'Project Runway' Recap: May We Have the Room?
We begin this episode spending quite a long time watching groggy designers doing their early morning routine. Bishme is an under-the-covers complainer but still quipping; Sebastian makes eggs; Tessa pours milk into a glass. On one hand, this feels a little like filler. But on the other, this is a riveting performance of normalcy. It’s very Terrace House, very un-camp. Like an art installation where you watch someone do their taxes in real-time and the New York Times calls it “a stunning indictment of governmental bureaucracy through the lens of middle-class American civic engagement.”
The challenge
This second reading is apropos considering this week’s challenge, which has shades of immersive theater all over it. The designers have to create an experiential fashion show in a room of their own for one look that shows the judges who they are as a designer. “Make it bigger and bolder than anything we’ve seen before,” Karlie says. Honey, I’m stressed. STRESSED by this challenge. This is design plus logistics plus UX plus audience interaction. An experience? Over the course of two days? Karlie is basically telling them: throw a wedding reception for a dress and make it awesome.
Fortunately they have creative directors who will help them realize their visions. The minute I start to hear their visions, however, I get STRESSED all over again. Hester tells her creative director, “I want a rococo room that slowly transforms into a forest” and I immediately have to take to my fainting couch. It’s not that this is outlandish or impossible by any means, but just the ideas of one creative person being the client of a differently creative person and that second creative person having to translate the first creative person’s stream-of-consciousness ideas into a lived experience in two days has me...have you guessed? STRESSED.
Bishme tells his creative consultant that he wants to continue his Baltimore Blooming idea and my stress immediately turns into shrieks because his creative consultant is a woman named Erica Ortiz who I went to college with and actually know. This probably does not mean as much to you as it does to me so I’ll spare you our very interesting backstory but it’s great and she’s great and I’m not stressed anymore. Okay, I’m a little stressed but mostly feeling very nostalgic and proud of my fellow Marylanders. Wow, what a small, fabulous world, man. Anyway, back to the show.
Garo is thinking about an interactive dressing room and his creative consultant goes to a Jetsons theme which I’m very into. Tessa is going back to basics and drawing inspiration from her upbringing, taking inspiration from her mother’s work as a ceramicist. Sebastian is going for Greek palace. LOL, I love the way his mind works.
At Mood, Hester modifies her theme to Aggressive Rococo Bondage Picnic, which is…very Hester. Tessa levels up to a wabi-sabi theme; Christian is concerned that she’s going back to her controversial unfinished garment edges even though she said she wouldn’t. He hems and haws (do you see what I did there?) but she promises that there’s a way to make something unfinished and have it still look finished, which feels like some sort of wise koan to me.
The workroom
Hester wasn’t able to find the exact fabric she wanted, so it’s thrown her off track a bit and she spends the whole first day of the two-day challenge re-envisioning her design. Once she has a new concept, Christian grows concerned that it looks too similar to last's week's design, which the judges didn't like. So, she starts madly draping and seeing what comes of it. As usual, she's freaking out, but by this time, I think we can all expect her to pull it off in the end. Or will she?!
On day two, the designers have to meet Christian at a mystery location in New York. It turns out he’s taking them to the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the designers are full-time shewk. They meet Steven Kolb, president and CEO of the CFDA. He explains that the opportunity they’re offering the eventual winner of Project Runway is a customized mentorship during which they’ll do a diagnostic check-up of the designer’s business and brand and help them fix things that aren’t working, with the objective being a more successful and more viable business on the other side.
In the warehouse where the rooms are being constructed, the creative directors have been working harder and faster than Bobby Berk on an episode of Queer Eye. Erica has run with the Baltimore idea and created a brick-walled room, tagged with graffiti and strewn with trash but sprouting flowers. Bishme thinks she did a great job but he was really going more for the idea of Baltimore than, like, the corner of McCulloh Street and Dolphin Street. So, he asks her to redo the room in gray.
Sebastian's room has bright yellow walls, yellow columns, and purple paper flowers. He's concerned because it's not giving him a Greek palace feel. He also feels like his outfit and his room are not speaking the same aesthetic language. He makes a big show of giving up on the contest altogether. An off-camera producer asks him if he's serious and he says yes. Instead, he goes to sit on a sofa and drinks a bottle of water, which is a good practice for everyone. Should you have a meltdown at work and burn every professional bridge you've made because there's a line at the copier or should you sit down and hydrate? It's a real mystery.
The runway
As if the designers aren't already stressed enough, Christian announces that Cardi B will be making a surprise appearance at the show. She won't be judging but, knowing Cardi, she will be making her opinion known. The guest judge, however, is Bergdorf Goodman's fashion director, Linda Fargo. Both Cardi and Linda are wearing striped animal print and it's fabulous.
Bishme's look is a A Rose Growing Out of Concrete. Some of the brick has been grayed over and the model stands on a cement block in the center in a rose-colored lamé peplum dress with a huge half-circle ruffle stretching from her waist to her head behind her.
Garo's room is an Intergalactic Changing Station. The model sits in the middle of a stark white circular room with actual human arms reaching through and handing her accessories. The dress is a corseted ivory full-length with a high neck and a lampshade accent at the waist that can be flipped up and down.
Tessa has created an earth-tone kimono with super-long sleeves created from woven strips of differently colored fabric. She's proud of it, but Karlie doesn't think it looks finished. "This would look good in a window, but would it look good on a runway," Cardi asks. "Would customers buy it at the store?" Brandon doesn't know what wabi-sabi is; Tessa explains that it prizes beauty in imperfection and suddenly he gets her so much more. Linda loves the addition of lavender to the muted palette.
Sebastian has created a sleeveless dress made of structured folds of gray double-faced wool. Linda thinks that that world of room and the dress don't communicate but she's won over by Sebastian's answer that suggests the model is a statue that wants to break free. The judges are, as usual, impressed by Sebastian's technical skill. Cardi loves the dress and picks it as her favorite even though she says she hated the room.
Hester's room is full of trees and plants and ornate frames, accompanying a model wearing a halter top and a draped puffy skirt. Cardi's not sold, but Nina and Elaine love the room. Elaine doesn't think that the look matches the challenge to make something bigger and bolder than what she's previously shown.
To help the judges make their decision, Christian pulls together all of the previous looks from the designers. Elaine thinks that Bishme met the challenge to build on his collection. The judges are impressed by his skill for being self-taught. With Garo, the corset trend becomes super apparent. Nina thinks that his performance has been a little inconsistent, but that this week's look is an improvement. Linda thinks that Sebastian's piece is a "best-of" of his looks. But there is a concern that he never has a story. Linda sees Hester's designs as playful and is unsure where the market is for them. Karlie points out that she's won more challenges than anyone else. Nina concurs: "When she has had immunity, she always pushed herself." Coming to Tessa, Brandon thinks that her room was the winner, but the only thing he wanted to buy were the pots inside, not the dress. Elaine thinks that she's not great outside of her comfort zone. However, Christian points out that she has a clear brand.
In the end, Garo wins, after much rallying on Sebastian's behalf by some of the judges. However, Sebastian and Bishme are also ushered into the final four, leaving Hester and Tessa in the bottom two.
Tessa, ultimately, is out. She thanks the judges for the opportunity and is gracious as she goes. "As the miller's daughter, I'm definitely going to keep my nose to the grindstone," she says. There's no doubt, to echo some of the judges' points, that her vision is clear and that people will want to buy her designs, finished hems or not.
Who I'm rooting for this week
Erica Ortiz! And everyone in the final four! The designers now have five months and $10,000 to create a collection. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
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