Project Runway Season 10 Episode 3: Finally, a little drama! But still...there could have been more.

Episode 3: Welcome Back to the Runway, Losers (and some winners)!

Heidi meets the designers on the runway and she's back to her usual fabulous self. Did anyone else notice that her chic gold dress looks like it could have been designed by Ven? All that pleating at the collar looks like it's right up his ally. Then again, last week she wore something that reminded me of Lantie and that's who went home, so I hope it's not a bad sign for Ven! (Wait, no, he has immunity.)

As per usual with team challenges, some designers are more excited than others

The Challenge: 
It's the Lexus Red Carpet challenge and the designers must work in teams of two to design a red carpet look for the Emmys, incorporating the colour of the Lexus they've been assigned into their designs. Their clients are past contestants from Project Runway. The teams are chosen randomly. Here's the breakdown:

How cute are Dmitry and Melissa here? It won't last

Team Brown: Andrea & Christopher: Anya Ayoung-Chee, Season 9 Winner

Team Red: Raul & Alicia: Mina Hermanovski, Season 7 Finalist

Team White: Gunnar & Kooan: Irina Shabayeva, Season 6 Winner (but I'm not sure Season 6 should even count)

Team Silver: Melissa & Dmitry: April Johnston, Season 8, All-Stars (nice girl, but how she made All-Stars is a giant mystery to me)

Team Champagne: Sonjia & Nathan: Valerie Mayen, Season 8 (Oh my goodness, I barely remember her. Did she go home in the first couple of weeks in her season? Maybe somebody more memorable dropped out at the last minute and she filled in?)

Team Black: Elena & Buffi: Laura Bennett, Season 3 Finalist

Team Navy Blue: Ven & Fabio: Kenley Collins, Season 5 Finalist

The Consultation: 

Mina should be easy to design for since she has a specific point of view, a limited colour palette, and her designers are both MENSWEAR DESIGNERS! How could Alicia and Raul NOT nail this? Well, hard work and determination, that's how. They seemed determined from the start not to do what they were best at because, for some reason, they thought "everyone said they had to do gowns." In her blog, Mina later expressed how flummoxed she was by this choice.

Two menswear designers and Mina? A match made in heaven? Not if these two have anything to say about it!

Kenley's consultation goes about exactly how you'd expect it to. Did her designers even get to speak? 

Nothing says "take me seriously" like a 35-year-old woman dressed like a five-year-old. What ever happened to Sweet Baby Kenley?

The Workroom: 
The designers compare notes about clients, with each claiming that their client is the hardest one. I love when Christopher just pointed to Anya's picture on the wall and said, "Boop! I got Anya." Of course the reason I loved that is because he reminds me so much of my friend Brad, so only those of you reading this who KNOW Brad would even get that (but a few of you do, I'm sure!). Even the way he puts his hands on his hips and hunches his shoulders like a contestant on America's Next Top Model reminds me of Brad. So I really like Christopher. (Although I will say this, I don't think my friend Brad would turn into "the guy who cries" if he were on a reality competition show, like Christopher seems to be.)
 

Fabio looks on while Ven explains the dress that he and Kenley designed

Tim Gunn comes in and SURPRISE! The winner of the challenge gets to GO with the client to the Emmys! Holy Smokes! That's fun! Of course, it's not entirely clear why their clients are even going to the Emmys in the first place, but let's just assume that they're guests of the show.

In another feat of sheer determination, Christopher and Andrea manage to find a colour that looks terrible on Anya

Things seem to be proceeding along nicely until the clients visit the workroom. Anya tells Christopher and Andrea she doesn't want to show so much skin, which Andrea insists is no problem but which almost makes Christopher cry. Mina is very concerned over the red print that Raul and Alicia are working with (of course she is, it breaks up the black and white colour palette that she is married to). And Laura confirms to Buffi and Elena what they've already feared: their skirt will never be finished in time if they don't change strategies. Elena looks like her head is going to explode, which prompts Buffi to tell her to calm down. Elena behaves how ALL calm people behave: she screams "I AM CALM!" and storms out of the building for an indeterminate amount of chain smoking. Because she's super calm.

Irina is as lovely and pleasant as always (remember her from Season 6? She was a smug, entitled,  unpleasant ogre then, and nothing has changed). She later goes on to kill all Kooan's joy

When Christopher's not busy freaking out over his own partner and her "snail-like" sewing skills, he makes some pretty funny comments about Elena. "Her personality is like she just escaped...from the woods. And she's ravenous. And she'll bite your head off."
   
Elena defends her behaviour to the camera by explaining that where she's from, in the Ukraine, "you have to be tough." Okay, fair enough. I bet it was hard there. "Nobody is going to say please or thank-you there." What? Really? That sounds-- "In Ukraine if you want to eat, you have to, like, really hustle every day. Only the strong survive." Jesus! That sounds like some sort of underground fighting ring! What the hell? "The weak ones, they don't survive." ACK! Was that a threat? 

Fabio seems to have had a lot of time this challenge. Also, he looks like the Hasidic version of Andrea. I just noticed that

Thankfully everyone manages to (somehow) get their shit together enough to send their models (i.e. past contestants) down the runway. But not before Irina tries to rip Gunnar and Kooan's eyes out about her seams. She misses their eyes but seems to have stolen Kooan's soul. Now he is filled with nought but sadness. Bad, Irina! Bad!

The Runway:

Team Brown: Andrea & Christopher: Anya Ayoung-Chee

I know their Lexus was brown, but did they have to use THIS much brown? She just looks messy, like a mud puddle. A shiny mud puddle. It's crazy because they have the hottest possible client and they made her look icky.

Team Red: Raul & Alicia: Mina Hermanovski

I was hoping they'd take the "red" inspiration and make something along the lines of The Night Circus (the book by Erin Morgenstern about the dramatic magical circus at night that only uses black and white in their colour scheme, with occasional touches of red. It's been optioned as a movie) but this just looks like they gave up. And the red hardly looks like an inspiration colour, or even an important accent. It's just sort of there.

Team White: Gunnar & Kooan: Irina Shabayeva

I don't think it looks like a wedding dress and it did come out quite lovely. But Irina was right about the shoddy construction, and she comes from the season of ALL shoddy construction, so that's a pretty big insult. If this dress won, people would be laughing at it when they saw it up close, with the weird puckering bum seams.

Team Champagne: Sonjia & Nathan: Valerie Mayen

I am sick that this gold dress wasn't in the top! Did the judges blink when this went by? Maybe they didn't notice it because they also don't remember Valerie Mayen.

Team Silver: Melissa & Dmitry: April Johnston
I didn't love it or hate it. It was like a space age garbage bag, in dress form. I don't even know if that was an insult or a compliment. The back was pretty though. All in all, it was a sold middle-of-the-road effort (IN SPACE!).

Team Black: Elena & Buffi: Laura Bennett

Oh my god. Seriously? What the hell was this? Someone with as much "face" as Laura Bennett (and by that I mean chin) should NOT wear a collar so high. Why have I never noticed this before? Because Laura Bennett doesn't normally dress like this! She was, however, having the most fun on the runway. Too much fun. It was weird. Calm down, mom!

Team Navy Blue: Ven & Fabio: Kenley Collins
It was lovely and well made and exactly what Kenley would wear, but I do agree that it looked too daytime for the Emmys. Maybe if the fabric were a little more special, more like Grace Kelley? Like Sonjia said, she could wear this to church and no one would think anything of it.


The Judging:
That annoying girl from that annoying show is the guest judge for the Emmy challenge. Which totally makes sense since she's never even been to the Emmys.

 

Somehow the judges overlook Irina's seam problem and place Kooan & Gunnar in the top, along with Ven & Fabio. Raul & Alicia and Christopher & Andrea are not so lucky, although it could have easily been Buffi & Elena in the bottom. Sadly, Sonjia & Nathan's fabulous gold dress is overlooked and lands them in the middle with Melissa & Dmitry (who probably deserved to be in the middle).

When asked who should win if their look is chosen, Kooan graciously says that Gunnar should win since he was responsible for so much of the construction. Fabio admits that is also true in his team, but that he would really like to win because he feels he deserves "to pat myself on the back." Apparently, it's a self-esteem contest. Ven disagrees and says he should win since he (obviously) did all the design and construction on their dress.

When asked the question of who should go home if their look loses, the four on the bottom get a little more flustered, as you would expect. Christopher can't contain himself any longer and keeps insisting (rightly so, it would seem) that Andrea spent the whole day doing very little work and that she basically said she didn't care if she goes home or not. He then weeps that he wants to be there "so badly." I wish I could watch the extended judging in Canada, because I'm guessing there are a lot more tears. 

  

Raul and Alicia are less teary but Raul steadfastly insists that they couldn't possibly choose which of them should go home, since it was a "team effort." That is usually code for "it's my fault and I don't want you to know it." Eventually Alicia confirms that, yeah, that's kind of true.

The Results:
Ven WINS! I was surprised that his dress won, but I'm not surprised that Ven was chosen as the winner over Fabio (despite Fabio's need for back pats).
Raul is OUT. He pretends like he's fine and happy but he's pissed that Alicia wasn't kicked out too. At least I don't have to look at his stupid hair anymore. Hooray!

Next Week: Is this where all the drama FINALLY happens? It looks like Andrea has spirited herself away in the middle of the night like a, well, like a quitter. And maybe Kooan leaves too? Or is this another "this season on Project Runway" thing? I think the Andrea departure really is next week since it said "the next morning" in the promo. Can't wait!