Project Runway Season 13 Episode 2: Unconventional Movie Nite

Hey, y'all! It's time for another episode of Project Runway. If I continue doing these, from now on they'll be the day after the episode because I just moved into my apartment and finally have TV again!

Let's jump right into the episode!

As has become the norm with the more recent seasons of Project Runway, the second challenge is the unconventional challenge! The designers take a trip to a movie theater, and there they find out that they will be working in groups of 3. The teams are as follows:

Red team: Carrie, Hernan, and Sandhya

Blue team: Sean, Angela, and Fade

Silver team: Amanda, Korina, and Kristine

Green team: Alexander, Emily and Samantha

Purple team: Kini, Char, and Mitchell.

Does anyone know where these team names came into being? Because I don't remember them getting a specific name, but they ended up all having the colors... and none of them really matched their garments. I guess purple had a couple purpley colored things, but that's about it. 

Anyway, their challenge is to use the unconventional, movie related items in the movie theater to create outfits inspired by... wait for it... movies. 

Our main interesting moments this episode came from teams red and blue. Both teams were having the same problem: cohesion. Over on the red team, Sandhya suggested that they each make something and then group together and see how they could tie the garments together. Even I, with 0 design experience, know that's a terrible idea. And Sandhya had immunity from winning the last challenge. She was being really pushy with her idea, and I really hate when designers with immunity do that. There's a way to voice your opinion without insisting to do things a certain way. And then, when Hernan and Carrie tried pushing back and telling her what she needed to fix, she went and told Tim she was being bullied. Basically, she tattled. How old are you? This competition is going to devour her if she thinks that what Carrie and Hernan were doing is bullying. Pull yourself together, Sandhya!

At the last second, the group pulled together and ended up creating what basically looked like 3 versions of the exact same dress. I think they might have been better off just making entirely different looks. At least that would've been interesting. There's cohesion and then there's whatever they were doing.

Things were slightly better over on the blue team. Early on in the design process, Sean and Fade agreed that they should go the route of being inspired by villains. Angela, however, wasn't a big fan of this. And rather than just suck it up and go with what the team wanted and try to make the best villain-inspired outfit she could, she decided that she was going to do whatever she wanted. She was trying to make a really sweet white dress with flowers on the bottom. When Tim came in for the critique and called her out for hers being significantly different, her response was "well, I didn't like the villain idea in the first place." Tough luck, kid, because that's what the rest of your group is doing! You can't just do something completely opposite of your team. That's practically begging for the auf wiedersehen! Thankfully, she eventually ended up scrapping the flowers and adding on more of the weird structural details she had at the top of the dress. It wasn't great but it at least looked more villainy.

OK, time for the runway!

This time, one team will be in the top and the other will be the bottom. Before even saying who was safe and who wasn't, Heidi called out Angela, basically saying that her team would have been the top team if not for her look, because the other two scored really highly. 

Once again, the designers' looks will be linked to their names!

Top team: Silver team (Kristine, Korina, and Amanda)

Like last week, I almost feel like this team was simply the best of the worst. I feel like the Green team could have been here if not for Emily's clunker. Because no one wants to look like they have basketballs attached to their hips. This is the second week that I've been really unimpressed with Emily's work. Also, as Heidi said, the blue team would have been here if not for Angela's look. My personal favorite was Sean's. It was really cool and interesting and I have a feeling he would have won. I also really liked the designs from the Purple team, but I guess none of them really stood out. I especially liked Mitchell's dress. Super cute.

I thought Korina's look was just OK. I didn't think there was anything special about it. Kristine's look was cool, but I think that if she had spelled something out with the words, it would have been cooler. I really liked Amanda's except the part with the little ropes hanging past the dress. That reminded me a little too much of Emilio Sosa's look from the hardware challenge. Yep, if you've seen the show you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. 

I'm still having a bit of trouble with the judging this season. I feel like there were better designs that should have been here. Oh well, I'm not a judge. 

Bottom team: Red team (Sandhya, Carrie, and Hernan)

No surprise, the team that suddenly had way too much cohesion was in the bottom. It basically just looked like the same dress done 3 times. The judges made it clear that Sandhya was the worst, but since she has immunity, they have to figure out whether Carrie or Hernan is going home. 

The judges make the easy decision to name Amanda as the winner. Her dress was definitely the best of her group. After much deliberation, Carrie is sent packing. And she complained the whole way out. I feel bad for her, but she was also being obnoxious about leaving so I don't feel quite as bad as I would have. 

So, I'm going to do something on this post and I think I'm going to continue on with it this post, and possibly in the future posts. Last time I gave opinions on the designers, but this time I'm going to divide them into designers I like, designers I don't have much of an opinion on, and designers I don't like. I'll update it each episode as my opinions change.

Designers I'm liking: Alexander, Amanda, Korina, Fade, Sean, Char, Mitchell

Middle of the road designers: Samantha, Kristine, Kini 

Designers who need the auf wiedersehen: Emily, Angela, Sandhya, Hernan

So there you go, that's all for my post on the Project Runway Season 13 episode 2! Like I said, I don't promise I'll continue, but I did want to make at least one post.

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so if you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all soon!

Project Runway Season 13 Episode 1: The Judges Decide

Hey, y'all!

So, here I am again. I think this is the fourth time I've done this. I tried to blog All-Stars Season 1 and failed. I think I got 4 episodes in. Then, season 10 came around in the fall and I tried again... and failed again. And then, this time last year, I started blogging season 11. Guess what happened?

Clearly, blogging Project Runway and I just don't work together. Which is why I told myself there was absolutely no way that I would blog this season. And yet here I am, writing this less than 10 minutes after watching the first episode. But let me say this: I make no promises. I may or may not blog the entire season. I don't know. My posts on the previous seasons were always way too long, so I'm definitely going to be condensing.

If I continue, posts will most likely be up the day after the episode airs. This week and next week are the exception because I don't move into my apartment until next week and have no TV until then, so I'm watching episodes when they're posted online.

Anyway, on to the episode!

(What am I getting myself into?!)

Right off the bat, we learn that they're starting Season 13 off the same way they started Season 9. They brought the 18 semi-finalists to NYC and had them audition for the judges. This basically includes bringing in a rack of their clothing to give the judges an idea of their style. After this final audition, 3 contestants would be eliminated, leaving 15 finalists (Plus the unknown returning contestant, who would be revealed the next day). 

The audition process was a total whirlwind, and even after seeing all of them go through the auditions, I didn't know any of their names. The one bright moment throughout that whole montage, however, was this beautiful gem:

" The higher the shorts, the closer to God." (Mitchell)

So, before I could even differentiate that one guy with the shaved sides from that other guy with the shaved sides, we said goodbye to Nzinga (not surprising, her clothing was boring), Tim (with the suit that was so androgynous, the judges couldn't figure out whether it was a women's or men's suit), and Emmanuel (who I remember literally nothing about except that he made the classic reality show mistake of quitting his job and losing his apartment... when will they learn?).

So, the next day, the designers gather in the workroom and Tim comes in to announce the challenge and the returning contestant. The three designers that the fans had to choose from were: Alexander Pope from season 12, Ken Laurence from season 12, and Amanda Valentine from season 11. My personal vote was for Alexander, and I thought he had a pretty good shot. Ken wasn't likable at all, and Alexander had been on a more recent season than Amanda. But Amanda apparently had more fans than I expected, because she was the one who waltzed through the door. 

I'll spare y'all the fairly boring and uneventful details of the workroom. Overall, it was a relatively panic-less first episode. We didn't have a moment like in season 8 when Casanova's model was naked when they were going down to the runway, so that's always a plus. 

Overall, I have to say that I was kinda disappointed with the designs that walked the runway, and was utterly confused by the judging. Links to designs will be attached to the designer's name!

Top 3: Char, Sandhya, and Amanda. 

Honestly, the only person among those three who I really thought deserved to be in the top was Char. I really loved the skirt (the print was amazing) and the shirt looked really great as well. Honestly, I hated Sandhya's look. I can kinda see how the judges loved it, but I did not. At all. Amanda just confused me. The design on the pants looked really 70s to me, and the top was boring, boring, boring. The choice of these three really confused me. 

There were several looks I thought were better and certainly more interesting. I loved Alexander's mix of prints. It was pretty simple, but at least it was interesting! I also thought that Carrie's dress was really cool. And again, I absolutely love that fabric. I was also really impressed with Korina's. Very nice. I also really liked Sean's but I can see why it didn't get picked for the top 3.

Bottom 3: Angela, Mitchell, and Jefferson 

I think there were more deserving people for the bottom 3. I definitely agree that Angela's pants had construction issues, but I thought they and the top were interesting and kinda cool. Mitchell's look was definitely very junior, and that got him in trouble. I didn't hate it, but it was simply a t-shirt and shorts. Jefferson... I disagree with the judges. I thought it was cute. I thought the shorts could've fit better, but I thought the ensemble was cute!

Like I said, I think several people deserved to be in the bottom. First of all, Emily's dress was not good at all. The design was just... *shudder.* I also really hated Hernan's dress. There was practically no design to this dress. The most interesting part about it was the extra strap on the left arm. Not impressed. I also wasn't impressed at all by Kini. Very familiar. Nothing new. Boring. 

So, after much debate and discussion, the judges award the win to Sandhya and her ombre floral deconstructed dress. Like I said, this judging confused me. A lot. 

In another surprising and confusing decision, Jefferson is out. I simply don't understand this episode's judging.

Before I wrap up, I thought I'd give a brief opinion about each of the contestants...

Alexander: If his dress this episode is any indication of what he's going to do in the future, I'm on board!

Amanda: I've never been a big fan of Amanda. I don't dislike her, I'm just ambivalent.

Angela: Not sure she's going to last. She can't keep herself together and is very easily swayed by criticism. Her lack of any confidence is very off-putting to me.

Carrie: I liked all the stuff I saw on her rack, and I liked the dress she sent down the runway. She hasn't gotten much screen time yet (probably a bad sign. She'll probably only last a couple episodes.) but I really like everything I've seen so far.

Char: I didn't like the stuff on her rack at the beginning. She seems to use a lot of yellow, and I'm not a yellow fan. But her runway look was great, so we'll see what happens.

Emily: I thought she and her clothes would be really interesting, but I wasn't a fan of that dress she sent down the runway and she hasn't gotten much screen-time. I'll withhold judgment for now.

Fade: He's an interesting one. I like him, but I'm definitely not sold on his clothes. 

Hernan: I remember not being impressed with his rack at the beginning, and hated that dress. So far, it's not looking good for you, dude.

Kini: Didn't get enough screen-time to form any sort of opinion. I'm thinking he won't last long.

Korina: She was a definite stand-out for me. She seems to be both competent and confident, and I think she'll do well.

Kristine: I don't remember her rack, but if her runway look is any indication of her style, no thanks!

Mitchell: I'm sold on him... not so much on his clothes. 

Samantha: Not impressed with what I've seen so far. I didn't really like the clothes on her rack, and I thought the outfit she put down the runway was boring.

Sandhya: Not a fan. Nope.

Sean: I liked that dress, so I'll keep my eye on him. He's really attractive, so that shouldn't be too hard!

So there you go, that's all for my post on the Project Runway Season 13 Premiere! Like I said, I don't promise I'll continue, but I did want to make at least one post.

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so if you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all soon!