Project Runway's Most Dramatic Moments, S2, Part 2

It's ZulemaFest '09, bitches! Little Lamb is beside himself!

3)CRY-AND-CUT-GATE

Long story short: It's the Banana Republic challenge and the designers are broken off into teams. The wildly different Zulema and Kara Janx struggle to make a garment that represents both their styles...

...and come up with a real shitbox of a dress.

One thing about this teamup: for all the ensuing drama, both designers were actually surprisingly self-aware about themselves and where the problems were coming from:

Kara: "I think with this challenge was more about corporation. Maybe us paired was just a bad pairing."

Zulema: "I'm actually a calm person under pressure. Kara was actually so hysterical I had to take over."

Highly accurate, because Kara was right; their styles just didn't blend. And Zulema was right...

...because Kara was completely overwhelmed by the pressure and came undone.

We've often said that almost every single designer, despite whatever complaints you heard about "It was the editing!" was well-represented on the show. But we've met Kara Janx and we know how well her career is going now, so we have to say, the Kara Janx you saw on your screens is not the real Kara Janx. The real Kara Janx is laser-focused and when you get to know her, hysterically funny and bitingly sarcastic like you have no idea.

Chalk it up to exhaustion and pressure, we guess. Whatever the cause, the outcome was that she completely fell apart and it was up to Zulema to put on her bitchpants and take the fuck over, uttering the line that has become legendary among PR fans:

"I don't care if you cry and cut, but you gotta cry and cut, you gotta cut at that rate. Don't stop and cry. "

Pure fucking poetry. Truly, there is a life lesson in there for all of us. We would like that stitched on a pillow or perhaps framed for hanging as a motivational poster. It's a hell of a lot catchier than that "grant me the serenity" dross they always make 12-steppers recite like a mantra.

We suspect the producers were trying to give her the bitch edit but at least in this instance, it wasn't deserved. By the end of the episode they'd produced a perfectly lovely (although not winning) design and managed to avoid the dreaded auf'ing.

Kara herself later admitted that she had absolutely no hard feelings toward Zulema, mostly because SHE WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.

Which provides the perfect segue into...

4) MOTHERFUCKING WALK-OFF-GATE

Once again, Zulema utters a line that causes a series of priceless reactions from her cohorts:

"I, today, am going to choose to change models, so I would like to have the models come out. I would like to have a walk off..."


"...between the following three models: Danyelle, Tarah and Shannon."

Dun-dun-DUN!!!!!

DRAMA!

(loving every minute of this)

("Is the camera on me? The camera's on me, right?")

"It's a motherfucking walk-off." (Which is probably also among the top lines ever uttered on the show)

Rewatching the episode Lorenzo, as is typical for him, screamed at the television. This time, though, it was a scream of joy: "I fucking love Zulema!!!!"

Lorenzo just loves take-no-shit people.

Once again, though, with the benefit of hindsight and 3 ensuing seasons, we look back on this and laugh at all the drama.

Don't get us wrong. We felt for Nick. He adored his model and Zulema had already demonstrated a tendency to treat her models like dogshit, so we can't blame him for his reaction. No, it was the reaction of all the other designers plus the clear effort on the part of the producers to paint this as some horrible backstabbing move that all seems so silly now in retrospect. Once the cherry was popped on that little taboo, designers in the seasons that followed traded up models left and right without anyone batting an eye about it.

Once again, Zulema was in the right (or at least, not in the wrong) and once again, she summed it up perfectly:

"I changed models because my model cannot walk, I can't be concerned with Nick. Do a good job, win next week, and take her back!"

TOO DAMN RIGHT.

[Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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The 20 Worst PR Looks of All Time - Part 3

Number 10

Season 2 - Episode 2: "Clothes Off Your Back"
Designer: Zulema Griffin

Many of the looks in this list are here because the designer either had a momentary brain fart or they don't work well in reality television or maybe because they're just not a very good designer. This horrific ass-exposing mess from S2's Zulema doesn't really fit any of those criteria. We still maintain that if she could have just figured out how to utilize her time and materials better, this wouldn't have been all that offensive.

Oh, why the hell are we being so nice? It's AWFUL.

Number 9

Season 2 - Episode 2: "Clothes Off Your Back"
Designer: Guadalupe Vidal

It's LUPE! LUPE'S back, everybody! Hi LUPE!

Honestly, at this point we feel the need to remind you to take the rankings with a grain of salt because even we look at this one and go "Why isn't this at the top of the list?" Even if we didn't deem this one the worst of the worst, it HAS to go down as one of, if not THE most ridiculous outfits seen on the show. It's like a spastic party favor of some sort. Actually. that's not a dress; it's a walking tutorial on sewing techniques.

Number 8

Season 1 - Episode 2: "Vision"
Designer: Starr Ilzhoefer

Ahh, the "tumor" dress. Who doesn't have fond memories of this one? Tasked with designing something that illustrates her vision, S1's Starr instead decided to send down a sartorial anatomy lesson. Who in their right mind thinks of tumors when they're designing a dress?

Number 7

Season 3 - Episode 6: "Waste Not, Want Not"
Designer: Kayne Gillaspie

S3's Kaynebow was a fan favorite and with good reason. When he was on, he was entertaining and creative and talented but when he crashed and burned, honeys, it was epic. What moves this out of the realm of pure tragedy and into high comedy is the little bow tied around her neck. It's like putting a cherry on top of a shitpile and calling it a sundae.

Number 6

Season 3 - Episode 1: "Innovation"
Designer: Vincent Libretti

We were watching some S3 last night and it really struck us just how crazy and delusional Vincent really was. How could we ever have forgotten? In his very first appearance on the show he put a basket on his model's head and acted like he just invented couture.

If we ever do a list of Top Ten Most Pissed Off Models, Lindsay here is gonna top the list. She looks like she wants to cut the first person who says something to her.


[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

PRG at the TRESemmé Finale Party, Part Zwei

More picture dumping from the TRESemmé finale party, darlings. By the way, Bravo's press release informs us that the season four finale became the network's most watched broadcast ever (3.754 million). Congrats, Bravo!


The Fab Four


Jay. Being Jay.


Andy Cohen with Jay's publicist, Nancy Kane


Tim and Emmett. Judging by the picture and knowing Emmett, he probably just said something very droll and slightly inappropriate.


See? We told you there was a lot of drinking going on.


Gorgeous Things and Tim. Check her blog for even more pics and her take on the evening.


Carmen. She told us that she did not design the pants she's wearing but she's had them since she was 18 and only wears them on special occasions.


Miss Emmett. Poor girl's a trooper. He literally stepped right off the plane from France to come to the party with us. He was exhausted.


Kara Janx and her husband Sharone. Y'know, it's not always easy to tell from season 2, but Kara is an absolute RIOT. She came up and gave us a big hello and we asked how the baby was doing. Her face lit up and she started gushing about what is obviously the great joy of her life. Gorgeous Things asked her if she had a boy or a girl and before Kara could answer, Lorenzo piped in with "A boy." Unfortunately for Lorenzo, she had a girl. Kara reacted in mock anger and play-smacked him, saying in her inimitable South African accent, "You know what? I'm not going to read your BLAWG anymore!"


Kaynebow is about to open a menswear store, believe it or not. And Emmett will soon have a line of accessories on QVC.


M. Malan. Fabulous as ever.


Fabulosity cubed. Lorenzo and Malan look they're about to make out, don't they?


Jillian and Lauren. Jillian showed up wearing one of her signature coats, but unfortunately we didn't get a picture of it. Hey, the Cosmos were calling us.

UPDATE:



Tim and Sweet P


Zulema. Gotta say, the girl looks gorgeous.


Lovely Marla. She's really sweet.


Nora and her sister. Hotties, am I right?


Here's a better shot of her dress, which is part of her upcoming line.


And the gorgeous Miu Miu boots she was wearing. Yes, we're fags. We take pictures of fabulous shoes.


With Victoria Brody, Senior Press Manager for Bravo. We had been in weekly contact with her since before the season started, but this was the first time we met her. A total doll. Please disregard Tom's wonky collar.


With Valerie Brown, Director, Digital Marketing & Events for Bravo. Valerie is fabulosity personified and if there's such a thing as reincarnation and we come back as women, we want to be just like her when we grow up. Valerie and Victoria are so smart and so professional and they were such a huge help to us throughout the season that we simply have to give our girls a shoutout. As we told Faran from Fashionista, Bravo treats bloggers very, very well and Victoria and Valerie are a huge part of that.

Tom is not an alcoholic, he's merely holding Gorgeous Things' drink while she takes the picture.

And to wrap things up, just for the fun of it, let's play "Where's T Lo?"

We heard rumors that Posh tried to have us thrown out for taking the attention away from her.

Now darlings, we can't thank you enough for all the kind words you said in our previous post, but stop talking like it's our funeral! We're not going ANYWHERE. We have to rip the collections of the finalists, PLUS the collections of the decoys, PLUS we've barely even scratched the surface of the Fall 2008 collections from all the judges, PLUS we have swag bag giveaways coming up, PLUS we're going to finally return to our T Lo blog. Casting for Season 5 of PR starts NEXT MONTH and we'll have the scoop on that, not to mention Top Design Season 2, Shear Genius Season 2, Musical Mondays, Dames & Divas, and any other bitchery and fabulosity that pops in our heads. As always darlings, Watch What Happens!

[Photos: WireImage/Ann Steeves - Project RunGay - Screencap: Project RunGay]

It's a muthaf**kin' walk-off!

Darlings, we may get a tiny amount of flack for this, but thank god for the overreactions of gay men and supermodels. Otherwise, this show would be a lot less fun.

"So Zulema, this is also a competition for the models as well, too. So you also as well have the option to choose another model too. Also, what's it gonna be?"

"I'd like to have a walk-off between the following three models: Danyelle, Tarah and Shannon."

"Girl!"

"Girl!"

"Girl!"

"Girl."

DELICIOUS, delicious drama! Darlings, we love it so. Especially when it's designer-provided. You would have thought Zulema pulled a knife out and held the models hostage the way these drama queens reacted. At the time we were like "What a BITCH!" but really, did she do anything so wrong? Every winning designer had this opportunity. The reason most of them didn't partake is because they either lucked into having good ones and/or they had good relationships with them.

Zulema and Rachael pretty much hated each other at this point. Now, a really good case could be made that the blame for that entirely rests at Zulema's feet, and we'd agree. The case could also be made that Rachael wasn't doing such a hot job so far and we'd agree with that too. Either way, Zulema had an opportunity to repair a handicap and she took it.

Y'know, they're all in the middle of an insane competition, working all day and getting little sleep, so we can understand people having emotional reactions to certain things and in a way, we don't blame them.

She didn't honestly do anything wrong, but we can understand the rest of the group not loving her at the moment. She hadn't actually built any relationships in the time she was there anyway. From the beginning, she took an overly adversarial approach to things and in the end that bit her in the ass because the group wound up turning on her for a relatively minor infraction (if it can be called that at all) and it wound up seriously throwing her off her game.

Still, it was dramaliciously high school prom committee in its maturity level and who doesn't love that? And if you want to read Zulema's thoughts on all this:

“This is an everyday occurrence, from my understanding of the business. I just switched my model. Tim Gunn and Nick went on and on about how horrible she was and they said really nasty and disparaging things about her. I never said anything nasty about my model, I just simply said [that] I need to change her," Zulema said. "She’s not good; the judges don’t like her; Tim Gunn doesn’t like her; none of the other contestants like her; so I was actually shocked when people were like, ‘Oh my god, you’re going to change models?’ Of course I am going to change models, you all agree that she is horrible, so why should I keep her?”

...check out this eye-popping interview here.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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