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Even Blogging Project Runway--that bastion of Project Runway love and admiration--had to acknowledge their favorite show's collapse. "Longtime recappers have given up on the show, ratings have dropped, commenters are complaining, and maybe worst of all, many fans don’t seem to care what happens next. As we head into the finale, there is no denying that the quality of Season 6 has left us only with a feeling of malaise and apathy." Friends, as BPR points out, The Real Housewives of Atlanta gets better ratings than Project Runway in that time slot.

We have to confess, we're feeling the malaise and the apathy here at Gratz Industries too. If we're honest, we just don't care who wins this season. Like The Scarlett posted in the comments to the above post, we haven't felt compelled to watch any episode of this season even a second time. One week when all our Netflix envelopes were in the mail and we had already watched our recordings of Top Chef and Glee, we ended up pulling out Project Runway Season Two, and we were in love all over again. At the same time, it made it even more painful to realize we no longer loved the show in the same way.

Okay, I'm dropping the royal "we" for a moment here, kids. I kid you not--it takes me an average of seven hours to write up my precaps each week. Seven hours! That's all the preview video watching, the screengrabbing, the Photoshopping, and the writing. It takes me so long to finish those posts that I have to split the work into two sessions--I write the recap

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Season 6 has certainly been killing us. Slowly. Like poison. It's killing Tim Gunn too. You can see it in his face. You can hear it in his voice. Especially when he brings the hammer down on the designers--which he's been doing a lot lately. And with good reason. Never has there been so uninspired an Inspiration Challenge.

The Big Board of Shame™

Irina: 22 points (Three 1st places, One 2nd place, One 3rd place, Five safes)

Carol Hannah: 18 points (One 1st place, Two 2nd places, One 3rd place, Six safes)
Althea: 17 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Two 3rd places, Six safes)
Gordana: 10 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, One 3rd place, Five safes, Two 3rd worsts)
Christopher: 2 points (One 1st place, Two 2nd places, Three safes, One 3rd worst, Three 2nd worsts)
Logan: -4 points (Six safes, Two 3rd worsts, Two 2nd worsts)

--------------aufed--------------

Shirin: 8 points (One 1st place, One 3rd place, Six safes, One Auf)

Epperson: 6 points (One 2nd place, One 3rd place, Five safes, One Auf)

Ra'mon: 3 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Two safes, One 3rd worst, One Auf)
Nicolas: 0 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Four safes, Two 3rd worsts, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Johnny: 0 points (One 2nd place, One 3rd place, One safe, One 3rd worst, One Auf)
Louise: -1 point (One 3rd place, Four safes, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Malvin: -3 points (One safe, One Auf)
Ari: -4 points (One Auf)
Qristyl: -8 points (One safe, One 3rd worst, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Mitchell: -10 points (Two 2nd worsts, One Auf)

Scoring: 1st place (4 pts), 2nd place (3 pts), 3rd place (2 pts), Safe (1 pt), 3rd worst (-2 pts), 2nd worst (-3 pts), Aufed (-4 pts)

 Annotated Big Board:

- We screwed up on Logan somewhere along the way, so we've made a course correction. And not in his favor. Somehow we attributed a safe week to him along the way he didn't have, and so his score is a point lower even than we originally thought. At -4 points, with nary a top three finish, we don't see any chance of Logan making Bryant Park. Now it's just a question of how long his tight pants can keep him around...

- No change at the top of the board, as Irina keeps chugging. Carol Hannah pulls out of last week's tie with Althea, but only by a point.

- Gordana, meanwhile, continues her phoenix-like resurrection. (Perhaps we should have made Phoenix, Arizona her new inspirational town instead!) Gordana loves to wear the short-shorts and show off her legs. Does she have the legs to put herself in contention for Bryant Park? It would be the comeback story of the year.

- Christopher...oh Christopher. What more can we really say? We're not going to heap on the abuse. The track record speaks for itself. The only question now seems to be who will go off first--you, or Logan. In retrospect, perhaps we should have give you Greece as your inspiration, and found a photo of the Icarian Sea.

- And dear Nicolas, Season Six's most mercurial designer, drops back to zero. After ten weeks, he's right back where he started. We think that's an apt metaphor for Johnny, who also ended back at zero, but in the end we think Nicolas comes out in the plus column for his Project Runway experience. He does on our tally sheet, at any rate. And did we mention he may have a chance to earn more points? But we're getting ahead of ourselves. On to the disclaimer!

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It's getting very difficult to muddle on without her, but we have nevertheless appointed our judges for the 2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. They are Horn Book Magazine executive editor Martha V. Parravano, NYT children's books editor Julie Just, and novelist (and long-time-ago Horn Book columnist) Gregory Maguire. Information about the awards and guidelines for submissions can be found on our website.

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It's a special Project Runway Pants Party this week--which makes about as much sense to us as it does to you. (That is to say, not a lot.) But we'll get to the pants a little later. First, though we're not excited about it, we're contractually obligated to talk about last week's episode.


Honestly. Bob Mackie? Christina Aguilera? And that's what the designers ran out there? Half of the dresses sent down the runway were gowns--and completely impractical for the kind of shimmying Xtina likes to do on stage. Of the remaining four, only Nicolas' looked appropriately showy, and none of them went big. This wasn't just a starlet challenge, kiddies. It was a Bob Mackie challenge. Have you seen his stuff?


Oh wait. Yes, they have. Project Runway showed the designers a collection of Bob Mackie work. Maybe that was the problem. Some of the Mackie dresses they showed them were full-length gowns. But that wasn't part of the brief this week. The brief was, "Make Christina Aguilera a costume for a stage concert." News flash, designers: Christina Aguilera is not a torch-song singer who's going to be rolling around on a piano.


Of the designs that actually seemed workable on stage, Christopher's felt like a retread, Logan's looked like Betty Rubble, Irina's looked like a Frederick's of Hollywood nightie, and Nicolas' didn't go far enough. We felt pretty sure the judges were going to slam the remaining four designers for delivering red carpet looks (for lack of a better description) instead of show-stopping jiggle-suits, but no--two of the three top designs were gowns. Shows you what we know.


We also have to say goodbye to Shirin, the plucky little gal who could. Until recently. Though she hit the top three in the previous week, these last two challenges depleted her seemingly inexhaustible joie de vivre, and that spelled the end. Shirin just had nothing to bring to the table for this one, and she knew it. For so young a designer, Shirin's real strength seems to be her level of sophistication--and her Project Runway fatigue plus a challenge that called for her to throw sophistication to the wind proved to be her undoing. More than a few bloggers have cried that Christopher's not-so-hot pants should have gone home over this one, but as much as we'd like to still have Shirin around, we find it pretty hard to argue with the decision. Hasta la vista, Shirin--the workroom and the runway will be more dour for your departure.


And then there were seven! Only Althea, Carol Hannah, Christopher, Gordana, Irina, Logan, and Nicolas remain. What are their chances of making Bryant Park? More importantly, where, oh where, do they stand on the Big Board of Shame™?

Irina: 18 points (Two 1st places, One 2nd place, One 3rd place, Five safes)
Carol Hannah: 16 points (One 1st place, Two 2nd places, Six safes)
Althea: 16 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Two 3rd places, Five safes)
Gordana: 7 points (One 1st place, One 3rd place, Five safes, Two 3rd worsts)
Christopher: 5 points (One 1st place, Two 2nd places, Three safes, One 3rd worst, Two 2nd worsts)
Nicolas: 4 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Four safes, Two 3rd worsts, One 2nd worst)
Logan: 2 points (Seven safes, One 3rd worst, One 2nd worst)

--------------aufed--------------

Shirin: 8 points (One 1st place, One 3rd place, Six safes, One Auf)

Epperson: 6 points (One 2nd place, One 3rd place, Five safes, One Auf)

Ra'mon: 3 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Two safes, One 3rd worst, One Auf)
Johnny: 0 points (One 2nd place, One 3rd place, One safe, One 3rd worst, One Auf)
Louise: -1 point (One 3rd place, Four safes, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Malvin: -3 points (One safe, One Auf)
Ari: -4 points (One Auf)
Qristyl: -8 points (One safe, One 3rd worst, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Mitchell: -10 points (Two 2nd worsts, One Auf)

Scoring: 1st place (4 pts), 2nd place (3 pts), 3rd place (2 pts), Safe (1 pt), 3rd worst (-2 pts), 2nd worst (-3 pts), Aufed (-4 pts)

 And this week...a graph!

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The responses to last week's Macy's "blue" challenge were, on the whole, about as inspired as the insipid challenge, but Irina captained team Iridana (Gordina?) to victory. Anybody else catch that every time they said something about the winning designer creating a "holiday look" to be sold at Macy's, it was always in a voice over? Yeah, we're pretty sure the original challenge reward was to have the winning look produced and sold in a Macy's spring collection, but Bravo's drawn-out custody lawsuit pretty much killed that. So instead of this,

Logan: "These aren't the dresses you're looking to auf."

Heidi & Michael: "These aren't the dresses we're looking to auf."

Irina: 14 points (Two 1st places, One 3rd place, Four safes)
Althea: 13 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, One 3rd place, Four safes)
Carol Hannah: 11 points (Two 2nd places, Five safes)
Shirin: 10 points (One 1st place, Six safes)
Epperson: 10 points (One 2nd place, One 3rd place, Five safes)
Christopher: 10 points (One 1st place, Two 2nd places, Three safes, One 2nd worst)
Logan: 3 points (Six safes, One 2nd worst)
Gordana: 2 points (One 3rd place, Four safes, Two 3rd worsts)
Nicolas: 0 points (One 1st place, Three safes, Two 3rd worsts, One 2nd worst)

--------------aufed--------------

Ra'mon: 3 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Two safes, One 3rd worst, One Auf)
Johnny: 0 points (One 2nd place, One 3rd place, One safe, One 3rd worst, One Auf)
Louise: -1 point (One 3rd place, Four safes, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Malvin: -3 points (One safe, One Auf)
Ari: -4 points (One Auf)
Qristyl: -8 points (One safe, One 3rd worst, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Mitchell: -10 points (Two 2nd worsts, One Auf)

Scoring: 1st place (4 pts), 2nd place (3 pts), 3rd place (2 pts), Safe (1 pt), 3rd worst (-2 pts), 2nd worst (-3 pts), Aufed (-4 pts)

The Annotated Big Board:

- Irina jumps into first, just ahead of Althea. Are we looking at two of the finalists setting the pace for the pack? Irina, as we said before, becomes the first Season Six designer with two wins.

- Christopher drops back to the pack on the heels of his almost-Auf.

- Carol Hannah, Shirin, and Epperson form a mediocre middle. There are five top three finishes here, yes, but those are the only five times these three designers have been noticed at all. If you're looking for a "snoozefest," check out these three designers' combined sixteen safe designs. Safe is okay early on, but it's time for these folks to step it up if they want to prove they belong in Bryant Park.

- Logan, Gordana, and Nicolas still occupy the cellar. Besides Nicolas and his first place win two weeks ago, none of these three has shown the ability to impress the judges. By this point, the idea that they'll produce something dynamic enough to wow the judges seems unlikely.

- Odd couples: Shirin (10 points) and Logan (3 points), though far apart in the standings, are perhaps the most boring designers in the competition so far, tying each other with six safes out of seven episodes so far. Meanwhile, Christopher (10 points) and Nicolas (0 points) are perhaps the least boring designers in the competition, each with only three safes apiece. The big difference? Christopher has been in the top three times and the bottom only once, while Nicolas has been on the bottom three times and the top only once...

- Carol Hannah: always a bridesmaid and never the bride?

No better transition than that this week, so on to the preview!


SPOILER ALERT: As we point out each week, we don't have any prior knowledge of what's to come, other than (usually) the guest judge, (sometimes) a vague idea about the competition, and (occasionally) whatever preview videos Lifetime chooses to air. Using all these sources of public information, we make guesses about who will be in and who will be out. Often bad guesses (like last week's Logan debacle!) but, we hope, fun ones. If you prefer to be surprised by this week's episode, we suggest renting a copy of Kramer vs. Kramer.

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All right, all right. All the recappers have already agreed that last week's "BIGGEST LIE IN PROJECT RUNWAY HISTORY" wasn't exactly the biggest lie in Project Runway history, so we won't belabor that point. The bigger question for us is, why did Johnny even bother to lie? He didn't really have to. Okay, sure, probably not the best idea to say, "Yeah, Tim told me my first design looked like a Milky Way Bar being eaten by a flock of Central Park pigeons so I threw it away and knocked this thing out at the last minute." But that doesn't mean he had to make something up. A simple, "Yeah, um, I had time issues" would have sufficed, and probably not brought out the claws on Nicolas.

But then again, Johnny couldn't really claim time issues either, could he? Not when he had time to sit and do the crossword. All of Johnny Drama's boohooing about Project Runway being harder than quitting addiction (really?) and wanting to make it to Bryant Park felt like crocodile tears at that point, as he seemed only marginally more inclined to exert himself than Mitchell Hall was. Johnny impressed us early with his design knowledge, but he lost us along the way.


We're sure Johnny regrets the lie more than anything now, particularly as everyone's beloved Tim Gunn gave him the coldest send-off in Project Runway history--and that, my friends, is not hyperbole. Blogging Project Runway ran a poll asking which was more shocking--Johnny's lie, or Tim Gunn's reaction to it in the epilogue--and as of press time Tim's backlash was beating the brown paper skirt off Johnny's fib by a wide margin. Seeing the usually unflappable Gunn flap was certainly the most shocking moment of the episode for us.


The designs, for an alternative materials challenge with such a limited amount of time to create them, were surprisingly not shockingly bad. Two or three of them really impressed us, including of course Irina's fashionable trenchcoat. We picked her for the win in last week's preview, and we weren't disappointed.


We missed the boat on Christopher though, who impressed again with a feathery dress and a paper mache faux armor top. This dress had the best movement of anything that came down the runway, and it was no surprise it was singled out as a top three look.


Althea got so much play in the previews we should have known she'd make the judging too, but we whiffed on this one too. This one was intriguing mostly because that material looks like anything but paper. Unfortunately, it looked--and moved--a bit too much like stamped metal.


We would have preferred to see this outfit in the top three--and we have to admit to scratching our heads a bit when the judges were finished critiquing it. Was it in the top or the bottom? Eva and Tommy seemed to like it, but Heidi kept channeling Nina and calling it boring. Heidi, dear, was this dress really worse than this?





Sorry, Louise. We're usually big fans, but this one--ouch. Johnny's first attempt may have looked like a paper mache thing our daughter brought home from first grade last year, but the top of this dress looks a lot like a collage she did with uncooked pasta.

But in the end, none were deemed worse than Johnny's quickie...


...or this Nicolas-designed "punk" look worn by Simone...


...er, Celine! Yes, Celine! That's it. Yes, it must really do wonders for a model's confidence when her designer can't remember her name--but Celine may have bigger things to worry about with Nicolas very soon at the rate he's going.

Which is as good an entree into the Big Board of Shame™ as we're going to get this time, so let's do it!

Althea: 11 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, One 3rd place, Two safes)
Christopher: 10 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Three safes)
Irina: 9 points (One 1st place, One 3rd place, Three safes)
Shirin: 8 points (One 1st place, Four safes)
Carol Hannah: 7 points (One 2nd place, Four safes)
Ra'mon: 7 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Two safes, One 3rd worst)
Epperson: 6 points (One 3rd place, Four safes)
Louise: 6 points (One 3rd place, Four safes)
Gordana: 2 points (Four safes, One 3rd worst)
Logan: 1 point (Four safes, One 2nd worst)
Nicolas: -2 points (Three safes, One 3rd worst, One 2nd worst)

--------------aufed--------------

Johnny: 0 points (One 2nd place, One 3rd place, One safe, One 3rd worst, One Auf)
Malvin: -3 points (One safe, One Auf)
Ari: -4 points (One Auf)
Qristyl: -8 points (One safe, One 3rd worst, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Mitchell: -10 points (Two 2nd worsts, One Auf)

Scoring: 1st place (4 pts), 2nd place (3 pts), 3rd place (2 pts), Safe (1 pt), 3rd worst (-2 pts), 2nd worst (-3 pts), Aufed (-4 pts)

The Annotated Big Board:

- Volatile Johnny leaves with only one safe design in five weeks, and burns up his four accrued points getting aufed. He crashes out with 0 points, breaking even but for the negative public opinion.

- Your top three designers for the week are now your top three designers overall, as Althea and Christopher solidify their positions and Irina jumps up to join them.

- Shirin is hovering in the no-man's land between the middle and the top.

- Carol Hannah, Ra'mon, Epperson, and Louise form a solid, yet uninspired middle group.

- And it's hard to know if Gordana, Logan, and Nicolas are misfiring, or merely hitting their ceilings. As Tom and Lorenzo say, "First you weed out the obvious ones, then you weed out the underachievers." Yes, you three, we're looking at you.

- Gordana remains the most unfathomable bottom-dweller we've ever seen. Only 2 points through five episodes, and yet the work she's producing makes you think she'd be higher--mid-table at least. Is she a dark horse, or will she never get out of the barn?

- Logan is cute (as has been established, and which will be further reinforced this week), but he hasn't done much to impress. We can forgive him for the misstep with the dress for a client who didn't match his aesthetic, but the dresses that have been what he wants haven't wowed. He has to step it up, or he'll be gone, shiny pants or not.

- Nicolas is in serious trouble. When the judges start thinking of you as a loser, it's hard not to get typecast. His saving grace? If he can make it until Nina and Michael come back, he gets to start all over with them! In the meantime, his bark is definitely much worse than his bite.

- Oh, and Ra'mon gets his second safe week in a row! Hope he enjoyed it while it lasted...


SPOILER ALERT: As we point out each week, we don't have any prior knowledge of what's to come, other than (usually) the guest judge, (sometimes) a vague idea about the competition, and (occasionally) whatever preview videos Lifetime chooses to air. Using all these sources of public information, we make guesses about who will be in and who will be out. Often bad guesses, but (we hope) fun ones. If you prefer to be surprised by this week's episode, there's still time to watch that Netflix movie that's been sitting on top of your television for two months...



Nicolas is working on a villain dress, and goes straight for the feathers. Cruella de Vil, anyone? Christopher tells Tim his inspiration is "vampire bride." Carol Hannah's is "sexy assassin."

And speaking of sexy assassins...



If we survive the workroom romance, we'll see movie-inspired fashion coming down the runway, which could be fun. Zoe Glassner is in one of the previews as a judge again, so we suppose that means no Nina at the very least, and we suspect no Michael again either. And the guest judge? We have no clue. It would make sense for it to be a movie star, but we're not confident that sense plays a big role in these things.

This week's movie theme gave us a crazy idea: what if we cast movie stars in the roles of the designers? It was too tempting. So before we get to the predictions, Gratz Industries is proud to present our very own Ocean's Eleven. (Seeing as how there are eleven contestants left and all.)









(Down, ladies and gentlemen--I said down!)





And Goldie Hawn makes her triumphant comeback to the silver screen as Carol Hannah, the saucy Southern bell with a heart of gold.

(Sorry, Althea. It was mostly the hair. We swear.)



Gratz Industries: We watch the previews twenty times so you don't have to!

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In honor of Lifetime's increasingly hyperbole-filled previews, we declare this Gratz Industries preview to be the MUST READ PREVIEW OF THE SEASON. We'll make ONE UNBELIEVABLE PREDICTION, and put TWO HUGE FEET IN OUR MOUTHS, all leading up to THE BIGGEST. LIE. IN GRATZ. INDUSTRIES. HISTORY.!!!!

But first we'll recap last week's lame-ass episode.

Last week we predicted Carol Hannah, Althea, and Epperson would make the top three, and darned if we weren't right. Sure, we had Carol Hannah winning and Althea taking second and it was the other way around, but we're feeling pretty pleased with ourselves right now. And yes, we thought Althea's three-piece suit looked like a hot mess, but hey, who are we to argue with Heidi and...wait, who were those people sitting with her? Where's Nina? And didn't there used to be an orange guy they always had on the show? Mikey somebody?


Instead, this week we got a guy who's a cross between Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken as a stand-in for Michael, the sublime Zoe Glassner, shopping editor at Marie Claire as a stand-in for Nina, and some stylist who styles herself as "the Wicked Witch of Wardrobe" as, what--the guest judge? Okay. If you say so.


Marc Bouwer and Zoe Glassner we liked. Neither of them are Michael or Nina, but Bouwer is at least a designer with a mile-long list of starlets who've worn his dresses, and Glassner shined in "Running in Heels," the life-at-a-fashion-mag reality show that debuted earlier this year. Though we want Michael and Nina back, Marc and Zoe were fine.


So that means Jennifer Rade was the guest judge? Really? We had to look her up after the fact to know who she was. Besides dressing Angelina Jolie, she's known for her pithy magazine commentary on celebrity fashion disasters:
This stuff practically writes itself! No, seriously. It writes itself. Okay, yes, technically it's the same kind of stupid stuff we put under photos, but no one's asking us to judge Project Runway! Right?


Rade's biggest "oh no she di-n't" moment of the night of course came when she slammed both Qristyl and her model Valerie for bad taste. It's one thing to smack down the designers for bad taste--having a good sense of style is, after all, part of their job. But Jen, please. Lay off the clients. Even Michael, who loves his little one-liners, wouldn't have gone there. When there are clients, the judges pull their punches until the clients are off-stage--especially when the client says she loves what is clearly a fashion disaster. Tsk tsk, Jen. Cheap shots don't become you.

And really, what else was Valerie supposed to say? "I could have bought this off the rack at T.J. Maxx--not that I would have wanted to." No. She's smart. She stood by her designer on the runway, as expected. Rade was just cashing in on her five minutes of cable-tv fame.

Okay. Stepping off the soap box now. Once again, our favorite model personality Valerie goes home--this time probably for good. Here's hoping she got the gig she walked for at the "industry party" in Models of the Runway, and gets many more.


We also managed to pick the bottom three, and although we flip-flopped where Johnny and Logan would end up, we nailed Qristyl leaving. So, again, felling pretty good about our prognosticating skills right now.


Logan scored his first "non-safe" look of the season in a bad way, creating a dress that looked like something Madonna wore in Desperately Seeking Susan. Thus Logan learns a Project Runway lesson the hard way: listen to the client, but not too much. But thanks to Logan's hot pants and Jennifer Rade's purring cougar, he's in and Qristyl is out. Happy trails, Qristyl--we could barely spell ye.

On to the Big Board of Shame™!

Althea: 9 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, Two safes)
Shirin: 7 points (One 1st place, Three safes)
Christopher: 7 points (One 1st place, Three safes)
Carol Hannah: 6 points (One 2nd place, Three safes)
Ra'mon: 6 points (One 1st place, One 2nd place, One safe, One 3rd worst)
Epperson: 5 points (One 3rd place, Three safes)
Irina: 5 points (One 3rd place, Three safes)
Louise: 5 points (One 3rd place, Three safes)
Johnny: 4 points (One 2nd place, One 3rd place, One safe, One 3rd worst)
Gordana: 4 points (Four safes)
Nicolas: 1 points (Three safes, One 3rd worst)
Logan: 0 points (Three safes, One 2nd worst)

--------------aufed--------------

Malvin: -3 points (One safe, One Auf)
Ari: -4 points (One Auf)
Qristyl: -8 points (One safe, One 3rd worst, One 2nd worst, One Auf)
Mitchell: -10 points (Two 2nd worsts, One Auf)

Scoring: 1st place (4 pts), 2nd place (3 pts), 3rd place (2 pts), Safe (1 pt), 3rd worst (-2 pts), 2nd worst (-3 pts), Aufed (-4 pts)

The Annotated Big Board:

- Althea leapfrogs into first with one first and one second place finish. Only Ra'mon rivals her successes with one first and one second of his own, but he's got that bowling ball maternity dress weighing him down.

- Carol Hannah doesn't play it safe this time, and begins to climb, while...

- Johnny drops back to the pack below Epperson, whose Suede-inspired strip-pieced dress drew raves but didn't do enough for him to achieve mid-table escape velocity.

- Johnny and Ra'mon have hit either the top or the bottom three out of the four episodes--making them just as likely to win one week as to go home the next.

- Still not much judge-love for Louise or Irina, despite intriguing efforts from both of them this week (and weeks past).

- Logan, Nicolas, and Gordana are the only three designers left who have yet to crack the top three on any challenge...

- And Gordana remains the only person to be safe four weeks in a row. (Again, kind of a cheat. But for Mitchell, she might have figured into the bottom three of the team challenge in week three. But she didn't!)

- Oh, and Ra'mon can finally breathe easy this week. He earned his first "safe" from Heidi!

Who will be safe and who will have to read about the winning designers in the newspaper the next day? See Page 6!


SPOILER ALERT: As we point out each week, we don't have any prior knowledge of what's to come, other than (usually) the guest judge, (sometimes) a vague idea about the competition, and (occasionally) whatever preview videos Lifetime chooses to air. Using all these sources of public information, we make guesses about who will be in and who will be out. Often bad guesses, but (we hope) fun ones. If you prefer to be surprised by this week's episode, we suggest you buy a newspaper and check the want ads for "America's Next Top Fashion Designer"...

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As promised, here is part two of our Fall TV Preview. Below are personal picks for "ones to watch" this season from Youth Advisory Board members Megan Reid and Michael Hayball and me. Ed. Note: If you're looking for a comprehensive list of new and... Read the rest of this post

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Welcome to Week Two of Project Runway Season 6, friends--and congratulations to Week One winner Christopher, who defied our expectations here at Gratz Industries. He joins the ranks of Week One winners from seasons past: Austin Scarlett, Santino Rice, Keith Michael, Rami Kashou, and Kelli Martin. Interesting company, to say the least.


In less dignified company is Week One loser Ari Fish. How her look was any kind of red carpet dress--now, or in the future--and how she could make such a pretty girl look so awful were the two questions that left us shaking our heads. (Honestly, when we saw the model afterward with her hair de-funkified and wearing normal clothes, we looked at each other and gasped. It was like Jekyll and Hyde.) The producers will no doubt miss her kaleidoscopic outfits, handstand antics, and "What if we don't sketch?" moments, but us? Not so much. As Wendi said after the aufing: "She was never a real contender, so she might as well go now." Ouch. Cold, but true. Ari moves on to be the perpetual hostess in the eliminated designers bunker.

Early impressions of everyone else? Well, as we said, Chris surprised us. For not having fashion school experience, he did good. But please, Chris: no more of this "Smocking? I've never even heard of that." One of us here at Gratz Industries could barely tell you the difference between a cuff and a collar, and he's still heard of smocking. Besides, rule number one of faking it: Never admit you don't know something. Just nod and say, "Oh. Smocking. Yeah. Cool." Chris' earnestness might just be his undoing.


Carol Hannah's dress looked overworked, and Gordana's looked a little stiff--much like she was for her first challenge. We rolled our eyes at Johnny's drama, but when he showed up the next day ready to work and broke down the construction of his dress with Tim in the workroom, we sat up and paid attention. Love him or hate him, the boy appears to have vision, and the talent to create it. Louise and Logan we like, and Nicolas looks like he'll be a contender. The jury's still out for us on Shirin, Irina, and Althea, and Epperson needs to wow us. And Ra'mon? The producers seem to be singling him out as this season's Weepy McEmo. Observe: the various faces of Ra'mon in this week's handful of preview videos--




Three designers we're not terribly excited to see more from are Mitchell, Malvin, and Qrystal. (We'll probably learn to spell Qrystal's name without looking it up just about the time she's aufed.) Yes, Mitchell gets something of a pass for mismeasuring his model--or her mismeasuring herself--but really, smocking? When you've never done it before? The dress he was building might have worked on Nicole Kidman, or maybe Gwyneth Paltrow, but not the Lohan. And speaking of Lohan, props to her for keeping a straight face when Qrystal told the judges she could see Lindsay wearing her shiny tropical explosion to the next Grammys. We weren't so straightfaced. Qrystal's a dynamic personality, and we like her--but the girl's going to have to up the taste level to succeed. As for Malvin? Wow. Mr. "I Don't Do Red Carpet Dresses But I Want to Be a Fashion Designer" can't be long for the Project Runway world.

Last season we had a lot of fun using past performance as a predictor of future success, so we thought we'd give it a go again this year and bring back the Big Board of Shame.™ Here's how we play:

Each week, designers earn a point value based on how their looks place on the runway. We give 4 points to the winner, 3 points for second place (easily identified as the first person sent off after the winner is announced, so there's some drama to the announcement), and 2 points to the third place designer. Each designer who is safe--neither in the top three nor the bottom three--earns 1 point. For the losing designers, third worst of the week earns -2, second worst earns -3 points, and the aufed designer gets -4 points.

Why do we even bother giving negative points to aufed designers? Because we keep track of where people place after they're gone too, giving us a sort of hierarchy of losers, which we can also compare to those designers still around. Thus, aufs have to count for something.

So here's how things shake out in the first week:

Chris: 4 points (One 1st place)
Ra'mon: 3 points (One 2nd place)
Johnny: 2 points (One 3rd place)
Althea: 1 point (One safe)
Carol Hannah: 1 point (One safe)
Epperson: 1 point (One safe)
Gordana: 1 point (One safe)
Irina: 1 point (One safe)
Logan: 1 point (One safe)
Louise: 1 point (One safe)
Malvin: 1 point (One safe)
Nicolas: 1 point (One safe)
Shirin: 1 point (One safe)
Qrystal: -2 points (One 3rd worst)
Mitchell: -3 points (One 2nd worst)
Ari: -4 points (One auf)

Three or four episodes in, the Big Board of Shame will really start to show us who's playing for keeps, and who's overstaying their welcome. For those looking to keep track of wins week to week, Lifetime's Season Six Scorecard is a great reference, as is the magically updated, no frills Season Six Wikipedia chart.

But what about this week, you ask? More on that, after a pregnant pause...


SPOILER ALERT: As we point out each week, we don't have any prior knowledge of what's to come, other than (usually) the guest judge, (sometimes) a vague idea about the competition, and (occasionally) whatever preview videos Lifetime chooses to air. Using all these sources of public information, we make guesses about who will be in and who will be out. Often bad guesses, but (every now and then, we hope) fun ones. If you prefer to be surprised by this week's episode, we suggest you stop reading now and call your mother. Seriously, how long has it been since you called just to call?



This week's guest judge is big, Heidi tells us in the teaser. Big! She also says the designers will "create a look for an actual celebrity." You know, not like Lindsay Lohan or somebody. No, it has to be somebody bigger! Somebody that will make all those designers put their hands to their mouths and scream! Somebody like...


Rebecca Romijn!? She's the big Week Two guest judge? The woman whose biggest role was playing Mystique in all those X-Men movies? I mean, yeah, she was hot in all that blue latex paint, but boy, look at her now. She's really let herself go. She's...

..wait, she's what? Pregnant? Oh. That's what Heidi meant when she said big. We get it now. It's a maternity challenge.

Oh crap.


Yes, true believers, we're only two episodes in, and we have our first "you're not designing for stick figures" challenge, which usually throws more than a few of the designers off their games. They'll be using their models though, never fear--the models will just have to wear poochy baby-on-board bags around their tummies. Much silliness will ensue.


And of course the desingers will get into the act as well:


Some of the preview videos are clearly all about this episode, and they're all models and designers running around saying, "Ha-ha, look at me, I'm preggers." Others, like the official Lifetime preview video, include a number of scenes that can't be from this episode, like this one:

Or could Mitchell really be making hot pants for a pregnant woman? Well, he did send a model down the runway in almost nothing but her underwear...but, no. We refuse to believe it. Whatever he pulls out this week, it'll be enough to get him to whatever episode it is where he whips up the short shorts. The drab gray hot short shorts.

The person we think will have the real trouble with this one is Malvin. If Malvin doesn't do red carpet, it's a sure bet he doesn't do maternity either. Is there a designer left who is more ill-fitted for this challenge?


Barring any further evidence (we have no runway judging shots to analyze this week!) we're picking Malvin to cut the cord and leave the gentle, nurturing womb of Project Runway for the real world. Or whatever passes for the real world for him. We think he'll be joined in the losers bracket by Mitchell, and...let's say the mercurial Ra'mon, in a stark turnaround from last week.

But who will turn this mutha out? Well, we have to think that if Qrystal has any kind of chance at taking home a prize, it has to be this time, as her previous work has specialized in plus-sized, sorry, "plus sexy" outfits. But we're still leery of that purple people eater she sent down the runway last week. Let's give her third place. For the top two, we'll say...Nicolas, and Althea, with Althea hatching her first win.

As for Rebecca Romijn, we think we can accurately predict she will have twin girls: Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip. How do we know? Well, this season of Project Runway was filmed a year ago, and she had the healthy baby girls on December 28, 2008. Congratulations, Rebecca! You and John Stamos must be loving your "full house." Ha ha ha ha--

Wait, what? She's not married to John Stamos anymore? Dang. We knew we shouldn't have let our subscription to US Weekly run out in 1997.

Tune in next week, when we admit how horribly wrong we were. In the meantime, enjoy the musings of Andre and Uncle Nick, as they reflect on Episode One. Let's hope they do these all season long!

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Welcome to Week Two of Project Runway Season 6, friends--and congratulations to Week One winner Christopher, who defied our expectations here at Gratz Industries. He joins the ranks of Week One winners from seasons past: Austin Scarlett, Santino Rice, Keith Michael, Rami Kashou, and Kelli Martin. Interesting company, to say the least.


In less dignified company is Week One loser Ari Fish. How her look was any kind of red carpet dress--now, or in the future--and how she could make such a pretty girl look so awful were the two questions that left us shaking our heads. (Honestly, when we saw the model afterward with her hair de-funkified and wearing normal clothes, we looked at each other and gasped. It was like Jekyll and Hyde.) The producers will no doubt miss her kaleidoscopic outfits, handstand antics, and "What if we don't sketch?" moments, but us? Not so much. As Wendi said after the aufing: "She was never a real contender, so she might as well go now." Ouch. Cold, but true. Ari moves on to be the perpetual hostess in the eliminated designers bunker.

Early impressions of everyone else? Well, as we said, Chris surprised us. For not having fashion school experience, he did good. But please, Chris: no more of this "Smocking? I've never even heard of that." One of us here at Gratz Industries could barely tell you the difference between a cuff and a collar, and he's still heard of smocking. Besides, rule number one of faking it: Never admit you don't know something. Just nod and say, "Oh. Smocking. Yeah. Cool." Chris' earnestness might just be his undoing.


Carol Hannah's dress looked overworked, and Gordana's looked a little stiff--much like she was for her first challenge. We rolled our eyes at Johnny's drama, but when he showed up the next day ready to work and broke down the construction of his dress with Tim in the workroom, we sat up and paid attention. Love him or hate him, the boy appears to have vision, and the talent to create it. Louise and Logan we like, and Nicolas looks like he'll be a contender. The jury's still out for us on Shirin, Irina, and Althea, and Epperson needs to wow us. And Ra'mon? The producers seem to be singling him out as this season's Weepy McEmo. Observe: the various faces of Ra'mon in this week's handful of preview videos--




Three designers we're not terribly excited to see more from are Mitchell, Malvin, and Qrystal. (We'll probably learn to spell Qrystal's name without looking it up just about the time she's aufed.) Yes, Mitchell gets something of a pass for mismeasuring his model--or her mismeasuring herself--but really, smocking? When you've never done it before? The dress he was building might have worked on Nicole Kidman, or maybe Gwyneth Paltrow, but not the Lohan. And speaking of Lohan, props to her for keeping a straight face when Qrystal told the judges she could see Lindsay wearing her shiny tropical explosion to the next Grammys. We weren't so straightfaced. Qrystal's a dynamic personality, and we like her--but the girl's going to have to up the taste level to succeed. As for Malvin? Wow. Mr. "I Don't Do Red Carpet Dresses But I Want to Be a Fashion Designer" can't be long for the Project Runway world.

Last season we had a lot of fun using past performance as a predictor of future success, so we thought we'd give it a go again this year and bring back the Big Board of Shame.™ Here's how we play:

Each week, designers earn a point value based on how their looks place on the runway. We give 4 points to the winner, 3 points for second place (easily identified as the first person sent off after the winner is announced, so there's some drama to the announcement), and 2 points to the third place designer. Each designer who is safe--neither in the top three nor the bottom three--earns 1 point. For the losing designers, third worst of the week earns -2, second worst earns -3 points, and the aufed designer gets -4 points.

Why do we even bother giving negative points to aufed designers? Because we keep track of where people place after they're gone too, giving us a sort of hierarchy of losers, which we can also compare to those designers still around. Thus, aufs have to count for something.

So here's how things shake out in the first week:

Chris: 4 points (One 1st place)
Ra'mon: 3 points (One 2nd place)
Johnny: 2 points (One 3rd place)
Althea: 1 point (One safe)
Carol Hannah: 1 point (One safe)
Epperson: 1 point (One safe)
Gordana: 1 point (One safe)
Irina: 1 point (One safe)
Logan: 1 point (One safe)
Louise: 1 point (One safe)
Malvin: 1 point (One safe)
Nicolas: 1 point (One safe)
Shirin: 1 point (One safe)
Qrystal: -2 points (One 3rd worst)
Mitchell: -3 points (One 2nd worst)
Ari: -4 points (One auf)

Three or four episodes in, the Big Board of Shame will really start to show us who's playing for keeps, and who's overstaying their welcome. For those looking to keep track of wins week to week, Lifetime's Season Six Scorecard is a great reference, as is the magically updated, no frills Season Six Wikipedia chart.

But what about this week, you ask? More on that, after a pregnant pause...


SPOILER ALERT: As we point out each week, we don't have any prior knowledge of what's to come, other than (usually) the guest judge, (sometimes) a vague idea about the competition, and (occasionally) whatever preview videos Lifetime chooses to air. Using all these sources of public information, we make guesses about who will be in and who will be out. Often bad guesses, but (every now and then, we hope) fun ones. If you prefer to be surprised by this week's episode, we suggest you stop reading now and call your mother. Seriously, how long has it been since you called just to call?



This week's guest judge is big, Heidi tells us in the teaser. Big! She also says the designers will "create a look for an actual celebrity." You know, not like Lindsay Lohan or somebody. No, it has to be somebody bigger! Somebody that will make all those designers put their hands to their mouths and scream! Somebody like...


Rebecca Romijn!? She's the big Week Two guest judge? The woman whose biggest role was playing Mystique in all those X-Men movies? I mean, yeah, she was hot in all that blue latex paint, but boy, look at her now. She's really let herself go. She's...

..wait, she's what? Pregnant? Oh. That's what Heidi meant when she said big. We get it now. It's a maternity challenge.

Oh crap.


Yes, true believers, we're only two episodes in, and we have our first "you're not designing for stick figures" challenge, which usually throws more than a few of the designers off their games. They'll be using their models though, never fear--the models will just have to wear poochy baby-on-board bags around their tummies. Much silliness will ensue.


And of course the desingers will get into the act as well:


Some of the preview videos are clearly all about this episode, and they're all models and designers running around saying, "Ha-ha, look at me, I'm preggers." Others, like the official Lifetime preview video, include a number of scenes that can't be from this episode, like this one:

Or could Mitchell really be making hot pants for a pregnant woman? Well, he did send a model down the runway in almost nothing but her underwear...but, no. We refuse to believe it. Whatever he pulls out this week, it'll be enough to get him to whatever episode it is where he whips up the short shorts. The drab gray short shorts.

The person we think will have the real trouble with this one is Malvin. If Malvin doesn't do red carpet, it's a sure bet he doesn't do maternity either. Is there a designer left who is more ill-fitted for this challenge?


Barring any further evidence (we have no runway judging shots to analyze this week!) we're picking Malvin to cut the cord and leave the gentle, nurturing womb of Project Runway for the real world. Or whatever passes for the real world for him. We think he'll be joined in the losers bracket by Mitchell, and...let's say the mercurial Ra'mon, in a stark turnaround from last week.

But who will turn this mutha out? Well, we have to think that if Qrystal has any kind of chance at taking home a prize, it has to be this time, as her previous work has specialized in plus-sized, sorry, "plus sexy" outfits. But we're still leery of that purple people eater she sent down the runway last week. Let's give her third place. For the top two, we'll say...Nicolas, and Althea, with Althea hatching her first win.

As for Rebecca Romijn, we think we can accurately predict she will have twin girls: Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip. How do we know? Well, this season of Project Runway was filmed a year ago, and she had the healthy baby girls on December 28, 2008. Congratulations, Rebecca! You and John Stamos must be loving your "full house." Ha ha ha ha--

Wait, what? She's not married to John Stamos anymore? Dang. We knew we shouldn't have let our subscription to US Weekly run out in 1997.

Tune in next week, when we admit how horribly wrong we were. In the meantime, enjoy the musings of Andre and Uncle Nick, as they reflect on Episode One. Let's hope they do these all season long!

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Welcome back, true believers! They said it was over. That it would never air. That we would never hear Tim Gunn say, "I'm dubious" again--but they were wrong! At long last, Project Runway Season Six is ready to air. For sixteen designers and sixteen models, it means the end of a long, contractually-obligated silence, as filming on the season wrapped months ago, culminating in an oddly anonymous runway show for the three finalists at Bryant Park. (Which one of us attended! Click here for the full report.)

What's new? The question ought to be, "What isn't?" Heidi, Tim, Nina, and Michael are all back, but that's about it. Project Runway has gone all LA on us, whisking the production over to the left coast and leaving behind all its old familiar haunts. (Is there a Mood Fabrics in LA? Aha, there is! So maybe not everything's different.)

What else is different, of course, is the move to Lifetime Television. But while this change was at first bemoaned by fans of Bravo who couldn't imagine their beloved show on the network of Lifetime Original Movies and Reba reruns, Lifetime has done everything right that Bravo did wrong last season. A quick glance at Lifetime's Project Runway site is almost impossible; there's just too much good stuff there not to lose an hour or two: designer portfolios, profiles, intro videos, buddy icons, wallpapers, games, even a nifty choose-your-own-Tim-Gunn-message you can send to a friend's phone. It's like Lifetime got Project Runway to go on a date with them and went nuts and drove off to Vegas and married it. Bravo, on the other hand, acted like a scorned partner last season, making Project Runway Season Five sleep alone in a hotel room while the lawyers drew up the divorce papers.

Oh, and can we just take a moment to point out how smart this is? Lifetime announced today that every episode of Project Runway will air for free--with commercials--online at MyLifetime.com the Saturday after the show premieres on Thursday and encores on Friday. Huzzah! FINALLY! Someone who understand the power of rerunning a show online! Seriously, kudos to Lifetime. They seem to be doing everything right.

And thanks to Lifetime, this Thursday will be a full night of Project Runway goodness. At 9 p.m. ET is a special Project Runway All-Star Edition (but hey, where's Uncle Nick!?), at 10 p.m. ET is the premiere of PR Season Six, and then afterward is Models of the Runway--a behind-the-scenes look at PR from the models' point of view! It's so much Project Runway fun we might just explode.

But here at Gratz Industries, we're in the business of making predictions, not providing scheduling reminders (or exploding), so let's get down to the prognosticating, shall we?

SPOILER ALERT: As we point out each week, we don't have any prior knowledge of what's to come, other than (usually) the guest judge, (sometimes) a vague idea about the competition, and (occasionally) whatever preview videos Lifetime chooses to air. Using all these sources of public information, we make guesses about who will be in and who will be out. Often bad guesses, but (every now and then, we hope) fun ones. If you prefer to be surprised by this week's episode, we suggest you stop reading right about now and go take a nap so you can watch Project Runway programming until 3 a.m. tonight.


This week's premiere is called "Welcome to Los Angeles!" but we prefer "A-Lohan Against the World," as celebrity disaster Lindsey Lohan is week one's special guest. What better way to prove Project Runway is so LA than featuring a tabloid superstar as your first guest judge? Seriously, what could go wrong with this? Nothing we can see--as long as, you know, they don't ask her to drive the designers anywhere. Or let her near the booze.

This week we'll get the obligatory shots of designers arriving at the airport, getting out of cabs, and lugging large suitcases into their rooms, where they will make awkward small-talk as they not-so-secretly assess each other's threat levels. Then--oh my gosh!--someone will discover an elegantly printed card that wasn't sitting there on the counter before or that has been slid under the door, and everyone will head to the pool or the roof (or both! this is LA, after all) for champagne and hellos with Heidi and Tim. The only surprise this year will be that the designers won't be insulted by having to run, scramble, grovel, or otherwise debase themselves to collect material for their first challenge. (That will undoubtedly come later.)

Instead, the designers will get a night to simmer in the hot tub before being the only people on the planet to be surprised the next morning when Lindsey Lohan bounces out from behind the Project Runway scrim. Lindsey will then ask the sixteen wide-eyed and over-anxious designers to design a red carpet dress for her to wear to some relatively minor event, so that if she has to pick the lesser of three evils she won't be seen by too many people. Lindsey will exit stage right to have a drink, and the designers will load into this year's sponsor cars and be whisked away to Mood Fabrics' LA branch, where they will have far too little time and far too little money to make appropriate fabric decisions.

Back at Parson's, er, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, the designers will have one day to finish their looks. Their models will have been randomly assigned to them to save time, and one poor model will lose the lottery and get Ari Fish as her designer. (But we're getting ahead of ourselves.) We don't expect too much drama in the workroom this episode, and like most early-season PR installments, we probably won't feel like we've gotten to know any of the designers too well either.

At least we'll still have Tim, Heidi, Nina, and Michael as friendly faces. Heidi will certainly be happier--LA is her home. As for the others, New Yorkers all, we'll have to see how they like spending a few weeks away from home. What is it Heidi always says of Michael Kors? He's "the king of jet set fashion?" Guess he's going to have to prove it this season.

So who's in and who's out this week? We barely guess right when we've been able to watch the designers, and you want us to pick without seeing a single episode yet? Sheesh. Well, we already gave our preseason rankings, but we're already taking one of our predictions back, based on new evidence. Check out this still from Lifetime's season six preview:

Stop looking at Heidi's legs and count the designers. That's right--fifteen. And we start with sixteen. This is clearly a week two shot. So all we have to do is figure out which one is missing, and we know who gets aufed in week one! Er, well, the trouble is, some of the boys and girls kind of look alike--particularly the ones with blonde, shoulder-length hair. But we've been over this photo a couple of times now, enlarging it as much as we can without everyone turning into pixelated blobs, and we've come to the conclusion that the odd designer out is Ari Fish. And when we say odd, we do mean odd. If ever there was a first episode competition that would knock this girl out, it would be a red carpet gown. From our pre-season rankings:

Ari might just be the longest shot of them all, but like kooky Elisa before her, she may stick around a few episodes for the entertainment factor. Where do we begin? Ari is an art school student who transfered from painting to ceramics to textile design. Her influences are "geometry, ergonomics, American Indian ritual wear, nomadic tribe wear and athletic apparel," and in a video she tells us she's into leopard print, track suits, muumuus, tight pants, and Mickey Mouse sweatshirts. Our favorite moment: when she shows us the reversible, waterproof, jacket she's making for a friend, and tells us it's sleeveless because "he's going to be in the desert." Which of course begs the question: then why does it have to be waterproof? All Tim says of Ari is that she's "deeply conceptual." She'll be around only as long as other people make mistakes.

Guess no one makes bigger mistakes than she does this episode. So while we thought Logan Neitzel would be the first to go, we're calling a do-over. Our apologies to Logan in retrospect, and our condolences to Ari in advance. In fact, if the following still from the season preview video is a final ten, paired up in teams, we may have to reassess a few of our guesses--including Logan again:

Are these just the best and worst teams, with other designers already safe in the back room? But then, they usually keep out sets of six--three winners and three losers--even when there are teams. And there's none of the odd spacing that comes when some of the teams leave and the others keep their places. Hrm. Are we looking at a top ten here? If so, that's six of the girls, and only four of the boys. [Left to right, best we can tell: an Irina/Gordana superteam, a Carol Hannah/Shirin whippersnapper team, a Logan/Althea tall team, a Nicolas/Louise emo-goth team, and a Christopher/Epperson boys club team.] Perhaps this is the season the women rule Project Runway from beginning to end--pretty fitting for the show's first season on Lifetime. (Let the conspiracy theories begin!)

So, we have video evidence to help us pick the aufing, but who wins immunity next episode? This is a crap shoot. For no particular reason, we're going to predict that Irina wins first place in week one. We were tempted to go with Rodney Epperson, or Gordana--we have good vibes about both of them--but we're going with the girl whose models Tim says "look as if they've been in for a dozen fittings, and they haven't." Plus, we know how Lindsey likes the ladies.

After the real winner is named and we're made to look like idiots, we can at least take some consolation in the after dinner mint that is Models of the Runway, in which a variety of size zero waifs reveal that the walking clothes hangers on the show can be just as petty and shallow as the designers.

We kid. A bit. We really are looking forward to the behind-the-scenes look, as long as it keeps most of the focus on the models' relationships with the designers, and what takes place during the show--not just the models sitting around not eating in their apartment. At least this time it sounds like they have an apartment for the models, so we won't have any more foolishness with models disappearing on their designers due to flightiness or better gigs.

Only fifteen models here, just like fifteen designers in the above still shot. That means this is a shot from episode two. If we cared enough, we could figure out which girl goes home first. But we don't.

And what about a prediction for the All-Star Challenge, we hear you ask? Uli. For no other reason than she's one of our all-time favorites, and we want her to win.

See you next week, when we bring back the Big Board of Shame™ and start picking favorites!

Previous related posts:

Project Runway Season Six Preseason Rankings
Leanne Marshall's show and Jay McCarroll's movie party
The Project Runway Season Six Finale - Before
The Project Runway Season Six Finale - During
The Project Runway Season Six Finale - After

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Via Blogging Project Runway comes this rather odd crossover announcement: Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn in the pages of a Marvel Comic! The New York Times has the scoop, true-believers:

On Aug. 26, Marvel will release the first issue of “Models Inc.,” a sartorially minded mini-series that unites some of its fashion-friendly supporting characters and pushes them into new starring roles.

The runway divas include Millicent Collins (a k a Millie the Model), Patsy Walker, also known as the superheroine Hellcat, and Mary Jane, the model-turned actress who is the sometimes wife of Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man....

But what would the angels be without someone to guide them? Enter Tim Gunn of “Project Runway.” In the debut issue’s second story, Mr. Gunn becomes an action figure — jumping into Iron Man’s suit of armor to save a fashion exhibition from evildoers.

Er, okay. I have to tell you, I thought I was one of the few people who both read comics and watched Project Runway. Marvel is apparently going to put this hypothesis to the test, figuring there are more closet comic book geek/fashionistas out there. In the words of the immortal Tim, "I'm dubious." But more power to them!

Excelsior!

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You're reading part three of my coverage of the Project Runway Season Six Finale. To read from the beginning, click here.

After the runway shows were over and Tim and Heidi had said their farewells, there was a mad rush for the runway.

I waited out some of the initial crush, and was able to get closer to some former Project Runway designers and even say hello to a few of them.

Like Chris March, one of my dad's favorites.

And Blayne Walsh, who drove everyone nuts on the show by adding "-licious" to every other word, but who earned our respect here at Gratz Industries for the way he went out on his own terms with his head held high.

And Kenley Collins, who was eager to show off her new engagement ring.

And one of our all-time favorites here at Gratz Industries, gentleman Jerrell Scott, who graciously had his picture made with me.

This year there was no designer scheduled immediately after the Project Runway show, but after a while they still shooed us all out--otherwise we might have stayed all day. I had a date with the Blogging Project Runway crew anyway--they had generously offered to treat a few of their fellow bloggers--and any former contestants who wanted to show up--to brunch at the Roosevelt Hotel.

To my great surprise, the smattering of bloggers was easily outnumbered by former Project Runway designers! Joe Faris, Kenley Collins, Blayne Walsh, Malan Breton, Jerell Scott, Stella Zotis, and Jennifer Diederich were all there--and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few more. More than one designer called it an unofficial "Project Runway Reunion," and it certainly felt that way, particularly for contestants from the last couple of seasons.

I had the distinct pleasure of sitting at the same four-top table as Blayne Walsh and Malan Breton, both of whom I was meeting for the first time. It should surprise no one that both of these former Project Runway stars were terrific, down-to-earth people. They answered my questions about the show and their respective careers with grace and patience, and in the space of a half an hour I came to understand how these were real people, not reality show contestants. That's so difficult to remember when seeing someone on television. They are, after all, on TV--they are "stars," if only for their fifteen minutes of fame--but chatting with Blayne and Malan over pancakes and bacon made it clear to me that those fifteen minutes of fame are highly artificial, carefully orchestrated, and often grossly unfair distillations of their true characters.

They call it "reality telelvision," but in fact the lives these designers lead during the filming is anything but realistic. It is, in fact, surrealistic. They are awakened in the wee hours of the morning and dragged off to a challenge, which they often work on until midnight or one in the morning, and along the way they cannot leave or have any unscripted interaction with the outside world. The next day, they may be asked to wear the same clothes as the day before (for the purposes of filming), and then change clothes in the middle of the day to pretend they are starting anew. Just two hours before they are to send a garment down the runway, when they are madly trying to finish their work on time, they may be plucked out of the workroom for interviews behind the scenes, and the snippets we see come from hours upon hours of endless questions and answers in front of the camera. They are never awake when cameras are not on them, never alone for the weeks they shoot the show, and they are tired and ragged and mentally drained. That they can get themselves up in the mornings--let alone face the challenges the producers throw at them with any measure of true creativity and skill--is a wonder in and of itself.

If I learned anything from this experience, it is that I must see these people not as TV personalities, but as real people--people who may be very different in real life than the way they are presented through heavily edited television. I still think that their true characters can be bourne out over time on the show, but particularly in a case like Malan Breton, who was vilified before and during his brief appearance on the show but who, in reality, is a perfect gentleman, a gifted designer, and a beautiful human being, I as a blogger and commentator need to remember that all is not as it appears through the magical window of the television.

Very special thanks to the great folks at Blogging Project Runway for this opportunity, and to all the former Project Runway designers who helped make my two days at Fashion Week so incredibly memorable. Cheers, and much continued success to you all!

Previous related posts:

Leanne Marshall's show and Jay McCarroll's movie party
The Project Runway Season Six Finale - Before
The Project Runway Season Six Finale - During

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If you're just tuning in, this is part two of my report on the Project Runway Season Six Finale. You can read part one here. And as a WARNING: SPOLIER IMAGES FOLLOW. If you don't want to see images from the three final runway collections, or if you don't want to know who the finale guest judge is, skip ahead to part three of my coverage - After the Show.

Heidi stepped from behind the scrim looking fantastic (of course) in the full spotlight. She welcomed us to the finale, apologizing that the show was "in a little bit of a limbo." True dat, Frau Seal. To say that Season Six is in limbo is putting it mildly--an unscientific poll of many Project Runway fans I talked to revealed serious doubts that this season will ever make it to television. Which is a crying shame not for the fans but for the three designers whose anonymous work we were about to see--a sentiment expressed by Heidi before the show, and by Tim Gunn again afterward.

But the Bryant Park show would go on, regardless, and it was time to introduce the judges. Heidi's favorite fashion designer, Micheal Kors...

THE Nina Garcia (who is unbelievably slender and stylish in person)...

And finally, the guest judge for this season's finale...Suzy Menkes. Whose name was met, at least in my local area, with a resounding, "Who?" Wikipedia says that she has been the head fashion reporter and an editor for the International herald Tribune since 1988, and has written several books, particularly about British Royal style. Her work in fashion has also earned her the Legion d'Honneur in France and a British OBE.

Ms. Menkes certainly is an influential and impressive figure in the fashion profession, and I'm sure she'll be a terrific judge. But I know I speak for many of the people around me when I say I expected a household celebrity name (ala Victoria Beckham) to be sitting in that chair. Each year, with the exception of Season Three's Fern Mallis (who is and was terrific), the finale guest judge has been a fashionable celebrity, and each year that star has been bigger and brighter than the last: Parker Posey, then Debra Messing, then Victoria Beckham, and then, until she backed out at the last moment last year, Jennifer Lopez. (Her last-minute replacement was Tim Gunn himself.) Rumors of other huge stars taking that spot were rampant this year, so to have Ms. Menkes announced as the guest judge was a bit of a head-scratcher. Perhaps indicative of the show's limbo status? Let the debate begin.

In the meantime, let the show begin! Here's the very first look from the very first designer to show. I won't show every look here, as I couldn't possibly snap all of them, and because the professionals at the end of the runway were already doing a far better job. To see all three of the lines in their entireties, head over to Blogging Project Runway, where they have links to professional images.

The judges watched each of the looks, sometimes making notes and sometimes chatting with each other and those sitting around them.

This was the final look--and model--in the first runway show. A possible Project Runway model? For the first few seasons, the designers models from the regular season were often featured as the last models down the runway, although that has changed recently. This model was certainly gorgeous, and to my untrained eye really owned the runway. I can only imagine that if she's a model on the show she's one of the models people fight over.

The first runway show marches out together for a last look and a round of applause.

And the first runway show makes the turn at the end of the runway.

Here's a look from the second collection.

And here's Project Runway vet and Blogging Project Runway model correspondent Amanda Fields, working the runway for the second designer. I heard a number of people favorably compare this line to the work of previous contestants Rami Kashou and Santino Rice.

It certainly got the judges talking.

The second designer's looks parade down the runway.

And make the turn.

The third designer's work certainly stood out, featuring archer-style hats that brought to mind Jillian Lewis's flirtation with ancient military fashion. Much of this line was done in black, so the detail was hard to see from a distance without a good zoom lens. I look forward to seeing it close up on television.

Like the first runway show, this designer incorporated a lot of long-sleeved knit tops.

Including this hoodie. In some ways, this line is reminiscent to me of some of Jay McCarroll's finale runway show. Am I alone in that, or do others see it?

A shorter-sleeved knit top.

This collection caused much discussion among the judges too--and more than a few smiles. But were they laughing with the designer, or at him/her? Time will tell.

And the third and final designer watches the line go down the runway for the last time. It truly is a shame that these talented, creative people had to put so much effort into their lines and couldn't publicly enjoy the support of their friends, family, and fans. I can only imagine they were in the back, watching on monitors, trying to remember to breathe. I can tell them right now, I loved the show, and I was impressed with all three lines. I have my favorite overall line, and my favorite looks, but I think all three proved themselves to be very talented and professional.

And then Tim Gunn came out! Yay! Looking smart as usual, Tim invited Heidi up with him, and expressed many of the same sentiments that I just expressed--that it was a real shame that these talented designers had to show their work in anonymity. He expressed his hope that the show would go on, and that the world would finally get to meet the people behind these fabulous lines.

It was all hugs and kisses after that, and Tim and the judges were whisked away to join the unnamed designers for the final judging at Parson's! The show ended, the lights came up, and everyone made a mad dash to the runway floor to try to hobknob with the stars...

Read part two of my finale coverage: The Project Runway Season Six Finale - After.

Previous posts:

Leanne Marshall's show and Jay McCarroll's movie party
The Project Runway Season Six Finale - Before

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What's this? Alan Gratz and Project Runway Season One winner Jay McCarroll, long-lost brothers? Not exactly, though we have similar tastes in beards and sideburns. No, that's just me, hobnobbing with a star of Project Runway before I go see the Project Runway Season Six Finale at Bryant Park tomorrow.

That's right. Read it and weep, kids. I scored a ticket to the PR6 finale!

Now, whether or not what I see taped will ever be shown on television is another matter. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the off-the-camera drama, it's been more electric than a Wendy Pepper vs. Santino deathmatch.

The short version: the Weinstein Company, which produces Project Runway, wants to take the show to the Lifetime network. NBC, which owns Bravo, thinks the contract they have with the Weinsteins says they can't do that. The case has gone to court, and the matter still isn't settled.

In the meantime, a sixth season of the show has been filmed. An unknown group of designers has already been selected, and their numbers have been pared down through elimination challenges we've yet to see. Ordinarily, by this time we would have seen those episodes on television, and we would know which of the 16 or so designers were headed for the finale.

But not this year.

This year, to maintain the anonymity of the designers before the show airs, the finalists (and the red herrings, if there are any) will not come out and introduce their finale collections the way finalists have in the past. Instead their lines will be run anonymously. Very odd indeed! But fun for us here at Gratz Industries, where we like to prognosticate. My field work tomorrow will no doubt lead to endless speculation and intrigue.

In the meantime, I had an entire afternoon and evening in New York!

On my walk from the bus station at the Port Authority, I went through Bryant Park:

Fashion Week began a few days ago, so the tents were already up and in use.

From the way I approached Bryant Park, I ended up seeing the back side of the tents before I saw the front. The model entrance was easy to spot, as it had the highest concentration of thin, leggy girls in Manhattan.

When I finally made my way around to the front, I was only able to peek inside from behind the stantions.

A lot of other people were hovering around too, trying to get a peek at some of the celebrities coming and going. Christian Siriano showed his collection in the tents a little later, and Nina Garcia and Tori Spelling were in attendance. Tim Gunn, however, was not. There was some speculation about this, but seeing as those unknown season six contests were very probably right at that moment hard at work on some last minute challenge a few blocks away at Parson's, the assumption was Tim was on the job. He's also jetting out soon after the judging is finished, to get ready to host the red carpet at the Oscars!

After a walk around Midtown and a slice of fabulous New York pizza, I met up with the crew from Blogging Project Runway, who had invitations to a Leanne Marshall fashion show!

There she is, so close I could reach out and touch her! Which I did. By shaking her hand and telling her I was a fan. I know that among the dozens of other people there that night who told her the same thing, that MY effusive praise was the most meaningful to her. I could see it in her eyes.

Leanne puts her models on pedestals. Literaly. Instead of the traditional catwalk, her models stood on platforms along one long wall and posed for the duration of the event. And those poor girls were standing there a LONG time. I suppose it's not bad work if you can get it though--standing around and looking pretty.

Project Runway vet and Blogging Project Runway model correspondent Amanda Fields looked elegant in a beautifully draped gown.

While Leanne's former model Karalynn was a showstopper in a strapless dress.

My favorite of the night was this gray overcoat/dress. It certainly would have felt nice outside in the thirty-five degree winds, but I suspect this poor girl was already sweating it out under those lights in a 300 square foot room filled with fifty guests.

In retrospect, I wish I hadn't used the flash, but live and learn.

I also thought the back of this dress was pretty dynamic. The whole collection was a combination of elegance and whimsy, which I think pretty well sums up a lot of the work we saw Leanne do on the show.

I liked the shoes she picked too. Open-toed, high-heeled lace-ups.

Once the show started, the Project Runway reunion began.

The first former contestant to arrive was Suede, still sporting his blue streak.

Then Emmett McCarthy, who has his own successful boutique in Manhattan.

Then Jack Mackenroth and Kit Pistol arrived! Kit was in from LA, and stopping over on the way to London.

Then Steven Rosengard...

And Jerrell Scott and Stella Zotis, who were interviewed for a fashion program.

And then it was time to shamelessly ask for people to pose with me for pictures! Jack and Kit didn't require much arm-twisting, it turns out. Jack actually recognized me, and remembered the name of my blog! Gasp and clutch the pearls, ya'll. Somebody famous knows I exist. Seriously, Jack and Kit are profoundly kind and awesome people--and talented to boot!

And of course I had to get a picture with Leanne. She was the star of the show! After milling about a bit more we said our thank yous and goodbyes, and we hit the streets in search of a rumored Christian Siriano after-show party. And who should we meet on the sidewalk?

Korto! I whipped out the camera, and she instantly vogued. To say that Korto is photogenic is quite the understatement. Since we were already on our way out we didn't linger, but it was great to see her doing so well.

The Christian Siriano party didn't materialize (it turns out we went to the wrong W Hotel) so we dropped in on Jay McCarroll's party across town. He and the filmmakers behind Eleven Minutes, a documentary about Jay and the work he did to show a collection at Bryant Park, threw the shindig to celebrate its New York premiere tomorrow.

Jay is always ready for his close-up.

And after that, we all went back to our hotels to crash. Special thanks to the Blogging Project Runway crew (above) for getting me in to all the parties. What a night! And I haven't even been to the finale tomorrow! No one is quite sure what to expect, to be frank, which is both a little exciting and a little worrisome. We'll see. I'm taking my camera, and I'll turn in a full report tomorrow.

See you on the runway!

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Anyone else feeling like we're lost in Oz this season? We sure are. Or, rather, that we're returning home from Oz, and that this whole season has been a dream.

"And what have you learned, Dorothy?"

Well, last week we learned that Jerell isn't going to be with us in the finale. His brown wedding dress had flying monkey wings--over his model's breasts. It was an unfortunate dress, and now Jerell has clicked his heels together and gone home. We'll miss you in the finale, Jerell!


We also learned that Korto, when left to her own devices, gets rusty like the Tin Man. Her wedding dress was so overworked it could have been a Japanese salaryman. Korto, what happened? That wedding dress was almost worthy of going home, which would really have been an upset. Korto seems to have learned her lesson though, as neither her wedding dress nor her bridesmaid's dress appear to be in her final collection.


We learned that Leanimal the cowardly lion might have courage after all. The self-styled "silent fashion assassin" roared loudly with an architectural wedding dress that was one part exclamation and one part restraint. And perhaps Leanne learned that it can be very awkward when the model you dumped on her ass without any warning is brought back to wear your second look down the runway in the biggest single elimination challenge of the season. (Ouch.)


We learned that Kenley may in fact have a heart under that tough exterior. Or should we use a Wicked Witch of the West metaphor here? If we did, we'd have to make it Elphaba from Wicked: The Musical, as there was redemption for this season's villain. Kenley showed up ready to bury the hatchet--as much as she could--and by the end of the episode had even Korto crying and wishing that none of them had to go home, "Not even Kenley." We also learned that Kenley can bring it, stunning judges and fellow contestants alike with her Alice in Wonderland-inspired, whimsical wedding dress. (Alexander McQueen be damned.)

Oh, and we also learned that Kenley apparently has no friends or family for Tim to visit. We know we're not the only ones to notice that omission. Strange and sad.


But of course the most important lesson of all is that there's no place like Bryant Park. It is never so serious, never so meaningful, never so surreal as it is now for these three designers. This is the Emerald City without the glasses on, the peek behind the curtain, the technicolor fantasy world that makes the real one pale by comparison. This is where reality show silliness gives way to real world fashion and style. Are you ready, Dorothy?

We sure are.

First, since we had an elimination last week, let's pay one last visit to the Big Board of Shame:

Korto: 19 points (Two 1sts, two 2nds, three 3rds, one "top four," one "no decision," one 3rd worst, one second worst, two safes)
Leanne: 18 points (Two 1sts, two 2nds, one "top two," one "top four," one 3rd/3rd worst, one 3rd worst, one 2nd worst, four safes)
Kenley: 17 points (One 1st, three 2nds, one 3rd, one "top two," one "no decision," one 3rd worst, one 2nd worst, four safes)

----------------aufed-------------------
Jerell: 16 points (Three 1sts, two 2nds, one 3rd, two 3rd worsts, four safes, one auf)
Terri: 8 points (One 2nd, two 3rds, five safes, one auf)
Joe: 6 points (One 1st, one 3rd, one "top four," one 2nd worst, five safes, one auf)
Kelli: 3 points (One 1st, three safes, one auf)
Suede: -2 points (One 1st, two 2nd worsts, one 3rd worst, six safes, one auf)
Keith: -2 points (One 1st, one 2nd worst, one 3rd worst, three safes, one auf)
Emily: -2 points (Two safes, one auf)
Wes: -3 points (One safe, one auf)
Stella: -4 points (One 3rd, two 2nd worsts, four safes, one auf)
Daniel: -4 points (One 2nd, one 2nd worst, one 3rd worst, two safes, one auf)
Jerry: -4 points (One auf)
Jennifer: -5 points (One 2nd worst, two safes, one auf)
Blayne: -6 points (One 2nd worst, two 3rd worsts, five safes, one auf)

Scoring: Win (4 pts), 2nd place (3 pts), 3rd place (2 pts), Safe (1 pt), 3rd worst (-2 pts), 2nd worst (-3 pts), Aufed (-4 pts)

Notes of Interest:

- Jerell, not surprisingly, becomes the strongest designer yet eliminated. His margin of victory over the other aufed designers is considerable, with twice the points of his nearest competition.

- Korto slips back to the pack with her bridal blunder, but still retains a narrow lead.

- The three remaining designers are really bunched up. In political parlance, one might say it's a statistical dead heat, assuming a plus or minus one point margin of error.

Which seems as good a segue into predictions for this week as anything...

SPOILER ALERT: We have no prior knowledge of who's in and who's out each week. We do, however, watch the preview videos Bravo provides, from which we try to glean clues of what's to come. Then we make guesses. If you don't like such things, close your eyes, click your heels together three times, and say "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home..."


Last week there was no special guest judge--perhaps it wasn't in the budget. Or perhaps they blew the budget on this week's special guest judge: Jennifer Lopez! Oh man, is this going to be the biggest star they've ever had on Project Runway! She's going to be so kickin', so gorgeous, so--

Wait, what? She had to cancel?

That's what we hear, at least. JLo was supposed to be the big finale judge for Season Five, but had to back out at the last minute due to a "foot injury." An injury that was apparently too debilitating to allow her to sit in a director's chair and judge the finalists, but not so debilitating that it prevented her from competing in a charity triathlon a few days later. (We kid you not.) Hmm. Perhaps she just watched this season with the rest of us, and decided not to show until PR could "Get Right." Maybe next season, huh JLo?

What oh what were the producers to do? With JLo a no-show and Debra Messing and Parker Posey busy eating ice cream in their pajamas at home, Project Runway needed a miracle...


When in swept the Make-It-Work Wizard of Oz Tim Gunn in his hot air balloon!

Yes, the big shocker of this year's finale is Tim Gunn sitting in that fourth chair, holding forth on whether the designers were able to mitigate their collections. Some people don't like this--they argue that Tim is so wonderfully helpful and supportive because he's not a judge, and that no one with an intimate knowledge of what really happens in that workroom should ever be able to sit in judgment of the designers. We get that, but we cannot deny the big grin we get when we see Tim sitting in that chair giving opinions in the preview video. Way to go Tim! If this is the last season for Project Runway on Bravo, it seems a fitting coda that Tim should be there with Heidi and Michael and Nina at the end. Next year we can start all over, and Tim can go back to being the workroom guru that he is. For now though, we'll be watching for the Great and Terrible Oz to crank up the flames and the big scary voice.

Beyond the surprise guest judge, we don't predict there will be much nonsense this episode. That was last episode, with the wedding dresses and the last minute bridesmaid's dresses. (Which, given that they pulled the same stunt on PR Oz, we should have seen coming.) This time we think the Magical Elves will be content to take us through the late-night trip to the empty Bryant Park tent, the selection of the models, the last minute alterations (including, for Korto, the creation of one entirely new dress from the remains of her wedding dress disaster!), and the build-up to the show and the runway collections.

Runway collections that have been on the internet for anyone to see for about six weeks now. We really wish these weren't released, but we suppose there's no way around it. When something shows at Bryant Park, it's public, and if Bravo didn't post the pics some other fashion blog would. So the runway collections are online over at Blogging Project Runway, should you want to judge for yourself.

We've looked the runway collections over, and we have our favorite looks and our "what was she thinking?" moments. Overall though, much as predicted by the Big Board of Shame, we don't see any clear-cut winner distancing herself from the pack. Disappointingly, it's not because all three are so incredibly strong, but instead because we think all three are hit and miss.


If we have to pick a least favorite, we think it might be Korto's. Some of her dresses bear the mark of being as overworked as her wedding dress, which we know isn't going to play well with the judges. There are also a lot of colors and looks, and we wonder if she won't be taken to task for having a collection that isn't as cohesive as it could be.


As for Kenley, we like some of her looks, but not others. Some of them are stunning. Some are so-so. And if there is one thing we can actually glean from the two otherwise pretty meaningless preview videos, it's that Kenley is again criticized on the runway for sending out looks too reminiscent of dresses from professional designers' fashion shows. She's been taken to task for this before, as late as last episode. She got a pass for that then, but we think this time it work more against her. Oh, and it can't help that she's been antagonistic all season long not only with the three regular judges, but also with this week's surprise guest judge...


And then there's Leanne, who seems to have the opposite problem of Korto. While Korto's collection seemed all over the place, Leanne's is almost too matchy-matchy. It's all taupes and teals and wavy pleats--her "beach" inspiration almost directly translated. Will that be points against, or points in her favor?

All things considered, we think the silent fashion assassin takes this one. What it will boil down to, we think, is that Leanne is the only one to give us something new and innovative, the only one to show the judges something they've never seen before, something they'll want to see more of. We like Leanne for the win, Kenley for second place, and Korto for third.


And there you have it. What a long, strange trip it's been down the yellow brick road. Thanks so much for reading our humble little blog all season long. We've enjoyed having you visit! We'll see you next season on Lifetime. Or Bravo. Or NBC. Or wherever the heck the Project Runway tornado takes us... Read the rest of this post

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The end is nigh. Four designers remain, and Heidi has repeatedly told us that only three will officially show at Bryant Park. (Heidi wouldn't lie to us, would she? Nah.)

So last week it was Suede's turn to go, as we predicted. In fact, we predicted everything pretty perfectly from the winner down to the loser--except that if you had shown us the entire episode in advance, up until the moment before Heidi said, "Kenley.....you're in," we would have recanted. We would have said we were wrong, and told you, categorically, that Kenley was out. So while our pre-show projections were right, we didn't think the result was. In fact, we thought it was pretty abominable. How in the name of Yves St. Laurent did Kenley survive?

It was a conspiracy.

To explain: most Project Runway fans are aware of that little tag line at the end of the show that says the producers have a say in the final outcome of each episode. For those who miss it as it flies by, here it is from last week's credits:

"The judges considered both their scores and input from the Producers and Bravo in reaching their elimination decisions." (Italics ours, of course.)

That tag line, implying that the decision each week may not always be based entirely on the outfits themselves, has given Project Runway skeptics plenty of fodder over the years. Every week is born some new conspiracy theory--this designer was kept because he's better TV; that designer was aufed because she's boring; it's about the fierce, not the fashion. We watch the show and we read all the conspiracy theories, but while we sometimes disagree vehemently with the judges, we've never really bought into the idea that the producers are standing right off stage, pulling the judges' strings.

Until now.

We'll come right out and say it: Kenley was kept last week because she's better TV than Suede. There's no question. Was Suede's outfit a yawner? Yes. Did he always play it too safe? Yes. Did we think he was in too far over his head? Yes. But was his outfit really worse than Kenley's? No.

And we're not the only ones to think so. As of "press time," 85% of respondents in Bravo's "Did Suede deserve to go home?" poll said no. That's more than 13,600 voters who thought Kenley should have gone home. Eighty-nine percent of voters thought Kenley should have been aufed over Suede in a similar Blogging Project Runway poll. To be sure, a lot of people probably voted against Kenley because she's more annoying than a telemarketer at dinnertime, but really--that outfit was a loser.

But Kenley is good TV--just look at how much we and everybody else are talking about her. Would we be wasting so many pixels on Suede? Probably not. And the previews for next week bear out their decision--Kenley is mixing it up on the runway all over again. Arguments! Chaos! Catwalk catfights!

But we're getting ahead of ourselves again. Before we move on though, we do want to stop and say a proper goodbye to Suede.


Suede, we liked you. Yes, your third person monologues were tedious and pretentious and way old by the end--but the irony was, we don't think that's who you really are. We think you decided to play a character on the show--which is not always a bad thing if one wants to stick around (see conspiracy theory, above)--but there were plenty of moments the real, humble, earnest young man shined through. We hear too that you moved the crowd with your sincerity when you introduced your line as a Bryant Park decoy--even if your line wasn't very moving. And just to prove that we were right about you all along, you stepped well out of character when you put on Korto's punk outfit, and you worked it. You worked it like Austin Scarlett in a Jay McCarroll postal uniform. You brought smiles to our faces and tears to our eyes, and we'll always remember you for that. Bonne chance, Suede.

Now seriously, about that third person thing...

All right. Let's go once more to the Big Board of Shame:

Korto: 22 points (Two 1sts, two 2nds, three 3rds, one "top four," one 3rd worst, two safes)
Jerell: 16 points (Two 1sts, two 2nds, one 3rd, two 3rd worsts, four safes)
Kenley: 14 points (One 1st, three 2nds, one 3rd, one 3rd worst, one 2nd worst, four safes)
Leanne: 12 points (Two 1sts, one 2nd, one "top four," one 3rd/3rd worst, one 3rd worst, one 2nd worst, four safes)
----------------aufed-------------------
Terri: 8 points (One 2nd, two 3rds, five safes, one auf)
Joe: 6 points (One 1st, one 3rd, one "top four," one 2nd worst, five safes, one auf)
Kelli: 3 points (One 1st, three safes, one auf)
Suede: -2 points (One 1st, two 2nd worsts, one 3rd worst, six safes, one auf)
Keith: -2 points (One 1st, one 2nd worst, one 3rd worst, three safes, one auf)
Emily: -2 points (Two safes, one auf)
Wes: -3 points (One safe, one auf)
Stella: -4 points (One 3rd, two 2nd worsts, four safes, one auf)
Daniel: -4 points (One 2nd, one 2nd worst, one 3rd worst, two safes, one auf)
Jerry: -4 points (One auf)
Jennifer: -5 points (One 2nd worst, two safes, one auf)
Blayne: -6 points (One 2nd worst, two 3rd worsts, five safes, one auf)

Scoring: Win (4 pts), 2nd place (3 pts), 3rd place (2 pts), Safe (1 pt), 3rd worst (-2 pts), 2nd worst (-3 pts), Aufed (-4 pts)

Notes of interest:

- Leanne poses a problem to our neat and orderly list this week, as she's both third best and third worst, falling right in the middle of the five. We opted to give her points for both--which means she breaks even this week, no harm no foul. A push for Leanne.

- Korto continues to impress, charging hard into the final rounds as the designer to beat.

- Jerell makes the biggest move of the week, jumping up into second place.

- Suede takes a seat with negative points--behind both Terri and Joe, who went before him--where he joins the likes of Keith and Emily.

Let's go to the guesses:

SPOILER ALERT: We have no prior knowledge of who's in and who's out each week. We do, however, watch the preview videos Bravo provides, from which we try to glean clues of what's to come. Then we make guesses. If you don't like such things, please close your browser and head outside for a nature walk.


This week's episode is entitled "Nature Calls." Does this mean the contestants have to go to the bathroom? Probably not--but the designers do take a field trip. We can't see much of their surroundings, but they appear to get outside Manhattan. They cross a bridge and travel someplace more industrial/strip mally than skyscrapery, but that's all we can suss out. As one of the commenters on Blogging Project Runway asks, if they wanted nature, couldn't they have just walked to Central Park?

But this season has been one episode after another of homages to previous Project Runway challenges, and we think this one is going to mirror last season's final four challenge in some way. In that episode, the designers took a memorable trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and produced some of the best runway pieces of the season. This week, we think the show will take the final four designers somewhere equally inspiring, but some place with a nature theme, as the title suggests. Some place like...the Brooklyn Botanic Garden? (A total shot in the dark. If it turns out we guessed that right, we're going out and buying a lottery ticket before our crazy-ass luck runs out.) Maybe they go the other direction, into New Jersey. It is, after all, the Garden State.

Wherever they go, the designers don't seem particularly inspired by anything green--and we mean the color, not the code word for eco-friendly. We see purples and blues and burgundies in the preview. Perhaps they use flowers as inspiration?

But the focus this episode won't be the fashion, dear friends, it'll be the drama. The American viewing public are not the only ones ready to punch Kenley in the face--the designers don't like her either. Leanne tries to make nice, but Kenley won't talk to her in the apartment --prompting Korto to taunt her for being bitchy. On the van ride to Secret Location X, Kenley has to sit up front next to the teacher (Tim) because no one else wants to sit with her. (Loser!) And then, in a delicious moment the rest of the designers clearly savor, Kenley accidentally leaves one of her shopping bags back at Mood. The other designers, surprise surprise, aren't particularly sympathetic.


Jerell, meanwhile, has begun talking to inanimate objects like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. All alone in his apartment as the only remaining male designer, he resorts to drawing faces on fruit and pretending they are aufed designers. (For the record, Joe Faris is the grapefruit and Suede appears to be a Golden Delicious apple.)

Another sign that we are nearing the apocalypse: Heidi is wearing pants when she greets the designers.

Amidst all this produce and panted insanity comes the final drama of the runway show. We don't get to see a lot--including the identity of our guest judge!--but there is much angst. Kors says, "It looks like a beauty pageant." Korto cries. Nina says, "It looks like a reptile." Jerell cries. Heidi says, "They don't look very elegant." Kenley spits hot venom at Heidi. Kors grimaces. Jerell puts the smackdown on Kenley: "I think we're going to get to you in just a second." Kenley cries. "I feel like I've been fighting my way through life," she blubbers. Nina rolls her eyes.

Still doubt that the producers pulled strings to keep Miss Contentious on the show?

And that's all we get. Much drama, but not much fashion. We hope the whole episode isn't like that. Regardless, we realize we have to pick a winner here. More importantly, we have to pick one loser.


Since she is the one person of the four in the preview videos who is not crying, we'll take Leanne for the win. It's about all the evidence we have. But who will join her in the final three?


Korto for sure. Not only has she sat atop the Big Board of Shame for three weeks straight, but rumor also has it that Tim Gunn was seen driving about Little Rock in a brand new Saturn. That can only mean a Southern-fried home visit, and a lock for Korto as a finalist.

Which means we're down to Jerell and Kenley, and, taking Heidi at her Teutonic word, we figure one of them really will have to go. We suspect it'll come down to those two in the end--and we have a sneaking suspicion it's Kenley who sticks around.

But wait, we like Jerell! He is teh funny! He's also a pretty darn good designer, and a gentleman to boot. (Please note: he did not sell out Suede last week, even though the little devil on his shoulder was practically screaming at him to do it.)

Our mantra for predictions this season was to always think with our heads, not our hearts. Our hearts got us into hot water last season, but our heads have proven to be much cooler this time around. Five or six episodes into this year and we had more correct predictions than all of last year, which meant the mantra was working. But then, as always happens, we grew to have favorites. And not-so-favorites. And whatever the antithesis of a favorite is.

In short, we kinda like Jerell, and kinda don't like Kenley. So our hearts say Jerell. But our heads, well, they think about how Kenley somehow beat out Suede last week when she should have lost. And they also think about that picture on that model Karalyn's blog--


You remember Karalyn--the lovely young lady Leanne so unceremoniously dumped last episode? She walked for Joe, and had time the day before the show to monkey around with him in the tent--and with Jerell. But if Jerell were a finalist, would he have time for that? Wouldn't he be back at Parson's, completing that wedding dress challenge Heidi and Tim throw at the designers at the eleventh hour? (Wait, now we really are getting ahead of ourselves!)

And wouldn't he be the third designer huddled together in pictures like this from behind the scenes at Bryant Park?


All this is circumstantial, as one of the well-dressed lawyers on Boston Legal would no doubt tell us. But it all begins to add up, and our head tells us that Kenley is in and Jerell is out. We'll be rooting for Jerell--there's no doubt about that. We want to be wrong. But we think we're right.

If you're playing Fafarazzi this week, you're going to get points out of lots of people for crying. The trick this time around seems to be trying to guess who gets aufed so you avoid the negative points, which means we're going with a team of Korto, Leanne, and, Gaultier help us, Kenley.

Good luck to all the designers this week, and to their fans. We'll see you on the last runway before the Bryant Park episode!

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Today I put down the knitting needles for a while and just drew yarn instead. It was fun! I haven't done one of these for a while.

This is 5 x 7 done with Polychromos on illustration board. My old standby.

I took inspiration from some of the new yarns I've been knitting with. Things that are varied in width as well as color. I look forward to stretching my "yarn coloring skills" with some wilder ones in the future!

I'll put this in my new etsy shop, soon soon soon, a few days maybe, when I officially launch it. It will be full of all my yarn stuff, both art and knitting. (I also have an "old" etsy shop which is currently empty, which I plan to fill with other kinds of art, but not yarn. Keeping the two "themes" separate seemed like a good idea at the time. We'll see...)

~~~~~
You know you need to get out more when you get a thrill from ripping off a whole NEW big piece of aluminum foil from the roll, rather than using an old sad wrinkled rinsed-and-recycled-and-carefully-folded piece from the drawer. Yes, I did this today. Sad.

My other new thrill (or indulgence is maybe a better description) is eating Pringles in bed while reading at night. I find that inhaling a good stack of them (the plain variety) helps me sleep better and I have nicer dreams. But it has to be Pringles, no other kind of chips. Pringles are kind of creepy, I agree, with their perfectly stacked little selves in that round can, but I love them.

Too much info.

Back to knitting and my other newest addictions, Project Runway and Top Design. India Hicks and that drippy voice, and all the other judges...too much fun.

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They're baaaaack. Or at least they were. All this season's aufed designers, plus a healthy dose of previous seasons' designers too. We promised last week that we would flip some cars over in the streets and light them on fire if Uncle Nick wasn't among them, and he wasn't. (Apparently only those former PR designers they didn't have to fly in got the call.) As the only two cars within a ten minute walk of us are our own, we reneged on our promise to set things alight in civil disobedience--but we still would have liked to see Nick Verreos again. (And some other folks, for that matter. But we digress.)

We were duped again last week. Two of the best designers--including the winner--weren't shown on the runway, so we blithely bought the previews and picked among the six people we saw. Little did we know that Project Runway was going to cheat us out of one of our favorite parts of each show--hearing the comments about the best three garments, and rooting for our personal favorites. What gives? We wanted to hear what they had to say. All we got instead was a dismissive "Congratulations...Jerell. The former Project Runway designers thought your design was the best, and so do we."

Uh-huh. Right. We're sure it was that simple. (And what kind of contest is it where Robert Plotkin has a say in the winner?)

Meanwhile, we were also disappointed that the returning season five designers weren't given any motivation whatsoever to help their still-kicking contestants. Some kind souls (like Jennifer and Stella) gave their all because that's what they do. Some overbearing designers (like Jerry and Daniel, if you read Tim's Take) gave their all because they wanted to take over. But mostly you got designers like Wes, who behind the scenes tells us, "Yeah, Kenley's going down hard for this mess," but who doesn't really care to tell her to her face. And why should he? What possible reason--besides garnering screen time like Terri and Keith--does he have for caring?

And thus we get to the major problem with last week's stunt: no motivation. No, it wouldn't be fair if a long-aufed designer wormed his or her way back in at the last minute, and yes, it would have caused even more chaos at Bryant Park, where seven designers would have had to show, not the already-cumbersome six. But without the motivation to earn a place back on the show, the aufed designers were, for the most part, nothing but background props and sewing assistants. Yawn. Not even Jay and Christian could save this snooze fest. In an otherwise solid season, this episode has to rank among the lowest in customer satisfaction.


So, congratulations to Jerell, we guess, for winning what was part popularity contest, part "I have more work done on my dress by 8 p.m. than anyone else." Not totally fair, we know, but we like Jerell, and we would have liked to see him win one outright on the runway--not like this. And this win might possibly have been by default, as Leanne's Scorpio dress was possibly the only other avant garde design in the house last week.


Meanwhile, it was time to say goodbye to Blayne, who finally bottomed out, and Terri, who overstayed her welcome. As for Blayne, all we can say is we grew to like him after he got over his "licious" thing. Maybe it was the tanning wearing off that did it. We're tempted to go back and get screencaps from each episode to see him going progressively from orange to white, but it's already well past midnight, and we have miles to go with this blog post before we sleep. We'll leave that to some other industrious blogger. Likable as he was though, his designs were uniformly atrocious. Good luck Blayne--maybe Mary Kate Olsen will give you a call now.


As for Terri--wow, what happened here? A woman who started as a confident, successful designer on the show quickly morphed into an arrogant, bitchy hack. This can't just be a consequence of skillful editing, can it? She went from a saucy "oh no you d'n't!" to a surly "#*@! you" pretty fast. We once thought she was final three material, but last week we were fine to see her go. Was her dress any better or worse or more or less avant garde than Suede's? Not in our book. But he was kept and she was axed, and away we go.

And speaking of skillful editing--the laugh out loud moment of the week was the perfect editing of Leanne saying, "I chose Scorpio because I didn't want to do some awful literal thing like have scales hanging from the arms of the model," and then cutting to Blayne and Stella--absolutely giddy with excitement--proposing to do that very thing. Priceless.

So this week we're down to three. Let's see where they sit on the Big Board of Shame before we move on to the big mind-numbing SAT logic problem of the week...

Korto: 16 points (One 1st, two 2nds, two 3rds, one "top four," one 3rd worst, two safes)
Leanne: 14 points (Two 1sts, one 2nd, one "top four," one 2nd worst, four safes)
Kenley: 14 points (One 1st, two 2nds, one 3rd, one 3rd worst, four safes)
Joe: 10 points (One 1st, one 3rd, one "top four," one 2nd worst, five safes)
Jerell: 9 points (One 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd, two 3rd worsts, four safes)
Suede: 5 points (One 1st, one 2nd worst, one 3rd worst, six safes)
------------------------------------------
Terri: 8 points (One 2nd, two 3rds, five safes, one auf)
Kelli: 3 points (One 1st, three safes, one auf)
Keith: -2 points (One 1st, one 2nd worst, one 3rd worst, three safes, one auf)
Emily: -2 points (Two safes, one auf)
Wes: -3 points (One safe, one auf)
Stella: -4 points (One 3rd, two 2nd worsts, four safes, one auf)
Daniel: -4 points (One 2nd, one 2nd worst, one 3rd worst, two safes, one auf)
Jerry: -4 points (One auf)
Jennifer: -5 points (One 2nd worst, two safes, one auf)
Blayne: -6 point (One 2nd worst, two 3rd worsts, five safes)

Scoring: Win (4 pts), 2nd place (3 pts), 3rd place (2 pts), Safe (1 pt), 3rd worst (-2 pts), 2nd worst (-3 pts), Aufed (-4 pts)

Notes of interest:

- We're faced with a unique problem this week. Because only one person in the top four was singled out--the winner Jerell--we never got to know who the judges thought were second, third, and fourth best. Likewise, we have four people on the bottom this week with two aufed. To reconcile this mess with our very clean and proper scoring system, we're awarding 4 points to Jerell, who did win, after all, and subtracting 4 points from both Terri and Blayne, as usual, for being aufed. Since the rest of the top four weren't ranked, we're going to give 2 points each to the remaining top three designers and call it a draw. (Though were were sorely tempted to award Leanne 3 points.) As for the other two in the bottom, Kenley was kept first, which puts her in "third worst" position, and Suede was one breath away from elimination, which gives him a "third worst."

- Korto takes the late lead over Kenley. Korto also adds to her incredible streak of not playing it safe in eight out of ten episodes, with only one bottom three finish. That's seven top finishes in ten challenges--quite a feat.

- All those single points for being safe week in and week out finally catch up to Suede, as two bad showings in a row make him plummet into last place.

- The top three has suspiciously settled out into the names most being bandied about as the three official finalists at last week's Bryant Park show. All six remaining contestants appeared of course, but three of those were red herrings. Will Korto, Kenley, and Leanne be the last three designers standing? We're liking the odds.

- Blayne goes from being the worst designer on the show to the worst designer among the aufed, which is quite a trick after surviving this long in the season. Terri meanwhile immediately becomes the best designer sent off so far.

We've got lots to examine and suss out this week, so let's get on with the disclaimer--

SPOILER ALERT: We have no prior knowledge of who's in and who's out each week. We do, however, watch the preview videos Bravo provides, from which we try to glean clues of what's to come. Then we make guesses. Often bad ones. If you don't like such things, please close your browser and read a book until tonight's episode.


This week's episode is called "Transformation," and alas, no, the object is not to build robot Transformers out of car parts. The idea instead is to "re-invent college-aged women for entry into the working world." Because, you know, no college-aged girl is capable of dressing herself. Oh, and just to humiliate these fashion-challenged co-eds even further, their mothers are along to tell the designers what to make for their daughters. Seriously, shouldn't these women be dressing themselves by now? Particularly if we're going to entrust them with actual real-world jobs. But we digress again. This week's guest judge will be American fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, who previously sat in for Michael Kors in Season Two's lingerie episode. (The one in which Santino inexplicably escaped being eliminated. Oy.)

On to the preview videos! Mothers are telling the designers what they want and what they don't want. Leanne promises, "one sexy teacher dress, coming up." Suede is making something in a purple print. Kenley is making a 50's style purple dress with a pink belt. Korto is making a gray suit jacket. Joe is ignoring his model's chosen professional field in his design. A dog sits in a metal chair next to a stack of books. (Wha-huh?) Kenley tells us, "Tim just doesn't get me as a designer." (Uh-huh.) Later, Leanne and her model's mother try to convince the poor girl that the matronly blue dress Leanne has made for her will be fine, as long as she covers it up with other clothes.

There's more tricky editing going on in this preview. Tim makes comments that appear to be to Kenley, but if we slow down the Zapruder film, we think we can show that all the comments are really directed at Joe. Take a look at this screencap, when Tim is clearly talking to Joe:


Now check out these two, where Tim is clearly talking to Kenley:


Now compare the background of this screencap to the previous three:


In the preview video, it's edited as though the above clip is Tim is telling Kenley, "It looks messy." But look at that backdrop. It's the same place he's standing when he talks to Joe in the earlier bit. I think all of Tim's comments in this section--all his negative comments, mind you--are actually leveled at Joe, who has already admitted to Tim that he didn't pay much attention to what his model will be doing with her life after school. Tim is concerned, and Joe should be too. But what of Kenley? Why the misleading edit here? Perhaps to disguise the fact that she finishes in the top, not the bottom?

Then it's on to the runway, where the preview editors have a field day. Every one of the remaining six designers is shown, but it's almost impossible to tell which comments are leveled at whom. There is a "she can look sophisticated but youthful," which we think may be directed at Leanne's dowdy school marm outfit, and someone on the other side of the runway--Suede? Jerell?--is told by Nina that his dress is "the total cliche." Meanwhile, Heidi has some fun with Kenley: "Kenley's probably thinking, 'Finally, I can dress someone exactly like me!'" Kenley laughs (of course) and says yes, it was a lot of fun to work with her client.

Before we go on though, we have to add to all of this the very confusing issue of model-swapping in the finale. We're not going to talk about the Bryant Park collections yet, but for the purposes of predictions this week we have to talk about who has what models going forward. The problem was first caught by our eagle eyed friends over at Blogging Project Runway. (Where all of these collections are posted, in case you want to investigate for yourself.)

In the past, each designer has had one Project Runway model to anchor his or her runway collection at Bryant Park. This is the model who will get a "fashion spread" in Elle Magazine as a reward for working with the winning designer.

Only this time, well, it's complicated. Very complicated.

You know those logic problems you get on standardized tests, like, "Suzie invites five boys and four girls to her wedding..." where you then have to figure out which boy came with which girl and which girl came alone? Well, we've got a doozy for you. Hang on to your keyboards, kids:

Bryant Park Model Madness

No Project Runway model walks for Suede.
Germaine (Kenley's current model) is nowhere to be found.

It's some kind of horrid logic problem! We're having flashbacks to the GRE! Aaaaaaaaaaa! Breathe into bag. In, out, in, out. Om shanti shanti om.


Okay. If there's one thing we're sure about, at some point in the next three episodes there's a model shake-up. After much discussion with the knowledgeable folks at BPR, we've come to agree that the only person who would instigate such a shake-up is Kenley. First, she's aggressive enough to do it where Leanne, Joe, and Suede don't appear to be. Korto is too, in my estimation, but she ends up at Bryant Park with the same model, so she clearly doesn't want to trade up.

Second, if you'll remember, Kenley had Shannone originally--the model considered to be hands-down the best walker of the bunch--until Shannone got a paying gig and left the show. Germaine, who had been out, was brought back and given to Kenley--so it's possible Kenley isn't as attached to her model as the others are who've been working with them from the start.

Third, each of the remaining designers except Kenley has won a competition with his or her current model, and in each case, when given the opportunity to trade up afterwards, they all opted to stay with the girls they have. Kenley was the outright winner of episode three, and the assistant to Keith's winning design in episode five, but has never won outright after her original model, Shannone, withdrew following episode six.

All this points to Kenley mixing things up with a model swap-a-roonie. But to do that (and here we finally come to the rub, boys and girls...) Kenley has to win a challenge in the next three episodes. Actually, she has to win a challenge in the next two episodes, because the designers don't get a chance to change models after the final in-season challenge that decides who is going to Bryant Park.

So. If we're right about all of this, does Kenley win this week, or next week? The secret, oddly, may lie in the fact that Suede has no Project Runway model in his lineup at Bryant Park. Back to our logic problem! ::shiver:: See if this makes any sense:

1) Kenley wins, Suede loses.
2) Kenley's model (Germaine) and Suede's model (Tia) stand next to Heidi at the beginning of the next episode.
3) Kenley chooses to swap out models, and everyone is brought out. Kenley takes Joe's model (Topacio).
4) A rattled Joe must now choose someone else's model, and doesn't want Germaine. He apologizes, but takes Leanne's model (Karalyn).
5) Korto and Jerell choose early enough to get their own models back, OR those models aren't chosen in the ensuing shake-up and fall to them. OR Jerell or Korto are already gone, and their models aren't available.
6) Either because she picks last, OR because she has an early pick and she's nice and doesn't want to rock the boat, Leanne chooses Suede's model (Tia) over Kenley's former model (Germaine).
7) Germaine, despite being the model of the winning designer the previous episode, is given the boot for a second time that season.


We've tried this equation with other people losing besides Suede, and it never seems to work. If we're right, Kenley will win a challenge the same week Suede is aufed from the show. Since his model is taken by Leanne--whom collective wisdom has being one of the three finalists--he can't get her back for his decoy runway show. Hence he has to cast all new girls for Bryant Park, and has no Project Runway model representation. Also, the fact that he has no Project Runway model walking for him would seem to pretty much guarantee he's not a finalist.

What have we learned from all this, children? Well, first, that it's not good to work on Project Runway logic problems at 1:30 in the morning--but that's a personal lesson. More importantly, it would appear that if both Joe and Suede are goners before the finale (which many people assume), Suede must go before Joe. Otherwise, when the model shake-up comes, Topacio is not around for Kenley to take, OR, things work out like this:

1) Kenley wins, Joe loses.
2) Kenley's model (Germaine) and Joe's model (Topacio) stand on the runway with Heidi.
3) Kenley chooses to swap models, and chooses Joe's model (Topacio).
4) At this point, there is ZERO reason for anyone else to swap models. The winning model has been swapped for the losing model. All is right with the modeling world. But we know the models get swapped around, so this doesn't happen.

This all assumes, of course, that it's Kenley who does the model mix-up--but that's an assumption we're willing to live with. We love assuming, because we like making asses out of ourselves.

So, where are we with this week's predictions? We have one more batch of parameters to add to the logic soup we've created. Since the designers don't use their models this week, Terri's and Blayne's models won't be brought out at the beginning and offered to last episode's winner Jerell. That means that by the time we get to next week's episode, there will be three aufed models available for the winner to choose--Terri's, Blayne's, and this week's loser's. Are you following all this?

That means if Kenley wins this week, she would have eight models to choose from, should she ask to swap models. That gets crazy chatoic, and makes us wonder why we don't see more of those models in the mix-up. Yes, Joe does have Blayne's former model at Bryant Park, but he also has Leanne's. How would he end up with Leanne's model unless he stole her from her in the mix-up? We're guessing that Blayne's model auditions for the Bryant Park show along with all the other model hopefuls, and gets selected by Joe to round out his runway collection.

So, using the crazy number of models to choose from as a factor next week, we're thinking it's not this episode, but next episode that Kenley wins. That means the model shake up would come one episode later. And here we go with the dizzying logic puzzle again...

If we assume that the three girls are going to be our finalists, and if Suede is out the week Kenley wins, and if Joe can't go before Suede, and if Kenley can't win only the last episode and still cause the model havoc we've seen, then...

Episode Ten: Designer X wins; Jerell loses.
Episode Eleven: Kenley wins, Suede loses.
Episode Twelve: Kenley swaps models. Designer X wins, Joe loses.
Finale Episode: Leanne, Korto, and Kenley duke it out at Bryant Park.

Are we full of crap? Quite possibly. We're almost certainly nuts. But boy was it fun to puzzle all that out!

Okay--so, long story short (too late!) we think it's Jerell's turn to go this week. He gets very little coverage in the preview videos, which often means something very good or very bad for that contestant at this stage. Kenley, meanwhile, appears to be getting a decent reaction on the runway--but it can't be too good, if our math is right, otherwise she'll initiate Project Walkoff an episode earlier than we think it happens. We think Kenley will be in the top two or three, but not win.

Based on what else we've seen, Leanne and Joe both appear to be in trouble. Leanne's dress looks school marmish--which is doubly damning as her client is a school teacher. It sounds like Leanne is listening a little too much to her client's mom, and not her client, and Leanne is possibly the recipient of Kor's comment, "She can look sophisticated but youthful."


Joe on the other hand seems to have totally ignored the profession of his client in his design. He gets a talking to by Tim in the workroom--and as we know, if Tim says bad things about you in the workroom, you're bound to hear bad things on the runway. In fact, Kors tells someone on the runway that he would never have guessed this person was a photographer from the outfit she's been given. But seriously, what does he want, khakis and a photographer's vest? Still, this appears to be part of this week's challenge, so Joe will lose points for that with the judges whether his design is fashion forward or not.

But if Joe can't go before Suede, and Leanne is in the finals, neither of them is aufed this week. If Korto and Kenley are also in the finals, and Suede isn't aufed until Kenley wins one, and Kenley doesn't win this week because of the model mess that would cause next week (oy, here we go again!)...that leaves Jerell as the goner. We're surprised to be making this call, as we a) like Jerell, b) think this is a challenge, like the Brooke Shields one, that is right up his alley, and c) have zero real evidence that he is in trouble this week. But we've already painted ourselves into a logic corner, and we're not clever enough to get out.

With just six designers left, there's no real reason or guarantee that the judges are going to find three good and three bad, but old habits die hard:

Top three: Korto, Suede, Kenley
Bottom three: Joe, Leanne, Jerell


Korto for the win, based purely on her past performances. Kenley for second, based on the positive reaction she gets on he runway. Suede for third, as some nice comments seem to be directed toward where he's standing on the runway.


Among the losers, Joe gets a "you're in," and sent backstage first--good design, no evidence of hewing to the challenge guidelines. Leanne and Jerell will stand as the bottom two. Leanne's look made the girl look too old. Jerell's look was too cliche. Jerell goes home, and the citizens of Portland, Oregon breathe a collective sigh of relief as their hometown girl survives.

If you're playing Fafarazzi, things get dicey now that we're down to six. You could hedge your bets and always pick the three designers most people now think are going to make Bryant Park--Korto, Kenley, and Leanne--but if one or two of them cut it close with a bottom finish you'll get stung. Not as badly as someone going out, of course. Joe, Jerell, and Suede become inherently risky picks from here on out. As for us, well, we've always made it a point of putting our picks where our mouth is, so we'll go for our top three finishers this week, even though Suede makes for a dangerous selection.

Good luck to all the designers and their fans. We'll see you on the runway!

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