kpnv

Just caught this show on Discovery Travel & Adventure Channel. Project Runway* is a contest pitting 16 fashion designers against each other, having to take on different projects each round, bearing the criticism, bitching and in-fighting. 16 models are also lumped into the show and each week one designer is voted off together with one model, emphasizing the dog eat dog world of fashion. Or as host Heidi Klum puts it incessantly, "You're either in or you're out!"

The designers come from all over. There's a mature, helpful on the outside, bitchy on the inside mother to an overweight and ultra flamboyant guy, to this dude whose eyes constantly look like they're popping out to a punky short haired girl to this guy who believed vulgarity=fashion. Anyway, the episode I caught had the designers doing the theme of Envy. Each designer only had about a short time to cut, dye, sew and decorate their pieces from a long bale of white cotton. Accesories came from a one hour shopping trip all in the same store. The guys then went around doing their stuff, looking/fighting over dyes and stuff until they were surprised an hour early and asked to present their work at this store, where each piece would be auctioned off. The one dress with the highest bid would survive the round, regardless of what the critics thought. One would be chopped~!

The best bit was the crit. Punky girl got slammed for making an outfit that was too simple. This guy that made a pantsuit whilst talking about penis envy. Evil mother spent more time bitching about how she'd do anything to take advantage of others in a sly, cunning way, endlessly mentioning how this was her last shot. When it came to the crit, the judges thought her piece was incomplete. She used that as her mantra. "I'm using the bareness to emphasize...." Blah blah blah. "You know, you talk the talk..." was the reply from the judge. Another girl had this dress where she was trying to sell it in the store by telling the customers how the bloomy things were tumours and how envy was like a disease. Cue bewildered expression of shocked customer. "You know, in the end, its got to be a beautiful dress..." said the judge woman. The highest bid received for a dress was by this black girl who used a military theme. It was daring, with a low cut but you wouldn't think military=envy. Although to her it was more like... Envy > Greed > War. A long extrapolation of the original concept until it became invisible. At least the dress was nice. The guy who got the chop also got the lowest bid and his half arsed attitude got the better of him. For starters, he finished a whole 4 hours before anyone else and went on about how he liked to do his own thing and not think too much. In the end, his idea was a tiny white skirt, a big black ribbon round the waist, red beading that resembled blood. Oh and getting the model to flip the bird and sticking her tongue out at the end of the runway. Cue head shaking by judge. Ultimately, he got chopped because he didn't seem to care one bit.

* The link goes to season 2. The episode I watched was from season 1.