Deja Vu: Project Runway, Season 5, Episode 3

Ok, maybe it’s because my PR team isn’t doing so well, but I have say, I’ve found PR to be a little blah so far this season. So far they’ve repeated two of the same challenges without producing nearly the same interest on the runway that the originals did. And if Austin Scarlett was back to be the judge for “grocery store” challenge, why wasn’t Jay McCarroll judging the photo inspiration challenge? Evidence of the not-so-happy relationship between McCarroll and PR?

Anyway, the most interesting thing about this episode for me was the runway, simply because you saw so few process shots and so little mention during the episode of Jerrell, Joe, Korto, etc. And then when you saw their designs on the runway, it was a revelation. I thought for sure Jerrell would be in top three with that gorgeous flamenco-inspired dress and although we so saw little of it, Kelli’s top look a-maze-ing. Not my taste, but interesting, innovative and clearly related to the challenge.

The judging overall was bewildering to me. As soon as I saw Kenley’s dress I remarked to my fellow PR-watcher “They’re either gonna love it or hate it for the late ’80s LaCroix reference.” It also reminds me a bit of the current, very structured looks from Balenciaga SS08.

 

LaCroix Dress

 

 

 

Balenciaga S/S 08

And while I didn’t find Emily’s dress that interesting, I actually think it was more polished than Blayne’s slightly similar piece and more visually appealing than Daniel’s bronze & black asymmetrical look.

I don’t really know still who I would’ve sent home, I thought there were plenty of boring, not-so-great looks on the runway, but I am still surprised at the top three. Ok, Stella’s grommet jeans and “leathuh” vest appear to fit the model perfectly and she looks hot, but Stella needs to break out of her rocker chick groove…if all she wants to do is work with “leathuh” why is she on PR? 

And Terri’s design? It seemed ill proportioned and bottom heavy to me. I thought slimmer pants, a cigarette pant or something similar would have looked much better with that rather floopy dress. And although Michael Kors was impressed by the dress/pants combo; it’s a look the hipster chicks already took up and discarded three summers ago.

I’m very disappointed in the season so far…I hope episode 4 includes some drama and some decent fashion otherwise I’m going to be very grumpy.