In fashion, one day you’re in and the next you’re out...
October 16, 2008 5:29 PM   Subscribe

This years Project Runway is over and the winner has been announced, coming out top when the three remaining finalists showed their collections at at Bryant Park. But what they didn't tell you is that they also had some of the other contestants show there as well, to throw would-be spoilers off the track, and now thanks to the wonders of YouTube you can see them too.
posted by Artw (46 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Auf Wiedersehen!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:35 PM on October 16, 2008


(I changed my initial wording to be kinder to Tivo watchers, but if you care about spoilers you probably shouldn’t mouse-over or click on anything)
posted by Artw at 5:40 PM on October 16, 2008


(or read any of these comments)
posted by Artw at 5:40 PM on October 16, 2008


Lamest season, this one. Mediocre designers, weak judging, insipid challenges.

Still, better than Top Design.
posted by klangklangston at 5:47 PM on October 16, 2008


I thought the two that didn't win were pretty good. I don't really care for Leannes stuff, though I could just be letting my dislike for her horrid wimpy passive-aggression sway me.
posted by Artw at 5:51 PM on October 16, 2008


The YouTube comments are unusually fun, BTW, particularly on the less good decoys.
posted by Artw at 5:54 PM on October 16, 2008


Nice find. The commentary was especially interesting.
posted by Dolores Haze at 6:00 PM on October 16, 2008


Interesting - pretty much what I expected. Some of those were kind of butt.

Now, if you can find me the decoy collections from Project Runway Australia I will be most pleased. I've looked all over and can't even find pictures.

YES. I am that addicted that I watched the whole season on YouTube. It was interesting - it ran a few weeks ahead of the US version. It was good, despite the lack of intercontestant animosity and Tim Gunn.
posted by louche mustachio at 6:12 PM on October 16, 2008


I agree that this season was a bit weaker than previous ones, and INDEED still better than Top Design. That show is a total snore-fest.
posted by GavinR at 6:51 PM on October 16, 2008


Here is one of my favorite PR blogs. Project Rungay. Tom and Lorenzo are just fabulous and have such a good eye for current trends and what the designers are doing. Scroll back through the last few entries and enjoy. Bookmark for next season.
posted by pearlybob at 6:52 PM on October 16, 2008


omg...what's next...american idol reviews?
posted by VicNebulous at 6:56 PM on October 16, 2008


I would like to have seen a stronger crop of designers, considering the uncertainty of Season 6 due to the injunction preventing the move to Lifetime.
That having been said, yay Leanne. Her wedding dress was spectacular.
posted by Dr. Zira at 7:51 PM on October 16, 2008


It's a dangerous game letting so many non-finalists show in Bryant Park. Kind of makes a joke of the show if the best designer comes in 6th.
posted by smackfu at 8:43 PM on October 16, 2008


I hated Kenley.
posted by FunkyHelix at 8:51 PM on October 16, 2008


Leanne is like the Calatrava of fashion.
posted by drezdn at 8:54 PM on October 16, 2008


Has anyone seen the UK version, called Project Catwalk? One interesting change was that the finalists all hired seamstresses to help them sew their final collections. Probably a bit more realistic than our version.
posted by smackfu at 8:57 PM on October 16, 2008


I'm kind of shocked how bad the collections other than Leanne's were. They don't even look particularly professionally put together. I liked Leanne's collection, it was very beautiful, but I can't say that any other year it would have been strong enough to win.
posted by whoaali at 9:00 PM on October 16, 2008


Lamest season, this one. Mediocre designers, weak judging, insipid challenges.

I would have to agree. Come on, a lot of Kenley's stuff was straight up copied! People have gotten kicked off the show for less! And she made it to the final 3!!!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:02 PM on October 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


Come on, a lot of Kenley's stuff was straight up copied!

But she lived on a tugboat, so it's ok.
posted by drezdn at 9:21 PM on October 16, 2008 [3 favorites]


Fewer overly-obvious producer interventions in the judging this year though.
posted by Artw at 9:21 PM on October 16, 2008


The fact that Kenley made it to the top three seem pretty contrived though. Jerrell won the challenge that would have normally lead to Bryant Park, but then they would have only had three decent designers who get along with each other.
posted by drezdn at 9:25 PM on October 16, 2008


Has anything of not happened to previous contestants?

These type of shows always put personality over talent, and so every series feels exactly the same.
posted by avex at 10:08 PM on October 16, 2008


The fact that Kenley made it to the top three seem pretty contrived though.

Absolutely. I thought that the right person won, but yeah, there's no way that Kenley should have been in the final. Also I dislike her.
posted by ob at 10:36 PM on October 16, 2008


The fact that Kenley made it to the top three seem pretty contrived though.

You know, at first I thought the same thing. Then I thought about all of Jerrel's work. Even the best stuff, the stuff that won challenges was... gunchy. He was great with the big picture look, but then there was a weird seam, a bulge, or a strange edge. Kenley, while obnoxious, made clothes that fit and were finished (for the most part). She wasn't totally undeserving.

I've been a Leanne fan all season though. I'm glad she won.
posted by Thin Lizzy at 11:42 PM on October 16, 2008


Ah, my girlfriend will be happy. Until I SPOILERIZE IT FOR HER!!!

I prefer the British version, Heidi Klum's unnervingly forced and zesty grin always makes me suspicious that she just shat herself or ate a cute puppy.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:52 PM on October 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


Klum has the most annoying voice IN THE WORLD. Oh, it's awful. Her voice is like taking a cheese grater to your eardrums. No amount of beauty or fashion experience can offset the fact that she is the worst presenter in the history of television.

Plus, the odious Weinstein brothers have way too much affect on that show.
posted by chuckdarwin at 1:41 AM on October 17, 2008


Korto and Jerrell were robbed, no doubt about it. Especially Korto.
posted by pomegranate at 3:40 AM on October 17, 2008


Enough with Leeann and her dumb glasses. Her final show looked like she was inspired by air filters (I guess that makes that wedding dress a HEPA filter, zing!). And all in those awful colors too, though not as bad as that 'wet clay' fabric that Korto had.

Kenley had clothes one could actually wear, and looked great! I really don't understand the argument about her copying. She seems totally sincere saying she didn't know. That's called parallel thinking, not copying, and if she can produce stuff on par with what major designers have done in the past unknowingly, isn't that saying something?

Oh, and lulz at Klum saying 'idear'.
posted by Mach5 at 4:30 AM on October 17, 2008 [1 favorite]


The question to Leanne about what she'd do if she had 40 looks instead of 12 (10) was interesting. Obviously, it was conceived as a 12-piece collection and so it's unfair, but running a motif to the ground makes me wonder where she would have gone next...but I guess there will be a real life answer to that. She seems to have the creativity and talent to do exciting things, in a way previous winners didn't.

Fashion designers whose work is 'architectural' inspires the same rage in me as architects who go on about 'poetry' - it's superficially co-opting something that does not fulfill the function of your actual work, and it's pretentious.
posted by carbide at 4:52 AM on October 17, 2008


Mach5: She was kind of trying to make a virtue out of ignorance of the context in which she omgsincechildhood dreams of making it, relying heavily in her work and her own aesthetic on recycling other people's previous work. Choosing between lies, forgetting that she'd seen work and being unconsciously inspired by it, and ignorant couldn't have been the best consideration while appraising her work.
posted by carbide at 4:56 AM on October 17, 2008


Oh, PLEASE with the Jerrell love. Slapping a bunch of shiny things on a weird dress that looks filthy -- and all the similar things he's done this season -- does not make you good. Leanne, on the other hand, is the awesome. She sure as hell should've won the costume challenge for that scorpion look of hers. Oh yes.

(What? I am a total PR geek. And I do a mean Heidi Klum impersonation, too...)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 5:07 AM on October 17, 2008


I'm pretty sure Heidi Klum is a robot.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:43 AM on October 17, 2008


I really don't understand the argument about her copying. She seems totally sincere saying she didn't know. That's called parallel thinking, not copying, and if she can produce stuff on par with what major designers have done in the past unknowingly, isn't that saying something?

Yeah, but people in the fashion industry want to see something new and interesting. As a designer, you should be aware of what other people are doing/have done, so that you can do something different. It's not like her designs were similar to some obscure designer, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen are big names.

This Balenciaga dress from last year is very much like Kenley's. (Baleciaga's Spring 2008 collection, Alexander McQueen's fall 2008 collection

In the end, these things are, as Tim Gunn would say, a matter of taste. I was glad Leanne won. I really liked her collection. Lots of people have been saying that season wasn't very good because of the lack of drama. I still liked watching the people work, but I agree some of the challenges and guest judges were lame.
posted by bluefly at 6:00 AM on October 17, 2008


LeeAnn's Etsy seller page (courtesy of TPS).
posted by amro at 6:39 AM on October 17, 2008


It's interesting that Tim Gunn didn't mention that the looks were similar to other designers. You would think that's part of his job as mentor.
posted by smackfu at 6:40 AM on October 17, 2008


smackfu: Is that sarcastic? He did mention it a few times, that her designs were 'cousins'. Her response was 'I came up with this independently, I'm not changing it'

carbine/bluefly(dotcomaccessorywall): I get that some of her designs were close to others, but I still believe ignorance is a valid excuse. I just don't think she should've been penalized because her designs were similar. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of big designers doing things similar to others. What she had was much more variety than either of the others. Leeann basically said "hey, waves are cool, this is a neat way to pleat" and then 'lets put the pleating on a skirt! now on the top instead! now lets turn it 45 degrees! now lets make it tan instead of light blue! its a wedding dress, lets put TWO sets of the same pleating!', and it was just completely boring.

To me:
Leeann: Same style, little variety
Kenley: Same style, lots of variety

oh well *shrug*
posted by Mach5 at 8:01 AM on October 17, 2008


err, carbide, apologies
posted by Mach5 at 8:22 AM on October 17, 2008


Ah well, I suspect we’ll be seeing Kenly pop up on the telly all the time now. Leanne not so much.

IMHO Koto was the one who was really robbed.
posted by Artw at 8:33 AM on October 17, 2008


Kenley used gramma prints (like, seriously, we buried my gramma in that floral that she got accused of ripping off from Balenciaga), Leanne was resolutely mediocre through most of the show (though of the four, did have the best collection) Jerell couldn't sew, and Korto's dull khakis and Pam Grier bullshit should have been called out earlier.

And, God, I hate those fucking Laura Ingalls Wilder puff-ball sleeves and gingham bullshit that seemed to be in vogue this year, both from Kenley and Leanne.
posted by klangklangston at 9:18 AM on October 17, 2008


She seems totally sincere saying she didn't know.

She also said she sneaked into the tents last year to see what was going on (and got thrown out). If she cared enough about what other people were doing to try that, she would have cared enough to look at pictures or video of the shows. I don't believe her claim of total ignorance of the looks she seemed to have copied, although I don't necessarily think she did it deliberately.
posted by frobozz at 10:58 AM on October 17, 2008


I don't get why Project Runway is trying to move to Lifetime, as much as Bravo has promoted them and made them such a signature part of the network. Maybe Klum is going for a last-minute money grab because she knows it is wearing (hehe) thin anyway.

I generally like the show, but a couple things I wish they had done differently: (1) they could have given the viewer more insight into fashion (I was disappointed when Tim Gunn's show 'guide to style' was just another makeover show, as I thought it would be an actual guide to style)...it's neat to see the creative process, but it remains a mystery what criteria they are using to judge the work; the viewer is left to judge the work on a gut feeling; they like to say what doesn't work and what does, but they don't say enough about why....they could even just put up little messages on the screen to clue us in to stuff like that (for instance, in one season everybody was going around saying 'pencil skirt', like i'm supposed to know what that is...how easy it would be for them to spell it out for us); and (2) I don't like the gimmicky challenges. Yeah, it's cute the first time you tell them to make something out of food or flowers, or to make a work uniform or ice skater costume or drag outfit. But more than once a season for something like that is too much. I much prefer the more general challenges, like 'make a party dress' or 'make a red-carpet gown'.

I'm not a great fan of 'you have $40 to spend on this challenge' and 'you have 30 minutes to sketch and shop for your material' and 'you have one day to make this couture gown', but some of the designers have worked well within that limitation, so I guess it's fair. Though I would like one day to see some real pro designers come in and have to do the challenge side-by-side with them on some of this stuff, as they are unaccustomed to such limitations.

I don't know that they intentionally keep the assholes on board, though the assholes to tend to become the reality tv celebrities (this I think in part explains Palin's popularity), but it did seem they re-wrote the rules to keep Kenley around (no elimination on the week she was bound to lose, which was a total cop-out).
posted by troybob at 1:45 PM on October 17, 2008


“You have to be teamed up with this idiot who will sabotage you” is always a good one.
posted by Artw at 1:59 PM on October 17, 2008


Fashion is the art of conforming faster than anyone else.
posted by Forrest Greene at 3:46 PM on October 17, 2008


PR wants to go to Lifetime because the Weinstein Bros want lots of money, and Lifetime is willing to give it to them. I'm kind of glad for the injunction because I think 2 seasons a year is a bit much. I think it stretches the talent pool too thin as we saw this season (the last cycle ended only a few months ago).

“You have to be teamed up with this idiot who will sabotage you” is always a good one.

That's a classic! I actually think they do a pretty good job of describing some of the fashion during the expository "interviews" they do throughout the show. But they spend way to much time filming the drama and too little time showing the actual construction of the garments. I love watching things get made!
posted by bluefly at 5:19 PM on October 17, 2008


“You have to be teamed up with this idiot who will sabotage you” is always a good one.

That has to be a rule when they pick the people for those challenges. Draw straws, winner gets to be a giant bitch to whoever their designer is.

Every single challenge like that has exactly one person who is a pain in the ass.

Same with The Amazing Race and bad taxis, though.
posted by graventy at 8:48 PM on October 19, 2008


I'm way late to this party since I just watched the finale the other day, but I wanted to throw my lot in with the crowd that wondered how Kenley managed to get as far as she did. Especially with her mouthiness to everyone. No way they would have tolerated that in anyone else, and it baffled me.

I thought Korto's final collection was the best, but Leanne had a better the whole season. I thought Jerrell was robbed at first, but after watching that video maybe not so much. Perhaps it was the video quality.

Did decoys Suede and Joe Faris get the same amount of money that the other four did? Did Project Runway give them any money? I know the other four didn't get a huge amount, but I'm wondering how much the show invested in people who were already out of the running.
posted by lilac girl at 11:46 AM on October 20, 2008


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