Project Runway: Finale Part 1
November 12, 2017 8:22 AM - Season 16, Episode 13 - Subscribe
After heading home to work on their Fashion Week collections, the five finalists are visited by Tim who is not impressed with everything they have created so far. The designers return to New York and present the judges with two pieces from their collection. With only three spots guaranteed for Fashion Week, everything is on the line.
The home visit episode and the mini-collection judging.
Brandon and Ayana get the best reviews
Margarita and Kentaro get roasted.
Kenya is the loser and is sent home. The remaining four (and several decoys including Kenya) get to show at Fashion Week.
EW recap
TLo, final looks and podcast
Another recap, GoldDerby
The home visit episode and the mini-collection judging.
Brandon and Ayana get the best reviews
Margarita and Kentaro get roasted.
Kenya is the loser and is sent home. The remaining four (and several decoys including Kenya) get to show at Fashion Week.
EW recap
TLo, final looks and podcast
Another recap, GoldDerby
I think the issue with Kentaro is that he wasn't picking up what Tim was putting down so to speak. The advice that Tim thought he was giving wasn't making it way into Kentaro's understanding in the same shape. Same thing happened a few weeks ago that resulted in the Pocohantas outfit. Kentaro did his best work when Tim didn't try to help him and just let him be. So in this case Tim said "cohesion" and Kentaro heard "OK these dumb assholes want everything to be the same color." whereas if he had said "Remember to make it look like a collection" or something like that he would have just made it look like a collection.
posted by bleep at 9:39 AM on November 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 9:39 AM on November 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
Everyone except Margarita chose millennial pink/peach as their accent color, it seemed.
I absolutely detest Margarita's design sense. I get that it's tropical-specific but it's also so so so basic. I have been seeing clothes exactly like hers since the 80s. Nothing new to see. Zero innovation. Boring. I see that exact bomber jacket on every 80 year old woman around here. Like...crazy loud colors, abstract print, baseball style, bedazzled or beaded. SO FUN! Nothing against 80 year old women but....nah. It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. And those shorts! And the top! I cannot. The bugle beads all over everything. Jaysus. I can't believe they chose her over Kenya, although Kenya didn't knock my socks off either.
Brandon's 2 piece collection was....horrible. I'm sorry. Those stupid loops. The giant frumpy paper bag waist on the hottest model there. She looked like a clown. What the hell. He starts off with a nice minimalist aesthetic and then keeps adding unwanted elements like straps and loops and those ridiculous bow things until he totally shits the bed.
Kentaro has lost the plot. That white outfit with the black growth hanging off of the side. WHY GOD WHY
Ayana's three piece outfit had me. I really loved it. I also did like her sisterwife dresses although Gunne Sax did them 50 years ago. The second top she showed was so meh. I mean..I saw 20 variations of that top, done better, at Target today.
I actually think all 5 of them really chose badly for the mini collections to show the judges. All 5 of them left much better work hanging on the rack.
Was it ever mentioned why Kenya wore that leopard scarf/shawl every day? There has to be a story behind it (good luck charm?) but I missed it.
posted by the webmistress at 2:37 PM on November 12, 2017 [2 favorites]
I absolutely detest Margarita's design sense. I get that it's tropical-specific but it's also so so so basic. I have been seeing clothes exactly like hers since the 80s. Nothing new to see. Zero innovation. Boring. I see that exact bomber jacket on every 80 year old woman around here. Like...crazy loud colors, abstract print, baseball style, bedazzled or beaded. SO FUN! Nothing against 80 year old women but....nah. It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. And those shorts! And the top! I cannot. The bugle beads all over everything. Jaysus. I can't believe they chose her over Kenya, although Kenya didn't knock my socks off either.
Brandon's 2 piece collection was....horrible. I'm sorry. Those stupid loops. The giant frumpy paper bag waist on the hottest model there. She looked like a clown. What the hell. He starts off with a nice minimalist aesthetic and then keeps adding unwanted elements like straps and loops and those ridiculous bow things until he totally shits the bed.
Kentaro has lost the plot. That white outfit with the black growth hanging off of the side. WHY GOD WHY
Ayana's three piece outfit had me. I really loved it. I also did like her sisterwife dresses although Gunne Sax did them 50 years ago. The second top she showed was so meh. I mean..I saw 20 variations of that top, done better, at Target today.
I actually think all 5 of them really chose badly for the mini collections to show the judges. All 5 of them left much better work hanging on the rack.
Was it ever mentioned why Kenya wore that leopard scarf/shawl every day? There has to be a story behind it (good luck charm?) but I missed it.
posted by the webmistress at 2:37 PM on November 12, 2017 [2 favorites]
I feel like Tim really let the ball drop this season. Some of his advice was directly responsible for deigns and choices that put the designers in the firing line of the judges. I don't know if his aesthetic is diverging from theirs or if there is behind the scenes happenings to ensure that tension is created or if there is something else that is going on.
I mean when I listened to his advice to Kenya about putting that beaded throw (which I did like) over the black dress, my immediate reaction was to think, the judges are going to hate that: they'll think it's too matronly and too mother of-the-bride.
posted by sardonyx at 3:52 PM on November 12, 2017
I mean when I listened to his advice to Kenya about putting that beaded throw (which I did like) over the black dress, my immediate reaction was to think, the judges are going to hate that: they'll think it's too matronly and too mother of-the-bride.
posted by sardonyx at 3:52 PM on November 12, 2017
My sister (a musician) about Kentaro's dead-cat composition: "Yeah, that's the kind of explanation you hear in a rehearsal from the composer, and you just kinda have to nod and go, yep, sounds legit, while inside you know everyone in the room is thinking, 'oh god what a nutso.'"
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:38 PM on November 12, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:38 PM on November 12, 2017 [2 favorites]
If this show was not already trickling off, that episode would have killed all momentum.
Every single one of those designers made bad decisions, but Brandon's (keep on keeping on, only with more strips of fabric everywhere) is going him on the winning track. I think I minded Gretchen and Yellow Girl's Inevitable Parades to Victory less. The show certainly worked harder on making the audience climb on those floats more. I think they just assume we're all as enchanted with Brandon as the show is.
I really wish Ayana had gone less 70s, but I recognize I have a built-in aversion to ruffles.
I like Kenya so much but her best career choice is not runway. I suspect she's trying too hard to make runway clothes and if she gave that up, her work would sell like crazy. I'd want to go the Chloe Dao way if I was her, but the show clearly never wants to go that way again.
Margarita's pattern was fine, but she needed to step away from the bedazzler and bring in more solids. And that bomber jacket was trite and uninteresting and had matronly in the rear view window.
Kentaro's language and culture gap is really tripping him up.
Meh.
posted by julen at 6:30 PM on November 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
Every single one of those designers made bad decisions, but Brandon's (keep on keeping on, only with more strips of fabric everywhere) is going him on the winning track. I think I minded Gretchen and Yellow Girl's Inevitable Parades to Victory less. The show certainly worked harder on making the audience climb on those floats more. I think they just assume we're all as enchanted with Brandon as the show is.
I really wish Ayana had gone less 70s, but I recognize I have a built-in aversion to ruffles.
I like Kenya so much but her best career choice is not runway. I suspect she's trying too hard to make runway clothes and if she gave that up, her work would sell like crazy. I'd want to go the Chloe Dao way if I was her, but the show clearly never wants to go that way again.
Margarita's pattern was fine, but she needed to step away from the bedazzler and bring in more solids. And that bomber jacket was trite and uninteresting and had matronly in the rear view window.
Kentaro's language and culture gap is really tripping him up.
Meh.
posted by julen at 6:30 PM on November 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
Kenya is the loser and is sent home. The remaining four (and several decoys including Kenya) get to show at Fashion Week.
This makes me very happy, and here's a look at her collection, which benefited from feedback from the judges. Sadly, I don't think it's a winning collection, though it does look good. Perhaps I'm just not a fan of that tepid "millennial pink/peach" color. Great tailoring, fantastic attention to details, but punch it up with more saturated colors! If only you could pull Kenya and Margarita closer together, invigorating the former and toning down the latter, they'd both benefit from it.
My prediction: Brandon wins, Anaya gets a "good job, so close," while Kentaro and Margarita get harsher critiques, and we all fall asleep half-way through the episode again (yes, my wife and I also fell asleep during this one).
posted by filthy light thief at 9:14 AM on November 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
This makes me very happy, and here's a look at her collection, which benefited from feedback from the judges. Sadly, I don't think it's a winning collection, though it does look good. Perhaps I'm just not a fan of that tepid "millennial pink/peach" color. Great tailoring, fantastic attention to details, but punch it up with more saturated colors! If only you could pull Kenya and Margarita closer together, invigorating the former and toning down the latter, they'd both benefit from it.
My prediction: Brandon wins, Anaya gets a "good job, so close," while Kentaro and Margarita get harsher critiques, and we all fall asleep half-way through the episode again (yes, my wife and I also fell asleep during this one).
posted by filthy light thief at 9:14 AM on November 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Kenya's 6th photo dress really is beautiful. But it has a nipple issue. I thought the showing of the nipples was frowned upon? Love her and hope she has a successful design career with her terrific tailoring and appeal to women of all sizes (though maybe not runway people, generally).
Meanwhile, I believe the reason they ended up with 5, and then 4, is because Margarita should have gone home (both weeks) but Tim Gunn's saves always go to the finale. Not a written or even spoken rule, but has been the case since the first year he had a save (I think). I actually liked those crazy flare pants but none of the rest of Margarita's stuff.
I think choosing only two pieces was a difficult challenge itself. In the past hasn't it always been 3 pieces? Easier to show cohesion of a larger collection with 3 pieces, than 2.
posted by Glinn at 3:58 PM on November 16, 2017
Meanwhile, I believe the reason they ended up with 5, and then 4, is because Margarita should have gone home (both weeks) but Tim Gunn's saves always go to the finale. Not a written or even spoken rule, but has been the case since the first year he had a save (I think). I actually liked those crazy flare pants but none of the rest of Margarita's stuff.
I think choosing only two pieces was a difficult challenge itself. In the past hasn't it always been 3 pieces? Easier to show cohesion of a larger collection with 3 pieces, than 2.
posted by Glinn at 3:58 PM on November 16, 2017
I was so bored with this season it took me this long to get around to this episode. I love Kenya but that black dress, whyyyyyyyyyy. Nobody wants cleveage like that!!! I love that flamingo print (big shock there).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:56 PM on December 2, 2017
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:56 PM on December 2, 2017
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I don't see any growth in Brandon but he's very consistent.
The two pieces Ayana showed the judges weren't representative of the rest of her collection from what I briefly saw. I remember seeing some heavy flounces in tiny prints, very sister wife.
Worried a bit about Kentaro, he's an... odd duck. For the first time I was having trouble parsing his conversations... and the family Skype, "No, Heidi does not look like Princess Diana. Goodbye". I really liked the pieces in his collection but they were SO disparate. He followed *every* idea instead of focusing on one.
Margarita, I really loved her prints but didn't like how she used them in her mini-collection. The shorts especially looked poorly made.
Kenya, no surprises that she went home but y'know, a reality show Kenya's Family might be in the offing?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:39 AM on November 12, 2017 [2 favorites]