The designers go to the workroom where Tim is waiting for them. The room is dimly lit and littered with tons of lit candles. Daniel says that the aroma is delicious. Tim greets them all and says that the candles were provided by Glade. They are 2-in-1 candles with two scents. Bullshit. They are one scent and no one can make me believe otherwise. The 2-in-1 thing is a clue for the challenge. This takes Tim back to the olden days, to one of his favorite challenges. It was the unconventional challenge when they went to the flower shop. Ah yes. The flower shop challenge, when Michael Kors erroneously asserted that it was hard to make leaves look trashy. I still maintain that trashy is one of the easiest places to go with leaves.
Everybody seems really excited about another flower shop challenge, including Matt who does this little high/low dance that looks both simultaneously childlike and completely choreographed. I love it so much and it makes me feel very close to him. I also feel like I need to watch seventy or so times. That has happened now. Along, with Melanie's hair-pull on Bunheads, Marnie laughing after sex on Girls and Scarlett and Gunnar singing "Fade Into You" on Nashville, I don't think I've rewatched anything on the tube as much this year. Samantha interviews that she is excited for the unconventional challenge because it gives the designers the opportunity to get creative and play.
Tim announces that they will indeed be sourcing their materials at a flower shop. Amanda is not excited about this. She says that she didn't even have flowers at her own wedding. I don't mean to be conformist, but that's crazy. Tim says that someone else has ideas about the challenge, and then he introduces Heidi. Why this woman needs a grand introduction every time she walks onscreen is beyond me. We EXPECT to see you, Heidi. Anyway, she comes out and says that she likes the flower shop but wants to mix things up. She likes the hardware store too. So, that's our 2-in-1. The teams will be using flowers and hardware to create cohesive lines of six looks. Heidi says that this is the ultimate hard and soft challenge. Tim adds that each look does not need to contain materials from both places, but the cohesive lines do. Heidi wishes everyone luck, kisses Tim and exits.
The morning, they are back to work. Samantha tells us that the bottom of her dress is not as strong as the bodice. Matt notes that she's feeling very stressed. Joe explains that he's draping flowers on a netting. Michelle, always quick with an encouraging and positive remark, says that he has spent hours making a look for a sea hag. Nothing Michelle says is every actually incorrect, but all you ever hear come out of her mouth is something negative. Have we even once heard Samantha talking shit about anyone? Sure, it may be the reason we haven't really seen her speaking at all, but I think it works in her favor.
Daniel suddenly realizes that Team Keeping It Real does not have a cohesive collection. Everything looks pretty good, but it does not look like it belongs to the same collection. The team gets together to discuss it and Patricia says that maybe they're all cohesive because they are all using floral and hardware elements. That is a stretch, considering those are the ONLY elements that they can be using. Amanda interviews that they just need to think of a story for their collection. Currently, things are feeling sloppy.
Tim arrives to check in with everyone. He starts with Richard and Michelle. He says that he is blown away by their design! Joe explains his idea to Tim and he notes that Joe's girl is going to look huge. Joe says that he's OK with that. Michelle, OF COURSE because everyone else is busy making clothes and doesn't have time for non-stop shit talking, says that she doesn't think a woman would want to wear. Richard says that Joe's aesthetic is eccentric and unique and he likes it. Tim says that he just wants to make sure that Joe doesn't make something that looks like it's consuming the model. Again, Joe is like "maybe I do." This is a point where I wish Joe were a little better at talking, because it looks a little like he's just being a weirdo and I don't think Tim is buying it. He says that he is channeling the judges and what they might say about his current silhouette. Joe interviews that he fears Tim doesn't understand what he is presenting. Tim likes Amanda's dress, but Richard says that he's worried about it. It looks swampy to him. Let's all remember that we are using botanicals, shall we? Tim is fascinated by the Lamb's Ear plant that Daniel is using on his look. He tells Kate that her dress looks like a craft project. She kind of resents that, considering they are making clothes out of flowers and hardware. She finds it unreasonable to expect the designs to be "normal." Afterwards, Tim tells the designers that he has a couple of concerns. One, naturally, is time. The other is cohesion. Bullseye. Michelle says that he's right and their designs all look like they were made by crazy people and none of them are in the same mental institution. Michelle disseminates. That's the problem. She's just gotta spread all the ill around. They throw out some ideas to pull them all together, but nothing's really clicking. Michelle offers that each of the looks are a different decade. Tim tells them to go with it.
Leandra is wearing an old football jersey and I love that. Dream Team begins with Matt's look. It's a short orange bubble skirt topped with a white and black vertically striped bodice. Very fitted. He's incredibly happy with it. He feels like he has finally not let his team down. Stanley's look is . It's a long green gown that turns into white flowers at the bottom. He loves it. He keeps saying that it's Dior and I just don't see it. I'm sorry to harp on this. Maybe the House was obsessed with flowers like he said and that's the connection. It's not the silhouette though.
Here we have Tu's look and it's great. A twine vest over and yellow and green skirt. I love this so much. I wish everyone were wearing it. He thinks it looks magical coming down the runway. Here's Benjamin's dress. It's beautiful. Flowers hanging as if they were on the bias with the woven fabric comprising half of the bodice. It's so pretty. Michelle Williams should wear this the time she's nominated for a Golden Globe.
Samantha's look is and it's really cool. The lattice bodice tops a mesh skirt with an overlay that adds volume to the hips. It's flattering though. Under the mesh are leaves. It does a lot to soften the hardware elements. Layana tells her that it looks great. Layana's look is and it's gorgeous. It's this bird's nest looking mesh thing with flowers dotted on it. So pretty. Richard looks at their group and knows that their collection was more cohesive.
After the show, Heidi says that this was one of her favorite challenges. In fact, they can't call the losing team losers. They're just second place. Dream Team wins! They talk to the winners first. All of the models return to the stage. Benjamin says that they tried to stick to the same color palette. Heidi says that she likes everything on the runway. Zac says that you can see that they had fun. Bette finds it whimsical and exciting. Leandra thinks that the artistry in Stanley's dress is great. Nina loves that Samantha hid the flowers beneath her mesh. She thinks it's a really interesting play on transparency. She is also mad about Layana's dress. Zac thinks that Layana's look was dreamy. Bette has never seen anything like it at her hardware store. Heidi asks who should be the winner. Stanley likes Tu. Samantha likes Benjamin and Matt. Benjamin likes Matt too. Nina asks how Matt made his corset and he says that it was a mop. Nina and Bette are giggling they find it so impressive. In fact, Bette says that she'll never go to a hardware store again without thinking "What can I make?"