Project Runway - Week One

I was very happy to hear some of my readers specifically requested for me to blog/review Project Runway. And I'll try to do as good as a job as I do on American Idol. Thanks again to all!! So shall I begin the breakdown?

First off, let me just say the more I hear about this move to Los Angeles and to the Lifetime channel, the more I'm dreading the direction the show is taking. One of the things that draws me to the show was that it takes place in New York, visiting locales and sites that are most recognizable to me. Not sure I would feel the same way with the show being based in L.A. Secondly....LIFETIME?! Really? I mean, this smells of a bad move, and I can only hope the things we like about the show are not changed to drastically or I can tell you the show will tank by end of next season.
Ok so enough about that, let's get to this season's crop of designers. I have to say, it's definitely not the the "more of the same" scenario going on. There seems to be a nice spread of different designers, from the rock-influenced (Stella) to the completely bizarre (Blayne?). All in all this should give us a pretty good last season (on Bravo).

This first challenge was one of my favorite challenges from Season One. I still to this day can't believe Austin Scarlett (I still can't believe that's his real name - sounds like a character on a southern soap opera.) won that challenge with CORN HUSKS! Needless to say, it was appropriate for them to ask him back to judge the challenge in which he won originally.



Since there were a lot of designers, and a lot to remember, I'm only gonna say something brief about each designer and their creation. As the season moves on, I'll expand on each designer and their creation, but for now, let's stick with the basics, because let's face it, none of you really remember all of their names. (do you?)

Kenley - Don't remember what made her stand out - she used dodgeballs and lawn chairs - Seen it done before on Season One, but all in all not a bad fitting dress.

Suede - UGH, I hate , HATE the designers who feel they need to have a "name"...Suede is the one with the blonde streak, with his name sequined across the back of a denim jacket I saw -- he used a tablecloth, which in the end, his dress still pretty much looked like a tablecloth with some stuff stapled on. Not impressed.

Blayne - Ugh, where do I begin. This wanna-be Christian (winner from last season), by his own admission, has a obsessive problem with tanning. And it shows. This orange-skinned designer is trying desperately to coin a new phrase, "girlicious", and it's already getting on my nerves. Blayne, sweetie, if that dress is the kind of work you're gonna put out, then you won't even come close to the finals. Instead of trying to create the new "fierce" (catchphrase from last season, thanks to Christian), let's concentrate on giving me great designs to look at. His outfit looked like what a hooker's housekeeper would wear. Where would you wear that?

Daniel - I remember him because he said he was from Brooklyn and his creation looked....well....good. IT took a lot of work to form shape those blue plastic cups into a bodice (not sure I spelled that right). The dress looked pretty darn good, for being made out of plastic cups. I liked his effort, so I give him lots of props.

Stella - the rocker chick - the one who designs for rock stars, etc. - What. A. Mess.
And I mean BOTH her and her outfit. First off, if what she was wearing is any indication, we're in for a really weird creations from her. Second, YES, you got screwed and the trash bags you got were the thin, rip-easy ones. So what? I'm no designer, but as Tim Gunn says (by the way, I would follow this man to ANY network. LOVE him) "Make it work!" She didn't. As Austin suggested, there were other ways of making the dress stand out, besides just adding in the stitching. She's very lucky she wasn't "auf'd".

Korto - She's the woman from Africa, and I cannot BELIEVE the judges liked this one! I'm sorry, maybe it's because I'm not a designer, but I think my friends can attest I'm pretty decent at judging what looks good or not. This, to me, looked like a big yellow tablecloth in which somebody spilled a salad on. I didn't think this was looking good at all. The only thing I'll give her is that it looked better then a few of the others by comparison.

Kelli - she was the winner of this challenge - I'm actually curious why she won this challenge. Though her dress was not horrific per se, I didn't think it was good enough to actually win. The skirt was "ok", but seemed a bit too stiff. I liked the marble design, but those coffee filters on the top half? DID NOT WORK. They were distracting! they were just these two big circles covering her goodies. I think it would have worked better if she made them half-circles, or anything else.

Jennifer - nothing I remember about her specifically, but she was the one with the dress made from paper towels. I was really surprised how good this came out, though I have to admit, one pail of water or one match would have made quite a different runway walk.

Terri - was the black girl who (to me) looks like a sane Whitney Houston, and used the mop tops to create a top for her dress. I will give this girl credit, the mops looked good as a top, though I thought it was a bit too little. (then again the time factor was an issue)

Jerell - this is the black dude who used very strange color choices in his design. Don't remember much else about the design (or him for that matter)

Wesley - this is the cutie pie that turned me off when I saw him wearing a white dress shirt with short-shorts and red shoes. Ugh. Ew. He designed the short yellow dress which he boasted you could not tell what it was made of. Well, true enough, but for me, the dress was a bit TOO yellow. I would have liked maybe a splash of some other color, just so it broke up the brightness of the color. All in all, not a bad dress, though his personal style is lacking.

Keith - guy with the glasses, and the tattoo---kind of hot actually - anyway, he had one of the "tablecloth" dresses, which did not seem that bad, but it didn't impress me either. I think if he has used something else instead of a tablecloth, he would have stood out.

Emily - I call her the "nice chick", dunno why -- her dress was one of the first ones out on the runway, the one with the huge collar. I hate these type of dresses, because I don't see how in the world they could be comfortable. It looked too "fancy" to me, if that makes any sense.

Joe - this is the father of 2 girls who used pasta on his dress. PASTA. All he did was repeat what maybe his little girls did in kindergarten, and pasted some macaroni to some poster board. Not impressed so far Joe.

Leanne - she made the dress that looked like it was designed by the makers of the Candyland game. Horrid, and I'm very surprised she wasn't one of the bottom three.

Jerry - this is the guy that was "auf'd".His outfit looked like one big shower curtain draped over some tissue paper. Oh wait, that's exactly what it was! They were not kidding when they described it as what a serial killer would use to start his/her spree.

So what did you guys think? What outfits stood out for you?
Sorry I didn't go into too much detail on each designer, but there are a LOT of designers!
Give me feedback my dear readers!
Until next week....auf wiedersehen!!