Project Runway--Summer 2011

Good news and hopefully Roberta, GW and Soz will have time to watch, too. I'll see if I can find the list of who all is returning. Have they done an all-stars before? I can't remember lol.

Major cop out last night. All four in the final.

The only one who deserves to be there is Victor.

Anya didn't realize how important it was? What the hell is she doing there?

I'm also casting my support to Victor. Of all the contestants he is the only one who has the chops to be a start-up designer. I like Anya, I think she has some great ideas, but she needs a few years of training before anyone hands her thousands of dollars to start a fashion business. I know someone can hire a great seamstress (I'm wonder if Diane von Furstenberg can thread a sewing machine?), but in a new business one usually has to do almost everything of importance by themselves and she doesn't have a huge range of sewing skills.

Here's the all-stars cast. Mondo! Plus, that girl (Kenley?) that threw a cat at her boyfriend and bragged about it. And Sweet P and Austin Scarlett. I'm sort of glad they didn't choose anyone from the current season.

Everything I've read says they're not premiering on 11/3, but pushed it into 2012. A new show called Project Accessory will premier right after Runway's finale ... with a new host, new judges (including that kind of mean lady from Marie Claire or Elle, forget which)...bah, I probably won't watch that one.

No definite word on when they'll air Runway all-stars in 2012 (sad face).

The all stars show has some potential. The people I recognize all had talent.

I'm hoping the challenges will be interesting/fun, and I'm hoping the judges stop sounding "canned."

Wow. Just watched the season finale and my first thought was that the outcome was almost more of a travesty than last season's. Anya was the least deserving of the four. The most consistent compliment she got was that she had great prints, which is the one aspect of her collection that she did not create herself! (Unlike Victor, who designed his own prints!) Totally unfair, in my opinion.

It's the continued 2-faced failure behavior of the Project Runway Snobs (Kors and Klum in particular). Anya has talent, that we know; however she is not the superstar they make her out to be. During the season, some of the stuff she presented during the season was nice, some was ridiculous. In one episode pants that could just have well been a skirt (one of her last minute deals, they were black and white and when they appeared on the runway, I thought it was a skirt, it wasn't until the feedback segment that I learned they were supposed to be pants), the outfits where she had to sew the model in...yeah, that works real well in real life for people.

Last season was infuriating when they handed the win to Gretchen. It was made worse (not just because Mondo was better...in my view); but because she presented a collection which was all the same damned color...mainly brown with some black design print on it. A week early they had reproached Michael Costello for having only one color in his presentation. (truth be known, he probably got booted for his dead-on voice impersonation of Kors). Added was the week before, they scolded Gretchen for the accessories, and all of a sudden they were best they had ever seen and blah blah blah....suddenly one color and needless accessories were the way to go.
They then turned on Mondo, saying he wasn't able to tone things down and do sophisticated blah blah blah; but when he did the 3 piece on the Jackie Kennedy-Onasis they all agreed how sophisticated and grand it was and he won that challenge. One of the judges softly whispered that Mondo had some toned down outfits, showing he had the ability and had listened; but they then joined the cacophony of lunacy. Mondo's doom was the black and white print full length dress he had put out on the runway, the same one which 2 judges had panned earlier for not showing enough skin. That and the outfit with the top which had all the turquoise color to it, which had also drawn negative response from 1 or 2 judges. By staying true to himself, Mondo, as happens with many Runway contestants, had to pay the ultimate price and lose.

The judges are idiots at best.

Kors is a snotty twit, and I am sick of hearing Klum introduce him as "lifetime achievement award..." gee, what else has he ever done? Sure he's good with the aging queen one liner zingers about what he doesn't like; but, I find him to be...well, an aging queen who probably used to plead with men to like him and take him home.

Klum, a vapid b..ch. No other way to describe her. Yes, Heidi we all know, you like extra short skirts and slits on them that go up to the neck...you were better back before you were conceived..

Garcia, seems like she is bored being there; but, apparently signed a contract with Marie Claire which requires her to do this task.

During their debates or as Klum calls them "chat"s, they constantly contradict their own statements. Kors loves an item, then moments later he is shredding the same item....

So Anya wins, Viktor gets tossed...I could see it coming, they had gone from really liking him to nitpicking. How Joshua McKinley made it so far is beyond me. Similar to Bert Keeter, he had only an occasional decent outfit; most of it was hideous....and it only was raised up to hideous when in a poorly lit dungeon.

On a brighter note; I was happy to see Kimberly Goldson get to the finals. I didn't think she was quite the top; but she did give consistently well designed outfits each time. In certain seasons she would easily have won, she just landed in a rougher season; though, Anya was not better than her.

Now, to prepare myself for the Runway All Stars. It will be nice to have Mila, Mondo, Michael, Sweet P and Kenley in there. The down side is weepy April. Another upside is I heard/read there'll be different judges, and a different mentor/guide. Bring on the All Stars!

I was surprised when they said Viktor was not ready to start his own line, but then they picked Anya. I think Anya has real talent, but would benefit from a long in-house apprenticeship and classes in actual sewing. Her one-note plunging neckline on flowing gowns got old fast. Kimberly's line looked good and I think her phone will be ringing after this, if for no other reason than she can create clothing many body types can wear. Joshua's line did nothing for me. Those green shorts were a joke. Who would wear that outfit other than a 10th Street hooker? Overall my thought about everything was: Are there really that many American women who can go braless?

At one point during her final critique, Nina said something like "You finally went back to your strengths," which seemed like a euphemism for "You stuck with beachwear, which is the one thing you're good at." I can't believe they rewarded her for being a one-dimensional talent. I wonder if they would have decided differently had they been aware that all of her models were sewn into their dresses? Or do they know and simply don't care because they've already made their decision? I wonder how much Tim tells the judges.




Me too. I'm always rooting for the ones who aren't backstabbing a-holes (that's why I was rooting for Michael C. last season).

They were totally ludicrous. I got the sense that halfway through the episode Joshua stopped designing for high-end women and started designing for gay men.

I'd like to watch!

I really think it went downhill after it moved away from Bravo. The production values, pacing, lots of intangibles seemed different in a bad way.

Meanwhile, can I ask you guys for your input?

Sozlet is having a Project Runway-themed birthday party.

There will be a total of eight girls (seven guests). I only have one sewing machine and only a couple of girls are familiar with sewing anyway. They all are very creative/ fashiony though.

So I'm providing a bunch of cheap materials for them to make outfits out of. A main component will be those cheap thin plastic tablecoverings (a dollar each at Oriental Trading) in a variety of colors. They're big, 5' X 9'. Then also lots of stick-on jewel thingies, other stick-on embellishments, and stick-on velcro closings (to get garments on and off). Duct tape (in a variety of colors) will be both a way to construct the garments and a design component if they so desire.

They're encouraged to bring a bunch of accessories to use or share -- belts, shoes, hats, jewelry etc. That will be set up in the "accessory room" (AKA her bedroom).

I'm stenciling the Project Runway logo on one of the white tablecoverings and taping it to the ceiling behind the opening between my dining room and family room (complete with two steps down!), and will backlight it. Hard to describe but should be Project Runway-esque. I have red carpet to delineate the runway part more, too.

Sozlet is an iMovie whiz, we're filming the runway show with two cameras (one stationary, one moving [me]), she'll edit that into a cohesive show and provide DVDs of it with her thank-you notes.

There will be only one judge, Heidi Klum. (E.G. in a blonde wig.) (He's great with accents.) (Plus, E.G. in a blonde wig! And maybe lipstick. Otherwise he'll be his be-goateed Cabela's-wearing self.)

Everyone will get a prize, eight different categories: "best overall design," "best fit," "most wearable," etc.

First, they will get the assignment, then go "shopping" ("fabrics" plus accessories), and draw their design before dinner. Than they'll have about an hour after dinner to actually make the garment.

Then fashion show.

I have little travel sewing kits and measuring tapes that will go in boxes at the table where they'll sit for the design part. They can use those and then also take them home afterwards.

I'll be borrowing enough good scissors.

When I was looking for the Project Runway logo I was looking at some old episodes on the website and found one that uses very similar materials:

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway/season-8/episodes/episode-3

I printed out some of the photos from there (5 X 7) and put them in perfect colorful frames I already had, that will be decoration and inspiration.

I think I'm going to go to a party store and get some more random crap just to continue that a bit more.

I had a hard time figuring out who they dress. Ideally they'd make their own clothes but it's difficult to fit etc. on yourself. I don't have any dress forms (and it'd be very difficult to get eight).

So it will be that they draw big buttons from a sack (I'm pretty sure I've seen this on PR, correct me if not or if there's a better way to do this), half will be blue and half will be red. They'll have a name on them. When you draw someone's name, that's who you're designing FOR.

There will be 5-minute fit sessions in the midst of the general designing. First the red group will be models (blue group fits them), then vice versa.

But the closures are so they can take the clothes off and work on them in the work areas (they can't both work and be worked on).

They will be wearing leotards or swimsuits, and easy on/ off clothes over those.

I think that covers most of it.

Any other ideas? I thought I'd ask the experts.

Thanks!

You seem to have it well covered, right down to the dreaded button bag. Sounds like it should be a lot of fun, be sure to let us know how it goes.

The judges were only too happy to overlook the gross flaws in Anya's pieces--all season long. They were happy that she was getting away from beachwear and finding herself. The final collection was a bunch of scarves draped around women's bodies. Nice prints, nice flow. Little style, little thought, no workmanship involved.

I suspect that the outcome was determined early on. Victor was robbed, IMO. Josh's presence remains a mystery. And Kimberly had way too much trouble making up her mind.

The show has deteriorated terribly. Too damned long, too damned boring. With mystifying and infuriating winners. I think I'm gonna be gone.

Project Runway party invites:



One closer-up:



(All outfits + dress forms cut out from paper then pasted on the card.)

Looking fantastic!

Agree. Really well done! Also love the theme of the party!

Thanks! The details are giving me a headache (I briefly thought of driving them to an actual store and giving them actual cash to buy things, as it's tough to have a good selection of "fabric" [thin plastic tablecloths] for 8 girls without knowing what they'll actually want to use) but it's coming together.

OK so I have a question:

Does the sketching happen before or after they get their fabrics? I can't remember.

I'm trying to figure out the timing of "shopping" for the fabrics, sketching, and actually beginning work on the garment.

They sketch first and then go to Mood. They usually give them 30 minutes to sketch and anywhere from 30-45 minutes to shop. Sewing is usually a full day and a morning, but exact times are usually not given.

Thanks!

What about when they have weird challenges like the party store? ("It's a Party," season 8.) Do they get the stuff first, then sketch? Or just not sketch?