At times I have come to question the reasoning of the Project Runway judges for kicking someone off. When Jesse was given the heave ho last week I thought in the end he should have been given a pass and Emilio should have left instead. This week, I did not question it in the least. Ah Ben, we barely had the chance to meet you…but more on him later.
This week’s challenge was to design a look inspired by one of nature’s 4 elements: Water, Air, Earth and Fire. The budget was the usual at $150 with one day to complete the challenge.
Jay, having been given the last of the immunity this week was given the chance to choose first, he chooses Air. The rest of the designers take their turn picking cards. Ben has Water, Mila picking Earth, Anthony picking Fire, Amy also ends up with Fire, Emilio takes Earth, Seth gets Air, and Jonathan also takes Air. Jonathan takes an interesting twist from the beginning on this challenge. He picks Laughter, the lightest side of Air in his mind and prefers to show her enveloped in it. The model he uses as his muse and layers fabric together then cuts into it to give the look of opacity. It is gorgeous. His model is a pale blonde, and the dress highlights her features to a T. The dress was his best to date.
In contrast Seth Aaron takes it in a whole different direction, instead choosing to show the midnight looks of Air, from his apartment at midnight. It is dark and edgy, all leather. The pants are almost like boots, using strips of fabric to give them that shape. The guest judge, designer Roland Mouret praises him for the extra work, adding that some other bigger designer will be jealous he didn’t think of them first.
Amy…..well I am not sure what is going on with Amy this week. She has Fire, and designs a leather pant suit with a big cone/sling to resemble a well contained “Fire.” Instead it came across as a chaotic mess. The judges hated it. I hated it. Heidi said it looks like a cat in a baby sling…it just fell apart as Amy was way too involved in the concept and not the actual engineering of the outfit.
Ben’s suit…well let’s go back to when he started designing it. As I am learning Project Runway producers often do, when they want to highlight someone getting kicked off they show them talking to their significant other and missing them. Hence Janeane a few weeks ago. This week was no different with Ben. We had barely seen anything on him and this week he was at the forefront, for all the wrong reasons. His suit was atrocious. Michael Kors called it the “jock strap” pants due to the unflattering details on it. The whole thing was inspired by Water and The Great White Shark. Heidi told Ben that if you can’t make a suit, you shouldn’t make a suit.” It was too bad he chose this week to explore that field. As he said, at that point he was too far into it to go back.
Mila can’t do her usual color blocking routine this week as she has Earth, and ends up with a “mineral” inspired outfit of a grey tweed sleeveless vest type jacket. Heidi only like the jacket saying that the rest of the outfit could have been bought anywhere, at any store.
In the end Ben ends up leaving, and Jonathan finally scores a much deserved win. I had pegged Amy as the dark horse, but perhaps Jonathan is just warming up for the final stretch.
– Mary B








