Christian Siriano: Having a Moment

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Project Runway's Most Dramatic Moments, S4/5

Poodles, before we look to the future of Season 6, one last, loving look back.

You might be looking at the title of this post and asking "S4/5? What's THAT all about?" Well, it's about the fact that unfortunately, Seasons 4 and 5, while they had their moments, were, in our opinion, deadly DULL. There was a ton of talent to be had, but the personalities were somewhat lacking. We tend to think this is because the participants had become all too aware of the cameras and most of them were too self-aware to really let it all hang out. As such, there were very few dramatic moments on par with previous seasons. In fact, there was only one per season.

1) MRSA-GATE

In the midst of a "real woman" challenge that left our comments section in flaming ruins for the week (nothing like utilizing a bunch of real women who've lost weight to push the emotional buttons of the viewers), Jack Mackenroth, that Chelsea Muscle Mary who had already endeared himself to the viewers, found himself in the midst of a health crisis.

To be more specific, he had a MRSA infection and this, coupled with the fact that he had a compromised immune system because he's HIV positive, caused a bit of a concern both on his part and on the part of the producers.

As Jack struggled with the decision as to whether he should stay or go, his fellow designers, to their credit, showed great concern and affection for him. There was one, however, that got a mighty strange edit out of it:

Victorya, who for some reason, looked almost pissed off about the whole thing (granted, she always looks like that). It turns out (although you never saw this on the episode), she was FURIOUS with the producers for not offering to shut down production until Jack could get medical attention and get back on his feet. That's certainly admirable, but highly impractical. It would have been nice to give Jack the chance, but at that point they had no idea how long it would take for him to recover, and each day that the production delayed would have cost the producers tens of thousands of dollars. It's harsh, but that's the reality of it.

In what was probably the most tearful scene in the history of the show, Jack said goodbye to his fellow designers. It wasn't the kind of delicious drama that results from egos clashing, but it was the only time the show actually made us cry.

In the end, Jack made the decision to put his health and well-being before his ambition and opted to leave the show and seek medical attention. As we recall, he was fully recovered within a week, but unfortunately, the show had moved on by that point and replaced him with the recently auf'd Chris March. We still think Jack should have tried out for the next season but he appears to have moved on since then.

2)KENLEY-GATE

There were so many reasons to dislike the cat-thrower from Season 5 and so many scenes that could have gone here, but nothing sums it up like the moment it all came to a head with the judges in the final pre-Bryant Park episode, "Nature Calls."

There is, in our humble opinion, a much funnier version of the following exchange here, but for the record, this is what was actually said:

"I wanted to stay away from pretty."

"The petals, they don't look very elegant either."

"I wasn't going for elegance, Heidi."


"You get very defensive, Kenley."

"It is a little bit annoying the attitude, no?"


"Like right now, what you're doing right now."

"What??"



This all came after an entire season of Kenley acting badly on the runway, from getting overly defensive with the judges to laughing openly at her fellow designers. At this point, both the judges and the remaining designers had had it with her. We guess it's to the judges' credit that they were able to ignore the obvious disrespect and wave her on through to the finals, but we strongly suspect there was at least a little input on the part of the producers, who did everything they could to push and edit this unpolished girl to the forefront to play the part of the villain. She wasn't really villainous; she was just immature and obnoxious.


[Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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He's Back!

Kittens, Alex crawled out of his hole and scribbled this for us, such is his commitment to your entertainment. He said he's got another strip in the works for us so clap loudly!

[Illustrations: Alex Cox/Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Ripping the Collections: Chris, Part 2

Get your tomatoes and warm up your pitching arms, girls!

Heavy and depressing and uninteresting bordering on ugly. It completely obliterates whatever figure that model has. Another point - and for us, this is the biggest complaint we have about Chris' collection - it just doesn't look modern at all.

Similar to the first silk screened dress in that it's a very simple design where the print is doing all the work of garnering interest.

People keep asking "How can you say this collection is dark when Christian's was almost all black?" Take an objective look at this. It's not that it's black; it's that it's heavy and dour and depressing-looking. Christian's collection, whatever flaws people may think it had, was exuberant and over the top and even joyful. Looks like this are the exact opposite of that.

We give him a lot of credit for the materials he used. The safety pin skirt and the hair trim really made a statement. Unfortunately, looks like this, no matter how much people might not want to hear it, are the very definition of costumey. It's too severe and the silhouette is old. Very old.

This is interesting and we kind of like it. The bodice is very pretty. We hate the skirt, though. Again, not because we're grossed out by the hair but because it's just flat ugly. She looks like a muppet from the waist down.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but poor Marcia could barely walk in this. She had to lean so far back to keep the wrap in place that we feared she was just going to topple backwards on the runway. And again, this look was very heavy and added about 30 pounds to her figure.

In the end, we have to go with the term the judges may have over-applied to him: costumey. In this instance, they were exactly right. In many cases, these clothes simply didn't make the wearers look better; they made them look heavier and older. All the interest was generated in the materials he used. When your strong points are safety pins and human hair, then yes, you're making costumes.

With its Catholic iconography and references to blood and body parts, this was a surprisingly goth collection, which means that it's extremely limited in terms of its appeal and in the end, pretty dated. We reiterate: there simply wasn't anything new or fresh-looking here. It was a lot of old-looking styles and silhouettes made more interesting by his choice of materials.

This isn't to say that we don't think Chris is talented. We do. He's enormously talented. He has a gift for making astonishingly dramatic looks utilizing a wide range of techniques and materials. It's just that this collection really hammered home the point that he should remain a costume designer and not a fashion designer. He has the potential to be a world class costumer but sadly, in our opinion, doesn't have the potential to be a world class designer.

[Photos: WireImage/Getty Images/Elle.com - Slideshow: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Ripping the Collections: Chris, Part 1

It's SissyBear's turn and oh, kittens. Are we ever in TROUBLE.

Now, why are we in trouble? Well, we fear you're going to come after us with torches and pitchforks. See, a great many of you swooned over this collection and some of you even went so far as to opine that his could have won the whole ballgame, but we...didn't like it at all.

He says his was a Sweeney Todd-inspired, goth collection and we're not sold on that as being the best inspiration to start from. He employed rich fabrics in deep colors, but the overall effect was too heavy and too dark. On the other hand, he styled his models beautifully, took real risks with his materials, and each piece was flawlessly constructed.

Let's start the show.

A beautiful, dramatic dress. It's not reinventing the wheel but it's definitely a look that will get you noticed. Not to point out the obvious or anything, but it's the silkscreen image that makes this look. Without it, this is just a simple gown with a halter neckline.

This is okay. Not great, but okay. That Mildred Pierce silhouette is more than a little dated, though. We kindasorta like the detail on the skirt, but the fabric's so heavy, it might just be too much for one look.

And let's get this over with: we hate the hair trim. Not because it's hair but because of the way he used it. Peeking out of sleeves and running across the yoke of a jacket, it just gave each girl a slightly werewolf look to her and what woman wants that?

We just don't like all the heavy velvets he used in the collection. They dragged everything down, in our opinion. Overembellishing so many of the looks served to make them even heavier. Frankly, there's nothing we like about this look. It looks like a velvet bathrobe and pajama set.

This on the other hand, is very pretty. Beautiful color. And we love the detail on the back.

Again, it's looking like a very dated Mildred Pierce/'90s powersuit silhouette to us. Beautifully accessorized, but all that heavy velvet looks old and dreary.

This is one of the few looks that seemed fresh and youthful to us. We love the way he used the lace and we really love the way he accessorized, but we can't get past that bizarre hem. It's distracting and terribly unflattering.

[Photos: WireImage/Getty Images/Elle.com - Slideshow: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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