Well so the runway was not quite a danger zone, at least for some of the designers. The danger zone was in fact the inspiration for this week’s challenge. The designers met Alyssa at the Skylight at Moynihan Station, which serves as a runway for many major designers.

Currently it’s under construction, leaving the designers with tons of construction related materials for their challenge. The designers were to create feminine looks from the masculine materials at the construction site. So yes, check mark for the cliche PR group challenge, and now it’s time to get another one out of the way, the unconventional materials challenge!

The designers had 15 minutes to gather the materials for their 1 day of work. As the horn blew everyone began crazily running about, grabbing as many materials as they could. PR often highlights who might be in danger of elimination for a given week. And this week we saw a somewhat Alexandria-centric episode, beginning with her intensity as she was gathering her materials. She was clearly not around to play nice!

Everyone was back to the workroom, which for this week can be rightfully dubbed as the “new danger zone”! The designers had traded in their sewing needles & machines for toolboxes filled with screwdrivers, glue guns, and wire cutters. Jay began ripping to part the tarp he was planning on using, driving some of the designers bananas! But a clear issue soon became about designers working with similar ideas/concepts, or with this week being all about unconventional materials, it was really the use of the same materials.

Earlier on, Ben & Justin feared their looks might be too similar as both would be working with zip ties. As we later saw, both wanting to use zip ties was where the similarities ended. But Chris & Dmitry passed a mere similarity fear with Chris straight up calling Dmitry a copycat! So Dmitry was working on a green garment, but was not loving it. We didn’t really see this, but he apparently went by Chris’s work station, and all of a sudden wanted to work with ropes, just as Chris was doing. I’m not sure why Dmitry wanting to use ropes makes him a copycat, materials were limited this week. And if Dmitry gathered ropes to use, why shouldn’t he be able to use them. Just as we saw with Ben & Justin, the looks could have ended up being distinct, but Chris decided to change his look up. More on this later, but for now, let’s get to some Zanna-time!

Zanna made it clear from the get-go, she didn’t care what materials the designers were using, she still wanted to see feminine and dreamy fashion forward looks. She thought a few of the looks were going in one wrong direction, Michelle — sporty, Alexandria — goth, and Kate — bridal. But only one designer actually went with a completely new direction, a new look, Sonjia.

It was soon time for the the model fittings, many of the designers poking fun at Alexandria’s crazy use of a wire for the bottom portion of her look. But no time for poking too much fun because the morning of the runway was quickly approaching, and as per PR usual, many designers were still frantically working away.

The guest judges this week were reality TV stars, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Jenni “JWoww” Farley, as well as acclaimed fashion designer Elie Tahari. But wait, what was PRAS thinking this week — did we really need 6 judges?!? There were way too many cooks in the kitchen, way too many voices and styles in the mix. And what we were left with was a major lack of agreement on the top and bottom, and ultimately who should go home. I’m always intrigued by the unconventional challenges, just to see what looks the designers put down the runway made from these odd materials. I could definitely discuss a few other designs, but let’s stick to the judges’ “top” and “bottom.” The top made the most sense, not as much disagreement, so let’s begin there.

At first glance, Justin’s look this week did kind of take me back to his finale collection during his season on PR. He used a lot of white, the completely adorned dress of test tubes, and his work with 3-d fashion printing was clearly re-visited in this look. I don’t think this is a bad thing, but clearly this area, the use of non-traditional materials, is where Justin thrives, leaving him with a well-deserved win! His look came up short last week so I applauded his bouncing back so strongly. Regardless of a reminiscent type look, I was still intrigued and pleasantly surprised at how intricately crafted this look was. It was also positively shocking it was mainly made of zip ties.

Even though the judges, namely Isaac, found a way to nit-pick just a bit, I felt this look was the most well executed considering the unconventional materials being used. The black ombre into the white was beautifully done, very black swan-esque. I almost want to give a beauty shout-out for the make-up here, but it was a little too over-bronzed, or orange-y for my taste. But hair shout-out with Chi, love this chic up-do!

Jay was the other contender for the win this week. I think the main criticism came from Isaac over the use of nails to make this statement necklace. I didn’t love the sleeves as much as the judges did. For me, they were way too crinkly, just not showing the best craftsmanship. But we are dealing with tarp here, not fabric, so that aside, Jay did a commendable job this week. And caution aside, this necklace of nails was pretty eye-catching! I thought it was smart of him to mix textures, giving him an extra special element. A tarp dress with over-sized sleeves wouldn’t have been enough and it’s great Jay recognized that.

Snooki had a few interesting comments as she critiqued the various looks. I think she meant them as compliments, but they didn’t seem that way to me. Jay was the recipient of one such critique-pliment — “this reminds me of a dress made of garbage bags”? Apparently her & JWoww attempted a garbage bag dress, failing to do so as well as Jay did. Either way, great work from Jay & lots of shout-outs from me. Hair shout-out from Chi with this perfectly chosen structured ponytail. Make-up shout-out from Mary Kay, making use of more pops of blue and burnt orange, great bit of color on both the eye and the lip here respectively. And also, QVC shout-out, great way to coordinate more with burnt orange with these heels!

Kate rounded out the top 3, despite some slight criticism from Mr. Tahari. He thought the dress should have been longer, which is odd since all episode Kate’s goal was to steer away from being too bridal. Wouldn’t this dress, being longer, have been way more bridal than the shorter version?? Discussing this bridal point, I’m not sure why it’s such a big issue. Yes, this dress, I could see some bridal qualities. But last week, just because she made a white dress, doesn’t mean it was automatically bridal. If that’s the case, then I guess the white dress I own is bridal too right! Ahhhh, NO! I say get over it.

I think Kate landed in the top because Snooki might have been having some bridal fever. But a couple of other judges had some great comments to add. Even if Snooki’s scoring wasn’t the reason, I didn’t see this look being anywhere near the bottom. The bodice was intricately crafted and it was stunningly gorgeous. She was right in keeping the length shorter. Even though the top knot bun didn’t make this look any less bridal, I still loved it, so hair shout-out for Chi! But also Mary Kay shout-out, the more edgy, bolder eye worked here!

Chris landed in the bottom 3, but I am super excited he was in no real danger of going home since he was not in the bottom 2. I agree with the judges and am happy they were able to see Chris had more to offer. But Chris did mess up this week. He changed his design and it threw him off. I would say next time, if that were to happen again, just screw it. But here is why I am not so sure if that statement should be made. The top portion of Chris’s look this week, from my understanding, was what Chris was working on when the “copying” issue popped up. This is the part of the garment the judges took most issue with though. Because Chris decided to change up his design, this is how the skirt came about. The judges loved this. So I think Chris making the change actually helped him a bit this week.

But we wont’ know because Chris didn’t fully do what he wanted and that’s never best for any designer. What he ended up with, with this top & the bottom, it wasn’t harmonious. But a couple of shout-outs, QVC shout-out, love these black booties! A little too much on the Curly Sue-esque hair, but great, subtle beauty look, so make-up shout-out for Mary Kay!

Michelle was in the bottom 3 last week, but not the bottom 2. This week though, she barely escaped elimination, not only landing in the bottom 3 again, but actually the bottom 2. I’m shocked this wasn’t given more consideration. I think the judges rolled around the concept of this being a basic, safe dress, which sort of was an issue last week. Neither look had much going on design-wise to really stand-out. And bringing up the “safe” aspect, generally a designer who does too little goes home. That was not the case this week. I guess what really helped with Michelle staying was maybe the fact she won her season??

Michelle got one of Snooki’s critique-pliments, comparing this dress to duck tape. I actually thought the exact same thing and I know I didn’t mean that thought as a good thing! And one other perplexing thought for me on this look was why was there was no discussion on the chevron points, that of the same colors, being so way off, not meeting up properly. I’m not a designer, so I’m not sure what the proper terminology is, but I’m fairly certain on almost every other look I’ve ever seen on PR that had points meeting such as this, if they were off, even just the slightest, it was brought up. So why not here?? Also, what was Michelle doing with this model’s hair, trying to blind her so she couldn’t see the runway. It’s called a bang trim people!

I’m not the hugest Alexandria fan so her being eliminated didn’t bother me so much. But I hadn’t seen any dreaded drop crotch pants and I liked her look last week so I think she should have stayed this week. The wonky wiring on this look was crazy & not needed. I agree with the judges in that it was way too 80s, but I would just call that dated. It was also too costume-y. I think Alexandria would have benefited more from trying to do something with this wire on the neckline.

Poor JWoww tried her best to make a case for Alexandria, but she was never going to outweigh Isaac’s vote. And Isaac did not like this look at all, so I think that was what led to Alexandria’s elimination.

Can’t wait for next week, Wicked, good v evil, and showdowns!

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