Episode Report Card Jeff Long: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sweet and Sour
By Jeff Long | Season 10 | Episode 2 | Aired on 07.26.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.We start the show with all of the designers spouting the platitudes about "I thought my look was the strongest" and "every challenge, someone has to go" that we've come to know so well. It makes me wonder if one day many, many years from now there will be some sort of new-ish religion where the Lord's Prayer includes lines like "I didn't come here to make friends."
The designers meet at Dylan's Candy Bar, a truly special place. This is the unconventional materials challenge and they are going to have to create a look out of candy. Gunnar interviews that he dreamt this challenge before he came to the show. Dude is a pill. Also, I'd like to add that Dylan Lauren seems like someone it would be fun to be friends with. She has a fun voice.
Gunnar and Christopher are still at odds and it really makes Gunnar look like a psycho jerk. Ven is not into Buffi, who I really thought that spelled her name with a y. At the consultations, Kooan is such a complete little weirdo and it's so authentic that Tim doesn't seem particularly fazed. Tim rips Andrea APART at the consult. He tells her that her work is a throw-away and underwhelming and disappointed. She is hugely affected by the critique and it makes me kind of upset for her.
At the fittings, a model eats a piece of candy. We see it. It's recorded.
Christopher is totally freaked out by how Gunnar has flipped from being completely bitchy to being everyone's best friend. He vows to keep his distance. Andrea decides to stick with her original idea. Everyone is getting burnt by hot glue. Elena gets particularly hurt and medics have to attend to her, though Christopher makes the valid point that she shouldn't be wearing hoochie shorts to work.
On the runway, there are a few stand-outs, but the distance between the bottom three and the rest of them isn't that far. Top three are Sonjia, Ven and Gunnar. The bottom are Buffi (who giggles at her critique in the best way), Elena and Lantie. Ven gets huge praise for his stained glass-style dress. They slam Elena for being humorless and severe, but she does a pretty remarkable job of defending her work. The win is between Sonjia and Ven and Ven pulls it out! He looks like he's probably super talented, but he has the personality of a goldfish. Elena is in. Our bottom two are Lantie and Buffi and Lantie is... out. Buffi tells everyone backstage that she was so nervous she pooped a little bit. Heh. Lantie is really defensive about her loss, and hopefully she can have a little more perspective down the road.
ATTENTION: it appears that Anya is going to be on next week's episode!!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: We met our new designers. They presented looks at a fashion show in Times Square. Beatrice, who seemed lovely, will continue to be lovely beyond the prying eyes of reality television as she was informed that she was not in. Kooan, who dressed his model like a clown, was told to make sure that his fashion didn't come off as a joke. I would remind the judges that clowns are also often terrifying. Christopher deservedly won the challenge with a spectacularly constructed evening gown. There's already a rivalry for the ages brewing between Christopher and fellow designer Gunnar. It's like Gore Vidal and Truman Capote (RIP, everyone!) if both of them were Truman Capote.
At the top, Heidi reminds us of what's at stake this season. The winner will get a package worth 50 grand from HP and Intel of office equipment and "space." I wonder how that works. Like, do they just help you lease something or could you actually have an office in the HP HQs? They also get a fashion spread in Marie Claire. And a 2013 Lexus. Wow. That's nice.
L'Oreal Paris gives them 100 grand to help start their business and they get the "chance" to design and sell their clothes for Lord & Taylor. Now, I guess that I don't do as much investigation as is probably warranted before posing this question, but... I still don't really see any Project Runway clothing in traditional outlets. There's the occasional Christian Siriano dress on the red carpet, but where does one BUY this shit? I'm still reminded of the Jay McCarroll days when he essentially thumbed his nose at his prize and didn't end up getting any of his shit made. There was a bunch of lip service paid to him being true to some sort of vision or whatever, but it felt an awful lot like he'd become more interested in being a personality than making anything. That's purely my opinion, but having seen it played out like that season after season, I don't know (yes I do). So, Heidi also tells us that the winning model will receive a fashion spread in Marie Claire (I'm, um, assuming that this will be the same fashion spread that the winning designer gets) and 25 grand from L'Oreal Paris. Wow, that'll buy a lot of salad with the dressing on the side.
At the Atlas Building, the boys are rising and shining. Kooan explains excitedly how he hates the morning. It doesn't affect his energy level, apparently. Fabio, who exhibits a calm and smart kindness that is always fun for me to watch, says that he was sad to see Beatrice go and that she was really sweet. Gunnar, who looks THRILLED to be the idiot who says this season after season after season, remarks that you don't want to see other designers go... but you DO want to see them go. The reason is that it is actually just super INSANELY evolved to exhibit signs, simultaneously, of both self-interest and, wait for this, empathy. I mean, Jesus Christ, next we'll be breathing underwater.