Project Runway Episode 7: Prom promises

The designers meet their greatest challenge yet: Teenage Girls From Jersey.

January 14, 2008; 7:03 AM • by Valerie Catrow

After menswear, designing for “real” women, and the whole candy disaster, this week’s challenge to create a prom dress in two days using $250 of actual fabric seemed relatively harmless. That is until Christian and his ego met their karmic comeuppance in the form of his “client” Maddie, a Catholic school girl from Jersey. After just 10 seconds of screen time, Maddie made it clear that she spends too much time with adults telling her how cute and charming she is. She’s not. She immediately told Christian that she has been designing for two whole years, grabbed his pencil, and started sketching away. And unfortunately, he didn’t put a stop to it.

Meanwhile, even though the other girls had ideas as to what they wanted, they were willing to be reigned in a bit. By the time their clients returned on the second day for initial fittings, some of the designers had tweaked the designs to keep them more age appropriate. For example, Sweet P (whose place in the bottom two last week seemed to light a big, fat fire underneath her) took her client’s idea for a white dress with a plunging neckline and created a more subtle, champagne-colored gown that kept modesty a bit more in mind. Similarly, after starting her garment, Victorya realized the silhouette was too much like something “an Italian divorcee” would wear and scrapped it for a flirty shift with a beaded neckline – a bit too bedazzled for my taste, but her client loved it.

Christian, on the other hand, was no match for Maddie’s demands. At her first fitting, she moaned and whined about the dress, egged on by her placating mother and, undoubtedly, the camera. But even more annoying than Maddie was the fact that Christian failed to stand up to her and be the adult. The result? A big mess of brown satin and black lace that did nothing for her figure or his progress in the competition.

At the end of the runway show, Heidi declared Jillian, Kit, and Chris safe and sent them off the stage, placing Sweet P and Victorya as the top scorers and Kevin, Rami, Ricky and Christian at the bottom.

Sweet P and Victorya were no surprise. Both made executive decisions throughout the process that allowed them to maintain their design integrity and make the best possible garment for their clients.

Kevin and Rami both got reamed for making their clients look older, and Ricky was criticized for creating a poorly constructed dress in a color that completely washed out his client’s complexion. Not surprisingly, the judges called Christian out for losing control of the design process to an obnoxious teenager.

Victorya ended up taking the top spot and immunity for next week, something she probably doesn’t really need but will give her some allowance to push things a bit next week without risking elimination – good thing because I’m starting to think she’s a bit of a one trick pony.

You would have thought with all of the focus on Christian during this episode that he would have gotten kicked off. Well, not so much. Even though Christian was a disaster this week and even though Ricky has been in the bottom THREE times, Kevin got the Auf. Kevin who has never been in the bottom three and who managed to at least pick a color that didn’t make his client look like a corpse. But whatever.

Moving on…

Non-winning winner:

Sweet P pulled out all of the stops this week. Her dress showed a level of taste we haven’t seen from her yet and hopefully this is the start of a good streak for her.

What we actually learned:

As times change, so do hemlines. I don’t recall anyone at my prom wearing anything other than a full length gown. But then again, that was back in the 20th century.

Who I now love:

I fall more in love with Chris every week. Because, I mean, who doesn’t love a big, wonderful drag queen?

Who I now don’t love:

Ricky. Enough with the crying. Seriously.

Who to watch out for:

I think Sweet P might be on a roll.

Who’s next to go:

I hope it’s Ricky, but things are so crazy over there I’m tempted to say something ridiculous like Jillian because that seems more likely.

Clips for next week are hinting at a partner challenge, always stressful and conflict-rich at this point in the game (Yessssssssss!) Until then…

Auf Weidersehen!

January 14, 2008 7:03 AM 2