Photo of the Day, November 20, 2009: Red Leaf
Bite Size News, November 19: Old Ironsides & Bunker Hill Edition
Bite Size News, November 20: Who Needs The Money? Edition
Boston Seventh Strangest City in U.S.
Boston Blotter: Gang Shooting in Dorchester
This week's episode of Project Runway Season 4 brought us all sorts of drama. From forcing the competitors to ::gasp:: work together to create a cohesive set of outfits to having them use ::gasp:: outdated materials to make their looks, Heidi & Co. (TM) challenged designers to the max. Accustomed to working on their own with only the latest materials, some designers reacted negatively and picked unnecessarily melodramatic fights with one another. Still, a few designs were interesting--even wearable--and, of course, drama is exactly what we come to Project Runway for, right?
Christian's comment, “The judges might die over it, or, they might die because of it," pretty much summed up the evening for most contestants. Rami's team stood out for their cooperation and mutual respect, while other teams either made every decision a life-or-death matter and fought about nitpicky matters--or were left, laissez-faire style, to their own devices. A group of fighters does not a team make, nor does a group of individuals who just happen to be loosely tied together by a similar fabric or style. The judges were looking for a group that displayed cohesive designs, but also a sense of teamwork--and only one team fit the bill this week.
This Project Runway episode marked a major departure for the show: the winner was announced immediately, rather than left to languish on stage with the losers while the drama loomed. Rami, Jillian, and Kevin produced a collection of denim looks that the judges loved. We're not sure if it was the excellence of Rami's group or the troubles of the other teams that led to RJK's big win, but we congratulate the denim dynamos nonetheless. As Nina Garcia noted on her blog, "It is impossible to survive in this industry if you are not able to be a team player," and the designers certainly learned that this week.
Though Victorya was a passive-aggressive leader, taking on the leader role for ego reasons then being afraid to live up to it by making strong decisions, she eventually let her icy ego melt and took Ricky's advice at the last minute. Ricky's downfall was his willingness to help; he gave his teammates so many tips that his garment went down the runway looking as sloppy as his pinned-up, unhemmed piece from last week. The group's collection was colorful, but not quite of the quality it needed to be to compete.
Elisa's observation, “If I hadn’t known that I had made that dress, I wouldn’t have known that I had made that dress” was totally existential, and we consider it the remark of the week. Seriously, if you hadn't known that Elisa had made that dress, would you have known that Elisa had made that dress? It's enough to keep you in a thought loop for hours.
Chris' team was criticized for creating overly individual looks that were “not a collection," and Michael Kors called Chris' jacket (pictured) “very bad pageant." We're not sure there's a "good" pageant, so just mentioning the word is enough to turn our fashion-conscious stomachs. The pageantry may have been okay on its own, but pairing it with shoulder pads was just too much, and Chris was eliminated.
In light of this week's team-focused challenge, Chris made an interesting point in his response to the episode: "I think fashion is steering away from "big" trends and becoming more individual-oriented. Technology has made it so that we all participate less and less in the group experience."
What do you think, Bostonists? Is technology removing us from the group experience, or just changing its form? And how pageant was Chris' jacket?
Project Runway image from Bravo.com
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)