PR Designers — Goin’ to the Chapel and……

Well that’s about it — no traditional wedding details for this week or these Project Runway designers! This week the challenge instructions began with very much a wedding-like set-up, complete with Tim Gunn and this week’s guest judge Dita Von Teese walking down the aisle. It was then that the designers learned for this week, they had to create an unconventional wedding dress. They were to throw out traditional wedding dress rules (white gowns!) and create an alternative wedding look. It was a “no rules” challenge, but the designers were reminded the look shouldn’t be a costume; it had to be believable for a bride. This was a very intriguing challenge for me as I just put together an entire posting about if another traditional wedding rule should be tossed to the side — should you, as a wedding guest, wear white to a wedding?!?

But that wasn’t it for the challenge! This week, the designers also learned they were going to work in a team of 2, with a mission to create a corresponding reception look. With it only being a 1-day challenge a team of 2 could certainly be needed, but of course for every designer I’m sure it wasn’t wanted! I was happy the button bag was back to make the decisions this week and not having a designer just make the pairings. But of course, if it was acceptable for Sandhya to have a magic wand over a weekly challenge, why not let Sean have a go at it this week??

This week’s pairings were fäde/Emily, Alexander/Samantha, Kini/Sean, Sandhya/Char, and Korina/Amanda. It seemed as though most of the groups were setting sail in Paradise, except for one — Korina/Amanda. Now I’m not sure where all of the drama came from this week with these 2 talented ladies, but I say, as Joey from Full House would — “Cut it Out”!

We later saw that Char was in on the tension as well. All we know is Korina “told” Amanda she was phony, Char agreed, and really just a bunch of hearsay ensued. It’s not an unbelievable story as we all know women on competitive reality shows are often catty and tend to not get along. But PR never bothered to elaborate or show any background to this drama — THANKS PR! The ladies have seemed fine up until this point so I’m hoping the drama blows over! I want the ladies back this way!! —

Luckily for Amanda this week, it was Super-fäde to the rescue. I enjoyed seeing how compassionate and sweet he was to Amanda. So at least there was a positive amongst the unnecessary drama! Getting back to the actual PR design competition, the designers were next off to Mood to make use of their $400 budget.

The workroom time was full of expected happenings this week — Tim-time words of wisdom and caution; questions on compatibility of a given group’s looks; and of course, as we approached the morning of the runway, there was a whole lot of running around. So many looks were nowhere near being finished! In fact, as Tim gave his final warning calls, a few designers were still fast away at sewing — CRAZY! Of course, “Speedy Kini” was present & accounted for this week so his look was not one experiencing such craziness, but he definitely had to come to the rescue for Sean’s look!

I was really concerned as to how this runway was going to turn out — Korina being so unsure of her design, and both Sandhya and Char barely finishing their super totally major full-on solid bold yellow looks! Joining the judging team of Nina/Heidi/Zac was already-mentioned Dita Von Teese and super-famous fashion blogger/designer Chiara Ferragni of The Blonde Salad. So what did the judges have to say this week??

This week not only was traditional wedding attire thrown to the side, but so was the traditional top 3/bottom 3 categories for the designers’ looks. Basically what I saw was 1 safe look, 1 clear winning team, 1 clear bottom team, and 2 teams where the judges weren’t all on the same page. We saw that Korina kept changing her design this week, she was sewing until the last minute, she & Amanda weren’t always on the same page, and there was a point where we were left to wonder if there would be pants for the model to wear down the runway! With all of that said, it was Korina/Amanda who were left safe. I’m sure they both felt such a huge sigh of relief!

Coming in more towards the middle of the pack this week was Team Emily/fäde. Emily’s look, as seen above, was the one of this duo where the judges had more disagreement. Nina thought it was over-the-top goth, as did Chiara, but she at least thought it was editorial. Heidi didn’t mind it as an alt. bridal look. Surprisingly Dita was not a fan at all! I thought it might have been a bit over-the-top, maybe a little too much going on with the lace and cut-outs. But for a bride who wanted a darker ceremony, I think there was a market for this type of look. We all saw 27 Dresses right!

The judges were a bit more fond of fäde‘s look. And I have to say I totally was team fäde this week!

Heidi wanted more cleavage and Nina wanted more length, which were very differing critiques. But I was focused on just how amazing his innovative self-created pattern was this week. The lace and paint details were just so stunning, very eye-catching. The major problem for this team though was that the looks were not harmonious. I would not see the same woman wearing Emily’s look for her wedding and fäde‘s dress for the reception.

Team Alexander/Samantha were the next pairing, more so in the bottom 2, but there were some positives with Samantha’s critique. My positives are towards her look details this week — love the black platform Aldo shoes, luscious waves from Philip B. hair, & bold beauty look (dramatic eye, nude lip) from Mary Kay. Nina was not a fan of all of the embellishments, but this look should never have been considered for elimination and I’m happy it wasn’t. I’m not sure why the judges were throwing shade at the bottom portion of her dress, something about how it looked as if wine had been spilled on it. If I recall, a winning look this season looked as if it was an old-stained piece of drapery, yet a barely recognizable 2 shades of burgundy gets called out — Okay judges! Samantha’s dress was definitely wearable as a reception ensemble and I very much saw the connection to her partner’s look.

The judges had far more to say about Alexander’s bridal piece. They were not fans of it at all! It was dubbed as being over-designed, with way too much going on — all the lace, all the embellishments. For me, I wasn’t a total fan, but nowhere near the judges’ issues. I think less embellishments, maybe more spread out (to lessen the heavy feel of the bodice), and of course, let’s take out the obvious seam on the lower portion then this look might have been more acceptable. Alexander too gets a Mary Kay makeup shout-out since both he & Samantha made use of a bold eye and nude lip. I also loved his chic up-do courtesy of Philip B. hair. But none of the judges negativity even compared to that of the clear bottom team this week — Sandhya/Char.

The judges dubbed this team’s look as Big Bird and Tweety bird, quite fitting with the massive amounts of yellow used. Yellow is not as difficult of a color to use as everyone made it seem. In fact, Amber Tamblyn had a lovely yellow wedding look and we see yellow as a needed pop of color on red carpets all the time.

I could easily see women wanting yellow as an alt. wedding dress, but the problem with this team’s looks this week was not the color, it was the designs and resulting executions. Sandhya spent a great deal of time on a braided bodice and it really did look as if she tried to drape a bed-sheet for the bottom portion. If she wanted to work with a more detailed bodice, she perhaps shouldn’t have tried to execute a draped bottom, which is something she said she was unfamiliar with doing. PR is all about 1-day challenges, so get fancy with the top, keep the bottom simple or vice versa. But trying to put so much detailing into the top and taking on a new design technique for the bottom clearly spells out DISASTER! Sandhya can take this lesson and move on as Char was the one who was left eliminated this week.

I’m not sure what was going on with Char this week. I think Sandhya took a stronger hand with the design & shopping process this time since with her last group challenge she didn’t maintain herself as a designer in her group. So for this group challenge, I think it was Char who lost herself. The up-close judges viewing/critique certainly displayed a lot more that was wrong with this look. Char claimed to have run out of time, but Nina questioned where all her time went. Char just didn’t have a clear vision or concept, and it resulted in a poorly executed look, which we saw was a glaring issue for so many in last week’s challenge.

This left 1 group clearly being in the top this week — Kini/Sean. But it wasn’t without some strong judges’ opinions!

Sean’s look was great this week and he ended up with the win. But what really brought the judges to fully loving this look was the chic, sophisticated white top, which Kini made!! As great as Sean’s pants were, I thought it in no way compared to Kini’s immaculately designed bridal look. As Dita said, I would wear Kini’s look as a bride, but for Sean’s look, I could wear it on a Tuesday. But for Sean, lovely curled up-do by Philip B. hair and perfectly coordinated black sandal heels from Aldo. The guys worked well together, with Kini swooping in to save the day! And if this resulting look was Sean’s design concept then I think it very much worked as part of the team’s overall story and was deserving of some recognition. But it was just such a shame that Kini missed out on a win, Again!

This week’s decision was just another example of the judges not making sense with their logic. Both looks had great movement and were very chic. But Kini really kept the challenge in mind and was the only one to fully execute the harder of the 2 looks — the bridal garment!! It was important that Nina mentioned should Kini get the win because he deserved it or because he’s due for a win, was it just his turn? And I’m happy Heidi stood firm in that this look was fully deserving in it’s own right of the win. We saw at least 3 decent reception looks this week from Samantha, Amanda, and fäde. On the other hand, we only saw 1 fully believable bridal look. I thought that would have meant something. Kini’s look had flair, drama, and would certainly make any bride be the center of attention, even though not wearing white. I do not think it was over-designed or over-the-top. I really wish Kini was given his earned win this week!

Similarly to Sean’s hair look, Kini also gets a Philip B. hair shout-out. I also enjoyed his Mary Kay beauty look — it was very fresh, natural feeling.

Next week — “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”!! Can’t wait!!