Last night's Project Runway was definitely one of my favorites of the season. Don't get me wrong, I love me some SJP, but I also love creative challenges that get the designers out of their comfort zones. The menswear episodes come to mind, but even better are the "real women" challenges that involve the designers creating pieces for women who are not a size 0 (Jeffrey's muumuu, anyone?). This time around, not only were the women not a size 0, but all had lost a considerable amount of weight. The challenge, therefore, was to create an outfit for them using their favorite, old clothes as the raw material.
In my mind, the fact that the designers had to use the fabric from pre-existing clothing made it much more difficult than the similar challenge in season three (although the fact that there wasn't an annoying nag like Angela's mother and an equally obnoxious antagonist like Jeffrey probably helped). Steven, in particular, had it rough, as his model's favorite, old outfit was her poofy, polyester wedding dress — but that shouldn't have excused him from abandoning the fabric altogether. Was that enough for Heidi to give him her auf wiedersehen?
If you want to read more about the episode — including shocking spoilers and a gallery of all of the looks — just read more.
The big news of the night was Jack's decision to remove himself from the competition because of health concerns. No, he wasn't my favorite designer, but he was a great personality and really fun to watch. (He seems to be doing well now, too.) With Jack's departure, I was really worried about the group being a little stale. But then Tim Gunn shocked me by bringing back Chris March, who was sent home last week. He's not my favorite designer either, but I do think he's hilarious. He even got Tim to admit that "I've made more bad decisions at 3 o'clock in the morning that I can list." Phenomenal.
Now back to the challenge. Steven wasn't the only designer to all but abandon his model's fabric. Jillian pulled a similar stunt, too, thanks to Tim's loophole of giving the designers $10 to spend on fabric at Mood. Most used the money for trim, but Steven and Jillian bought enough for their whole outfits. It worked better for Jillian than it did for Steven, as the judges loved her red, halter dress and hated his sloppy, French-maid look. See ya, Steven.
Kevin and Christian were the two front-runners this time around. Kevin created a yellow, strapless dress with leggings for his model, and Christian went more casual with jeans, a taupe shirt, and a black blouse. I preferred Kevin's dress (though I saw the judges' point about the leggings being a little lazy), but the judges went with Christian. His win will no doubt add more fuel to the fire that is Christian's ego.
What do you guys think? Was Christian's outfit really the best? Did Steven deserve to go more than Elisa or Chris?
Oh, and two more things: Heidi got bangs, and — wait for it — Ricky cried again (surprise)!
Photos courtesy of Bravo
I thought this was a terrific episode. I loved the challenge, and am so glad Chris is back. By the way, on Bravo, they have posted Tim Gunn's blog for this episode.