Poor Health Killed the Cat, Project Runway Brought Her Back

Not that anyone really noticed my little hiatus, I'm sure, but I did mean to post more about various things between my last and this first Project Runway Season 4 post. Well, as they say, execrement occurs. Shall we move on to PR?

So, already I'm kinda questioning the judges. Oh, don't get me wrong; Rami's pretty grey dress isn't by any means bad—quite the opposite. It was pretty and flowing and they had $50,000 worth of fabric to choose from and he made a grey dress...

Okay, let's back up. *rewinds* Let's back up to initial impressions of the designers, in no particular order:

• Chris: I know, everyone's said it already, but he really does remind me at least a bit of Jay. They do at least both seem to have an irreverant sense of humor, and the ability to poke fun at the world instead of blowing up at it, but we'll see how Mr. March distinguishes himself as time goes on.


• Jillian: Spoiled. Little. Rich. Girl. Okay, maybe it was a mistake to watch her bio tape (I blame the boys at Project Rungay for linking to it), but now all I can see whenever I see her is her jumping up and down demanding to be on the show... and honestly the way she acted when she got on the show? Didn't change that impression in the slightest.


• Rami: Rami is too sexy for his shirt, too sexy for his shirt, so sexy it hurts, too sexy. Or something. I mean, yeah, he's kinda hot, but really I hope there's a bit more to him than that, and that we'll get to see it.


• Elisa: Umm... did anyone else notice that... um... she's a little... strange? Anyone?


• Christian: Honey, you're 21, you're not old enough to have that much of an ego. Put the ego down before it crushes you. (Though to be fair, I did see a few signs a lot of that is just the way he presents himself rather than something he takes too seriously. We'll see.) Also, will someone please get this boy a better haircut? Please, I'm begging you.


• Jack: No strong impression of his personality so far, which is a shame as he had one of my favorite actual dresses so I feel I ought to have more to say about him. Well, maybe he's quiet, or the cameras didn't like him enough, or something.


• Carmen: I took a bit of a dislike to her on first viewing, and I don't know why, exactly. It's a little early to be forming strong opinions, though, so maybe I'll end up really liking her, who knows?


• Kevin: Was he in this episode? Really? Oh, right, I remember him putting that silver thing on the dress, and thinking it looked like something I'd seen someone else do, and then I forgot about it... um. Right, didn't make a strong impression, I guess.


• Simone: I don't think we got to see her enough for me to really have a strong impression of her, but I really don't think she was as ungrounded as the edits made her look. Sorry, Simone, I wish we could've gotten to know you better.


• Kit: Um. Hrm. I know they showed her. I'm sure of it. Well, um. I'll let you know what I think after I see the next episode, or something.


• Ricky: For a few moments, during one of the confessionals, I was very afraid he was going to be overly emotive like that one thing with Andrae that one time... but then he just sorta faded into the background for me. Sorry!


• Marion: Did they show him at all? Other than the brief intro? Seriously. Well, he had a good bio video, so I hope we see more of him.


• Steven: Say, Steven... are you gay? I was just wondering if you might be gay. What with your bio video and all. It wasn't clear. Are you? Gay? I'm just saying.. that impression from the bio video? It really stuck with me. He seems like he's probably fairly nice and has a sense of humor, though, so hopefully we'll see more of him later.


• Sweet P: They didn't seem to spend much time on her, either. I hate that editing thing where the middle folks get almost no camera time. Anyhow, I don't yet have a very strong impression of her because of that.


• Victorya: I'm sorry, she didn't make much of an impression, possibly because I was too busy wondering every time her name came on the screen if that was a typo. Sad, I know.

Okay, so that's the people. Now... the challenge. OMG, have the world's easiest first challenge. 50 grand worth of beautiful fabrics from Mood? Okay, granted, 12 hours is not a generous amount of time, but when you can have the terrific fabric, you can still do some nice things with it, right?

So why am I yawning? Aside from being out of coffee, that is.

First off, let's go back to Rami, since he won. Yes, the dress is draped beautifully. I'm not keen on the flower—a braided gather or something would've been nicer—but I don't want to pull it off and stomp on it, either (unlike a certain other flower on a certain other dress). But... seriously. Plain grey fabric? If you're going to do something that whooshes and cascades all over, why not do it in something more interesting? A print, or a more eye-catching colour? No? Just me? Okay, fine.



My favorites were Jack's and Chris's outfits. Jack had a really nice print which worked well on the silhouette he chose, and he paired it with a really eye-catching bright solid for accents. It was lovely. Chris used an absolutely gorgeous dark purple and a matching purple and gold print. I wasn't 100% happy with that thing in the back, but the front was beautiful and the fabrics went so well together that I forgive him.

Biggest Mouth That Should've Shut Up: Jillian. Honey, picking a bright orange-red does not make you daring or whatever you were claiming. I forget what word you used because I am already tired of you. It's not even a pretty colour IMO. And the dress itself? Ugh, bubble skirt. Plus way to make up your model to look like you. *eyeroll*

Bottom two: Between Elisa and Simone? I would've gotten rid of Elisa. I understand they kept Elisa because the part of her dress that was not an obnoxious "the rest of my fabric bag got accidentally sewn to my dress" train was really, really well put together, and Simone's was less so, but I think Simone had a better idea... the dress would've been a lot cuter with better fabric choices, and the jacket was adorable.

Anyone else thinking Elisa is this year's Vincent? Crazy, gets kept on the show when you're not sure why... anyone?

Neither of the bottom two were actually my least favorite, though. That distinction goes to Victorya. I'm sorry, the big flower (stompinate!) and the shapeless dress did nothing for me. And that whole "I bind my model's arms" thing? Yeah, your kink is fine, but can you not show it on national TV, kthxbai?

Christian surprised me. I was not expecting him to make something that looked like that. Really, I'm not sure what I did expect, but that wasn't it. And that skirt? Boring colour. Seriously. But the jacket was nice.

Steven's dress was nice. But again, can I say: all that fabric, and what you made was a black dress with a red accent? Oh, and maybe some trim on the sleeves... hrm. A better look at that might be in order.

I'm not sure what's up with that asymmetrical jacket thing Kit did. I like the dress (and a nice little print, yay!) but the jacket thing sorta... threw me. It was very odd.

I like the basic combination of things on Kevin's dress, but I'm not sure how I feel about the cut of that... bodicy silver thingie. It seems off somehow. But props for one of the best pairs of shoes chosen as well as nice, simple styling for the model.

Carmen... uh. Well, interesting that she choose to go with pants... they're pretty nice pants, too. And since I was complaining about all the plain colours, I shouldn't complain about her top thingie, only it went a bit too far the other way. A little too much oomph.

I'm still not sure what I think about Sweet P's dress. I like the shape, and the trim, but I'm not keen on the actual fabric chosen for the dress itself as combined with the trim chosen. Different trim or different main fabric? Not sure which'd have worked better for me.

Marion... completely unfinished. The raw draping of the skirt is nice but the lack of hems (don't say "deconstructed", I'll hurt you) is just very eye-drawing. On the plus side, it distracts from that... thing... on the top. I'm not sure what's up with that.

And I think that just leaves Ricky. I can see why they weren't totally impressed, but I think that's a cute little dress with a great fabric choice. Yes, it's simple, but the fabric really works for it, which I think elevates it a bit. Eh, it's early on, we'll see if he gets more creative with more time to settle in.

So... that's it. Go home! Or, well, come back next week, when at the very least there should be a new Project Runway post. I'd say I'll be trying to fill in some of the other pendings, but I've got the chest cold from hell, so I'm not promising anything.