Project Runway Junior: S2 E4: "Step it Up From Day to Nightl"

Not long after writing the first review of this PRJR season, I'm about to say something that makes me feel a bit like a hypocrite: I won't be reviewing PRJR anymore this season after this week's episode. It's not that I don't still believe in the quality of this show or in the talent of these young designers because I do. Or well, I guess I believe in the talent more than I do the quality of the show. The challenges are solid, the kids are cool, but I'm currently of the opinion that the producers don't know what the hell they're doing. They don't know how to make an hour long episode that hits all the points it needs to hit, trims all of the fat, and strikes at the heart of what makes Project Runway compelling TV. The evidence for pretty much all of that can be found in this week's judgement category, but we'll get there soon enough.

The Challenge

This week, the designers are asked to create a fashionable day to evening look for a woman on the go. Since FitBit is the sponsor of the episode, it seemed to me like the daytime look should be active while the evening portion should be maybe more expensive and classy. But I think I was giving too much credit to this week's pointless product placement, and I should have known better.

Either way, the question on everyone's mind should have been does my look translate from day to night. Can it be reasonably worn in both atmospheres? Will my girl be just as at home in the office as she will be out to dinner or at the club in my look? Suffice it to say, a lot of the looks didn't capture that feeling to me, but what do I know?

This week is the first challenge to bypass a trip to Mood in favor of opening up Mini Mood. Think what you will of that, it doesn't really matter to me. The emerging of certain patterns in the workroom is more interesting to me. Along those lines, it seems we're seeing a pattern of Chelsea designing something with a strong story but not much else, and missing the crucial element of it until Tim comes it to give her the one piece of advice she needs to pull it all together. 

A couple designers are going out of their comfort zones in small ways this week. Izzy chose a print that she normally would avoid. Rene is designing something with an older woman in mind. It's still got aspects of his unique aesthetic, but he's aged the look intelligently. These are the kinds of edits that will either impress the judges or sink the contestants. 

The Runway

Allie: This look is cute. The fit on the pants isn't great, but I do like the color and I like the way they mesh with the textile of the top. I also think the little bow on the back is cute. Does it transition from day to night perfectly? I can see it being worn in either setting, so I guess that's more of a yes than a no, but I'd like for the day time aspects of the looks to be more active wear inspired.

Tieler: This is probably too simple of a look. While last week it looked like Tieler wasn't resting on his immunity to carry him through, this week it looks like he didn't try much. In his defense, this is pretty solid for someone phoning it in, but it's not anywhere near as great as it should be. And there's points at the sleeves where it looks like the textile isn't matching up properly. I can't take my eyes off of those moments and not in a good way.

A'kai: The details on the back of the dress are probably the most striking aspect of it, and I wish he could have brought that flare around to the front a bit more. But ultimately, I think it's the same kind of detailing we saw on his first look. Other than that, it's all boring. He chose the wrong color palette, and there's no great or innovative design to the dress. His "night" portion of the look appears to be an evening gown, not something you'd wear to dinner with your friends. It does transition, but it doesn't transition into the portion of the night that I think it should.

Chris: No aspect of this look says evening. It's more active wear than anything we've seen so far, which I respect, but it looks cheap and unfashionable. He missed major aspects of this challenge.

Cartier: I actually like this quite a bit. The way the gold fabric interplays with the black of the slip dress and makes it shine is impressive. The two pieces compliment each other well. And while I don't think changing the vest from black to gold totally transforms the look, I do think it adds a nice wow factor.

Molly: This grew on me the more I looked at it. I was ready to slam it for not being transitional enough, but there's something about the back of the blouse that just screams night, while the front of the outfit says day to me. And the finer details on that top are really quite stunning.

Izzy: This is the definition of clothes not fashion. It's a cute enough sundress, and good for her. But there's nothing special about it and nothing about it embodies this challenge.

Rene: Perhaps I'm too partial, but I love it. I do not love the fit of the skirt, which has some odd bunching up issues that I think he should have addressed, but I do love the rest of it. I think he's very smart about the way he keeps himself in this design and still creates something for a woman who's different than his typical woman. And I like the cool leather strap details, and the way the look changes when sh takes the jacket off is quite interesting.

Hawwaa: This is stunning and quite shocking really. It looks unique and even a bit expensive. If I have one complaint it's that I wish the blue panel went all the way across the front of the skirt. I think That would make the transition even better. Because unveiling that fun print makes it look like a cool party dress, but the solid blue makes it into something reasonable to wear to work. That little bit of pink showing throws it off from that vibe just a little though, so I'd rather it all be covered and then revealed. But that's just me.

Chelsea: It's a jumpsuit made out of neoprene, it's not special, and her story doesn't make it special. I need her to design just one stunning outfit without giving all of this thought to a backstory. Then we'll see if she's actually a good designer or if she's just a passable storyteller.

Judgement

And this is where it all comes crashing down. Allie, Hawwaa, and Chelsea are in the top. Cartier, Izzy and Rene are in the bottom. 

I'm all for being disagreed with. Years of watching and writing about this show continues to inform me that I know little about fashion and about what the judges will and won't like. What I have no actual patience for is inconsistency. Project Runway has suffered through boring contestants, silly gimmicks, and pointless format changes to churn out a number of bad seasons, but for my money, the worst seasons in the history of the series were the ones in which the judging was inconsistent and nonsensical. 

Chelsea being in the top is nothing if not inconsistent. Because, and I quote from my review just last week: "Christian simply doesn't like jumpsuits. I can't disagree with his point that the jumpsuit might not be where fashion is going, but..." That's what I said last week because those were Christian's complaints about Rene and Chris' look last week. Flat and simple condemnation of the jumpsuit as a piece of fashion. And yet what did Chelsea make this week? A jumpsuit. And not only does that land her in the top three, it earns her a win. Why were jumpsuits verboten last week but lauded this week? 

Rene is sent home, and I can't help but to find that nonsensical. First off, his look is nowhere near as boring as A'kai or Tieler's, and it's not as sloppy as Chris'. You can't fall back on the excuse that he didn't get the day to night transition aspect of the challenge because none of them did. Instead, the judges complain that he's basically a one trick pony through four challenges. I'm sorry, but I simply don't think four challenges is a large enough sample size to claim that a designer only has one trick up their sleeve. How many challenges did Erin win at the beginning of last season employing the exact same techniques before we were all ready to call her on it? 

Rene has a unique and interesting aesthetic that's more mature than his age makes you think it should be. He's creating looks that are simultaneously tasteful and sexy in a way that I've continued to be impressed with. If we compare him to the designers who actually found themselves in the bottom with him, I think it's a very difficult task. I proclaimed all three of them as contestants to beat last week, and they've all put out dresses that were amazing. But I think this boils down to the question of bad ideas versus no ideas. Not that I think Cartier and Izzy have a lack of creativity, but I certainly think they both kind of phoned it in this challenge. I would have sent Izzy home this week. Rene tried, he thought of a way to design something for a woman who isn't his primary client and yet still kept his signature in it. Izzay pushed herself by picking a different fabric (which I'm not impressed by personally) and then folded when she couldn't think of anything unique to do with that fabric. In the end, she just made a boring dress. Rene's look is the one that had more design to it which I think should mean something in a design competition. 

But there you have it. On the one hand, the most undeserving contestant won, and on the other, the most undeserving contestant to be sent home was sent home. There's something about this that I simply cannot abide. It's not enough to make me stop watching this season, but it is enough to make me feel like I don't need to write about it any longer. 

Loose Threads

--There's one more aspect of the episode that left me feeling certain I don't need to keep writing up this show: the editing continues to be horrible. The runway at least hasn't been as bad as it was on the first episode, but the critique segment is really appalling. The music continues to be a distraction, and the way they're cutting those scenes leaves us with only enough time to get like one comment from each judge at best. So in the event that Christian even tried to offer up a "I know I said I hate jumpsuits, but..." kind of comment, we wouldn't know. Pure and simple, they don't know how to make an hour long episode. 

--In all of my shock and outrage over the results I forgot to mention the fact that Hawwaa got completely screwed in the offing. She totally deserved to win this week, and any other outcome is just a travesty

--Since I'll still be watching, I'll leave the possibility open that I'll chime in on a particularly great episode, assuming one exists out there somewhere. But without that, I doubt you'll hear much more from me until next season of Project Runway. If someone else wants to take over reviewing duties of this show, you're more than welcome. 

Project Runway Junior: S2 E3: "En Garde Avant Garde"

This is what Project Runway Junior has going for it: young, talented designers who don't get handled with kids gloves. I mentioned this last year while reviewing the show's first season. Dealing with kids automatically heightens the emotions of a thing. We're genetically programmed to further our species. This means we're genetically programmed to want to protect the young of our species. Reality competitions are hard. They're stressful and emotional powder kegs. Spending time with a group of people, growing close to that group, but always knowing that at the end of the day you're competing against one another is hard and stressful and confusing for an adult. You know it's harder for a teenager. So PRJR comes equipped with heightened emotions that PR simply can't match.

But there's more than just pathos in this show. The fact of the matter is PRJR wouldn't work if the kids they found weren't so damn talented. Project Runway has never not been about art and fashion. As such, you need great artists at its core for it to be compelling. This was never more on display than it was last season when everyone was pretty much equally (middlingly) talented. The complaint that would have quickly sank the PRJR ship would have been if the quality of the clothing produced had been significantly lesser than the quality of clothing on its parent show. Luckily, that's never been the case. I don't know if we're more impressed with the fashion on this show because we have lower expectations due to the youth of the contestants, or because it's genuinely masterful. All I do know is that I've never failed to be impressed with the fashion on this show.

And this season hasn't been any different. I've watched all three episodes even though I didn't review the first two. I needed a bit of a break in the wake of PR, but I have been impressed so far. Through three episodes, I would proclaim Tieler, Rene, Izzy, and Cartier, as the contestants to beat. I'll be keeping a close eye on Allie, Molly, and Chris as they interest me but I think they've been a little inconsistent thus far.

The Challenge

This week sees the remaining ten designers broken up into pairs and asked to create an Avant Garde look inspired by fencing gear and armor. It's an interesting way to introduce us all to the fact that Tim's taken up fencing in his old age. Most people celebrate a mid-life crisis with a sports car, Tim Gunn started learning a new sport with a phallic weapon. C'est la vie!

The button bag continues to be the decider of teams on PRJR. If I remember correctly, the show completely avoided any aspect of the school yard pick last season, and it seems like they're doing so again. When your contestant base is made up of a bunch of artsy, queer kids who have probably been on the harsh end of a school yard pick their whole lives, it makes sense to save them from that when you gather them together in doing something they all love.

From the start, the trouble team is Hawwaa and A'kai. As a quick aside, between those two, Cartier, and Tieler, we've got some of the most interesting names reality TV has ever seen, but I digress. Both Hawwaa and A'kai were in the bottom last week, and with good reason. Hawwaa points this out and makes it clear that they're the underdogs. But we've seen underdogs bounce back and be made stronger by their union on this show in the past.

And then they start working together and it's clear that this isn't going to be one of those stories. Team challenges are always hard, and communication is always the problem at the center of each poor team. Hawwaa and A'kai simply cannot communicate. Admittedly, A'kai's problems with clear communication were showcased all the way back to the first episode when he had the oddest exchange with a Mood employee that we've ever seen. He's also been shown to be a sensitive boy who cries under a very limited amount of stress. So he cries multiple times and always looks like he's mere seconds away from crying.

Then there's Hawwaa. As I was watching, I kept trying to figure out who came off worse in this episode. In the end, my money's on Hawwaa. At Mood, she goes on about how she has to be the leader because A'kai is younger than her. Then in the workroom, when he asks her for her input on sometime, she tells him to just go off and do it on his own. Then before the runway show, he makes a change without telling her and she goes off on him about not including her in the decision. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think you can have it three ways. Either you fall into the leadership role and you offer the guidance needed to accomplish the task, or you shirk that responsibility and just allow your team to sink or swim on its on accords. Either way, once you've chosen, you don't get to complain when the team makes a choice that's in accordance with your decision. The moment she said she didn't care anymore and A'kai just needed to finish the skirt however, was the moment she lost all right to be upset about him making a choice and not including her in it.

Everyone else seems to work together quite well and it shows in their final looks.

The Runway

Chelsea and Allie: Wow! Now that is one hell of a way to kick off a runway show. The neck line going so high up is stunning, the shoulders and those points are amazing, and the manner in which they employed the same technique on the pants is really smart. Love it.

Chris and Rene: Stunning! It's maybe just a little more wearable than I'd like for an Avant Garde challenge, but it's still exceptional and far out there. That jacket is to die for. The hood, the back of it, everywhere you look there's something stunning to behold. I like the jumpsuit a lot too. The way Rene loves showing skin continues to be impressive. At some point I wonder if his taste level might falter. It hasn't so far, and I love anticipating what he's sending down each week. But if this is the winning look, I think the win goes to that jacket!

A'kai and Hawwaa: It's poorly constructed, and the two pieces don't go together well, but it's not horrible. The top is striking, and there's a play on hard and soft that I can appreciate. It's not very good, and it may turn out to be the worst thing on the runway, but I've seen worse in PR history. 

Izzy and Cartier: I think this is beautiful, but I don't think it's very exciting. I think the poofy hips technique is an easy and lazy way to go when you do Avant Garde. But it's done well here. She says they have three pieces, but I thought I only saw two. 

Molly and Tieler: I love it. It's weird and out there, but wonderfully well constructed and thought out. I thought the back might be a little more open than it was, which would have been an interesting touch, but it all comes together wonderfully well. For someone with immunity, Tieler certainly didn't play it safe. 

Judgement

Allie and Chelsea are in the top along with Molly and Tieler. Hawwaa and A'kai find themselves in the bottom with Chris and Rene. 

It's pretty obvious that Chris and Rene aren't in danger of going home against what A'kai and Hawwaa did, but I was surprised by just how much the judges didn't like their outfit. Admittedly, it's more wearable than an Avant Garde look should be, but that's the only complaint I had about it. Aya calls it safe, which I don't agree with, and Christian simply doesn't like jumpsuits. I can't disagree with his point that the jumpsuit might not be where fashion is going, but I don't know that I think a general prejudice against the idea means you don't get to engage with the look on its own merits. I neither love nor hate a jumpsuit, but this one was at least well made and interesting. Or at least I thought it was. And the jacket was the selling point of the outfit to begin with and simply doesn't get the attention I think it deserves. 

The two winning teams are commended for how well they worked together and collaborated on their different ideas to create a new whole. As anyone could have predicted, Hawwaa and A'kai implode on the runway. It doesn't take very much of them trying to explain how hard it was for the judges to get the picture and pretty much tell them to just stuff it. 

Tieler and Molly get the win, and since the jacket was the bigger deal, Tieler gets his second win in a row. After a really difficult deliberation, and with Kelly in tears, A'kai is sent home. But anyone who was watching the episode and knew enough about the show knew what was coming next. The moment A'kai went to Tim during the workroom segment of the show to confess his struggles with Hawwaa and to ask his advice was the moment that sealed it in stone. If A'kai was to be sent home this episode, Tim was going to use his save on him. And he did exactly that. 

The looks of shock within the greenroom aren't without reason. It's the third episode of a long season, and already Tim Gunn has used his save. Here we go with yet another discussion about what the save is for; it seems like we touch on this every time he uses the damn thing. The truth of the matter is that A'kai isn't ready to be at this level of competition. He managed to escape the bottom three in the first episode on the sheer luck that there were three worse looks than his on the runway. Admittedly, three looks isn't a very large sample size, but what I can see for sure is that I have no real interest in seeing anything else from A'kai because I don't really think he has much more to show. He stumbled on the team challenge, but that's no more of a reason to save him than Lucas' failing on the unconventional materials challenge was basis to save him last week. Indeed, after Lucas' stunning dress in the first episode, there was more cause to save him last week than there was to save A'kai this week. 

But Tim liked him, and he asked Tim for help, and Tim helped him out about as much as it's within his power to do so. A'kai talks a big game about making sure everyone knows he was worth the save, but we'll see about that. Honestly, I don't expect him to make it to the midpoint of the season, but who knows. 

Loose Threads

--As much as I think Tim made the wrong choice in using his save, I did enjoy the scene between him and A'kai. Tim Gunn as mentor is one of the other things this show has going for it. Hannah is an alright host, but clearly she's no Heidi. Keeping Tim on and finding three really great judges is a choice that will keep this show afloat. 

--On thing this show has as a mark against it, however, is it's editing. The runway on the first episode was horrible. Each look was cut before you could get a good look at it. And there's something about the judgement sections that feels impossibly rushed and I've been noticing the music during them for some reason. Either the music needs to be lowered, or they need to pick something that adds tension but doesn't draw too much attention to itself. It's all rather disconcerting. And the makeup section of each episode needs to go away. The designers don't seem to get hair and makeup consultations, so why there's any time spent on that is beyond me. If it's the same set of producers behind this show as are behind PR, then this show really confirms that they've totally forgotten how to make a good hour long episode. 

--I mentioned Rene's aesthetic briefly but I must say, I'm really quite impressed with it. For a 17-year-old, it's really interesting how well he can make flattering, sexy clothes for a woman's body. With that being said, I feel odd looking at him with his many sleeveless, v-neck shirts and oddly short shorts. Put some damn clothes on that kid already so I don't have to feel like perv. 

--One thing I find interesting this season is the manner in which these kid's beliefs seem to matter to them and seep into their clothing. Allie and Hawwaa both admit that they come from religious and strict backgrounds, so neither of them really like to design revealing clothing. Allie's been able to do some interesting things without having to show much skin so far, and I'm curious to see if she can keep it up. Hawwaa made some comments about Rene's first dress that I'd like her to keep to herself from now on.  

Project Runway Junior: S1 E10 "Finale Part 2"

10 episodes, 13 weeks, one winner. And with that, Project Runway Junior crowns 14 year old Maya as it's first winner. There's a poetry to the fact the she show's youngest contestant becomes its first champion. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't ecstatic over this news, or that I was all that surprised by it; I've been calling for a Maya victory for months now, but there's still something magical about it. Maya had the skill, the vision, and, towards the end of the competition, the confidence to make for a solid choice of victor. Which isn't to take anything away from the others finalists who all truly deserved to have made it to this point in the competition. But Maya stated running away with this thing when she started earning multiple wins towards the end of the competition.

In truth, I was worried about the quality of the finale episode after watching last week's entry. Not that a lot of the family stuff wasn't interesting and compelling to watch. There's something innately special about seeing young LGBT kids (namely Zachary at the expense of making too bold an assumption) being loved and supported by their families. I don't know if anyone else is watching this season of American Crime, if you aren't you should be because it's been seriously amazing, but it's been a bit full of less than positive reactions to young people coming out as gay or questioning. On the one hand, it's a bit silly to think that this is still a problem in 2016, but on the other hand, it is a reality some people have to face, and it's sometimes hard to watch as a result. But that's not been the case on PRJR, and that's great.

But with that being said, the quality of the designs we saw in the workroom and on the runway simply wasn't up to snuff last time around. On top of that, there was an exceptional amount of work still to be done before the contestants would even be ready to show at NYFW. Even while watching this episode, I was struggling to remember a time when just this must scrambling and finishing was needed to get a complete collection to show. And that's with ten looks being shown, never mind the fact that these kids only had six. But they pulled it out, and I guess that's all that matter.

From the start, it was clear that Maya had the least amount of work to do to get her collection ready. She's worried about the judges' comments that maybe she should go a little harder on the yellow and add some more color to her collection, but by the time Tim is visiting later in the episode, he's assuring her that she needn't worry about that so much. It shows just how good she is at this stage of things.

Meanwhile, everyone else is scrambling to fix existing pieces and just create whole new pieces from scratch. To help them along with that, they're given an extra $250 each and a trip to Mood. This benefits the other designers much more than it does Maya who grabs some bright yellow fabric she'll end up not using. Samantha latches on to Christian's comment about needing more color, and seems to latch even more firmly onto the idea that that color should be red. She's got tunnel vision towards finding the right red fabric, and I couldn't help but to wonder if the exclusion of finding another color that could work just as well wouldn't be to the detriment of her collection. Meanwhile, Peytie and Zachary are each scraping looks and making drastic changes to other looks, so they're more in the market for fabric selection.

Back in the workroom, the only story worth really focusing on is the mountain of work ahead of Samantha. At multiple times, she checks in and lists off the sheer number of pieces she still has to complete. At one point in time, I think it was shorts, a dress, pants, and multiple crop tops in the red fabric she's only just acquired. And she's got to do all that in two days with model fittings and meeting with Tim at some point. I won't lie, I doubted she'd get it all done. I thought for sure that at multiple points in the collection she'd have no choice but to lessen her ambition and choose easier and quicker pieces to throw together.

Not to be out done, Zachary also has a number of pieces to finish and no idea how he'll go about accomplishing his task. Peytie's making changes, but other than scraping her orange and gold look for something totally new, her edits seem small and almost superficial. Maya is on a perfect pace until the model fitting when she finds that all of her models have exceptionally long midriffs and none of her shirts fit. The model fitting arrives on the last day before NYFW, so she spends all of her first day thinking she doesn't have much to do and then is hit with the reality that she's just as busy as the others by the time the second day comes around. It's a panic inducing moment, but to her credit, she keeps an even head and just moves forward with what she has to do.

By the time we're ready for the show, most everything is done and somehow they've all pulled it out. I maintain that some part of this is due to the fact that they seem to thrive under the pressure of the competition. When they go home and have time on their hands, they produce substandard work. When they're in the workroom with Tim looking over their shoulders and the other designers to hold them accountable for what they're doing, they seem to surge with energy. There's a lot of talk in this episode about how these kids represent just how strong the future of fashion is, and on the whole, I agree with that. But in the micro, I can't help but to wonder. These kids are talented as shit, but if this seeming lackadaisical attitude towards work you have to do when you have the relaxed time to do it is something that persists, should we maybe bee a bit more concerned? At the very least, their talent more than speaks for itself out on the runway.

The Runway:

Maya: WOW! Talk about a WOW factor and putting on a show. My jaw was on the floor. I think the first and fourth looks stand out the most as they aren’t in keeping with the traditional white and structured on top, black and flowy on bottom cut that she’s got throughout the collection. I love that for cohesion, but I do think I would have liked to see one look that was the inverse of it: black and structured on top, white and flowy on bottom. But with that being said, I think this collection showcases who she is, and details her theme and vision perfectly, and I love it. 

Samantha: This collection is odd to me. It starts off ridiculously strong, and then starts to fall apart with the fourth look--which I don't hate outright, but I certainly don't think it fits in with the collection at all. The same girl isn't wearing this dress as the one wearing the significantly better one before it. The fifth look isn’t bad, but it doesn’t stand out enough to rebound from the let down that the fourth look was, and I don’t find her final look to be as strong as what came before it. I think the red works wonders to break up the color palette and make it all pop more. And I think her styling is the best we'll see. That third look she sent down is 100% what I’ve been looking for from her all season long, and she whipped it out at just the right time. But I think she put her looks in the wrong order. If she had just reversed it and went from back to front, it would have been a much better show. 

Zachary: In a contrast to Samantha’s collection, I do think that Zachary’s elevates as things go on. I find his first looks to be pretty but a little simple and not really eye popping. But the more you go on, the more that changes. Until you hit the third look which is nothing if not interesting, the fourth look which is beautiful, and the fifth look which is the best of the collection (maybe of all the collections) and the one thing that truly took my breath away. But back to the third look for a minute; this is where you see the problem with the eye glasses addition thing. On everyone before this girl, the glasses were either so natural that they didn’t stand out at all, as with Maya’s collection, or the most perfect addition to the collection, as with Samantha’s. On Zachary’s girl, they feel horribly discordant and out of place and, thusly, were too noticeable. He either needed to choose different frames, or put them on a different model. As a whole, I don’t think his collection was as strong as it could have been, but the standout pieces really do stand out in all the best ways. 

Peytie: I think the very best thing you can say about Peytie’s collection is that it’s 100% her. She and Samantha both have voices that are totally unique and particular to themselves. I don’t love this because it doesn’t fit my personal aesthetic, but I’m so very happy it exists. I do love the choice to cut up the pieces of leather her sister drew on to make the fringe; that was a smart way to make those two pieces pop while still being cohesive. I like the beaded pieces more here than I did on the last runway. I also think she chose the right piece to end on, and her fifth piece was amazing as well.

In the post runway interviews, which if I'm being honest have always been one of my favorite aspects of the finale since they seem to have such an easy time finding someone to remark on how much they favored each collection, I think it's Jaxson that says the decision is really between Maya and Samantha, and I couldn't agree with him more. Peytie and Zachary make a nice showing from themselves, but the truth is that neither of their collections are as strong as Maya and Samantha's ended up being. 

The section of the episode that was the judges and contestants chatting pales in comparison to the judge's deliberation. They talk about each collection in depth and you can see just how tough of a decision this is going to be. Hannah's redundant points about how much younger Zachary's collection ended up being annoy me. But to be honest, I find Hannah to be the most useless judge in this one. She doesn't like Maya's capes, she says this is the first time she's seen stuff from Samantha that she'd actually wear, and isn't a big fan of Peytie's aesthetic. Clearly, Hannah has very particular tastes and can't see beyond them. In the same way Heidi's constantly judging pieces by whether she'd wear them or not annoys me, Hannah's remarks annoy me here. 

Everyone else seems to get at the heart of the issues. The debates about Samantha's versatility and Maya's lack of actual yellow are fairly interesting. Pointing out that we've seen that jacket from Samantha ten times this season is what I'd been waiting for them to say all season long. It's fine since it's a nice coat and she clearly has a very specific point of view with it, but seriously, you have to have more in your arsenal than that. I'm less in agreement about the general lack of yellow in Maya's collection and feeling like her insistence on her theme of "Warrior woman in yellow flowers" somehow detracts from what the collection is, but I can at least understand what they're saying. 

In the end, Zachary goes and is quickly followed by Peytie, leaving the only real top two based on the collections. And Maya gets the well deserved victory. As I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of talk about how bright the future of fashion is based on these kids, but more importantly, I think the future of PR JR might be equally weird. This first season showcased more talent than I think anyone could have expected from the show. It showed that teenagers are mentally and physically capable of handling the stress that tends to come with this show. And it created the very best group of judges and hosts that it could. Keeping Tim Gunn on as mentor proved to be the best decision and I think will be the quintessential aspect of the show's success going forward. I think you can either take Hannah Davis or leave her, but there's something special about the combination of Kelly, Christian, and Aya that I think the other PR spinoffs simply haven't been able to tap into. If they can manage to find another group of young designers this talented and with this much personality, I don't see why this can't be the first of many seasons for Project Runway Junior.

Loose Threads:

--Tim says bye to Swatch when they leave Mood, but we don't get a shot of everyone's favorite fashion pup. Either way, at this point each mention of Swatch is a gift. 

--During the runway, the camera seemed to keep cutting to two really cute guys in the audience. One seemed to be there with Sonjia (maybe her boyfriend?) and the other was sitting next to Sean (maybe his boyfriend?) Either way, I didn't recognize them, but I couldn't help but to wonder if the camera person didn't have something of a crush on them. 

--Thanks for sitting through my blathering about this show all season to those of you that did. It turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated. I'll admit to low expectations heading in to this season since I've never been able to get more than an episode into a PR spinoff without wanting to shoot myself, but this turned out to be great. I won't be covering PR All Stars, so baring someone else wanting to tackle that, I'll see you all back here later this year for another season of Project Runway.

Project Runway Junior: S1 E9 "Finale Part 1"

I've felt bad for the amount of time I've spent comparing PR JR to its predecessor. I've done my best to at least get away from speculation about the show's quality based on its similarities and differences from the original, but when the show is working so hard to be similar to, but also intelligently different from, Project Runway, it's hard not to spend time in comparison mode. Enter the ninth episode of  this freshman season, the first part of the standard two-part finale. It's the episode in which contestants head home to make collections and get visited by Tim Gunn for family fun and soppy stories.

The first difference of the episode comes in the fact that Tim won't be making visits to the contestants' homes while they work. There simply isn't time he says, and if the episode really is taking place in the month before NYFW, then we can imagine he kinds of things Tim is busy with. It opens questions about the timeframe of taping for this show versus when they might have been taping the last season of Project Runway. Clearly the kids are going to the same NYFW as the grownups, so it's very possible the two seasons were taped concurrently. If so, you have to respect Tim Gunn's dedication and stamina at being able to do both, and as it was clear that he was a bit better at mentoring the kids as he was the adults, it suggests he might have been plum tuckered out from the one by the time he got to the other.

But I digress, I was talking about the lack of home visits. Or more over, I was talking about the primary differences between this and the other show at this same moment. No home visits, and the kids are making six look collections instead of ten look collections. So they've scaled it back to make it easier, but also in so doing made it a bit harder. It's more difficult to make a cohesive collection in six looks that doesn't cross the line into being redundant. But that's the name of the game.

Because the there are no home visits, the kids will be returning to New York in three weeks to have their usual critiques. Since they only have four weeks to finish the collections, it would make more sense to give them three weeks at home, bring them back for the critique, and then just let them finish up in the workroom. Instead, it seems the plan is to send them home, fly them back in three weeks, and then send them home again for one more week to finish up. I'm not sure I see the point in all that, but so be it.

The kids make little vlogs while they're at home, and then in no time at all they're back. The visit back to Tim is an excuse to have a sit down with all of their parents and family's, so the show still gets to have it's family fun and soppy moments, but this time on Tim's turf instead of at their homes. There's nothing special about these visits. Tim plays ping pong with Peytie's crew, gets a lot of "we're so proud," and a number of stories about these kids playing with clothes since before they could walk. It's touching but not totally illuminating.

When everyone gets back in town, we learn just how much more work they all have to do on their collections before showing at NYFW. Samantha is the one that happens to be the farthest behind. She admits to still having pieces to work on for each of her six looks. Since everything she's doing is in separates, what you find is is that she's got coats and vests and the like all done, but no pants, shorts, or skirts to go with them. I found myself wishing I could be surprised by this, but I wasn't. Make a great coat, but skimp on everything else has been Samantha's MO since the first challenge. But I'm sure we'll get back around to that.

Fact of the matter is, there's a preview show on the runway featuring two looks from  each collection. Another difference between this show and the other one is that there isn't a last minute twist when the designers get back to New York needing them to make a new look. So everyone just has to choose two looks that exemplify their collections and will hopefully impress the judges--easy peasy. Or at least it is for the designers who actually have enough pieces finished to be able to choose two. Samantha is of course shit outta luck because this means she has to make two pairs of shorts before the runway. And wouldn't you know it, they're both crappy, slapdash, pieces of work that she has no interest in using beyond this particular runway.

The Runway:

Peytie 1: I just don’t feel like the top and bottom go together. There’s something seriously discordant about them when they’re paired together. I think they’re both nice looks individually, but together it all looks too busy. 

Peytie 2: No! Everything about this is bad. And I think she’s right that it looked better on the hanger than it does on the model, but I also think the same construction issues she had with it during the Tim visit are all still there. She said she chose her two weakest looks for this preview, and I think there’s something to be said for trying to get feedback on the weakest elements so you can make them stronger while allowing the stronger elements to speak for themselves. But if I were a judge, based on these two looks, I’d have no confidence in the rest of the collection. 

Maya 1: I think I’ll end up liking this more then most people will. I like the strange embroidery things on the bottom of that flowy textile in the skirt. And I like the movement of it all. And I think there’s a strength and a femininity to the black and white color pallet. I like this. 

Maya 2: I think the floral pattern is something that really stands out in a good way here. Her collection is in black and white until you get to these prints and there’s this pop of yellow. This is another look that moves and flows well, and she’s combined hard and soft in a way that really gets are her warrior woman theme. I love it. 

Samantha 1: I honestly don’t have an opinion about this, and that’s odd. I feel like it is what it is, it is what I’d expect from her, and I can’t really form a strong reaction for or against it. I’ve watched it walk down the runway three times and still can’t think of anything to say. Shrug, and move on. 

Samantha 2: Is the hem of the jacket meant to be asymmetrical? If not, it’s all I can really see and it’s seriously distracting. This is also right up Samantha’s alley: make a nice big coat and just skate by on the clothes underneath it. The top and pants don’t matter so long as the coat’s there. I feel like she’d do well designing coats for flashers. You’d seem them walking down the street in these beautiful big coats and be impressed, but then they’d open them up and flash their junk at you, and you’d feel a little disappointed. 

Zachary 1: I have to say, the pop of pink (maybe lavender?) that shines through in the lining of this dress honestly took my breath away. I was ready to be board by this, but then that little pop of color reinvigorated the look. I also like the pants. Unlike Samantha, I feel like Zachary thinks about each element of his design. Very smart. 

Zachary 2: The flowers on the bottom of this need to go all around or not be there at all. Just that little patch of them is weird and ugly and feels like an after thought. Something about them reminded my of Hitler’s mustache. The rest is OK at least, but the flowers bring the entire look down a few notches. 

The judges advice is pretty interesting. For his part, Christian seems to think everyone should go bigger and farther and more extreme. They all seem to butt heads a bit when it comes to Zachary's collection which some of them want to skew younger while the others recognize that just because he's a young person doesn't mean he has to design for young people. I felt like it was the kind of thing that put him in a strange position because I honestly don't see how Zach could keep his personal aesthetic while going the youthful route. He still has work to do, but we'll see how it turns out. 

Based on everything, it looks like Peytie and Maya are the forerunners to win it all at this point. The judges don't care much for Peytie's orange dress, no matter how much they love the colors, but they seem to like the first piece more than I did. So if she cleans up some of her construction, she should be good to go. Meanwhile, the reviews for Maya's work here is nothing short of glowing. They make mention of wanting to see more day looks and a general transition within her collection that tells a kind of morning to day to evening story for her girl. It's an interesting notion, and one I can totally get behind, but we'll see where it goes. 

They've got tougher words for Samantha, but the truth is they weren't nearly as tough as I would have been or as I wanted them to be. I haven't been shy about the fact that I don't think Samantha is quiet ready to be here. I think she has a unique point of view and a voice that deserves to be heard, and some part of me was curious and even excited about what she might do with a collection, but I've got to back track on that excitement in the face of what we've seen. A lot of what we've seen from Peytie in particular, and the others to an extent, has been in service to showing how much they've grown and changed over the course of the competition. Samantha hasn't. Some part of that is because her aesthetic is her aesthetic, and there's something to be commended in that. But to have reached the finale and still find yourself incapable of having even two outfits completed to show on the runway is deplorable. She had four weeks and couldn't manage to get more than half of the pieces for each of her six outfits done? And then she arrives back to the workroom thinking what? That she'd just get to coast on through to NYFW without an new challenges or hurdles being thrown her way while she worked on getting her pants and shorts done to perfection? At this point, is there really any reason to think the finished products she sends down fashion's biggest stage with be at all more polished and finished than the pieces we saw in this episode? She's got all the confidence in the world, and keeps saying she'll be ready by Friday, but we don't know what day of the week it is now. Does she have three days, or five to knock this out? 

Regardless of the answer, my main concern was in how no one felt the need to take her to task for her consistently lax attitude. Or for the fact that she's pretty much created the same look over and over again. Aya gets the closest when she points out that tom boy is not simply about cargo pockets and Bermuda shorts. But it all kind of stops there. They say that they want to see more color and an evening look for her, but they don't push too hard for it, and having seen the sketches, I'm guessing they won't be getting one. Kelly says that she doesn't want the small details to be what ruins this for her, so her finishing has to be impeccable, but it all tends to sound a bit like "We like what you do, do more of it and don't over tax yourself," and it bugs me. 

Either way, everyone leaves with a lot of work to do and very little time to do it. NYFW is neigh, and the only person with small notes is Maya. If things continue in this way, she should win and become the youngest person in PR history to get a win. Though that title would have gone to any one of these kids who got the W, it seems to mean more that Maya's the youngest contestant on the show as well. She's also my favorite at this point, so here's hoping. 

Loos Threads:

--There's something about eyeglasses needing to be used on one look that I didn't much pay attention to. It felt like the show went through the entire season before it realized it didn't have nearly as much product placement as it should have. They decided to cram it all into these last couple episodes. I'm guessing next week will be nothing more than a cycle of logos running in the bottom corner of the screen. 

--I've been impressed with the talent of these kids all season, but I certainly felt like something weird happened when the went home and were asked to keep the ball running. There are some nice pieces in these collections, but given four weeks, they all seemed to come back with things that needed a lot of finishing. And nothing I saw really struck me as strongly as some of what they put out through the competition. 

--Speaking of talented kids though, how great were Peytie's sister's paintings on her dresses?

--There's a lot of panic about having to show two looks to the judges, and it all made me roll my eyes and ask them "Haven't you watched the show before? You should have gotten back and been mentally prepared to have to make a new garment from scratch. Just showing two looks is child's play!"

Project Runway Junior: S1 E8 "Make a Statement"

Late doesn't even begin to cover it with this one. So I really dropped the ball, I know it, and trust me no one can feel worse about it than I do. But for the sake of my sanity, let's just jump in. I'll write up this episode quickly, and then try to get on to the most recent episode before this weekend is over. Two for the price of one. The price being free of course since I'm still trying to be the hardest working man in unpaid, Project Runway blogging. But still. It's easy to wrap up "Make a Statement" quickly because it's honestly a pretty stock episode of the show up until the end. An end that wasn't anywhere near as shocking as the previous double elimination, but an ending that at least releases the episode from it's rather humdrum opening moments and makes it into something interesting.

The episode before the finale starts can often seem a bit preliminary. Sometimes, as I honestly think is the case here, you end up with four or five designers who all honestly deserve to go to NYFW, and that can make the final cut into something of a nail biter. But most of the time, there's only three or four people who truly deserve to go and the final cut is pretty obvious going into the episode. And in this place on Project Runway, when there's only four contestants left to begin with, the writing tends to be on the wall that no one is going home. PR has (unfortunately) had four contestants in the finale for how many seasons now? It's why no one was really worried about Edmond at the end of last season. Of course he was going to be saved and the four of them would compete at NYFW.

PR JR, however, doesn't necessarily have that going for it. This is the first season. And in a lot of ways it's similar to it's adult predecessor, but in a lot of ways, it's also different. So when two people are rushed home in the seventh episode, and the eighth episode rolls around with yet another elimination challenge, there's a very real possibility that someone could be leaving and we'd end up with a top three. PR JR is a smaller show and a younger show in more ways than one; a smaller finale would make sense and go a long way towards establishing this show on its own without much reference to its predecessor. Yes walking into this we all know Tim Gunn still hasn't used his save, but that doesn't necessarily have to mean anything, right? OK, we'll circle back around to all of this towards the end. For now, let's start at the beginning.

There's something powerful, but also a bit desolate, about the shot of the four remaining designers sitting at the runway to open this episode. It's empowering to think of all it took to get here, and sad to think of everyone lost in the process. But then there were four, and it's time to move it along. The designers are told that their last challenge before the finale is to use themselves as inspiration and to create a look that is uniquely them. They've got $400 and only one day to do this. There's something simple and elegant about this challenge that I love a lot. While I don't think any of the challenges were quite as wacky or out there as some of the PR challenges have been in the past, I think there's something to be said about reaching this moment and asking the contestants to remind us about who they are deep down, and perhaps even show us who they've become in the wake of the competition. Peytie in particular is someone who's aesthetic seems to have openly changed over the course of the competition, so her ability to create something unexpected is considerable.

There's some aspect of the challenge that has to do with irons and iron on prints or something, but beyond the good looking guy introducing it to us, I wasn't paying much attention. What follows is a long line of the kids talking about who they are, what their aesthetic is, and what they want to accomplish with this look. It's all rather interesting and engaging, but I wouldn't go so far as to call any of it drastically important. Everyone has an idea and a way forward except for Zachary who seems to be lost for inspiration or direction at the most important moment. It's not something we haven't seen before, but it's rather distressing to see here from someone so capable and talented.

The meetings with Tim are stock standard and straight forward. Everyone's on a good path except for Zachary. Tim meets with him and spends a lot of time talking him up and making suggesting to get him headed where he needs to go. But I never quiet got the impression that he left that interaction feeling all that confident about what he was doing. On to the runway.

The Runway:

Peytie: The fringe looks like an after thought. I like the movement it adds, but I also think the piece moves well without it. So I’d be find if that were taken away. Other than that, this look is really a wow. The shape of it is fascinating, and when it turned the corner, something about ti screamed Peytie to me. That’s not even to mention the brilliant color. Great job. 

Samantha: Listen, this girl has a point of view that is all her own, and I respect her for it so very much. But for this to be the look she sends down the challenge before Fashion Week makes me think she should go home. Another (well-made) oversized jacket? It swallows the dress whole, and the sad part is I’m not totally sure that that isn’t a bad thing. From what I can see of the dress itself, I’m far more impressed with the idea of it than the execution. Her play on gender is a lot of fun and I want to see more of it in the world, but I do not like this outfit at all. 

Maya: The openness in the back and the clasp in the front take my breath away. Which isn’t to take away from the rest of the look which I love too. Maya uses words like strength, power, and confidence to describe what she’s going for here, and I think she captures all of that. In no small part because some aspect of this feels like a super hero costume or something. But that’s not a bad thing here because I think she knew just where to pull back and where to go big on it to make that apparent but not overpowering. 

Zachary: I think the back is way better than the front. In the front, it feels like he’s letting the fabric do most of the hard work. The true design of it is found in the back, and that’s breathtaking. It’s good, but I’m not ready to say it’s the best we’ve ever seen from him. 

The judges like Samantha's look more than I do, but we're in agreement that Zachary's look isn't strong enough. Kelly points out the fact that it’s impressive that Zach added these details to his look, but none of them shine through on the runway. I like Christian’s point about flipping the fabrics of the skirt so the one inside ended up outside. But I also like Aya’s point that he’s got the best use of the iron-on things. 

I don’t know that I agree with Hannah calling for something more feminine in Samantha’s look, but I also don’t agree with the judges overall praise of the outfit. I will say that I like the dress more when the jacket comes off of it, so I’ll retract my prior statement that the look being swallowed by the jacket is a good thing, but I’m still not impressed with it. I will also say I’d like it if the belt end looked more like dress shirt sleeves. But that could also be one element too many. 

Maya and Peytie's looks are loved universally. So they end up going straight through to the finale. Samantha and Zachary are the last two left, but as Zachary noted in the greenroom, his look was pretty much the only one they didn't really have positive things to say about. So Samantha gets the go ahead and Zachary gets a very teary good bye. 

But back in the greenroom, with everyone hugging and saying good bye, Tim comes in and uses the save. It's a complete repeat of what we saw with Edmund last season and the save being used in the final moments of the competition. One the one hand, I'm a bit disappointed that the show isn't going with a top three instead of a top four, but on the other hand, these four kids truly do all deserve to show at NYFW. Zachary truly stumbled here, but does that mean he should be out of the competition? I think there are people who might say yes, but I'm not really in that camp. I'm OK with this outcome, though I also recognize that it robs the end of the episode of much of its inherent drama. But so long as the outcome is right, it shouldn't matter. And Peytie, Maya, Samantha, and Zachary going to the finale is the right way to go. 

Loose Threads:

--Apparently the finale is going to be just what it is on PR. Tim gets home visits, there's a last notes runway, and then NYFW. I'll get on covering that episode as soon as I can.

--Sorry for the delay, but I was having work stuff, and lots of distractions and stress. It's all worked out, but it was a crazy couple of weeks. Should be pretty back on track now. 

Project Runway Junior: S1 E7 "#OOTD"

I complained last week that PR JR chose the wrong episode to air after a hiatus. I stand by that observation more than ever after this week's episode. Because this week epitomizes what I think is brilliant about this show while also serving to raise the stakes even higher. It's those stakes, honestly high already, that have been the main selling point for PR JR thus far. I've mentioned multiple times before that the biggest difference between this show and it's adult predecessor is the manner in which everything feels heightened. We can feel more astutely for these kids than we tend to for the more jaded and cynical adults on the other show. Someone goes home here each week, and each week there are tears both by the person going home and by those they're leaving behind. This is because this competition just seems to matter more and to carry so much more weight than the other one.

This week, the kids meet Tim and Aya at Mood to get ready for the Seventeen Magazine challenge. They're tasked with going out into the streets of New York and talk to people whose outfit inspires them to create their own editorial look fit for a spread in Seventeen Magazine. Obviously, the winning look will be featured in the magazine at some point. The hard part, of course, is getting jaded New Yorkers to talk to you. There was something fun about seeing the kids run around the streets trying, failing, and succeeding at talking to people. It was also a lot of fun to listen to their line of questioning to people they talked to. Finding out what factors were considered in the making of the decision on what to wear, and drawing inspiration from that was really fun to watch.

Samantha and Maya show themselves as best prepared to handle that aspect of the challenge. The edit shows each of them finding someone who's look inspires them and who is willing to talk to them almost right off. For Samantha, it's this manual laborer who's wearing stained and well worn cargo pants. The pants are clearly utilitarian in nature with pockets all over them, but Samantha sees beauty in them, and I can't blame her. Maya talks to a couple women in multi-layered looks, each of whom is heading to work. She quickly decides on a kind of new style look dedicated to someone who works in a non-traditional kind of office.

Jaxson, with his adorable nerdish outlook and mannerisms, doesn't fare too well. He finds women with styles he's interested in, but the edit focuses on how many people ignore him and walk right by before he finally finds someone who will agree to stop and hear him out. When he does finally find someone, he's impressed by the sleeves of her jacket, but he doesn't seem to have the same kind of fire and passion as the others do.

Back at Mood, Jaxson picks a faux fur and a loud yellow neoprene fabric. When Tim sees the two of them together, he urges Jaxson to get a supplemental plain white fabric just to be on the safe side. Meanwhile, Zachary has this idea to use necktie fabric to make his top, and it's something that sounds bold and interesting.

The workroom goes about as you'd expect. Some of them know what they're doing and get right to work, a few people scratch looks and start all over. Jaxson sees that his fur simply doesn't want to cooperate with his ideas and is thanking the gods that Tim convinced him to get the other fabric.

Tim comes in and is concerned for Jaxson's ideas, Peytie's pants, Zach's entire look, and how mature Zachary's look is for what is meant to be the Seventeen Magazine challenge. He's not wrong about that, but that's also too bad because I thought Zachary's look on the dressform was truly breathtaking. After seeing just how much Peytie and Jaxson are struggling with their fabric selection, Tim decides to open up Mini Mood for 15 minutes for anyone who wants it. They're the only two that do, but it's still a great decision that's made in the interest of ensuring these kids get to find their best selves in all of this instead of simply focusing on the competition of it all. PR JR is about so much more than the competition.

Peytie grabs everything she can get her hands on in an effort to find something better for her pants, while Jaxson looks specifically for something that will go well with his yellow fabric. They both leave Mini Mood feeling confident in their selections.

The Runway:

Maya: Love love love this! It moves, it’s classy, but also urban and unconventional. I think it captured exactly what she was going for, and I find it wonderfully editorial. I haven’t looked at a Seventeen magazine in…oh….ever. But my gut says this is more Marie Claire than Seventeen. I’m willing to be wrong though, because I love it.

Zachary: I think he figured this out wonderfully well. The openness of the top and the peak at the sport’s bra underneath is youthful and sexy to me, but still sophisticated. And I find the skirt to be intelligent and innovative in a way that I come to expect from him. His first look was great, but it wasn’t young enough, and somehow he figured out how to lose the aged elements of it without losing himself. I love it. 

Jaxson: I do not dislike this. I would say, like we said about Maya’s look last week, that it’s fine. I find it simple and a bit easy, though I do see a bit of innovation in the shape and construction of the jacket. I want to see the dress without the jacket on. And I think that the colors aren’t a match made in heaven, but I do think they go together better than Jaxson feels as though they do. At least I don’t think they clash. But yeah, I think it’s a little too simple and muted for this stage of the competition. 

Peytie: I didn’t hate the pants until the model turned around and I saw how wrinkled and bunched up they were. Yikes. It is totally just a fabric fail on these because the cut and design of them really is nice. It’s a better look with a better fabric choice for the pants. I like the top. 

Zach: I don’t care for this and I’m not 100% sure why. The colors work, the outfit is simple enough, but there’s something about it that I just don’t care for. Something about the cut of it says Sailor Costume to me, and I’m not sure what. Either way, not my fav. 

Samantha: OK this is the first look from Samantha in a long time that I’ve been head over heels for. She had a plan and she executed it perfectly. It’s smart and edgy, and it’s totally her without having to create yet another oversized coat. I can see her inspiration, but she wasn’t trapped or too beholden to that inspiration, so she still created something all her own. I respect this a lot.

Maya and Samantha are in the top while Jaxson and Zach are in the bottom. The judges are pretty split on both Peytie and Zachary, making the two of them safe in my mind. Aya points out that Jaxson tends to have a lot of ideas, but rarely does he execute them well. His dress is plain, and no one really seems to think it goes well with his dress. Hannah goes so far as to say that he appears to have dressed two different girls, and Christian says his girl looks like she might have gotten dressed in the dark. 

With Zach, they simply don't seem to think he maximized his potential with this challenge. They can't seem to place who his girl is or where she's going. And when Christian questions whether or not he thinks this is his best work, Zach seems to crumple and admits that it's not and apologizes for it. It's a moment made all the more touching when you remember that he's the guy who was dancing with his model on the runway in just the last challenge. Zach admits that he thought too much about trying to make the look young and lost himself in the process. Aya points out that his looks already have a youthfulness to them and all he needed to do was put his best self forward in the looks. 

On the other side of things,  both Maya and Samantha are praised for how well thought out their looks are. Maya's story about women going to work resonates with the judges a lot, while Samantha's ability to feminize cargo shorts is universally appreciated. Christian does, however, echo my sentiments towards Samantha when he says that he wants to see something like a dress from her so as to know that she can do more as well. At least she didn't do another oversized-coat this time around, but he still wants to know that she can do more too. 

It's the result that makes this episode such a standout moment in the season. The judges' closer looks and deliberation makes it clear that the winner is between Samantha and Maya and the choice of who's going home is between Jaxson and Zach. So when it's announced that both Maya and Samantha are getting the win, I think it should have been obvious that both Jaxson and Zach were going home. And yet somehow, I was still surprised by it. It's not the way these things ever really tend to happen. And given how hard it is each time they have to say good bye to someone, you never expect them to compound the issue by sending two people home when they don't have to. 

I thought at first that it might be a ploy to get Tim to save one of them, but then I thought about how horribly awkward it might be for Tim to go into the greenroom and tell one of these two that he was using his save on him while the other went home. And if there's one thing PR JR has excelled at, it's not putting these kids in horribly awkward situations. So indeed both Jaxson and Zach go home. And it's a strange choice when you think about it. Maya and Samantha both winning makes sense, they both deserved it. But Zach won the previous challenge while Zach saw his second consecutive challenge in the bottom. But on the other hand, in the face of Samantha, Maya and Zachary, do I think Zach had what it takes to win it all? Of course not. So in that sense, how upset can I be that Zach got sent home maybe one week earlier than he otherwise might have? The results of this episode are shocking, but I don't know that I disagree with them. There's a kind of cruel efficiency here, but one thing is for sure, the emotions of the good byes were well earned and strongly felt all around. And then there were four. 

Loose Threads:

--Hannah mentions in this episode that they'd two challenges away from choosing who will be in the finale. I think, if my math is right, that that should have meant they were planning on having 4 people show at NYFW. But I'm wondering if this seemingly unplanned double elimination means they'll just have three kids in the finale? Though that also could have been the plan all along, so who knows. 

--I like Peytie, and I especially enjoyed her critique this episode when the judges acknowledged that her aesthetic seems to have matured over the course of the competition. But with the consistent strength of Zachary and Maya, and Samantha's recent resurgence, it's hard for me to imagine she'll make it past this up coming week. 

--I've got to say, I'm very curious to see what the finale on this show looks like. I can't imagine they're going to send these kids home to make collections. But I wouldn't be surprised if they stuck around and maybe gave them a few days to make a collection. I'm guessing not a full ten looks, but who knows. 

--Kelly about Zachary's look: “You looked at the modern day business man and turned that into a chic beautiful woman.” I'm surprised the judges still didn't think this look was young enough. I guess some part of that is that they didn't see the first look he'd created; because with that in mind, I can't see how anyone would think this look was too old. 

Project Runway Junior: S1 E6 "Superstar Clients"

PR JR must have known it's season would take them into the holidays. They must have known that
they would be contending with a two-week long hiatus in the middle of their first season. So then why didn't they try to create a better episode for that return? Don't get me wrong, as I discussed so many times during the last season of PR, you can only ever work with what the contestants and judges give you to work with. But that's not to say that they're totally helpless. They can't control who's going home when, and they can't control what the designer's create on an episode to episode basis, but what they could have done was make sure that the challenge for their sixth episode was better and more entertaining than this one turned out to be. The last time we saw this show, they were giving the contestants, in teams of two, five hours to make an elegant red carpet gown, and they were bringing in past contestants to help with the time crunch. There were tears, some sage wisdom from the grownups who'd been here before, genuine excitement from the contestants over being able to work with PR alums, and a collection of great (or at least interesting) looks. Now we're back two weeks later and PR JR doesn't build on that episode at all; instead, they return from a hiatus and take a step backwards.

The doom of the episode is clear from the opening moments when Hannah announces that the Knicks City Dancers would be the kids' clients for this episode and each and every single one of their faces fell in despair. Granted, the fear was that they'd have to create a dancing/performance outfit. There's a sigh of relief when they're told they're actually just designing whatever the client wants, but their obvious lack of interest in working with these women wasn't overlooked.

The sad thing is putting every contestant out of their comfort zone by having them design some kind of activewear--dance uniform might have produced a more interesting episode. Instead, most of the clients want something more akin to ready-wear. They each have a special story about where they're going and what they're doing, but ultimately it all boils down to normal activities performed by normal people who want normal clothes. It's not that this can't be interesting, indeed the streetwear episodes, and "real women" episodes have long been great; designers having to tone down their high fashion sensibilities while still creating something that you couldn't buy on a table at Old Navy is interesting. Moreover, the client-based challenges are an important PR staple. But this episode needed something to push it over the edge. More difficult clients would have been nice, but I can understand not wanting to put the kids in that kind of acidic position. Excepting that, I'd have saved the client episode for somewhere later in the season and put another unconventional material challenge in this spot.

If the confines of the challenge aren't willing to bring the drama, then you've got to hope that the consistently high talent level of these kids will help to elevate the hour. But by the time Tim's coming in to visit, everyone is doubting themselves, feel out of their comfort zones, and nothing is really standing out as being great. Tim is worried about the construction of Jaxson's top, so he goes with him to Mini Mood and finds a better fabric in the same color as the first. He points out multiple construction issues with the designers and a couple of looks are boring. He's impressed with Samantha's look, but I certainly wasn't. Or to be more specific, the fact that she's making yet another oversized coat left me felling flat. I loved Samantha at first, but she's quickly become horribly one note to me, and I won't really be able to sing her praises until she can prove that she's able to do something else.

Nothing more happens before the runway except that there's a weird kind of pre-runway Q&A session between Hannah and the contestants. I can imagine that this is something that happens each challenge, but given the show's hour long runtime and their constantly being pressed for time, perhaps we just haven't seen it prior to this point. With that being said, this being cut from each episode is the way to go. There's more time available the fewer contestants we have left, and I would hate to see that time being occupied by this uselessness. Nothing is earned, learned, or gained by the conversation.

The Runway:

Samantha: I could take this time to continue complaining about her seeming inability to create a new or different silhouette, but the fact of the matter is this isn’t horrible. The skirt is a simple and boring, and even poorly constructed denim skirt, but the colors go well together, and the fabric choice on the jacket is bold and new. So I like it in spite of myself, but I don’t want her winning challenges until she can prove to me that she can do something else. 

Maya: There’s no hiding that Maya is one of my favs, but this is pretty off-the-rack simple. It’s adorable, and I love the corset laces on the back of the top, and the pants fit wonderfully well, but other than that it’s a pretty boring look. 

Zach: Nice open back, and I think adding the dark fabric to the hemline was smart. I like it. I don’t think it’ll turn heads, but it’s nice. 

Jaxson: I hate the fabric of the skirt. I didn’t hate it in the workroom, but there’s something about the shine to it on the runway that I hate. And the movement of it is stiff and unforgiving. But the back is gorgeous, and the top as a whole is really nice. So no complaints there, and since she did want a summer dress, I do like the color. 

Bridget: I hate this. It’s boring and uninspired, and the kimono doesn’t look like any kimono I’ve ever seen. I can see how this robe like thing could be considered to be inspired by a kimono, but capturing the sleeve shape isn’t all that’s needed to consider this to be an actual kimono. Which is too bad to me because I do think putting a full kimono over that boring ass thing she designed would have saved this look. 

Zachary: Another nice open back. I think the hemline still looks a bit messy and is way too high, but I do like this look. I agree with his points about the flowy nature of the pants matched with the structured nature of the top. The colors feel a bit muted to me, but that’s a small quibble. 

Peytie: Messy is the first word that comes to mind. I love the color and I love the movement of it, but the proportions on the back (where that razorback design meets the rest of the fabric) is all off, and the hem looks messy and haphazard. I think that was purposeful, but it doesn’t feel as purposeful as it should. And the back just looks like a mistake. It’s a shame because that fabric in a better constructed dress could have been a wow moment. 

Samantha, Zach, and Zachary are in the top, Bridget, Maya, and Jaxson are in the bottom. This is where I'd like to see the show slow down and take it's time. I don't need pre-runway Q&As, but more time with the judges would be highly appreciated. Zach is praised for understanding and thinking about his client's body in an impressive way. It's clearly the best thing we've seen from him thus far in the competition. 

It's said, multiple times, that "Samantha is back!" with this look, but Kelly is at least willing to admit that the skirt is a problem. But that doesn't stop her from loving the rest of the look and acknowledging that Samantha pulls those fabrics and those colors together in a way that she wouldn't expect anyone to be capable of. 

Zachary is commended for his continued elegance and intelligence when it comes to dressing a woman's body. The hemline is all wrong on his pants, and everyone knows it, but it's the only real complaint about the otherwise stellar look. Kelly commends him for using the olive color on the pants (which I initially didn't love) and he points out that it's the same color as his model's eyes and I fell a bit more in love with him. This kid is smart and talented and he knows what he's doing. 

On another show, or maybe just another version of this show, Aya's question to Maya about whether she thinks this is some of her best work or not might seem a bit rude. But there's something about the way Aya asks, and about the way their complaints about Maya's look are all couched in the fact that they have such high expectations for her that makes it feel more kindly prodding. But the fact of the matter is Maya's look isn't bad, it's just not strong enough. The judges keep using the word "fine" to describe it, and never has that felt more like a slap in the face than it does when they say it. 

Jaxson and Bridget are in way more trouble than Maya is and I think they know it. The judges have nothing positive to say about Bridget's look, and they like Jaxson's top but hate the stiffness of the fabric he choose for the skirt. Christian makes a great point about the skirt wanting to be "sexy but still covered," and the discordant note that causes. 

In the end, Zach wins and Bridget loses. The sheer fact that the judges couldn't find a single thing to compliment about Bridget's look while they liked Jaxson's top means this was an easy call to make. Some part of me wondered if Tim would save her since she'd shown her talent in the past and has won challenges before; maybe she shouldn't be so punished for what amounts to an off day. But Tim seems to agree with the judges' decision, and Bridget goes home. 

Loose Threads:

--So PR online doesn't have the final looks photo album up and running by the time I'm writing this, so I'll check back later and try to get the links up for the runway. But if you're wondering why they aren't there this time, it's PR's fault and not mine. 

--And then there were six. I'm guessing we're gearing down for the end here. Will ther ebe three or four people showing at NYFW?

--Tim says how much he loves this group of contestants a number of times this episode. It's cute and sweet, and I loved it. But it also could have been creepy. 

--I know you guys aren't really sports fans like I am, but dancers and cheerleaders are the lowest of the low to some of us who are. My good friend has been a football fan for a long time, and he went to a game with his young niece and some of his extended family before. And when the child (she couldn't have been more than five or so) said she might want to be a cheerleader, he told her "I'd rather you just be a stripper, that's way more noble." So you can imagine how I felt seeing the Knicks Dancers in this episode. 

--One of the things I did like about this challenge was the way that, even though they were all dressing the same kind of woman, they weren't all designing for the same situation. The ability to have that many varied types of outfits on the runway is better than a bunch of different dance uniforms.