In many ways we're sorry to see the end of the current season of Project Runway because it's been such a fun ride. And what a ride--crazy competitions, kooky designers, sad departures, tears, laughter, and a generous dose of gay humor. We wish it could gone on longer----but more on that particular idea in a bit.

 The latest episode was the traditional "Tim Gunn visits the designers in their homes as they prepare for fashion week" theme. This is always an interesting part of the run of a season of Project Runway because we get a new view of the designers.

  It's still so mind-boggling to think that with all the talent and potential of Christian he's still only 21 years old. Think about it---he was only a few years older than his client on the high-school prom dress challenge. Tim
hasn't fully been able to hide his enthusiasm for Christian and here he couldn't help but gasp with delight at his designs. Tim Gunn always encourages, cautions and advises his designers but you could tell he was really trying to drive home a point for Christian---to think AND to edit his designs.

  Jillian has been hard to pin down. She's often appeared cool under pressure. She's also whined a bit. She has an eye for detail but often misses the big picture. She apparently was pretty proud of herself on the "art" challenge because she decided to create her collection as an extension of that. Tim was pleased with her designs although he called into question the use of drab colors.

 Rami has also been a bit of an enigma. He seems nice, yet a little distant. We know he's gay, but he's so reserved that he seems non-sexual.  Tim Gunn seemed surprised to see the size of his workspace--odd to say the least when you remember that Tim knew Rami is a working designer, didn't he? In any case Rami moved away from complete draping but seemed to get more costume-y with a few things. He turned up the volume on color and yet wasn't as cohesive as his "Joan of Arc" theme suggested.

 Then there's Chris. We should have gotten a hint from his friend's rococco apartment that his designs would be unusual to say the least. The designs in themselves were nicer but then there was the hair--human hair incorporated into the designs--ick. The best line of the night was Tim Gunn's reference to his gag reflex acting up.
Great line for fashion--bad for referencing your sexual skills. Even though he was warned Chris left in the hair-----and also didn't think hard enough about fitting because that came to be an issue on the runway. He was the last one eliminated and if left Jillian, Christian and Rami the finalists. At this point it could go any number of ways.

  Now, as to the show and some suggestions. Project Runway, like the other Bravo competition shows, has a formula that works and we wouldn't want to tamper too much with that. But they need to extend the season a bit with some "non-elimination" challenges. We're also wondering why they couldn't have suspended production for a week when Jack Mackenroth got sick and had to go to the hospital. We know he left voluntarily but couldn't they have waited a few days to see if he was going to be abler to return? Sequester the designers on Fire Island or something.

 But now on to Fashion Week.............and a video parody to end the blog.