Episode Report Card Jeff Long: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT High-Calorie Fashion
By Jeff Long | Season AS1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 01.26.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Angela tells us that the next challenge is about taste. They are required to create a look based on the colors and flavors of a tasty dessert. Damn, shit just got esoteric up in here. And, not just any dessert but a specific dessert- gelato. Weird. There's a list of flavors to choose from. The flavors are even listed in a way that doesn't necessarily tell them what the colors will be. Diane Von Furstenberg is the guest mentor/judge and, seriously, Michael needs to stop acting like Andy Cohen at a Cher concert every time a freaking celebrity fashion designer is around. Diane tells them that they will have a whopping six hours to complete the design. These should be really pretty.
They go to a baby Mood near the workroom and it's heinous -- several people couldn't find the things they wanted. Oh my God, Austin wears a wife beater and it's completely adorbs. Mila uses color and the world grinds to a halt. People go nutso while they're working, because, well, this is crazy crap town. From the looks of things, Kara is either winning or losing. They eat a lot of gelato as they're working. Mila may be in a little bit of trouble for not being fabulous and extravagant enough. Mondo says “Yes Ma'am” to Joanna Coles, which makes me love that little street urchin. Rami is built like a shit brickhouse and let's all RECOGNIZE. April. I don't know, things just seem like they're getting really weird for April. The more rigidly driven she gets, the less she seems able to adapt to any curve ball thrown her way. Be the ball, April.
On the runway, Isaac's back! Diane Von Furstenberg is indeed a guest judge, as well as Miranda Kerr! She's so lovely. Miranda is going to wear the winning look to an "industry event." Mondo's cantaloupe dress is gorgeous. Anthony's green tea look is...OK. Kenley's passion fruit dress is pretty and fits like a GLOVE. Rami's kiwi look is decent. Mila's sour cherry biz is, you know, I think pretty OK. Jerell's fruits of the forest dress is gross, but I think I'm the only one who feels that way ever. Kara's chocolate dress is either great or totally wrong, I don't know from looking at it. The grapefruit thing that Michael made is unimaginative but pretty. I like April's blueberry look, but I seem to like her stuff more than others do. The vanilla dress that Austin made is gorgeous, though he's worried about all of the hot glue he made to use it.
Austin, Michael, April, Kara, Anthony and Mila are the top and bottom. Specifically, Kara, Anthony and April are in the bottom. Holy crap -- Michael wins again. I lose. It comes down to Kara and April. They felt April's look was poorly constructed and Kara's dress was passionless and looked like maternity wear. April's OUT. Crap. She was my favorite. She starts to cry and it's so, so upsetting. Ugh.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: The designers created a red carpet look for Miss Piggy, which I still think is pretty awesome. Gordana was sent home, because that's where she left the drama necessary to make Piggy want to wear her dress. Also, Michael won for a dress that I thought was kind of dumb. But, whatever.
The designers are all at the Flatotel and Michael interviews that winning the previous challenge does not give him confidence that he will be in the top every time. Rami, Kenley, Jerell and Anthony poke a little fun at him regarding his excitement when he won. I'm still... did anyone really like that dress? I just thought it seemed like an old person's idea of what a young person would wear. Michael says that he's feeling the pressure to deliver something amazing.
At the runway, Angela greets all of them wearing this shimmering tawny brown dress that makes her look YUMMY. Man, that lady has some sort of body. She reminds them that we're four challenges into the competition. Then, she says that the challenge this week is about taste. Good taste comes in many forms but it has to start somewhere; so why not be inspired by taste itself? I'm just being picky here, but there's something really forced about that thought. Does good taste have to start somewhere? Is it completely impossible that someone could be raised in, I don't know, a barn and come out and know how to accessorize super super well? It could be innate.
Their challenge is to create a tasteful outfit inspired by the colors and flavors of a seriously tasty dessert. And, the dessert is chosen for them- gelato. Angela introduces a gelato stand that's in the corner, in open sight. I'm not sure if he was just in darkness and that's why the designers weren't like, "I wonder if our challenge will have something to do with gelato or that pink and white gelato cart over there with the clean-cut guy behind it or that poster of different gelato flavors named on it. Maybe they're just giving us a treat before a day of hard work? That's plausible, yes?" No one says that though. Everyone claps for the gelato cart which is what I do every time I see some sort of food serving device/vehicle. Brick and mortar food eating places? For lame-o's.
L'Arte del Gelato is the name of the cart. Jerell calls the boy behind the cart a "gelato-slinging cherub" then asks what this is all about. Everything is tangential today, because they don't even show us a close-up of the guy (I had to watch it three times to be sure it was actually a guy, which I guess supports the cherub part, but still) but he's important enough to be included in an interview, as if he were part of the challenge. Also, how much more does he need to know? Angela already said what the challenge was going to be -- you don't need to be a genius to know that you are going to make a dress based on one of the flavors on that list. In fact, I think Jerell was probably just talking about the fact that he found the gelato-slinger kinda adorable. Even from here, 30 feet away from the dude's face, he is pretty cute. It's like they think that the audience needs to be in constant suspense. Do we? I don't know, I'm wondering if the real Project Runway editors are on vacation or something. A lot of this stuff is patched together in a way that I think is a little sub-par. Anypoo....