Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
It's Week Ten of Project Runway, and after last episode's rock themed challenge, which unofficially became a Seventies challenge, the producers decide to change things up this week by having—a Seventies themed challenge. This time around the designers are told they must each design a look of separates with a "sophisticated Seventies" theme. The winning look will be sold on Piperlime—and we confess, we still have to keep stopping ourselves from typing Bluefly.
The designers are each given $100 and sent to Mood to buy their materials. Anya, attired in a pocket-less outfit, which we assume she made because she doesn't know how to make pockets—or sleeves or anything else that's not flowery and flowing, loses the envelope with all her money in it. Somewhere out there, an ousted Bryce, yells at the screen, "See Michael, women do need pockets!" Tim Gunn tells Anya she will either have to make her design from muslin or see if the other designers will give her their leftover money. At this point, however, Anthony Ryan is the only one who hasn't paid for his fabrics yet, so he is the only one to give her his change. We suspect he will later look back on this with regret.
After Anya scrambles around the workrooms dying muslin and collecting scraps from the other designers, Tim comes back with the "Uh oh" grin on his face, and announces that there is a twist to the challenge. The designers have to make a second look, a one piece garment, and they'll get fifty dollars more to spend at Mood on it. Anya is obviously such a producer favorite, that we have to wonder if this "twist" was added just so she could go back to Mood and buy more fabric.
This week, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia are joined by yet another non-designer guest judge, and once again it's not an actress. Well, not exactly. It's Piperlime's guest editor, socialite and reality star Olivia Palermo. We know Olivia from—well, nothing, we didn't watch The City. What we learn from this is that in the food chain of picking judges, unqualified actresses trump qualified designers, but anyone associated with the show's sponsors trump everyone else. We can only hope that Priceline isn't a sponsor next year or William Shatner will be judging.
Our top designers this week are Bert, Viktor and Anya. Bert designs a tribute to Shelly Hack's Charlie fragrance campaign from the Seventies, which we of course are too young to remember. It includes his first outfit, a gauzy top over sequins and skimpy black hot pants which cover slightly more skin than a plus -size G string. Bert's second look is a simple white and beige dress. Viktor does an amazing safari suit and snakeskin top, and a snakeskin and black dress. And Anya creates two outfits which look exactly like what Anya creates every week, aside from the addition of a dyed muslin top, which is of course, sleeveless. And our winner is...Anya. But wait! We then learn that Piperlime also wants to produce and sell Bert's second design, the simple white and beige dress. Bert reacts to this exciting news by showing no emotion whatsoever. This makes us wonder if the designers get money from their produced designs or if it all kicks back to the producers.
Our bottom three designers for the week include Joshua, Laura and Anthony Ryan. Joshua's Eighties tuxedo shirt and plaid pants show that he has no concept of what the styles of the Seventies were nor how to make a woman's derrière look non-deformed. Laura's choice of combining prints and stripes makes us wonder if she is color blind. And Anthony's actual color blindness makes for clothing which Nina describes as reminiscent of the Mansons, albeit we'd like to add, without the carved-in-forehead swastika accessories.
Unfortunately, the lovely Anthony Ryan is sent packing. We'd say he should have used his extra money instead of giving it to Anya, but frankly, the one thing his designs didn't need was even more layered fabrics. Heidi bids Anthony a sad, "auf Wiedersehen," lamenting to the other judges how cute he is, and then Anthony departs with one of the more gracious exits of the season. Most of the "aufed" designers have left telling us we'll be seeing more of them, but Anthony does not. In his case, we actually hope we do.
And now for the Top Ten Moments of Project Runway Greatness...
10. Bert says he doesn't get Anthony Ryan's fabric choices. "It looks like a girl going to the mall or going to bury something in the woods." Yeah, like her taste.
9. Anya's money disappears and Mood's dog Swatch is nowhere to be seen. Coincidence?
8. When the designers arrive at the workroom on the second day, Bert claims he's surprise that the clothing are unfinished, saying, "I was expecting some little Munchkin to come in and do it." Laura responds with, "Some fairy?" No, we will not mention the Payless shoe designing winner of Season Four. We will not.
7. When Tim warns Joshua to be careful because he can really, "Spin a tale," Joshua takes it as a compliment.
6. Viktor says, "Fashion is my food." Judging by how skinny the models are, that's all they're eating too.
5. After Tim warns Laura that Nina, "Has her radar up when she sees your work. She gets bristly when she sees your taste level." Laura somehow reinterprets it as, "Nina hates me and that's why I didn't win the last challenge."
4. During the commercials for the upcoming show Project Accessories, they play a song by INXS. It's taken us a while, but we finally get it—"Project INXSsorries."
3. For this Seventies task, Anya says she will make, "What someone would wear to holiday in Jamaica in the Seventies." We suspect if Anya was assigned to make a gown for Marie Antoinette, she'd make, "What Marie Antoinette would wear to be offed by a Caribbean guillotine."
2. Laura describes her style as, "Sometimes maybe too refined." We suspect many of Bravo's Housewives would describe their own styles similarly.
1. The Piperlime judge repeatedly raves about the belt on Bert's dress—which we're pretty sure comes from the Piperlime accessories wall.
· All Project Runway Posts [Racked]