Project Runway: News You Can Use

Yes, the designers have been assigned tasks in season 6 , but it wasn’t until last night that they got an honest-to-goodness, “Project Runway”-style (all caps) CHALLENGE.

Tim Gunn and the contestants bypassed Mood for the first time this season and instead took a field trip to (needle scratching on record sound) the L.A. Times?! Heidi had told the group that the answers to the week’s challenge would be in “black and white”, but who would’ve ever guessed that the designers would be asked to create a design using newspaper as fabric. (See people - newspapers are still around…for now.)

Fortunately, Tim gave them (and us) a quick and handy history of the use of paper as fabric (though I’m still having a hard time imagining paper footwear).

Nicolas, now firmly entrenched as the season’s bitchy contestant, did what he does best. He complained. He complained two weeks ago about working in a team, he complained last week about having the models as clients, and he complained this week about working with paper. By contrast, Ra’mon was excited about the challenge of working with paper and Althea, while a little nervous, was ultimately curious about taking on something new. This kind of positive attitude and artistic curiosity makes me feel like these two will be around for a while in this competition – it also makes me feel like Nicolas isn’t long for the “Project Runway” world.

Nicolas also had plenty to say about Johnny. Johnny was in the bottom two last week and had sworn not to return there at the start of the episode (uh oh: foreshadowing alert). Unfortunately, the vision for the dress included a bunch of origami’d birds (think Sleeping Beauty’s nightmare) carrying a red, crumply dress. Tim Gunn came in and remarked that “it looks like the papers attacked the dress” and that it was like a “craft project gone awry” leading Nicolas to laugh a little too loud and Johnny to ball up the dress and toss it in the trash.

Except that Johnny attempted to rewrite history. Apparently unaware that all the cameras pointed at him are on (or that the invisibility cloak he must’ve thought he was wearing was faulty), Johnny proceeded to make up a ridiculous story about how steam from an iron had ruined his original dress and was what had caused him to start over. The entire thing was more baffling than interesting. I mean, why did Johnny feel the need to lie about scrapping an original design just because Tim hated it? It’s happened before. Just last week Qristyl scrapped her original dress after Tim trashed it. (Then again, she went home so, um, maybe bad example.)

Most of the designers seemed annoyed and confused as to why Johnny would make up such a story (or do a crossword puzzle in the middle of a challenge), but Nicolas acted downright offended. He focused most of his vitriol on Johnny saying he was only on the show for comic relief (cue Johnny dorkily trying on a pink shirt and adjusting his pants – thanks editors). I might agree, except for the fact that Johnny isn’t all that funny.

Another burgeoning rivalry in the workroom is Irina vs. Althea. If you recall, last week Irina suggested that Althea staple her outfit together before Althea’s outfit went on to win the week’s challenge. This week, Irina wasn’t backing off her statements. I didn’t think Althea deserved the win either (I was a fan of Carol Hannah’s look), but Irina looks like she might be able to step up and be this season’s real bad guy for two reasons. 1.) She didn’t back off her hate for Althea’s previous outfit and her fellow designers seem to have a mild distaste for her (a few of them were bagging on her ruffled coat) and, 2.) She showed she has the goods last night to stay on the show for a while (unlike Nicolas), giving us the potential for a feud that’ll play itself out on the runway instead of the workroom, for a change.

The rest of the “action” in the workroom consisted of an edited together montage of Shirin acting like an “11 year old.” Whatever.

On the runway, Heidi was joined by Zoe Glassner, Tommy Hilfiger, and Eva Longoria Parker. (Where the hell are you Michael and Nina?)

Their three favorite looks came from Althea (my favorite, I loved how interesting it was to the eye), Christopher (I didn’t like the armored top at all, but he accomplished what he wanted to with the big bottom), and challenge winner Irina (the ruffles on the coat were brilliant, but the rest of it was kinda blah and could’ve used some color), whose design Longoria Parker (who proved to be an effective judge) LOVED. Overall, I was disappointed that so few of the designers stepped out of the “let’s make a dress box.” For that reason, I enjoyed Epperson's Kimono.

The bottom three consisted of Gordana (kind of a big surprise given how much Tim loved her concept, though admitting that it was a “conventional” design did her no favors), Nicolas (not punk-rock at all, very drab), and Johnny (Heidi insinuated Johnny’s dress made his model look like a prostitute…ouch).

It was pretty obvious Johnny would be going home, but Nicolas wanted to make sure he got run over by the proverbial bus before he left. Johnny recounted his lame steam story and said his original dress was “hardcore” “Dior” causing Nicolas to almost audibly roll his eyes and call Johnny’s dress a “red mess.” Johnny responded with a succinct, “throw me right under the bus – jerk.” Was Nicolas wrong in what he was saying? No. Was it wrong for him to do it in front of the judges and did it make him look petty? Yes.

As is always the case, he could learn a lot from Tim Gunn. Once Johnny got the boot, he warmly hugged him and sent him to the workroom to pack his stuff. Once Johnny was out of earshot, Tim said he was “incredulous at the utterly preposterous spewing of fiction on the runway” from Johnny. Wow – that’s like a tirade for Tim. Not only was Tim a lot more eloquent than Nicolas, but he waited until Johnny’s fate was already sealed and wasn’t out to embarrass him or make himself look better.

So what’d you think of this episode? Did Nicolas (or Tim) speak out of turn? Are you liking Althea as much as I am? Finally, if you run into Michael Kors and/or Nina Garcia, please tell them they’re wanted on the Lifetime channel on Thursday nights?