Runway Roundup: Week 2

I have to start out by saying that after two weeks, the move of Project Runway from Bravo! to Lifetime is a dead issue. Last night as I tuned in it didn’t even occur to me that I was on a different channel. On a side note, hey Charter Cable can we please get Lifetime in glorious HD so we can see all those loose hems (and reruns of Mother, May I Sleep with Anger).

Challenge number two brought a new twist on the design for a celeb standard. A very pregnant Rebecca Romijn joins a for once not pregnant Heidi on the Runway, and introduces the first maternity wear challenge in the history of the show. Having just observed my partner go through a pregnancy I know firsthand how difficult it is to find decent, stylish, maternity wear so this was a challenge that instantly grabbed my attention. All the designers looked a bit crestfallen though as I’m sure they thought “yay celebrity, boo maternity.” I was also a bit shocked that there was no additional twist to the challenge. I’d have loved to see the designers create a non-maternity look inspired by the original piece.

***I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to address the Stamos situation. How many times do you think the designers had to redo their confidentials because they’d refer to Rebecca as Romijn-Stamos and not just Romijn. I know I muttered it wrong at least 3 times during the broadcast. Sorry Jerry O’Connell it’s just not the same.***

Alright let’s get on to the designs shall we. I thought some were really refreshing and well done. Gordana, whose name sounds like it should proceed “vs. Mothra”, did a wonderful job and as the only mother in the group clearly had good insight. Week one winner Chris did a fab job as did Weapon X himself Logan. Then we had the top three which included Shirin, Althea, and Louise. Althea’s dress was beautiful but was not the type of look that the judges were necessarily looking for despite the open door they implied. Her color choice though was spot on. Louise captured the best part of whimsy in her nightgown dress. The intricate lace, the dye work and, the thank god for Tim, under fabric, all made this a knockout that made up for the fact that it had limited wearibility. Shirin was my pick in the workroom and the judges on the Runway. Her jacket along with the detailed waist instantly jumped out at me. Christopher and Shirin are both shining early to me as both have executed strong in the first two weeks.

The bottom three could have easily been the bottom five. I thought Johnny must have gone back on the meth with his grim drab dress while Epperson’s tribute to Karate Kid had me questioning his taste level. The bottom three left those fools out though and instead included Ra’mon whose dress was identified by folks in the workroom and the runaway as a bowling ball bag. Worse yet it was sloppy and the amount of puckering was giving me stomach cramps. I am going to say Ra’mon stayed because of his awesome shout out to season 4’s Stella and her affection for “leatha”. More likely though it was the weakness of his fellow bottom three members, Mitchell and Malvin. Mitchell had a decent concept but again this guy hasn’t designed or made clothes in years and it shows. His shorts looked horrible and somehow he didn’t realize that until a couple of hours before showtime. Malvin meanwhile went out on a limb, a limb that is so far out he might have actually broke the space-time continuum. His egg concept was intriguing but the minute he told Tim that he wanted to make his model look like she had chicken thighs I thought goodbye. Of course that’s just what happened as Mitchell once again benefited from a designer taking risks while he just makes poor clothes. Meanwhile no one suffers more than us viewers as we’ve lost two characters in two weeks. I was just beginning to love you Malvin and you will be missed. Next week we’ve got our first team challenge which means plenty of claws are coming out and boy I can’t wait to see who gets paired with Mitchell.