson was ejected for a garment that looked like a shortened wedding dress with a few strips of black binding sewn in the middle—it reminded one of the judges of "a pirate's wench."

Stats
Number of times Tim Gunn said, "Make it work!": Two. (Shirin said it twice, too.) This episode's theme was recycling, after all.

Number of crying contestants: One. Shirin, who had the least yardage to work with and a fabric that couldn't be dyed, wept through Tim's pep talk.

Logan sex object watch: This week no crushes were revealed or flesh exposed, but the only possible explanation for Logan avoiding elimination is that his pheromones befuddled the judges.

The Judges
Hallelujah, Michael Kors was present for the second week in a row! Marie Claire's Zanna Roberts and Jimmy Choo founder and president Tamara Mellon rounded out the panel.

Heidi must be feeling homesick: Epperson's and Logan's outfits both made her think of Oktoberfest.

The Results
Look of the week: The most striking outfit from this challenge was a bad one: Nicolas created green trousers, a brown top, and a white vest: an ensemble that would've looked passé at a Mormon Relief Society supper in 1975. He called his look "a hideous thing," and for once his self-assessment was accurate.

Should Gordana have won? Yes. As the judges said, her look was "edgy and chic," and her divorcée adored it. (So much for recent complaints that she's "just a dressmaker.") Shirin's dress, which used stitching to create a pattern, was creative and flattering, but her client found it a little too safe.

Should Epperson have been eliminated? No. His design was boring, but it was the least offensive of the bottom three. Logan's trouser look was poorly made and ill-conceived, and Michael Kors was dead on when he described Christopher's monstrosity as looking like "a metallic garbage bag tied in the middle."

Bold prediction for who'll be auf'd next: Nicolas. We're past the stage where contestants can be kept around for their loose lips.

Previous Project Runway Recaps: Week 1, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7

Click here to comment on our Project Runway recaps.