"Runway": Taking Out the Trash

When Tim Gunn, Chair of Fashion Design for Parsons the New School for Design agreed to participate in “Project Runway,” I can’t believe he ever thought he’d be standing in the middle of a waste management facility watching people scour through garbage. But that is exactly what he was doing on last night’s episode.

Technically, the material wasn’t garbage, it was “recyclable materials”—paper, plastic and metal—but still!

The challenge was for the designers to create a wearable outfit from these materials and they only had 10 hours to complete it. Surprisingly, it was Alison and Kayne that showed early troubles. Alison struggled with colored strips of paper, trying to make them into a skirt, but realized too late in the game that they weren’t going to work and had to quickly change her entire design. Kayne went a little too far with his green dye and the bottle caps he had wasted so much time collecting. When Tim came in later that night, it was Kayne and Alison he criticized the most, encouraging Kayne to completely eliminate the bottle cap-covered skirt (Excellent call!) and trying to get Alison to think about her model (who was larger than the others). Tim also had problems with Vincent’s “art” dress, especially since he only decorated one side.

For the first time since the premiere, there were no Angela traumas and because we didn’t see anything about Robert’s dress before the runway, I knew he was going to be okay—and he was.

When it was time for the runway, there were more problems. Alison decided to give her model a bow made of hair, which made her look like Minnie Mouse and Kayne gave his model a horrendous make-up look with the ugliest green eye shadow I’ve ever seen (The hair was even worse.). Vincent’s model couldn’t even walk because he had concentrated too much on the art aspect of it and not enough on its wearability.

When it came to decision time, the favorites were Michael, Laura and Jeffrey. Jeffrey had criticized the simplicity of Laura’s dress, but the judges loved it. I didn’t really quite understand Michael’s design—especially the plastic bag wrap—but the judges were crazy for it and praised his innovation. The judges also showered praise on Jeffrey’s colored newspaper dress—especially Michael Kors. In the end, the winner was Michael. Personally, I preferred Jeffrey’s, but since he’s so annoying, I didn’t mind. He actually had the nerve to say that Michael’s had no flavor. What?! I didn’t like it, but nothing Michael does is without flavor.

The bottom three were, of course, Kayne, Vincent and Alison. Kayne completely redid the skirt, which helped tremendously, but it was still ridiculous and his model looked horrible. Vincent’s model barely made it down the runway in his design and if I heard him say one more time how much his dress turned him on, I was going to be sick. Alison’s, as Michael Kors said, was a “total nightmare.” It fit horribly, the design didn’t make sense, the hair was ridiculous—it was plain awful. Kayne was the first to be “in.” but for some reason the show felt it necessary to dub in Heidi saying “just barely.” If he was the third lowest, how did he just barely make it? His was clearly the best of the three, even if Michael Kors did say he crossed the boundary of taste. With only Vincent and Alison remaining, Alison was eliminated.

Personally, I think it was Vincent who needed to go. Yes, Alison’s was a train wreck and no, she didn’t think about the female body. But based on all of her work throughout the entire show, she deserved to stay more than Vincent. It’s clear to me that he’s only there because he makes for good TV.

Next week’s previews show the return of Angela traumas, courtesy of Jeffrey. But if I was him, I would steer clear since Michael and Angela are now friends. I feel quite certain Michael could take him.

Stay tuned…