Project Runway: Season 9ish

[Matt]

Holy shit...why didn't somebody tell me that the season had started already? How many have I missed?

[Lisa]

Two challenges, so just the first and second episode.

First challenge - 20 designers show up, and all 20 present their own designs all over again to Tim, Nina, Michael and Heidi. Four are culled from that crew, the ever popular, "Four of you are going home RIGHT NOW." So then we're down to the usual 16 who get to move into The Atlas Hotels.

That first challenge - Tim shows up in the middle of the night and tells the designers to come as they are - in their jammies - with him. They may grab one bedsheet off their bed and follow him to Parson's, but they may not change into anything else before leaving. The challenge? Make a garment/outfit out of the jammies on their bodies and the bed sheet (all plain white bed sheets) as their only materials. (They were all given surgical scrubs to put on once they've shed their jammies). They have buttons, zippers, and boxes of dye supplied to them. And they're to "use the Piper Lime accessories wall thoughtfully". 57 year old Bert wins the first challenge - the dress he made was adorable. Unfortunately, part of what he sleeps in were his boxers, so his model has his ball sweat against her bare skin when he turns it into a dress. The guy who was eliminated made a boring ugly outfit, and deserved to go home.

Challenge two - the popular "Kooky materials" challenge. The designers are taken to Petland Discounts, and told to make garments out of materials found at the pet shop. Top contenders, but not winners, were a dress made entirely out of birdseed (heavily glued onto the muslin backing, of course), which was fucking gorgeous (it reminded me a lot of Austin Scarlett's corn husk dress from the very first season), and a top made from aquarium rocks (again, heavily glued on to the muslin). Really beautiful, and I'm surprised they were only in the top and neither one the winner. The winner was from a guy named Olivier (pronounced Oliver. Asian, bleached blonde, has a British accent yet is from Ohio. So...okay. On the Tom & Lorenzo fashion blog, they've already taken to calling him "a human Precious Moments figurine") for a top made out of a dog bed and a skirt made out of shredded cardboard lizard bedding. I wasn't that impressed, I didn't think it warrented a win, but the judges did. The guy who was sent home pissed off the judges by doing the one thing you should never do during the kooky materials challenge - he made a top and skirt out of stuff that could be construed as cloth; namely, he bought umbrellas with pictures of puppies on them and made the top out of that. I think his skirt was from a nylon dog carrier?

So tonight! You must watch! You're only two episodes behind, so don't lag back anymore!

One interesting girl - her name is Anya, she's from Trinidad & Tobago. A former beauty queen, who also has a leaked sex tape. Whatever - here's what's got everyone perked up about her. Her claim is that she's not only self-taught, but that she'd only learned how to sew four months before the show. And yet...her stuff is gorgeous, and crafted extremely well. So the rumor started going around the intarwebz that she's lying, that she actually is trained, and came up with the "I just learned to sew four months ago" bullshit to draw attention to herself and give herself a story. Nothing illegal about that, per se - it's not like she's Keith Michael, bringing pattern and design books to a fashion design competition. But it's possibly shady. When people began to suspect around the web, a supposed friend of hers posted at Television Without Pity that she's not lying - she really did just learn to sew four months before being selected. The "friend" could also just be saying that, so who knows?

Also, the birdseed dress guy - I think his name's Anthony? Beat testicular cancer, but more impressive for a fashion design competition, he's also color blind. He says he goes by matching patterns and textures to get his looks.

[Matt]

cool! I know that there's a MN gal in there, too.

[Lisa]

cool! I know that there's a MN gal in there, too.

Yep - Danielle. A "middle-packer" on the low end, so far. Nothing memorable at this point, and I *think* she was in the bottom three in the first challenge, if memory serves.

I'm a big fan of Becky from Portland, OR. A quirky chubby, fun-fashiony girl that I can relate to! I loved what she made in the pet shop challenge, but she just middle-packed it, to my surprise.

[Matt]

we need to get Howard in here...

[Lisa]

Now that he'll see there's a thread created, I'm sure he'll hop in.

[Lisa]

Matt, Howard - did you see it the other night? It was a pretty shitty challenge, I have to say. Plus, I think the judges are still smoking some of whatever brand of crack they were on when they gave Gretchen the win last season. The stuff they're liking is like - really?