My apologies to “Project Runway” readers as  this is a late column, but we are going to catch up quickly.  This was due to numerous technical difficulties on my end. But all is well, and away we go…..

Ding Dong, Ping is gone. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Yes, Ping was bounced in Week Three, mostly due to her craziness. The designers visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art to be inspired by their iconic designer collection. All the pieces were interesting and breathtaking watching them in this episode. I cannot imagine how beautiful they were in person.
The challenge this week was to design a signature designer look worthy of that company at the Met. The catch? Everyone was split into teams of two. And given the highest Project Runway budget ever, $500. Excitement was high as they envisioned their trips to Mood for fabric buying. However, the happiness began to wane as it started to sink in that the designers indeed had to work together.

Anthony and Seth Aaron were one team, Jesse and Ping, Anna Marie and Emilio, Mila and Jonathan, and Maya and Jay. (Jay did have immunity from winning his challenge the week before.)

As usual, drama was high as Jesse realized he was just trying to reign in the crazy with Ping, they fought like cats and dogs. At one point at Mood Ping even loses her sketch book. She was pretty much all over the place workwise. I don’t blame Jesse for wanting to strangle her. Ping kept insisting she was the team leader with quite frankly not much leading.

Somewhat of the polar opposite were Mila and Jonathan. While the separates she designed were black and white inspired 60’s throwback, that is about all Mila did. Jonathan, who has the far superior construction skills of the two did the lion’s share of the work, while Mila well, still worked on  the coat. Yes it was gorgeous, but let Jonathan do his thing as well.

An extra twist this week was of course thrown at the designers. They had to use  10% of their budget on a “Look for Less” inspired by another designers outfit.  This ensued panic as Ping went to Mood to search for the fabric.  It was a horrible material, one you might see a lady of the evening wear on a street corner on in some big city.

In the end it came down to Mila winning the challenge and of course Jonathan was safe. It was a shame she won. Jonathan deserved more credit then what he was awarded.

Jesse and Ping came down to elimination with Anthony and Seth Aaron. While Anthony had compared their dress to something for the VP of McDonald’s because it had a little of the Ronald McDonald feel to it in the coloring, it was passable. Their look for less was not.

Megan, our Iowa girl and Jesse’s model, called Ping out on the carpet for not fitting her properly for their “Look for Less”. We will see if there is any backlash for Megan as the designers are eliminated. Hopefully Jesse sticks around for awhile. Michael equated their look to “the model being fitted, an alarm went off, and she ran out with the fabric draped around her.” OUCH. It was a pretty dress, but too much Ping and not enough Jesse.

Goodbye, Ping. We barely knew thee, but we felt we met every last one of your personalities.

 - Mary B.