Project Runway: Who's Going to Fashion Week?

November 3, 2017 8:04 AM - Season 16, Episode 12

There's snow business like sew business as the designers compete to get to Fashion Week.

recap and pics of final looks

Quelle surprise! They are all making collections!! They do this every season now. Margarita absolutely does not deserve to be there. Why does she need yet another chance to show the judges her point of view? Newsflash: Margarita does not have a point of view. Also, silly to make Ayana, Kentaro and Brandon make mini-collections. This sew-off is obviously between and because of Margarita and Kenya. And to be honest I don't think Kenya deserves to be there either.

I continue to love Kentaro's looks, but really am sick of the way both he and Brandon add flailing straps to everything they make. All I can think of is "Wow I would not want to be wearing that while on an escalator" ;P

I thought Ayana's look was cute, although nothing about it said warmth. Like...would you want to wear that while visiting the polar ice cap? I don't think so.

Pretty sure Rey from Star Wars is Brandon's muse.

While Brandon and Kentaro seem to make the same things over and over, at least they are confident and have ideas. Margarita, Kenya, and Ayana are still so hesitant and unsure, and rely way too much on Tim's input. He gives them most of their ideas still.

posted by the webmistress (10 comments total)

Well, they all did well this week but some were more well-er than others. Brandon and Kentaro ("Okay, bye!") were my favorites for all the reasons the judges mentioned. I was worried when Tim nixed the yellow egg yolk fabric because I liked the contrast but fortunately he didn't get dinged for monochromism this week since he didn't use black. Brandon really nailed the Aspen/Vail look. I'm not sure what that white nubbly fabric was but combined with the waxed cotton, it really looked like a sheepskin coat.

Ayana, liked the angle and the color blocking but not the dribbly paint on the pink. I don't think she chose the right fabric for the jumpsuit underneath but I didn't mind the silhouette of it. Overall, it didn't look expensive or high fashion.

Margarita, her coat looked luxe with the fur halter collar peaking out but I think she should've confined it the fur to the top. I can kinda see why the judges thought a faux fur dress was daring because who wants to wear that sweaty stuff? Also PR is a fur-free zone?? But not leather. Okay. I did like the faux fur she picked out, good color, nice pile.

Kenya, I thought she should've gone home. I liked the large plaid but the coat needed to be *more*. I feel like you can buy that coat in a department store right now. The polka-dot top was cute and pattern-mixing is my middle name but it did not complement the plaid coat at all. The pants were interesting.

So they all get $10K and a week to create 10 looks. Okay, slightly more than a week. I am not worried about Brandon's and Kentaro's focus but Kenya needs to be more adventurous, Margarita has to show she has an aesthetic and not just react to the weekly challenge, and Ayana needs to prove she's more than the "modest" designer which I think she can.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:02 AM on November 3, 2017

When Margarita was fitting that fur dress on Liris I started singing "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones". I thought she looked like Betty Rubble wearing a bathrobe over her dress. It was f'ing hideous. I was incredulous when the judges raved over it.

Kentaro's and Brandon's looks were well-made, but unwearable, if the actual brief was winter-wear. Bare midriffs and backs? But then I'm sure Heidi's idea of roughing it in the winter is going from the limo to the front door, under an awning. So in that context, those two outfits would be 'wearable'.

Ayana's outfit was probably the one I would wear out of them all. I though the coat was great and she seems to have a lot of original ideas.

I really liked Kenya's look. The tailoring on those pants was insane. I really hope she gets to the finale, but the trailer for next week doesn't look hopeful. I think Brandon's name is already on that Lexus.
posted by essexjan at 11:30 AM on November 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Some really good comments at the bottom of this Tom and Lorenzo article on this week's PR.
posted by the webmistress at 11:43 AM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was perplexed by the save last week and equally perplexed by the praise for Margarita's look this week. I thought the dress didn't flatter Liris at all.

I guess Margarita gives the producers good talk lines to work with but the clothes just aren't there.
posted by rewil at 12:14 PM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

That said, all the contestants should be briefed beforehand on do's and don'ts like the fur thing, it's not cool to let someone plan and get through the cutting and check-out process with something they can't use. Five minutes to go grab something new doesn't totally level the playing field.
posted by rewil at 12:50 PM on November 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

I thought the paint splatter idea was TERRIBLE when she talked about it, but doing it in black and making the splatter all splatter up, vertically made it nice, I thought. I think Ayana was right to do it because the pink section was too conservative (not big enough) for that color if she'd left it alone. She needed to make it more organic and modern and make up for the almost generic cut.

I hated her underpiece, though. That butt was not flattering, and the pattern wasn't great. It needed AT A MINIMUM some pink to tie it together, but a better butt and crotchal area would have been a good idea.

Kenya's fabric choice for the shirt was lovely, but did not work with the coat AND the pants. If she had made a dress out of it, it'd have been better. If she'd made a dress out of the pants fabric, it'd have been better. The three didn't hang together. There was good stuff in each piece, but the whole was less than the sum of its parts

I found Kentaro's outfit to be theoretically fine, but it was layered in the wrong places, exposed skin in the wrong places, and was really bulky if you weren't Meisha.

I think this was my least favorite Brandon look, even if he was clever with the fake wool and waxed linen (or whatever it was). The whole crotchal area was terrible. I mean, a fanny pack over a barely covered crotch? REALLY?

Margarita was in the wrong headspace to make the best out of the situation, and thus she was doomed from the beginning of the episode since she doesn't even have a gimmick to fall back on to masquerade as a POV. The back of her dress would have and has gotten countless people kicked off who weren't in this final group - a group that is always being cited by Tim and Heidi as so talented, and implied to be the best group ever.

The coat was nice, but not spectacular or innovative. The "daringness" of that fur requires it to be brushed the right way before it hit the runway (and I think having the fur pointing down for the body would have looked sleeker and sexier and easier to wear). She could have done a reverse neckline to still frame the face. Overall, she was damn lucky to get Liris (who would have been a better judge this week than the judges, in addition to killing it on the runway).
posted by julen at 3:25 PM on November 3, 2017

We're not shown how the models are assigned but I thought it was interesting that the two designers in the bottom last week get the two best models this week.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:37 PM on November 3, 2017

Ayana's outfit reminded me of a Star Trek uniform.

I fell asleep watching again.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:59 PM on November 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

That fur dress is without fail the ugliest thing I've ever seen on PR. And it was not finished! Since when does something not need to be finishing, even if "Margarita never planned on Liris taking off the coat."

I have to say, though, I liked all the coats.
posted by lyssabee at 6:27 AM on November 4, 2017

What makes it worse is that we all know they send more than the three winners to Fashion Week. We've all heard about the decoy collections. So even if Margarita and Kenya do "go" as the finalists, they'll be there showing their collections as the decoys. Sure, they won't get the PR coverage, but if they do a good job, maybe they'll get a chance to become part of the industry.

At this point, I'm having a really hard time picturing a capsule collection for JC Penney from Brandon, but part of me really, really wants to see it, just for the comedic value of trying to marry his aesthetic with that of the JC Penny shopper.
posted by sardonyx at 11:52 AM on November 4, 2017 [1 favorite]