Project Runway: Nature Calls

The final challenge takes the designers to the New York Botanical Gardens, which is still on my list of things to do in NYC.  Oops.  On the way, Jerell guesses they’ll have to make a gown for Hedda Lettuce made from Gristedes products.  No, Jerell.  This week’s episode rehashes so many other prior challenges, it can’t fit Hedda Lettuce.  At the Gardens, they meet up with Collier Strong, who explains that nature often inspires his work with L’Oreal.  As such, the challenge this week is to create an evening gown, borrowing his inspiration, Nature.

Each of the designers feel this challenge was meant just for them, so they’re all going to kill it.  At Parsons, the designers will have two days to complete the dress.  Jerell chooses red and purple-toned roses, Leanne picked violets, an orange flamenco flower inspires Korto, and Kenley goes with some purple textured leaves.  At Mood, Jerell says, it’s “a thin line between luxury and low class,” so he returns some lime green sequined material.  I’m betting that was a smart move.

Korto’s taking some chances because she doesn’t normally use lace, but she’s going to win this one for her Mama.  No, Korto!  Play it safe!  Leanne wants a tiered “organic” effect.  What does that mean? I think if you use the word “organic,” you immediately can speak fashion.  That’s all they say!  A few hours into construction, Kenley realizes she’s left a bag full of tulle back at Mood.  She eyes Jerell’s stash, and though he won’t be using it, in his words, “it’s not gonna happen like that.”  Korto admits she probably won’t use hers either, but she doesn’t feel sorry for Kenley.  “She’s rude to Heidi, she’s rude to Tim.  When you have an ugly attitude, it just makes you ugly.”  Jerell can’t wait to see how this all works out.  Me too.  Kenley resorts to stuffing her fabric with paper.

The next day, there’s a clear separation in the apartment between Kenley and the other designers.  At Parsons, Tim spoils our fun when he sends Kenley back to Mood for her tulle, so she won’t be handicapped.  Fine, go ahead and play fair, Tim.  Side note: what’s with the yellow headwear everyone’s sporting?  Does LIVESTRONG™ do headgear now?

Jerell calls Kenley’s dress “Kenley the Dragonslayer.  What is this thing, this tube dress of scales?”  I can cut back on my commentary, with everything Jerell provides.  Korto feels she’s behind schedule because she spent too much time analyzing, but I demand she pull it together.  Kenley feels left out among the group, but she says she’s used to it.  She can’t understand why she’s alienated so often in life.  I hope she watches this show when it comes on the air.  But you can tell her spirit’s breaking a little bit at the exclusion.

Tim Time.  He says the front of Korto’s dress looks sleek and 2008, but Catherine the Great (who’s history I enjoy, minus the horse bit) in the back.  Kenley loves her dress.  No surprise there.  Tim observes that the petals on the bottom look like fish scales, and Kenley loves that, even though the theme is botanical and not oceanic.  Jerell throws out the word “organic” and I twitch.  Tim says it looks very unfinished, but it has “the potential here for blowing everyone’s socks off.”  Leanne’s dress is a mess of purple.  Tim says the bottom is looking very “Hello, Dolly!”  Streisand’s or Channing’s Dolly?  Tim doesn’t clarify.

And the waterworks start!  First Leanne, stressed out and near tears in her interview, because she’s wanted to show at NY Fashion Week since she was twelve, and that’s exactly how old she sounds when she speaks here.  I’d appreciate the stakes more if the top five or six designers didn’t all show at Bryant Park as red herrings.  So, even if you lose at this point, you win!

The next morning, as Jerell irons, his tears start as he describes the experience of coming this far, but he can go home soon, but it’s ending, etcetera, etcetera.  Then Korto breaks down in her interview because she cannot go home today.  She’s been told no so many times, she’s desperate for a yes.

As the models arrive for fittings, Leanne says this will not be her best work.  Kenley interviews that she doesn’t like anything Korto does; in fact, she doesn’t like anything any of the others do.  “Jerell throws a bunch of glamorous shit together and it looks like a craft project.  Leanne…does pleated details with a muted color palette.  That’s been done.”  Seriously.  Do we even need my editorializing?  Because she’s kind of right.

Runway!  Guest judge: Georgina Chapman.

Korto: Beautiful color, bridal.  Leanne: Very purple.  Jerell: Unflattering shape, nice colors.  Kenley: Literal, mermaid shape.

Georgina likes Leanne’s balance between the structured and the softness, and the bodice.  Nina is concerned about some of the details, and Kors says the blue looks thrown on.  Heidi says with a little more work, it will be perfect.  Kors tells Korto hers is well made, and the silhouette very flattering, but it looks like a pageant dress.  Heidi says it’s not “fashion forward.”  Heidi loves the top of Jerell’s dress, revealing as it is.  Nina says it’s the most youthful, but it has technical problems.  Kors notes it’s a little “hack and sew.”  Georgina says Kenley’s doesn’t look very “organic.”  Oh jeez.  Nina says the model looks “old.  This girl does not look young, hip or cool at all.”  Kors called it cliché, and Kenley is shocked.  Heidi says she also doesn’t find the “petals” elegant, and Kenley says, all ‘tude, “I wasn’t going for elegant, Heidi.”  Heidi’s expression turns to, “then what the hell is the point of a gown?”  Nina points out Kenley’s defensiveness, and Heidi agrees the attitude is annoying.  Kenley rolls her eyes, and Heidi says, “Like you’re doing right now.”  And then Kenley gets all teenager and “innocent,” and is like, “What?”  I so remember pulling that when I was a kid.  Then getting grounded for two weeks.  Kenley seems a little old for this level of immaturity, but apparently not.  Kors reminds her they’re fans, she doesn’t need be this way.  They want her to improve.

Heidi asks them each why they should move on to Fashion Week, and which two designers should go with them.  They all tear up.  This is Jerell’s dream.  He’s consistently shown his point of view.  He says Kenley is an amazing designer with unoriginal material.  She interrupts, and he interrupts back, summing it up with, “Yeah, so, Korto and Leanne and Jerell at the tent is what I’m trying to say.  At the tent.“

Leanne promises she won’t do a boring show.  I am skeptical.  She also chooses Korto and Jerell, and also calls Kenley unoriginal.  Korto is the oldest designer, but she still has her dreams, and she’ll bring her culture, her life, and she’s “classic.”  She’d bring Jerell and Leanne, “not just because of what they do but because of who they are as people.”

Kenley takes the most risks and does it well and with sophistication.  In tears, she says she’s been “fighting [her] way through life,” and that’s just who she is.  She would take Jerell and Leanne, because “classic [doesn't put] on a show, and people want to see a show at Bryant Park.”

Deliberation: Everyone gets positive and negative reviews for this challenge and their entire body of work.  Including Kenley, though Kors admits that her attitude is a problem.  “If a buyer says, ‘well, I don’t like that sleeve,’ what does she do, take a knife out and kill them?”  Nina is clearly over Kenley and her being saved for entertainment purposes, but…

In the closest runway elimination ever, the winner: Jerell.  But they couldn’t pick a loser, so all four have to go home and create their collections for Fashion Week.  The twist, like last season, is an elimination when they return to New York, with all four up for the kill.  Backstage, Tim congratulates them, and calls for a group hug, but Kenley stays separate and won’t join them.  She says it’s a little annoying that the other three designers hate her.  Shut up, Wendy Pepper.

Next week: Tim visits the designers at home, and one last elimination!

Season 5, Episode 12: Nature Calls (originally aired October 1, 2008)

For another take on this episode, check out Indecision 2008 by J.B. Perlow.

Wednesdays, at 9pm EST, Bravo

Photographs courtesy of BRAVO