Project Runway All Stars: Finale: New York State of Mind
May 6, 2016 10:20 AM - Season 5, Episode 13 - Subscribe

The three finalists are taken to 1 WTC (the tallest building in the Western hemisphere!) where they are tasked with designing a collection that draws on their experiences of NYC. They are given a budget of $3000 and four days to create 8 pieces, one of which is for a guy.

As they sketch, Ken, who's only here for the second time, starts with "Harlem renaissance" but segues to "architectural elements" by the time he's finished. Dom who first came up on the bus when she was 16, thought it was the chaos and all the moving parts and the energy of the city so her theme was "sensory overload". Kini's ideal was "the uptown girl who hangs out downtown" and he summarizes it as "gridlines".

Dom paints two different prints, mixes in her usual stripes and goes for unusual silhouettes. Ken sticks with his chic body conscious style and only buys black, off-white, and a piercing yellow. Kini chooses brightly colored reversible plaids, tones them down with a b/w check and whips up voluminous 80s-style dressy outfits. For two days, they get assistance from auf'd contestants Alexander, Layana, and Asha.

Guest judges were actress Debra Messing and Anne Fulenwider, Editor in Chief of Marie Claire.

A selection of final looks here (not complete)

The EW recap has screen shots of the assembled looks for each designer.

More not-big photos here.

Winner: Dom
2nd Place: Kini
3rd Place: Ken
posted by TWinbrook8 (11 comments total)
 
yayyyyyy Dom!!!
posted by en forme de poire at 11:24 AM on May 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ahhh, I wanted Ken to win.

I don't think any of the three collections were particularly original. Maybe it's the time crunch but everyone recycled looks they'd done several times before.

I don't know why Layana cut such a small seam allowance on those pants for Ken. Working with lots of models, surely it'd make sense to have some literal wiggle room in fitted garments in case they had to be refitted on a different model.

Maybe I'm too old and fuddy-duddy to like Dom's clothes. They looked a bit 'art student' to me. I particularly hate that long/short hemline that she won with last week and added again this week.

Kini showed more of the same 80s styles, but with nicer fabrics. Who would wear those clothes? Apart from Joan Collins. Here's a few of Joan's looks that Kini could have made.

1.
2.
3.
posted by essexjan at 1:29 PM on May 6, 2016


Kini's prints all looked . . . shiny. I didn't like them, they were plastic-y seeming to me.
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:11 PM on May 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


yeah the time limit is not good for getting really unusual looks; even the regular seasons now are pretty chopped down.

I think if Dom's plaid had been a little tidier and had better movement it would have been perfect. But I did actually like it, despite the judges' critiques.
posted by en forme de poire at 4:57 PM on May 6, 2016


The contestants had no time to edit or innovate, even with 1 helper. 4 days is ridiculous, but par for the course with B/M who don't really care about Fashion for Fashion's sake.

I loved Dom's shirt with the stripy scoop over the midriff with the skirt the judges all hated more than me (I didn't think it was terrible), as well as her painted dress. I thought her untidy plaid actually worked better than a regular plaid because it added an abstracted quality to the print that worked for me, but I think her plaid garments needed another round of design iteration to really hit. She hadn't fully thought out that pattern's usage because she hadn't had the time.

I think Ken missed the opportunity to better incorporate that Yellow into his line, and that is why he didn't win. One blouse, one dress, and a bit somewhere else. It made the collection seem less cohesive. Again, even if they had had 3 more days, these collections would have all been better.

Why Kini - with his shiny, stiff 80s throwbacks that were all apparently at the wrong length wasn't in 3rd boggles me.
posted by julen at 7:42 PM on May 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Not the best finale runway ever.

I think the results revealed the judges' bias toward "not boring".
posted by amtho at 7:04 AM on May 7, 2016


Though it should not have factored into their decision, I am very glad a woman won All Stars. I do think they made the right choice. In four days they all did really terrific work though, and I could see making a case for any of them winning.

I know Kini has that 80s vibe but he is both skilled and creative. I hate the big ruffles, whether stuck on the side, or flying out the back, but apparently some people dig those.

Ken was a surprise this whole season. Totally sucked that Layana did a poor job with seam allowance on those pants despite our seeing that Ken actually expressed some worry about it directly to her.

Overall, four days for eight looks is asinine. That these three managed it so well is really impressive. imo.

It was nice watching with you guys (sort of)! Don't suppose anyone watches the Voice? (Also can be terrible for various reasons, but for some reason I watch both of these shows.)
posted by Glinn at 1:27 PM on May 7, 2016


Thank goodness for one thing at least - that they did not bring back Sam as a helper. Can you imagine?
posted by Glinn at 1:31 PM on May 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


I really liked Kini's menswear look. I thought the dude looked cool.
Those shiny fabrics looked to me like wrapping paper. I wouldn't mind seeing those piled under the Christmas tree, but I can't imagine wearing them. They didn't look even a little classy to me. On top of that, the mid-calf skirts made the dresses look dowdy.

Ken's looks were mostly quite nice, but not exactly standout.

I love Dom in general, and am glad she won the season, but I really did not like her final collection. I liked the outfit with the patterned leggings, and that first fabric she created was pretty good, but I hated her other fabric, and thought her proportions were weird.

All in all, this finale was just distilled meh.
posted by Superplin at 2:26 PM on May 7, 2016


Too funny, I'd totally forgotten him. I just thought, yep the last three voted off and never gave it another thought. So it seems the producers realized that Sam would be a handicap for whichever designer was unlucky enough to be assigned to him.

What I loved about Kini's fabric was the colors. I loved the orange/purple and the two shades of blue and I liked how he designed his clothes so that both sides of the fabric showed. I didn't actually *like* his collection though except for the long blue dress.

I had the opposite reaction to Dom. I thought she was in trouble when I saw her stocking up on fabric paint. Her Monet print looked muddy at the beginning and the plaid looked garish (I loathe primary colors used together) When they showed all the drips on the plaid, I thought for sure she'd blown her chances. But when I saw the first dress made out of the Monet, I loved it, and even the plaid worked well enough, much better than I thought it would (except for the last gown). Does anyone know what material she used? I thought I heard someone say leather, which would explain the stiffness of the skirt on the last outfit.

Ken's was less interesting to me although his did look the most polished and sophisticated. I think the problem was, it was too commercial; it looked like something we've seen before.

That he and the other two were able to complete eight looks in such a short time is the real story. They all know the drill by now, to come with their bag of tricks and shortcuts and to have a final collection concept already in place. They just need is to be ready to tweak their story to fit the brief.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:29 PM on May 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I love Dom -- not this collection, but I think she should have won her season, so I am happy she made that happen in All Stars.

The grid pattern in Kini's final collection reminds me of the Broadway Melodies show-within-a-show from Muppets Take Manhattan.
posted by mochapickle at 9:01 PM on May 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


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