Project Runway: What’s Your Sign?

It’s Couture-licious week!  First, the producers make over last season’s “Couture” challenge and call it “Avant-Garde.”  Nina returns to lay down the law and a shocking double-elimination!

This week’s special guests: the eliminated designers!  At Parsons, Tim pairs the old with the new to create an avant-garde look inspired by one team member’s astrological sign.  Kelli joins Korto, Wesley joins Kenley.  You don’t remember Wesley, either, do you?  Joe works with Daniel.  Leanne is a Libra, and now I hate that I’m a Libra, and she’s paired with Emily.  Blayne, also a Libra, and now I’m legally changing my sign, gets Stella, and they shake each other to bits in greeting.  Terri gets Keith.  Trouble ahead!  Jerell works with Jennifer, so he’ll carry that team.  Suede is left with Jerry, who, you guessed it, is a Libra.  I’m so embarrassed for my sign.

Terri and Keith start arguing at Mood … uh-oh.  Does all this attention mean Terri is in the bottom three?  I’ll kill Keith.  To be fair, picture Terri for the rest of this episode with a sour look on her face.  Come on, girl!

At Parsons, Terri and Keith continue arguing over Keith’s contributions, and he interviews about his bitterness over his elimination.  Way to grow from the experience, Keith.  Kenley thinks her design is “fucking fierce.”  Leanne interviews that Kenley’s “insanely overconfident in her design,” and tells Emily “she never shuts off.”  Kenley mistakenly thinks the girls don’t like her because she likes to have fun.

Tim Time.  Blayne’s Libra dress is going to “manifest.”  There will also be leather strips.  When Tim asks why, Blayne doesn’t say, “Because Stella’s on my team, why else?”  Instead, he says it’s like strapping down the rules and regulations, which is not a Libra trait, thank you.  Jerell’s Sagittarius dress plays off the archer theme with an armored skirt.  The material perplexes Tim: “It’s like you took a school marm’s old winter coat and tried to make it into a couture dress.”  He says they will either win or die horribly.

Tim likes the exoskeleton of Leanne’s Scorpio concept.  He tells Kenley there is a fine line between avant-garde and costumey.  She demands he be more specific, and he replies, “Glinda the Good Witch.”  Tim and I recommend Wicked.  Kenley disagrees.  He says, “Well, don’t listen to me,” and she doesn’t, so bottom three!

Keith tells Tim he wanted to go in different directions for his “darlin’” Terri’s outfit, and she essentially calls him a waste of space.  And don’t call me darlin’.  Later, Keith tells her she’s difficult to work with.

Day Two.  The designers return to Parsons and a note from Heidi, inviting them to an event that evening to showcase their designs at the Hayden Planetarium.  And … two designers will be eliminated!  Everyone panics since no one’s near completion.  Terri brushes Keith’s help aside, so he exits, calling her a “bitter person.”  Keith should know.  Kenley is not impressed with anyone’s design, except her own, of course.

Tim arrives with the news that there will be no immunity tonight, or ever again.  Bryant Park nears!

Heidi greets the designers at the Planetarium.  Her special guests are previous contestants from different seasons: Daniel Vosovic, Christian, Jay, Kara Janx, Robert Plotkin, Carmen Webber of the shirtless Tiki Barber suit, and Alison Kelly.  The previous designers will judge and vote for the winning design, to be announced at the runway show.

Overall, most designers get fair criticisms and accolades from the judges.  However, Heidi criticizes the placement of the model’s boobs on Kenley’s dress, and Kenley declares that “if Heidi is going to talk nonsense, I’m going to set her straight.”  Heidi’s going to kill Kenley in the finale, I know it.  Heidi also tells Blayne his garment looks like granny panties.  Though Terri ignores Keith the whole night, she listens to Christian’s constructive criticism.  Leanne’s weird and ugly dress seems to be a favorite.

At runway prep, Terri makes changes based on Christian’s critique and Kenley pads her model’s boobs.  Also, “it makes Suede really, really sad that two people are going home tonight.”  Could Suede please be one of them?

Runway!  Guest judge: Francisco Costa.

Blayne: The ugliest thing you’ve ever seen.  Ever.  Kenley: Creepy couture.  Terri: Nice.  Good colors.  Korto: Pretty, breezy.  Joe: Surprisingly beautiful.  Jerell: Nice construction.  Leanne: Ugly exoskeleton.  Suede: Purple genie.

In the bottom: Suede, Kenley, Terri (no!), and Blayne.

Nina calls Blayne’s outfit haphazard, while Heidi flat out says “it doesn’t look pretty.”  It’s “pooping fabric,” courtesy of Kors.  He reads the tension between Terri and Keith, and Terri says Keith bailed.  Keith demands to know how you work with someone who ignores you.  Nina rolls her eyes in aggravation and disgust.  We’ve missed you, Nina!  Kors interrupts them and says that a career in fashion means collaboration.  “This looks like a costume…a voodoo princess in hell.”  Kenley gushes over her garment.  Nina says that she doesn’t see the inspiration, and Kenley almost yells at her that “I was definitely inspired by the sign.”  Look at the purple!  Nina knows Kenley did what Kenley wanted to do.  Kors says he’s seen this kind of work before from other designers.  Nina is haughtily amused when Kenley snits that she doesn’t look at collections and insists it’s avant-garde.  Kors firmly states, “Look, Kenley, avant-garde means something we haven’t seen.”  Suede switches back and forth to the third person, describing his garment.  Heidi says she expected more.  Nina thinks it borders on “expected.” 

Deliberation.  Blayne was a disaster and a “joke.”  Kenley’s didn’t “say Aquarius,” and her defensiveness is unattractive.  Nina hated Terri’s outfit.  Francisco didn’t like that she avoided responsibility.  Suede was boring.  Kors says Suede isn’t ready for this third person thing.  He’s not!  Send him home, Michael!  Kors thinks “there’s a lot of self-delusion happening today.”

All the designers line up, and Jerell wins.  What?  Huh?  Whatever – we want to know who goes home!  Kenley is safe.  First to go: Blayne.  And this is fair, because granny panties?  Really?  But wait: Suede is safe and Terri goes home!  I … have no words.  Terri was my favorite.  The other designers are more sorry to see Blayne go.

Next week: Who cares?  My Top Four’s ruined! 

For another opinion on this episode, check out It’s A Sign of the Times by J.B. Perlow

Wednesdays, at 9pm EST, Bravo

Photographs courtesy of BRAVO