Project Runway: Fashion Flip

August 29, 2015 2:17 AM - Season 14, Episode 4

The designers must put their own stamp on classic fashion designs, drawing inspiration from New York City. Mary Kay makeup is also involved somehow. Sally Draper (okay, Kiernan Shipka) guest judges.

All looks side by side via Blogging Project Runway. There's a little fake-out with Candice but ultimately Blake wins, Amanda is spared, and Gabrielle is auf'ed.

posted by en forme de poire (20 comments total)

In other news, Jake continues to be comically lazy, Kelly is totally robbed, the producers are really trying to make Blake happen, and the judges are less than "sneventy-two percent" certain about Lindsey's look.

To paraphrase bjrn from last week: "This time I found it especially bad since Blake got praise while he was doing the same thing Ashley & DavidGabrielle [was] being scolded & aufed for."
posted by en forme de poire at 2:20 AM on August 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

I was glad to see Gabrielle go as she's been bad since the beginning (and I don't understand why Tim Gunn seemed to think otherwise), but I am so sad that Candice didn't win. And Joseph Charles can't be long for this world, right?

Also Kiernan Shipka is delightful. I hope she gets super duper famous.
posted by likeatoaster at 7:06 AM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Call someone out on not finishing a hem when Blake's neck was a ragged mess. *tableflip* If Heidi wasn't there, I think the basketball glitter dress would have been in the bottom. I really hope Swapnil makes it to the top three.
posted by drezdn at 7:38 AM on August 29, 2015

I was blown away by Blake's win! It was poorly made and wasn't really all that. Candace's look, on the other hand, was flawless. Yeesh.
posted by chainsofreedom at 7:38 AM on August 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

I do not understand the win, at all. I often don't, but the last couple weeks I've been at least "yeah, I can see that" if not outright "YES!" when they decided. This was just pure no.
posted by rtha at 7:58 AM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I can't even talk about Blake's win because he's so unlikeable my head might explode.

So instead, let's focus on a moment from the Tim Gunn critique:

"Mood has a scuba section? Who knew?"

Uh, anyone who watched Kini make 18,000 garments from neoprene last season?
posted by phunniemee at 8:36 AM on August 29, 2015 [5 favorites]

Shocking that Blake's poorly made mess beat Candace, Ashley, Laurie and even Edmond.

I cringed every time someone made a tortured positive remark about Mary Kay.
posted by Glinn at 9:13 AM on August 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

What. The. Frick.

Once again I am in the Parallel Universe of Project Runway where an unfinished, ragged parachute scores higher than a beautifully executed, complex jacket and dress.

I don't even remember seeing Gabrielle before. This seems to happen to me every week when there are lots of (too many) designers. Last week I'd never seen Jake until that episode.

I thought Kiernan Shipka was so sweet, she had something nice to say to everyone, to counteract the acid dripping from Nina's tongue.

We've not had a good pearl-clutch from Tim yet this season, so someone needs to screw up really badly next time, please.
posted by essexjan at 10:09 AM on August 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

I fundamentally degree with the judges' decisions this week, therefore Zac Posen is auf'd IRL from my Crush Club.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 3:32 PM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't even remember seeing Gabrielle before.

I know this happens a lot but Gabrielle was particularly hard to pin down. This week alone, she 1) wore enormous glasses 2) wore professional makeup 3) didn't wear makeup.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:55 PM on August 29, 2015

So this Blake win was just the producers trying to get us to hate him even more, isn't it? I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't just laugh him out of the studio otherwise. That FrankenDress was horribly-constructed, and it looked really, really stupid.

I don't know why they don't appreciate the terrific work Kelly is doing. I'm hoping it's because she's going to last long, and they'll start paying attention to her at the midway point.
posted by xingcat at 4:10 PM on August 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Blake is a worm but his roughly-executed design made an impact on the runway (Balenciaga not Dior I think) whereas Gabrielle's proved that she had no sense of proportion. What was the length of K Shipka's dress that made the coat look so much better? I couldn't see. Actually I liked the idea of her coat much better than Amanda's dull outfit so I think she should have gone home. Lindsay's was a mess, that waist, that hem. Jake's strategy is to appeal to Heidi. Joseph's, not original.

Merline's looked floppy and sloppy but the color combination was sophisticated and the jacket was interesting, maybe just a bit too tricky. Edmond's looked good on the runway, he picked the right fabric. Wasn't really feeling Laurie's pussycat bow outfit. I think Kelly would have placed higher if she'd made the t-shirt as a t-dress.

Swapnil, I just had the feeling I'd seen that before. I looked at this season's previous runways but didn't see it (but that Lifetime website really sucks). Didn't he or someone else already do a flounce bodice? I wasn't thrilled with this one but it moved nicely. Candace, again I didn't think the jacket fit very well; it's the kind of thing you'd always be fussing with. Of course I loved Ashley's, the pleating on the bodice and the organza overlay and color blocking on the skirt were beautiful. That could go into production tomorrow. Don't really see the New York inspiration though.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:57 PM on August 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

I didn't hate Blake's look either. Blake himself still annoys me to no end. In his critique Tim told Blake that just sowing together a stretchy knit and an inflexible woven fabric wouldn't work, and of course he was right, and those seams were super wonky. But still Blake won and now I am dreading the moment that we get a talking head where Blake boasts about how he's smarter and more knowledgeable than Tim, because he won despite Tim saying ti wouldn't work. That's not to say that I think Tim is always right, he's definitely not always in tune with the judges'/producers' thinking.

I wonder how they'll deal with Blake going forward. They've given him two wins and both times producing something he could have been aufed or at least in trouble for, the first for not following the rules (making a dress out of muslin in the unconventional challenge) and this week for the sub-par construction (even for PR standards).
posted by bjrn at 2:13 AM on August 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

But didn't anyone find the seaming on Candace's dress all kinds of puckery as well? I need to pay more attention; this week I was watching the football game as well so, distracted.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:08 AM on August 30, 2015

Yes, I thought the fit and seams on her dress were a bit off. But it still looked good. Sometimes I wish there were a whole season where they used only normal people as models - a thin model body is pretty easy to fit compared to the variety of sizes of real customers.
posted by mai at 8:00 AM on August 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love Ashley but she's done box pleats 3 times now and the back of her top this week was the same as the back of the top on her winning outfit.

I have no words for Blake's thing.
posted by bobobox at 12:14 PM on August 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm a little worried about Tim. He seems like a genuinely nice, sensitive person, and being in this world of Project Runway has to be hard for him sometimes. He's looking a little stressed, to me, also.

Tim: if you come visit me, I will take you out for lunch or dinner at the Irregardless Café or The Boot (Italian) and we will talk about either the nature of kindness or whatever you want. I will not make you go shopping with me, and I will not comment on your outfit.
posted by amtho at 10:42 AM on August 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

I still hate the Tim Gunn save.

Tim: Oh no! Gabrielle, I'm so sorry.
Gabrielle: *trying not to cry*
Tim: I just can't believe this happened! You're so good and have such talent! I know you can do better than this.
Gabrielle: *still trying not to cry*
Tim: You know what?
Gabrielle: ... Yes?
Tim: I just think about how good you are and... yes, I've gotta do it.
Gabrielle: Do what?
Tim: Ask you to clean up your space. BYE, SUCKA.
posted by nom de poop at 2:58 AM on September 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

I love the idea of Tim Gunn getting to stand up for someone and say, "No, this really is a talented designer. This game is bullshit and the judges have messed up. This person shouldn't be going home."

I hate the idea of Tim getting to do this once per season being part of the rules of the game. Like nom de poop brings up, it sucks for every designer Tim doesn't choose to save. And then, while it probably feels really great to be saved by Tim, that then hangs around the designer's neck like an albatross for the rest of the season: "Tim used his one save on them!? They better damn well prove they deserved it more than that designer, and that other one, and, hell, all of them combined."

And what if there were a group where Tim didn't really want to save anyone? What if there only are, like, three or four exceptional designers out of the group, and every episode Tim's all, "Uh, no, I think you should go home. Seriously"? Tim has to save someone; it's built into the show, now. It's one more piece of machinery designed to get the show the appropriate number of episodes per season, and the machinery must run.
posted by meese at 8:17 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't know why they don't appreciate the terrific work Kelly is doing. I'm hoping it's because she's going to last long, and they'll start paying attention to her at the midway point.

ugh, ikr? I think the fact that she gives very good camera-confessional is a good sign, though.
posted by en forme de poire at 4:53 PM on September 3, 2015