Project Runway's Most Dramatic Moments, S1, Part 1

Let's get our crazy on, bitches!

We're at 17 days and counting until the LONG OVERDUE premiere of Project Runway Season 6 and we thought it would be fun to take a look back at the most dramatic moments in the show's history. Sure, we all SAY we watch the show because we love fashion and creativity and enjoy watching talented people do amazing things - and that's true (partially) - but no matter how much we all may complain when the drama gets out of hand, we can't deny that the dramatic moments are what make the show so DELICIOUS to watch. Besides, we'd argue that if you want to watch creative and talented people pull out work under ridiculous circumstances, the drama is to be expected.

We struggled to figure out a way to do this in countdown format but we simply couldn't come up with an order that either of us agreed with. Instead, we're going to break it down by season. We leave it up to you guys to determine what order they should be in, but we guarantee, you'll find it an almost impossible task.

So, without further ado...

1) MUSTACHE-GATE

"The Wendy Pepper that showed up the first day of Project Runway is not the Wendy Pepper we know now."

Oh, honey. Truer words were never spoken.

She's long been considered Project Runway's first "villain," and while we agree that it's a sobriquet Wendy Pepper more than earned, it wasn't quite so simple as that.

The truth of the matter was that Wendy was in fact the show's first walking tragedy. She THOUGHT she was getting by through her scheming and her plotting, but in the end, the people she "plotted" against would have gone home with or without her added schemes. In reality, she was a fascinating person to watch because she was so completely un-self-aware and instead of revealing what a Machiavellian schemer she was, she instead showed the world how low her self esteem was and how out of her element she felt. She didn't make it to the finals because of talent or because of scheming. She made it there because the competition was structured in such a way that consistently doing just well enough to not be auf'd had the same outcome as doing the best work week after week. A flaw in the show that we suspect was "corrected" in subsequent seasons.

All of this came to a head when someone who'd had enough of her crap took a pen and drew a mustache on a picture of her daughter. Now, in real life, with people who aren't completely drowning in stress and low self esteem, such an act might make them angry, but they wouldn't have a complete meltdown over it.

Not so with our Wendy. She completely LOST IT. You would have thought that someone had assaulted her daughter instead of the silly, childish prank it was.

In all likelihood, her sobbing response to the situation was simply another in a long line of ploys to cover for the fact that she thought that EVERYONE ELSE was more talented than her and that she had no right to be there.

Was it wrong for Kevin someone to draw that mustache on a picture of someone's daughter? Absolutely. But people were under tremendous stress at the time and Wendy had just gotten away with throwing Kevin under the bus deliberately in order to get him auf'd.

Under different circumstances, her co-designers would have probably been a little more sympathetic, but she'd burned all her bridges behind her and at that point, no one really cared anymore.

Of course, part of what made it fun ...




... was the bald-faced lying. Like we said, DELICIOUS.

Also, it was hysterical that the whole drama played out with everyone dressed in ugly postal uniforms.

2) SHOE-GATE

Ah...yes. Shoe-gate. Part of what made S1 so great was that the personal dramas all played out like one season-long plotline. Like Melrose Place with sewing machines. There probably wouldn't have been a shoe-gate if there already hadn't been a mustache-gate.

The short version: Kara Saun contracted with Dollhouse shoes to give her custom-made shoes to be worn in her runway show and then when she was called on it by Tim (on behalf of the producers), tried to claim that the shoes were worth 15 dollars a piece in order to ensure that she stayed under her $8000 budget.

A claim that was clearly bullshit after one glance at the shoes.

The reason this made for such delicious drama was because Kara Saun had always been the golden girl of the season. She'd won more challenges than any other designer and the judges clearly adored her. Wendy, dripping with low self esteem and feeling like the dirty girl in the school cafeteria, was LOVING the controversy.

This all played out in the pre-finale show workroom, with two people who HATED each other (Kara Saun and Wendy) and one person who was trying desperately to stay above the whole thing (Jay).

"Finally! Something happens to Miss Fucking Perfect. Love it!"

Although he wasn't coming off as above-it-all as he would have liked. Yes, we know that sound bite was him quoting Wendy but he clearly had a problem with the situation.

Up till that point, Kara Saun really HAD been Miss Perfect. Not only had she won the most challenges, but she'd done almost everything she could to get along with other people and stay above the fray.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason (we suspect she felt she was untouchable at this point), she tried to pull a fast one on the producers, which left her open to criticism from the very LAST person she wanted to hear:

"No, don't talk to me."

"Well, I will talk to you because I'm going to tell you that Jay and I shopping at the store for five-dollar shoes is hardly comparable to you custom-designing shoes and putting an arbitrary value of five dollars on something that looks like your shoes."

"I just heard you on the phone equate a shoe at a sample sale for five dollars to a shoe you custom-designed and had made to your specifications..."

"...and that, my dear, is not fair or above board, Miss Perfect."

All of which put we, the viewers, in the bizarre position of cheering on the person we hated while she tore into the person we previously had been cheering on. The fact of the matter was that Wendy was RIGHT.

In the end, the producers came up with a solution that was so bull-shitty that we're still rolling our eyes 5 years later: the models would walk the runway in the custom-made shoes but the judges were supposed to ignore them in assessing the collection, which is all but impossible when the shoes are perfectly coordinated to the outfits, not to mention when they're knee-high white leather boots with fur trim.

[Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Do Svidanya, Robbio!

We're feeling uncharacteristically kind-hearted.

To be honest, conceptually, this was actually a very good idea. It's the execution that was piss-poor.

We thought that the basic idea behind it was sound. It still looked like a uniform but with slightly more style and with comfort and ease of movement as the main attributes.

That's all well and good, but unfortunately, the end product was ugly. The fabric looked cheap and the colors were drab and a little depressing. It was also unusually poorly made. Not that Robert ever demonstrated master tailoring skills, but he was usually able to pull something together that looked, you know...done.

That top is an utter disaster. You just know Olga's all "I left Russia for this?"

Here's the thing: we think the judges ignored their own criteria in this instance. Time and time again, in all 3 seasons of the show, when the decision came down to aufing a designer who took some risks and failed and aufing a designer who took no risks, the judges always keep the designer who took the risks. Not so in this case. They'd never admit it, but we suspect the judges had come to the same question that the remaining designers had all been asking: "What is Rob still doing here?" Whatever he designed, unless it turned out to be some sort of masterpiece (which was about as likely as Wendy deciding not to be a sociopath), the judges had it in for him and he was going to go this week.

Don't get us wrong, we're not defending the outfit. It was definitely bad. And yes, it really was time for him to go, but it felt like the judges didn't have a good enough reason to do so and just sort of glossed over that part of the discussion.



[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Whorin' It Up for Fashion

Well, we guess it's somewhat comforting to know that we'll still have street urchins in 2055. We wonder if they'll still have a tendency to break into song, the plucky little moptops.

Seriously, what the fuck? This is hideous. Somewhere along the line, Robert must have misunderstood the challenge and assumed it was "Buy a lot of thrift store clothes and rip them up." That's about the only plausible explanation for this monstrosity.

Sure, he at least went for a deconstructed look, which puts him ahead of some of the other designers, but it was supposed to be, y'know, a good deconstructed look.

We do kinda like the way he did the quilting though.

That about sums up Robert's design philosophy right there. "How do I use my looks and charm to bullshit my way out of this?"

The sad part is, it worked.

Concerned Fashion Editor: Robert, what's going on?

Self-proclaimed Studly Fashion Designer: Blah blah blah...energy...coffee...solar panels...

uh...

A WOMAN IS LIKE A SPORTS CAR. WITH SOLAR PANELS. Or maybe that's a sunroof.

...

*big cheesy smile*

Giggly Teenage Girl: Oh! Okay, then! Could you turn around so I can see the back?

No, not you. Him.

Reality Television Show Hostess: My spangled top is burning holes in my face, but Robert? You're in. Ann will meet you backstage so you can "thank" her.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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The Rest of the Rest

Look! A sports car! Oh wait, that's a woman. We get the two confused so often.

Oh Robert, if women are like sports cars, you just sent a Pacer down the runway.

For someone who's whole schtick seems to be how sexy he finds women, he sure has problems highlighting their natural curves. The fit on this is terrible. It looks like Olga accidentally got booked for a plus-sized show.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE ASS-FITTING IN THIS GROUP? We are far from aficionados of the girlbutt, but even we could tell at a glance that that's not how it's supposed to be shaped. It looks like she has the suit on backwards.

We understand the concept of a bathing suit that's more for socializing than actually swimming, really we do, but this is a dress, pure and simple.

A cute, sexy, fun, on-the-beach or by-the-pool kinda dress, but a dress nonetheless. If Martinique hadn't offered to wear her own thong, this probably would have been a disaster.

Look at how constructed that thing is. We at first thought it was a simple wrap of some sort, but that has as much detail as your average bridesmaid dress.

The colors are pretty, though. A little sherbet-y, but this would look great in St. Tropez or South Beach - so long as it never gets wet.

And THAT

is an image we could have done without, thank you very much.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blgospot.com]


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