Project Runway: Seeing Red

I like “Project Runway” and I like “The Apprentice”, but I would prefer it if those two worlds stayed separate.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about (pretty likely), “The Apprentice” (like many other reality shows) is infamous for product placement. What makes “The Apprentice” stand out is that Donald Trump often builds challenges and entire two-hour episodes of his reality hit around specific products.

Obviously, “Project Runway” is no stranger to product placement. (Did anyone else shed a single tear when Tim Gunn forgot to tell the designers to use the Bluefly.com Accessory Wall “thoughtfully”?)

Still, the latest challenge — creating a look that prominently featured the color red for women who had dealt with heart disease to help promote awareness — crossed the line in terms of taste. (Just like Jesus.) It turns out the designers also had to somehow incorporate the Campbell’s logo into their

I don’t want to bang on Campbell’s too hard because they’re obviously doing a great thing here, but REQUIRING their logo be placed in the contestants’ design seriously messed with the integrity of the competition. I mean, couldn’t it have been enough to have Tim and/or the contestants say “Campbell’s” about a dozen times throughout the hour? Hell, I think it would’ve been preferable to have one of the designers act like they were under the weather only to be comforted by Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. (The camera could’ve conspicuously zoomed in on the Campbell’s logo the way it zooms in on the “HP” logo whenever they show one of those digital sketchbooks.)

Anyway, some of the designers (Janeane and Seth Aaron) seemed too distracted by the “challenge” of working with real women this week instead of their customary stick figures to notice. Since this episode was for a good cause and good vibes were in the air all around, none of the clients received the “bitch” edit. The closest anyone really came was Seth Aaron’s model asking for a Grecian dress, which really wasn’t in his comfort zone.

As far as some of the other designers, I like what I’m seeing from Mila and I don’t really like what I’m hearing from Emilio. Mila did what I always SCREAM for people with immunity to do. Instead of playing it safe, take a chance and be bold – you CANNOT be eliminated! Meanwhile, Emilio has seemingly been set up as this season’s trash talker. It’s not very flattering on him. The reason Christian Siriano was such an effective trash talker (and remains the most popular contestant in the history of this show) is because he had the skills to back up his trash talk AND he was funny. Emilio has skills, but he’s not funny (like Irina last season) – he mostly comes off like a big grump. By contrast, last season’s Nicolas was (kinda) funny, but did NOT have the skills to back up the talk.

The runway show was mostly underwhelming – I’m kind of convinced that Maya snuck into this week’s top 3 (along with Amy and Mila) by default. The judges didn’t so much love the heart-shaped swoosh dress Maya (Mila’s mini-me) created as they were intrigued by it.

The battle for the win came down to Amy and Mila, but I figured Amy would get it for two reasons. 1.) This show seems allergic to granting any contestant immunity two weeks in a row. 2.) She deserved it.

Amy’s flowy dress looked comfortable and was the only creation that MOVED on the runway. Mila’s dress on the other hand WAS bold, but the big white stars on the side didn’t scream of the dress made it look like she could’ve just as easily been going to an over-the-top 4th of July party.

The bottom three was comprised of Anne Marie (who made her model look like a linebacker – ouch!), Jesse (Angry Christian Bale struck out with a tiny white jacket this week) and Jesus (more on him in a bit).

At least Jesse’s dress was decent so he was sent to safety, which left us with Anne Marie and Jesus. As painful as it was to hear the judges (featuring guest Georgia Chapman) talk at length about how bad Anne Marie made her client’s body look, Jesus DEFINITELY deserved to go home.

Besides being in the bottom 3 in three out of five weeks, he designed a too-short, too-tight dress that was described by each of the judges as some variation of “tacky.” Methinks “tacky” was a code word for “slutty” and the only reason the judges held back from using the s-word was because of the presence of the real woman models.

Goodbye Jesus. Your taste level was questionable at best and you deserved to home. At least take solace in the fact that you lasted a LOT longer than you should have.

So what’d you think of this episode? Was it fair or foul to require that the designers incorporate the “Campbell’s” logo? Finally, do you like it when the show brings in “real women” models?