Project Runway: Traveling Violations

So apparently Christopher is invincible.

At the end of my recap last week, I jokingly asked about the quality of the nude photos or sex tape that Christopher is CLEARLY holding over the producers’ heads.

After seeing him survive a FOURTH(!!!) straight trip to the bottom 2, I’m starting to think there might be some truth to that joke.

As ridiculous and cockroach-like as Christopher’s survival skills have been, I have to admit that I’m not exactly outraged. The guy HAS shown flashes of talent (granted, that seems so long ago, that it feels like the show was still on Bravo when he was good) and generally seems to be a nice (if hopelessly delusional) guy.

I’m also not too upset because the person who DID go home wasn’t really one of my favorites.

Anyway, on to a happier subject - Michael Kors (pictured, right) and Nina Garcia were back on the judging panel this week for the first time since the season premiere (seriously!). The designers actually met with the former for this week’s challenge: create a look based on seven of Mr. Kors’ favorite locales from around the world. To be honest, all I could think about during this entire segment was how weird it was to see Michael standing.

Irina went first and picked Aspen. After her, Carol-Hannah picked Palm Beach, Althea drew St. Tropez, Gordana selected New York, Christopher settled on Santa Fe, Nicolas found New York too easy and picked Greece (in the words of Scooby-Doo: “ruh-roh”) and Logan had no choice but to do Hollywood (which didn’t seem like a bad thing to me at all).

With fewer designers in the workroom, the editors are running low on ways to create drama/keep things interesting. Unfortunately, that means they’re relying too much on Irina’s nasty comments about her competitors to pad the middle portion of each episode. I’ve written before that I kinda dug Irina’s bitchiness because it kept things interesting and, more importantly, she had the talent to back up her smack talk. I don’t feel that way anymore. This feels like the fourth of fifth straight week we’ve heard Irina cruelly bag on her fellow designers’ work and personality and it now feels completely stale. (The fact that her observations are 100% malicious and 0% witty certainly doesn’t help matters.) Even crazy Kenley from last seaosn was nuts-o in a compelling way.

At least the other designers (Nicolas last week, Carol-Hannah this week) seem privy to Irina’s “I’m not here to make friends attitude.”

Tim stopped in for his weekly visit and gave out excellent advice (as usual). He warned Carol-Hannah that her print Palm Beach dress was in danger of becoming cliché and urged Gordana to stop slaving over her necklace and actually work on her dress.

On the other hand, short of actually reconceptualizing and sewing the guys’ looks himself, there’s really nothing Tim could’ve done to save their looks.

After another underwhelming runway show, Christopher, Logan, and Nicolas found themselves in the bottom 3, while Irina, Carol-Hannah and Gordana were in the top 3.

The panel swooned over Gordana’s (detachable) necklace and (rightly) lightly scolded her for her defeatist attitude regarding the gray dress. (How are we supposed to believe in you, if you don’t believe in you, Gordana?) Carol-Hannah smartly added a braiding detail to her green print dress, which the judges (including guest Milla Jovovich) LOVED. That braiding detail is really the only thing that prevented the dress from being a total (yet lovely) cliché. (I actually wondered if Uli hadn’t stopped in this week and guest-designed an outfit.)

My favorite was actually (sigh) Irina’s look. Yes, the color palette wasn’t the most exciting in the world, but seeing all the work she did (and the quality) simply put her outfit at a different level than her fellow top 3 dwellers. I guess you really DO have a lot more time to sew when you don’t bother forming friendships with other people. Still, the win went to Carol-Hannah, but the judges didn’t seem unanimously in love with ANY of the top 3 looks.

That’s really been the story this season: a general lack of excitement. The sentiment was summed up perfectly by Jovovich. Heidi had weakly defended Logan’s “Hollywood” outfit by saying, “I didn’t mind it.” Jovovich responded with, “If this was called ‘Project I Didn’t Mind It’ he would win.” (If this show were ever to adopt a permanent fourth judge, my vote would go to Jovovich for that comment alone. I was also amused by how emotional she got during elimination and asked her fellow judges how they did it each time.)

Back to Logan’s outfit. There was just so much wrong. Personally, if I heard Hollywood, I would’ve thought 1940’s glamour. However, I get that it’s not Logan’s style and I respect his decision to modernize the concept. However, what’s exciting and fashion forward about a pair of skinny jeans and a T-shirt? On top of that, why would you ever cite Lindsay Lohan and Mary Kate Olsen as your young Hollywood inspirations? Yikes!

That being said, he didn’t even make the bottom two. Here’s the difference between Nicolas and Christopher (and the reason I’m not so mad at Nicolas anymore): at least Nicolas is self-aware to realize his outfit had nothing to do with Greece. His gray pants/jersey combo was actually pretty cool for a person going to work – unfortunately, it had nothing to do with Greece. Kors joked that it looked more like “Grease” the movie, a joke that might’ve been funnier if it made any sense.

On the other hand, Christopher’s outfit was matronly and flat-out terrible before he decided to lop 20 inches off the skirt. After that, it still looked matronly yet managed to look slutty at the same time. (That’s a hard combo to pull off.) Even after all that, he STILL managed to squeeze through to next week. While Nicolas CLEARLY didn’t believe in his outfit on the runway, maybe the judges like that Christopher is fully invested in his disastrous looks.

In the words of Althea: “If Christopher can put that garment down the runway and not get eliminated, then I don’t know what’s going on.”

Me neither.

So what’d you think of this episode? Can Christopher or Logan stop an all-female final? (I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason the judges/producers keep bailing Christopher out is because they want him in the finals.) Were you glad to see Michael and Nina back? Finally, do you think ANY of these designers are going to step it up and wow us this season?