Project Runway – Season 10 Episode 7 – Recap – Oh My Lord and Taylor

Project Runway’s seventh episode of the tenth season, “Oh My Lord and Taylor” had the designers all competing to get their look manufactured, sold and in a display window at Lord and Taylor.

Last week, on Project Runway, the designers were asked to makeover the friend of a "regular person."  Ven drew the ire of just about everybody with his controversial statements about his client's age and weight and his poor design would land him in the bottom three.  However, it would be Nathan, who made his client, but not the judges happy, who would end up going home.  Fabio delighted both his client and the judges with his edgy modern dress and was declared the winner.

This week's episode began with the girls still plotting to get rid of the "Silk-Chiffonees." Sonjia revealed that she thinks the guys design clothes they think women want to wear, while the women design clothes that women actually want to wear.  Looks like the theme of the week is boys vs girls!

The designers went on a road trip to Fifth Avenue to find out their challenge for the week.  They all arrived at Lord and Taylor's flagship location to find Tim and nine mannequins.  Each mannequin was outfitted with a look designed by a designer from each of the previous nine Project Runway seasons.

This week's challenge was to design a dress that will be manufactured and sold by Lord and Taylor that would fit in with the other nine designs in the collection, but still maintain the designer's own aesthetic.  The winning look will also be featured in a Lord and Taylor window display.  All of the designers were understandably very excited at the prospect of both having their design sold at Lord and Taylor and displayed in a window on Fifth Avenue.

The Lord and Taylor customer was described as being a woman who is sophisticated and very into fashion.   The price point for the looks would be 200-300 dollars and the designers would need to keep this in mind, since if their look won, it would actually go into production.  The designers were given one day to complete their looks, but no budget since they were provided with fabric by the manufacturers.

As the designers were mulling over the collection and coming up with sketches, Dmitry commented that he thought some of the designers were really going to struggle, since the designs would need to be simple and clean and they wouldn't be able to hide their mistakes behind a bunch of ruffles and such.

Elena appeared to agree with him, as she immediately began stressing out about the challenge, since the aesthetic of the collection is nothing like what she normally does.  Elena said she thought this challenge was designed for someone like Gunnar who does "everyday" looks all of the time, but she would spend most of the challenge in various stages of meltdown over the idea of having to compromise her aesthetic to design something for the masses, particularly after Tim commented to her that her look might be "too one of a kind" to go into production.

For the second week in a row, Gunnar would come to the rescue, comforting Elena and calming her down.  Now that i'm starting to love him, I figure the editors will go back to making him look like a bitchy diva next week.  Speaking of which, it looks like Chris is taking over the bitchy diva slot as he commented that Elena's look "is just like her personality, trying to be sweet, but all crazy.  I don't get it.  I don't want to.  I don't like her."  I like Elena's aesthetic.  I mean it's not necessarily something I would actually wear, but I like the kind of edgy Sci Fy look of it, but as the judges will later point out, if she wants to make a living at this she has to find some balance between art and commerce.

Sonjia was struggling with nerves, after her first experience in the bottom three in last week's challenge.  As they say in figure skating, the toughest jump is the first jump after you take a fall and Sonjia had a major splatfest in the last challenge, so now she had to get back out there and go for that triple triple combo.  Unfortunately, Sonjia's confidence seemed majorly shaken and she was in tears several times throughout the episode.

She ended up being one of the designers still trying to complete her look as Tim was shooing them out of the work room and onto the runway.  Sonjia pretty much completely lost her shizz a couple times during the episode and had to be calmed down by both Elena and Tim, who advised her to "channel her inner winner."  Sonjia was one of my early favorites and her inability to deal with her own failure and move on has me a bit worried about her chances in the competition.

The existing Project Runway collection included seven cocktail dresses and two gowns.  Most of the designers opted to make cocktail dresses themselves, but Chris opted to go for a gown in the hopes of standing out from the crowd.  However, Chris also opted to do his fabric shredding technique yet again, which had Alicia and Gunnar both commenting about how they think it's a very neat technique, but he needs to do something else already.  Even Chris himself acknowledged that he may have gone to the well one too many times with the technique, but noted that if he wins, that technique is something he wants to be known for.  Fair enough, but Chris, I think we know.....

Alicia decided to do a Chanel inspired look, even though she didn't think the judges would like it.  Because, ya know, doing something the judges won't like is always a solid strategy....Chris thought Alicia's box pleat was"awful" and Tim wasn't real happy with her design either, remarking that it was a bit "too Joan of Arc."  Alicia, however, didn't think the look being called "Joan of Arc" was necessarily a bad thing.  I like Alicia and I like what she was going for, but she has got to find a way to fit her designs into the challenge of the week or she isn't going to last long.

The battle of the girls vs the boys didn't appear to be going very well for the girls, as they were all struggling mightily with the challenge, while the boys seemed to be loving it.  Sonjia thought it was because the guys were more girly than the girls and so were their looks, which seemed to fit more with the Lord and Taylor aesthetic.  Ven opined that it was because guys are stronger designers, while girls tend to be more practical.

The designers were generally split on Ven's design this week, with some, like Dmitry thinking it was one of the top looks and others, like Sonjia thinking the technique was outdated and done to death, while Chris commented that it looked like something a 13 year old girl would wear at Christmas.   And that, my friends, was basically the extent of the Ven drama this week.  So much for last week's OMG Ven is an eval villain teaser.  In a way, it was kind of a relief after all the hoopla of last week's episode.

Like Sonjia and Elena, Melissa would also have her struggles with the challenge.  Ironically, since so many of the other designers were using black fabrics, Melissa would try to avoid going all black, by choosing a dark brocade instead.  However, she would struggle to work with the fabric and considered changing it several times.  With the encouragement of both Tim and her model, she would decide to keep the fabric, but basically had to start all over on cutting and sewing the pattern, which put her way behind and had her freaking out, though not quite as badly as Sonjia and Elena.  She would also end up sewing at the last minute and being run out of the workroom by Tim.

 The Judging:

This week's guest judge was president of Lord and Taylor: Bonnie Brooks.

Top Three Four:

1. Fabio - wanted to create dimension and a classic design

Heidi - thought he did a really good job and it was a really versatile dress

Michael - commented that the asymetrical thing was hard to do well and that Fabio handled it in a way that a lot of women would be willing to give a try.  He didn't like the zipper, but thought the dress was well cut and fitted.

Bonnie - said that she would wear the dress and that it perfectly fit the Lord and Taylor customer.  She thought it was a dress for a customer with "good taste."

Nina - called it a classic "little black dress" with a bit of a twist.  She loved that the dress could be worn to work or a party.

2. Chris - wanted to take a risk by doing his textured fabric

Heidi - loved the dress and the color, even though she acknowledged some people would say "it washes you out."

Michael - liked the idea that it was a gown that looked like seperates.  He thought it was very well made and fabulous, but wants Chris to do something else other than the fabric shredding in the next challenge.

Bonnie - liked that the dress looked light, but wasn't light weight and called the dress a "marriage of lightness and strength."

Nina - thought it looked elegant and sophisticated and loved seeing long, but didn't think the dress would work on many people, but would be a nice addition to the existing collection.

3. Melissa - was struck by the fitted silhouette of the other looks in the collection and wanted to add her touches

Michael - thought the bronze was a smart way to add dark beauty and loved the surprise of the neckline, but thought she went too far with the asymetrical hem line, commenting that it looked like it should have a bell at the bottom and he wanted to "cut it off."

Heidi - thought it was a stunning dress and a show stopper.

Nina - loved the fabric and the collar.

Bonnie - thought it was ingenious, but also didn't like the hem

4.  Elena - wanted to create a classic silhouette with a modern twist to suit her aesthetic

Heidi - announced that Elena had one of the higher scores, which caused Elena to have a mini-breakdown, which baffled Heidi. When she asked Elena about it, she explained that she has been struggling the whole competition to come up with something that both she and the judges would like.  Heidi thinks the dress would be very sell-able and called it "girly but hard."

Nina - called the back extrodinarily beautiful and loved the harness.

Bonnie - called it very french (fresh?) and very fun and thought it was maybe for a "very specific customer" but that she thinks that customer exists.

Michael - said fashion is always about balancing art and commerce and thinks Elena found the balance and called the dress her "shining moment."

Bottom Three Two:

1. Gunnar - felt like his dress could go to different generations and was chic

Nina - thought it was "very expected."  She thought it was beautiful and very elegant, but that she'd seen it already.

Michael - said it looked like a dress that they already carry at Lord and Taylor.  He called it a very "typical evening trick" and looked kind of "mother of the bride."

Heidi - thought he did a nice job on the construction

Bonnie - loved his comment about many ages being able to wear the dress, but thought that the dress lacked fluidity and the lace was a bad fabric choice

2. Alicia - wanted to introduce a dropped waistline and a classic Chanel look.

Heidi - thought the dress was "quite pretty," but didn't like that Alicia said she couldn't do a feminine dress.  She didn't like the ear rings and wanted a lower neck line

Bonnie - thought it was lost somewhere between an office dress and a cocktail dress

Nina - thought she tried deliver something different, but it looks a little "too mature" and dowdy

Michael - gets why Alicia was challenged, but compares her look to "a field hockey uniform."

Sonjia was thrilled to be safe after her meltdown, but Dmitry was baffled why his look didn't make the top three.  Ven thought the remaining guys would be the top three and the girls the bottom three.  Elena was elated to finally be in the top, but Gunnar was super pissed to be in the bottom.

Winner: Chris - they didn't think his dress would sell oodles and gobs, but thought his dress would compliment the other dresses in the collection very well

Out: No One! - they decided everyone "met the bar of the challenge"  yay!

I was about to be pissed that they would give Chris the win for doing the same technique he always does and then send Gunnar home for doing a nice dress that just wasn't different enough, but those wily producers!  I guess I should have suspected this was coming, since they still had to make up for one of the two designers who left the competition earlier in the season.

I thought Chris' dress was nice, but I'm over the fabric shredding thing and I actually did not like the way the gown looked like separates.  I agree with the judge who said it probably wouldn't look good on many women, because unless your proportions are just right, that middle line isn't going to fall in the right place and it would just look weird.

Melissa's look was actually my favorite.  I thought it had the most impact, while still being wearable.  I would buy that dress in a heartbeat.  I was happy to see Elena finally get one of the top scores.  There were some things about her dress I didn't like, but overall I thought it was cool.  It was kind of like a fashion mullet: business in the front and Star Trek in the back.

I like both Gunnar and Alicia, so I was happy that no one got sent home this week.  I hope they both make it work next week.