Project Runway: Blacklight or Daylight?

October 1, 2016 10:38 PM - Season 15, Episode 4

In Project Runway’s first blacklight challenge, the designers have to create a look that sparkles not only in daylight, but under blacklights on the runway as well. Anxieties rise when the unusual materials leave many of the designers in the dark. Jaime King joins the judges this week.

Final looks
Sketches

Learn more about the fashions you've seen on tonight's episode at MyLifetime.com

The judges liked:
- Jenni's hand-painted raincoat and bathing suit look
- Cornelius's white dress with secret spray painted symbols - Nina was especially thrilled to be surprised by something for once. He did the best of the several "white dress with a secret" entries.
- Erin's little girl's party dress from 1905/undersea jellyfish rave dress (winner)

The judges did not like:
- Kimber's pretty, wearable floral dress that sent her home for not feeling "special".
- Rik's weird "stripper/Christmas tree" outfit
- Mah-Jing's unfortunate last-minute crime scene dress that for some reason did not send him home

posted by bleep (9 comments total)

Roberi continues to kill it every week - I don't know how his dress didn't get any attention.

I liked the concept of this challenge but judging decisions in this episode made no sense to me.

Like why send Kimber home for producing a dress that they all agreed had nothing wrong with it. I get that to them, just being a pretty wearable dress isn't enough, but that's why they have the concept of being safe in these early episodes. Hers wasn't the only look that didn't really do anything special under the blacklight.

They all went nuts for Cornelius's "emoji" dress but it bothered me that the tailoring on the dress didn't seem quite right and it seemed too long.

Erin's dress made no sense to me whatsoever. The embroidery was nice but the silhouette seemed off to me.

They were setting up Mah-Jing's sob story throughout the episode so hard that I was sure he was going home. And his dress was legitimately bad. I felt bad that he seemed distracted by missing his family but come on.
posted by bleep at 10:45 PM on October 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't know how Brik wasn't on the bottom for sending out a plain white dress that just turned blue and did nothing else.
posted by bleep at 10:47 PM on October 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Roberi's dress was amazing and I, too, was surprised he wasn't in the top 3. I don't get the Erin love. Her dress was a very similar shape to the week before, and it was twee. Nobody over the age of 22 could wear that and not look ridiculous.

Kimber's dress was just blah. And in PR, being blah is worse than making something that, like Mah-Jing's dress, under the blacklight looks as if the model's worn it to a bukkake party. That's why Mah-Jing stayed. He also stood up for himself on the runway, which the judges seemed to like. Plus this is the second time Kimber's produced a bottom 3 dress that you could buy anywhere.

I don't think I have even noticed Rik before this week's episode. I can't remember any of his other outfits.

Brik should go home for that braid-bun hairstyle alone. If the man bun isn't bad enough ... And I think Laurence was very lucky to have immunity. That short-short-short suit was dull, just a bit of white trim that glowed. Nothing special about it at all.

I'm also waiting for a team challenge when Dexter, Cornelius and Alex are on the same team. Alex is a control freak who I think might be very difficult to work with.
posted by essexjan at 5:14 AM on October 2, 2016

I loved Roberi's dress, it looked like a sea anemone. His and Erin's were my favorites. What I liked about Erin's was she had a clear idea in her head: the lace appliqués, plus the beadwork plus adding the design elements around the edge then the placement of the motifs on the skirt and the skirt fabric itself. All deliberate choices that came together to create a dress that looked like someone had spent a week creating it instead of a day. I wasn't thrilled by her styling--and NONE of those eyeglasses complemented any of the final looks so it was another one of those hookups that didn't pan out.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:09 AM on October 2, 2016

Photos and recap for those watching outside the US. (Lifetime's website geo-blocks countries where there are "local" versions of the network available.)

I'm really starting to wonder about these out-there challenges. Sure we've had some great results (the rainfall runway had a couple of good looks) but overall it seems like these gimmicks mostly just waste time and produce lackluster results. Plus, I have to start wondering when they're going to run out of novel ideas to try. Temperature change? Litmus paper?

And I agree Roberi's was the strongest of the bunch. I guess they're setting him up to be the come-from-behind dark horse in the later part of the season.
posted by sardonyx at 7:19 AM on October 2, 2016

I enjoyed this challenge but I am INCENSED that Rik didn't go home for that Tacky Shoelace dress. It was AWFUL, and at least Mah-Jing's and Kimber's looks were competently made.

I do NOT like Cornelius but I really liked that glasses pocket in his dress. Knowing me I would just fill it with food crumbs but the idea is cool!

I really liked Roberi's but it kinda looked like the lanterns dress again, but with fabric. I am trashy, so I loved Dexter's fringe look.

Ugh. They gave Rik a total pass here . . .
posted by chainsofreedom at 10:46 AM on October 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think Kimber's dress didn't glow or change enough, wheras Mah-Jing's dress really did change in the blacklight, no matter how unclean-hotel-room it looked in the black light. But it was weak sauce. Still, I'd have kicked off Rik's dress which was a bad combo of poor peekaboo, body-dehancing, and overly reliant on the neon lacing. It was easily the most off-putting dress, for m,e.

I really did not like the emoji dress (except for the pocket). The treatment felt unpolished and amateur (You could see the excess tape marks, the placement of the smile, etc.)

Roberi's dress was a delight and a subtle surprise. Again. I like his odds to be there at the end with Erin.

Erin again chose a color that'd standout, and I loved the work she did to the skirt to create that repeat. She does seem to fall back on one trick: simple silhouette; shocking treatment (color, skin, etc). I would have given the win to Jenni. Even though she should have forseen that the paint would peel off that slick fabric, the effect was fantastic. But she was too explainy and these-were-my-travails, and the judges basically don't want to hear about that.
posted by julen at 11:05 AM on October 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

I thought Jenni showed some very cool decorative paint skills but that too short romper thing underneath, yikes! That was pretty horrible. Clear jacket? Also horrible. Even if the designs had not fallen off all over the place.

Roberi should have had her top spot. I also liked the super fringe number by Dexter, and the cool way he styled his model.

I agree the design on the emoji dress looked amateurish in execution.
Erin killed it and deserved her second win.
posted by Glinn at 2:32 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I thought Roberi did the best job making the transformation integral to the dress structure - he hasn't dazzled me before but this was gorgeous.

Spray paint on a plain dress was so boring - I feel like at least Kimber was trying a hidden transformation that was interesting in both lights, but, nope. They were way too impressive by Cornelius.
posted by carbide at 6:22 AM on October 8, 2016