Thursday, October 9, 2008

Project Runway - Finale, Part the First

At the start of the show, Heidi announces that the four remaining designers will be given a budget of $8000 with which to create a collection for Fashion Week. Of course, she also emphasized-- for the umpteenth time -- that only three of them will be "competing." Tim also pops in to warn the designers that he'll be making home visits in a few weeks, so they'd better not be resting on their laurels!

The designers head back to the Atlas, pack their bags, and say their farewells in the lobby. All but Kenley, that is, who storms out the door in a small blue huff without bothering to wish her fellow competitors good luck or even to fuck off.

Yeah, you just go on and be pissy, Missy.

A few weeks later, just as threatened, Tim heads out to Little Rock, AK, where he is met at the airport by an contingent from a corporate sponsor in order to deliver a little vehicular product placement.

At her studio space, Tim is greeted warmly by Ms Momolu who shows him her collection. Her point of view is culture and nature, and she wanted her pieces to look ethnic without looking ethnic. She also took the opportunity to use it to show off some of her spectacular beads.

After the visit to her studio space, Korto took Tim home to meet her family. Her drumming instructor is also there and together they played a mini concert for Tim.

Next, our daring mentor travels to the wilds of Portland, Oregon, to visit Leanne.

There he meets Leanne's boyfriend, Nathan, and checks out her predominately blue and white collection inspired by the motion of waves. In other words, her clothes are covered with a different sort of pasta shape than what we've previously seen from her.

Leanne then forces Tim to take a ride on her tandem bicycle.

Next up, a trip to visit Jerell in California.

Jerell's POV is evening wear. He's decided to heavily apply his talent for mixing textures. And by "talent" we really mean "tendency," or in Tim Gunn-speak, "propensity."

Jerell takes Tim to his place to meet his sister and his mother, some friends, and a dude he introduces as "my love interest, Dan." Dan wasn't on camera very long, but I thought he bore a passing resemblance to a particular blogger who also happens to be a big Project Runway fan. (Leave your guesses in the comments!)

Jerell's father wasn't there to meet Tim, as he was working. Jerell tearfully tells us, in a confidential, that his father is a very hard worker who spent most of Jerell's childhood in the sleeper cab of a truck, making money to support his family. So how exactly does one make money in the sleeper cab of a truck....?

Finally, Tim goes to Brooklyn, NY, to see Kenley. Tim greets her warmly. She introduces him to her tugboat captain father....

Tim seems to love most of Kenley's collection, with the exception of a green dress that has green rope around the neck. Green rope around the neck reminds Tim of nooses. Green rope around the neck reminds Kenley of tugboats with algae growing on them. Or maybe spinach.

The hand-painted fabrics that Kenley used for some of her dresses were a big hit with Tim. Ok, so that impressed me. Kenley is a big crybaby bitch, but that cute little handpainted dress is my favorite thing in her collection. He also loved her feathery wedding gown.

In the blink of an eye (plus a couple of Saturn, TRESemme, and L'Oreal commercials) we find the designers heading back to New York in the days before fashion week.

The final four are staying in a posh suite at the Westin, NY in Times Square. They first three to arrive are happy to see each other but not so pleased about the prospect of having to deal with Kenley again. But she shows up and apologizes for being such a bitch in the past. That lightens the atmosphere considerably. Room service then brings up two bottles of bubbly from Tim that helps even more with the atmosphere.

The next morning, the designers go to their workspace and unpack their garments.

Tim reminds them that although the four of them have created collections for Bryant Park, one of them will be eliminated before the show. And in order to do that, there has to be one final challenge. To the ensuing collective groans, Tim announces that they have to put together a partner for their wedding dress.


Everybody is thrilled.

The designers get to go to Mood one last time for fabric. When they get back to the Bluefly.com studio, Tim tells them they have only until the end of the day to work on their bridesmaid dress.

Later, Tim comes in for a dose of mentoring. He's not sure about Jerell's creation and hopes the fabric won't be so crinkly on the runway.

Tim likes Leanne's dress, but feels Korto's two gowns are in competition with each other because of the similarly colored fabric.

The next morning, Tim sends in the models. He gets all verklempt and gives a little speech about how he loves the designers and wants them to succeed. Awwww.... (How can he keep this up season after season?)

As the models dress, Kenley notices that the length on both Korto's and Leanne's bridesmaid dresses has changed since the day before....


And with that, it's time for the runway show!

Unfortunately, Bravo got chintzy this week and didn't provide good photos of the dresses.

Everyone liked Kenley's bridesmaid dress. Her feathery wedding gown got compliments too.

So maybe the dress was a little derivative of McQueen's Fall 08 collection....

The judges LOVED Leanne's dresses. They couldn't gush enough. And the only pics Bravo provides are of the models heads. Gee thanks.

Leanne and Kenley were told they would both be competing at Fashion Week and summarily dismissed from the stage. Korto and Jerell didn't fare as well.

Korto's was called overworked by Michael Kors and Heidi didn't like it. Nina didn't see how the bridesmaid dress had any relevance to the bridal gown.

They liked Jerell's even less.

They didn't like the gray tulle under the wedding dress because it looked dirty, and MK thought the model looked like she was wearing a flowerpot on her head. They decide that Korto can go on to compete at Bryant Park, but Jerell just had to go.

I was sad at the verdict. I didn't want to see Kenley get a chance at the giant check, but I knew Jerell's over-the-top style wasn't going to fly with Nina and Michael Kors.

Sing it, sister!

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