Project Runway: Back to New York

Okay, here's the situation. Lifetime makes it an enormous pain in the ass to get photos off their site. I used to be able to copy photos directly from Bravo and paste them into emails to The Lucy, which provided the fun commentary you used to enjoy on this blog. As it is now, I need to screencap the photo, edit it in Paint because I am ghetto (you cannot change this, please do not give me the Learn Photoshop Already Lecture), upload them into the Blogger site, publish the post, copy the pictures into an email, and then unpost the post. Needless to say, by the time I finish that, I have gotten wildly distracted or apathetic. SO! First of all, I will simply be commenting on my own here and The Lucy can swing by and comment accordingly, at which point I can edit the post. Secondly, if anyone has figured out a better way, please let me know.

Hooray! Project Runway is back and seems to suck MUCH less than last season did! Good job, Lifetime et al., keep it up. The challenge is simple: Make an outfit that represents you as a designer. There was also a dumb "scramble to get your fabrics" in Central Park, but that wound up being mostly inconsequential.
Emilio was the winner of the challenge, and I have to say it was a good choice. This isn't overwrought or even that fancy, but the amount of work he put into it and the creativity behind it was phenomenal. I love the fabrics he used and the patterning he created really takes advantage of them. I also really enjoyed the swingy movement in the skirt. Good shootin' from the judges!
Christiane got the boot, and I guess if something was going to go, this would be it. Most problematic was the way the ruffly wraparound thing ended mid-butt - it just looked really awkward and disrupted the flow of the dress. I didn't think any of the dresses this week were really horrid (one was certainly weird, more on that later) so I'm not too amped up about this aufing. It wasn't great by any stretch, but it wasn't eyeball-searingly bad, either. I actually kind of liked the fabric combos.
Amy's dress had a very sweet skirt, and I liked the use of the harlequinny, floaty fabric. The top was a little problematic. The one breast is covered with a very, very pale blue fabric, but the lack of contrast pretty much just limits you to a double-take and isn't as interesting as it could be. I get the visible boning in the rest of the bodice, but I don't really like it. It's just too much translucence for me. All in all, a pretty average outing, interesting enough for me to want to see more.
Ben's dress didn't make a hell of a lot of an impression on me. I think the fabric was a problem and the finishing was kind of sub-par, but I get the idea. Not a bad idea but the execution was a bit of a snooze.
Anthony is extremely annoying and I have a feeling I will have trouble coping with his existence this season, but I did like this dress. One of the judges took issue with the loopy thing on her hip but I think it's kind of cool. I wish the judges would get off the whole "women want to look slim and have a very standard shape" thing they do, because some of the most interesting fashion tinkers with traditional silhouettes and turns them on their head. I realize that people want classic or fairly bland silhouettes from RTW options, but this is supposedly runway fashion. I liked the fabric too; you'd usually see these kinds of springy flowers on a lighter background but the forest green really makes a beautiful contrast. The top was just okay, and I don't like the shoes or the model's styling.
I am actually pretty sure that Anna's dress is very cute, but the fabric choice is terrible. I can't even see that well what's going on. It's sweet, but I suspect that there is some really lovely detailing I'm not being allowed to see. I wish she had used a black model or different fabric so there was better contrast between the model's skin and the fabric.
Jonathan's dress was very intriguing. I liked the detailing and the swishy skirt. I have mixed feelings about the belt, but they're mixed-to-positive so I think I'll stop worrying about it. It would have been nice to see this in another color; although the black is striking, it might have been more interesting in a strong purple or something similar.
Jesus definitely suffered from some fabric issues. I liked the look of this...when it was standing very very still. Unfortunately the fabric made it look extremely stiff, which took away from the whole thing. I know there was the whole But Should It Have Stayed Short drama with this and I think that was justified, but NOT because of the seam at knee level, which I could hardly see, but because the extended length added that stiff feeling to the
Jesse blew it on the top, if you ask me. I think it was an okay idea but it made the whole top look really schlumpy and gross. The fabrics were really lush and everything but man, that top was a hot mess. It was a cool idea but I think it needs some kind of structural help. If it managed to kind of float up and hold a firm line at the shoulder it would have been a really fascinating, sexy design, and instead it's frumpy. Too bad, hopefully he will continue to be interesting and execute better.
Jay Nicolas' dress prompted me to yell "oh my god, the tumors RETURN" at the TV. At the time, I was thinking of that Season 1 challenge to create a dress on the theme of envy (that produced some REALLY glorious things that I forgot about until just this moment) and someone did this weird dress with little tumors of fabric on it that was kind of Comme des Garcons-y. However, now that I am looking at it anew and the shock has worn off a bit, it's definitely more Angelaesque. I kind of get what he was going for, but between the visual static of the fabric and the unfortunate locations of the rosettes, it's just not that great. The fit appears to be lovely, but that's about it.
Janeane Marie definitely went kind of...Angelina Jolie resortwear here. I don't like it but I get it in theory. It's a look that makes sense and I can imagine a customer for it, but I wish she would have gone a little nutsier (or followed through with her initial idea) since she had carte blanche. I love the shoes but the problem is that they're more fun than the entire rest of the outfit.
Seth Aaron's straps were kind of a problem - they added a very weird shifting boomp to the torso when viewed head on. That being said, I liked them every way BUT head on, and they made sense in the context of the very cute dress. I liked the airiness of it and the teeny touches of red at the back. It's funny to look at the dress from the ankles up...the dress is actually almost picnic-in-the-park-ready without the edgy shoes! That really gives you an appreciation for the versatility of the dress.
Ping is kind of a nut but I love her...................okay she's a LOT a nut but I love her. I actually was intrigued by this look, even as I hated the weird way it hitched up in the back. In the front it's kind of like an extreme Chico's type look. I'm pretty sure my aunt who' a shaman would wear this, you know? I liked the colors and the movement, and after I read that one interview with Tim Gunn where he pointed out that Ping specializes in knitwear, it made a lot of sense - think of how lovely this would be in knits. I'm certainly interested in seeing more.
Pamela's dress was very sweet and 50sish, and I love the color. It's not a frippy, frilly pink, and I like that on a dress that's SO aggressively feminine. That being said, it's not really setting my world on fire and again I wish the designer would have gone totally nuts on this since they had such free rein.
Mila's jacket was an aesthetic problem for me because it kept flapping open as the model walked. The look itself was nice and I think I would like it a lot when it's standing still, but the jacket thing was SO distracting! I really enjoyed her mix of patterns here, too. Cute separates, pretty average.
Maya should have gotten more props for this. I really like the pop of detail with the ebullient ruffle up there, and the actual dress is flattering and pretty. The color pallette isn't all that thrilling, but I thought the execution would have warranted more praise. I'm definitely keeping an eye on Maya.