Project Runway Episode 3

It's official. I don't get the taste of the judges. This week they singled out the Ra'mon-Mithcell team as having the best design, and I did like the beachwear outfit, but what is up with the avant-garde look? I found it ugly. It was shapeless and that splash of green was not flattering. I could tell that either Mitchell or the Qrystal-Epperson team would be eliminated since they had so much screen time. Now we seem to be spending more time with the losers and all the critiques from Tim Gunn are going by really fast. (You can see extended ones on the Lifetime website).


Meanwhile Fatma is emerging as the evil girl on the model show. She's the only one I can remember from week to week because she is the most beautiful and the one with any sort of personality. It seems they are manufacturing drama on that show. The big deal was a minor exchange of attitude between Fatma and Vanessa over the now-departed Mitchell. Can't really get excited about that.



I can get excited over the new season of Amazing Race which is reportedly started in a few weeks. I will have to check out the CBS website. Now I will have two reality shows with which to be obsessed. Though I have never tried to be on Project Runway I did send in an audition tape to Amazing Race. My friend Diane and I made a tape and filled out these endless forms and everything. We sent them in and of course, nothing happened. I guess our story wasn't compelling enough.

Project Runway Episode 2: Pregnant with Possibilities; with Diversions to Top Chef and Rachel Zoe

Mitchell has GOT to go. For the second week in a row, he had an interesting idea but executed it sloppily--is that a word? It's a good concept to do a fun maternity look, but he made the model look like a trailer-trash housewife on her way to the Walmart to pick up some beer and pretzels for the weekend tailgate party. And those shorts were ridiculously unflattering. He's very cute and that may be why he's still hanging around. Which leads us to Fatma's reaction on Models of the Runway when Mitchell picked her. It's was very funny and my favorite line of either the main show or the model show so far this season is when Mitchell did not get eliminated and one of the girls watching said "Oh no--he's a model-jumper!" A new phrase is invited. Model-jumper: a person who is not loyal to his or her model but will pick another one at the first opportunity. Mitchell was right to pick Fatma since he had the chance and she is the most striking looking of the models. But he's got to pick up his game. My bet is he'll be gone within two episodes. I think they keep some pretty bad designers just for the drama. I also think Heidi's stern warning to him was added for even more drama. Too bad she couldn't use that catchphrase from the Fashion Show--"You're hanging by a thread." But there was some agreement in the lawsuit with Bravo that they couldn't steal each other's catchphrases. It's in paragraph 27, clause 32.

Malvin did deserve to be eliminated, that chicken-egg thing just didn't work and that was more of a bowling-ball look than Ra'mon's. Shirin's winning design was elegance incarnate and it didn't accentuate the pregnancy, but artfully concealed it, especially with the jacket which was lined with a lovely print.

There are still too many designers to get them all differentiated in my mind and they don't have particularly strong personalities. I am eagerly awaiting Tim Gunn's apearance in the Models Inc. comic book--If I haven't missed it already. I bought the new Archie comic with the proposal to Veronica for my friend Lydia.

Meanwhile, I'm still on vacation till Labor Day so I have been able to watch Top Chef and The Rachel Zoe Project, the remaining interesting shows on Bravo. On Rachel Zoe--I am sick of Taylor. OK, I get it. You're not happy basically being a clerk to Rachel and so you bagged the Golden Globes viewing party. Rachel is not a good communicator and her problem is treating her staff like friends. She needs to be the boss and tell Taylor to shape up and drop the attitude. And also discuss why she needs them to be upstairs. My favorite line of the episode: Brad: "We have to be strategic in our planning, but we're not strategic people." It was fascinating to see how much work goes into putting together a red-carpet look and how the award shows are all about glamour and fashion rather than honoring excellent acting--at least for the whole industry that grown up around it and which Rachel exemplifies. Anne Hathway is an interesting example of an actress who straddles fashion and acting. She in all into the red carpet, but when it's appropriate, she can be a regular person. I saw her at the Obie Awards presenting an award for lifetime achievement to Earle Hyman and she was dresses very casually, sedately, yet tastefully. She was about to appear in Twelfth Night in Central Park and you could tell she was honored to be included in this non-glamour event celebrating a great actor. It wasn't on TV and there was no red carpet.

Have caught two Top Chefs episodes and it looks like Kevin is the force to be reckoned with. The two competing brothers are cute, but kinda lifeless.