Project Runway - 4/1/2010

So, it's been awhile. Probably no one is reading anymore. Anyway, Project Runway was crazy last night. Seriously, crazy.


So, last night, the challenge was to design a red carpet dress for, guess who?, Heidi Klum. They acted like it was a huge deal to have the designers design something for Heidi, but I'm pretty sure they did that last season as well. It was cute once. Now it just seems like she is making Project Runway into her own little sweatshop.

So, while the designers are sketching, prior to going to buy fabric, Maya just disappears from the room. She comes back with Tim to announce that she's pulling out of the competition. I was waiting for her to say that her mom died, or she was diagnosed with cancer or something. Instead, apparently, she just didn't think she was ready to continue any further. She wasn't confident that she knew who she was as an artist (to borrow a phrase from American Idol), and she didn't want to continue.

Now, on one hand, I totally understand. She received a critique a couple of weeks ago that she was too referential and that it would be really destructive for her to show her work only to have people say, "That looks just like X." So, I could see how she would be worried about continuing in the competition and having her career damaged because, even though she makes great clothes, people think she is a copycat. Plus, it takes some guts to pull out of a competition like that when you know that it's going to be on national television and people are going to label you a quitter.

On the other hand, she must be crazy. I really liked most of her stuff, and I think she was one of the better designers left. She very easily could have made it to the finals. I almost feel like, if her concern was that she was too referential, she should have just taken crazy risks and made totally innovative garments, even if they weren't as good as some of her other stuff, instead of just dropping out. It could have been a good learning opportunity to just basically throw out everything she thought she knew about her own style and get some critiques from Heidi & Co. and then just get auf'd like everyone else.

Then, to take Maya's place, they brought Anthony back. I really thought he would just be a huge mess, because he would be stressed and he would get less sleep than the other designers, but his dress was gorgeous and he ended up co-winning.

Emilio, the other co-winner, was less deserving, in my opinion. It was a pretty dress and I appreciate the fact that he made the dress properly by making the boning, etc. But that little tab on the side looked like the thing on the back of shoes. To me, there was nothing really special about the dress. It was just a pretty dress. I think someone else said that Seth Aaron's dress looked like a dress that the person who was helping hand out the awards would wear. I felt that way about Emilio's dress.

Oh yeah, plus Seth Aaron's model got debo'ed by Donna Karen, so he had to work with a different model he had never used before. They probably would have made a bigger deal about that if Maya hadn't left on the same episode.

I'm not sure there are three people remaining that I think deserve to be at fashion week. I think the judges have gotten rid of more talented people in previous weeks than the people who are remaining. But it is still a million times better than last season, so we will see.