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 E1 "Welcome to New York"

I have not watched a single PR spinoff since the very first All Stars. If I'm remembering correctly, it wasn't a season, but like a one-off episode where some of the previous loser got to come on and try to get a kind of gratis win? The only thing I remember is that Korto was on it and I really wanted her to win because I thought she got shafted in her own season (the fifth) and I wanted her to finally get her due. She didn't, and I never watched another PR Spin-off again. Mostly, this is because I don't feel like the shows ever really justify their existence. I'm not a big fan of people coming back and competing again on a reality show. Contestants getting a second chance at Survivor has always been a pet peeve of mine. And I think that the judges, Heidi as the host, and Tim Gunn are seriously important elements to the show. Clearly, these things can change for the better (getting rid of Michael Kors in favor of Zac has proven to be a massive upgrade for the show), but the consistency is important to me. After watching the first episode of Project Runway Junior however, I'm a bit on the fence but leaning way more over into the plus side than the negative.

There's a fairly straight forward and simple reason for that: These kids are way more talented than they have any right to be! But let's get to that later. I want to start with the first thing about this episode that leaves me feeling more ambivalent than I thought it would. PR JR is working with an hour long runtime. If you guys have been following us for awhile, you know I tend to lament PR's current 90 minute timeframe, and I always hate it when the show crosses into the two hour mark. I've written ad nauseam about how well and poorly the producers have used their ever fluctuating, but generally increasing, runtimes over the years. So the assumption would be that I'd unreservedly  praise the shorter time here. But I'm not so sure. On the one hand, the episode is clipped and sparse and taken down to its bare essentials in storytelling. We get brief introductions to some of, not all of, the designers. This works in part because PR grownups has worked to introduce these kids to us a bit during commercial breaks in the last couple episodes of its previous season. But even if you hadn't been paying attention to those, it's fine because you get everything you need to know in this episode and the rest will come later. When PR edits a first episode to only showcase a handful of designers, namely the ones likely to be in the top or bottom of that particular episode, it stands heads and shoulders above an episode trying to introduce you to everyone.

But then there's Tim's mentoring, the runway, and the final judging which crack through at a breakneck pace. I was taking notes, so it makes sense that I had to pause and rewind multiple times just to get an impression of the looks coming down the runway, and I didn't even try to remember what all the judges were saying about the top and bottom looks. I can't imagine if you watched it in real time that you got the ability to have a lot of that portion of the show stick to your bones. I don't want to blame the hour long runtime for this because bad editing is bad editing, but the producers have to find a better place to shave time than in the final moments of the show. We didn't even get to the see the backs of most of the dresses because the catwalk was edited so it was one look walking towards the camera and then a jump cut to the next look walking towards us. At least give us a quick glimpse of the turn around, guys!

This blends in with another problem I had (the execution of the first challenge) to make me wonder how invested the PR producers are into this show and, by extension, how invested they want us to be. So the first challenge is a simple introductory challenge. The kids are brought up onto a roof top in Manhattan(?) and told to get inspired by New York to create a look that tells the judges who they are as a designer. It's fine, and it's not the first time PR has pulled out this kind of challenge, but they don't actually give the kids an opportunity to get inspired by New York city so much as being inspired by this one particular skyline view of this one particular place in New York city. And if you rewatch the episode, please don't take a shot for every time one of the kids says the skyline because you'll die of alcohol poisoning in no time flat. Don't get me wrong, the skyline is a very important and iconic aspect of NYC, but if the title of the episode is "Welcome to New York" and the point of the challenge is to be inspired by New York, then maybe (just maybe) you should take them around to actually see New York? To her credit, Sami looks down instead of up or just out and she sees the taxi's all in a row and is inspired by that, but pretty much everyone else just sees the tops of buildings, and makes a go of it.

But that's enough about the bad or the uncertain. The majority of the episode was fun and enjoyable so I'd rather talk about that. They're given one day and $200 to spend at Mood, and seeing these kids be overwhelmed by Mood, which again is a freaking warehouse of fabrics, is so touching. I think I've gotten so jaded by seeing designers just kind of in Mood like they own the place that there was something refreshing about this shopping trip. Zach remarks that $200 sounds like a lot of money, but at the end of the day it really isn't. Which as anyone who has bills to pay can tell you, is totally true, but ultimately not everything in Mood is $50 a yard like the fabric we saw him looking at, and the truth is it would be easy to find something more or less equivalent to it but at a lower price.

Jaxson, who is just cute as a fucking button, goes straight for the neoprene and I cringed. It's a great fabric as it has a very specific weight and texture to it, but I had no faith at all that he'd be able to work it into the flattering shapes he'd need it to be. It's not the only time I doubted these kids abilities given their ages and I doubt it'll be the last time this season, but I think these potentially low expectations are something the show has going in its favor. It'll allow us, or at least me, to be blown away more regularly each episode.

Tim's visit shoots by in a blur, but I was really happy to see he wasn't pulling his punches with these kids. His critique of Victoria's look isn't as mean and ugly as we've seen him get in the past, but neither is it the sugar coated gentle letdown I was worried it might be. He tells her in no uncertain terms that the leather strips are too much, need to be paired down or at least look way more purposeful, and then leaves her to her devices. Personally, I'd like to trade in the multitude of checkins we see here for just a handful of more in depth meetings with Tim, but again the editing is something they'll have to figure out as the season rolls on, or not at all, what do I know?

There's a cute moment the morning of the runway where Tim tell Zach who's scrambling around to get his dress finished that the look would give him a lot less trouble is the dress were shorter. I think whether or not this feels like favoritism is a point that will be uniquely subjective, but it was fine for me. It felt like a kind moment where a mentor simply provides the small push and a shift in perspective that someone would need to get their look over the hump. Not that it would make the look either better or worse, just that it would ensure something finished went down the runway. I loved it.

The Runway:

Bridget, 15: Ok, it’s simple, and maybe a bit boring, but I think it works for here. I’d make it safe. 

Peytie, 15: She made that print work a lot better than I expected it to. I’m impressed. It’s still a fairly simple dress though. 

Zach, 15: Making the dress shorter took this out of being elegant and into being cute. But with that being said, I think it’s cute. The free-standing top is nice, but I think it could be sexier. The whole thing, except the belt which I hate, is cute to me, and I can’t tell if that’s good or bad.

Victoria, 17: This is the first solid miss for me. The strips on the bottom never really were incorporated into the design as a whole. The fact that they don’t even go all the way around the skirt is a problem and looks tacky. And there’s something about the zipper in the back that I find horribly distracting. The top is at least OK, but I’m worried about the proportion here. I feel like the skirt comes up too high and the top doesn’t come down low enough so it makes her midriff look all wrong. 

Ysabel, 17: That top is to die for really. Those darts look good, but there’s some puckering on the right side that I don’t think is purposeful. The back took my breath away. I love this. I think the skirt is a bit more simple and paired down, though her fabric choice adds a lot to it all. But yeah, this is all wonderful to me. 

Matt, 17: The movement of the gold chain in the back sells this for me a lot more than anything else. I don’t think the velvet adds much to the overall look, though I can understand it adding a lux element to the design. And the gold on the front is something I find tacked on and distracting. The black velvet doesn’t photograph well so I can’t see anything special in the cut of the dress itself, which makes me think the selling point is the fabric and the gold chain, which isn’t enough for me. I like it, but I can’t love it. 

Samantha, 16: YES! A million times yes! Esp when you take into consideration the fact that she had to remake the pants in the 11th hour. The tie in the front is a very unique and innovative detail, the neckline on the top is just fascinating, I can’t stop looking at it, and there’s something wonderful about the baggy fit of the pants that I love. And she kept the color scheme simple in a way that makes this feel elegant to me. This is the most innovative and well thought out design so far, I think. There are some fly-aways on the waistline of both the top and the skirt, sadly, but that can be forgiven. 

Jesse, 16: The first thing I notice is how clean his lines are. I respect that. And the little details at the neck are a nice touch to set this just to the right of “simple little black dress.” I also like the slit in the skirt which is tasteful. But this whole thing isn’t wowing me. 

Sami, 16: Hm…. I like the fabric. The simple truth here is I like the top, and I respect what she went for with the back, but I don’t like the skirt. I think the skirt is both poorly constructed and conceived, but I’d need to see an example of that kind of skirt done well to know for sure. 

Maya, 13: I think the color, the movement, and the back are all fabulous on this one. I don’t like the detail on the belt. I think it would stand out more if it was only done on the back instead of on both. The belt just looks messy to me. But other than that I love this. 

Jaxson, 15: This is the other really smartly designed look out there. I was worried about him working with that fabric, but clearly he knew what he was doing. It’s got a weight to it that works, and the flatness of the color is really remarkable. And I think the cutouts on the bottom, both in front and back, are striking. I’m impressed. 

Zachary, 16: This is great too. I like the two fabrics and the transition from the heavier one into the lighter more flowing fabric on the bottom. I also think the amount of skin showing is perfect. it’s not a sexy look, but the cutouts go a long way towards making it one of the sexier things we’ve seen. 

Ok so Sami, Zach, and Victoria are on the bottom, while Jaxson, Samantha, and Maya are on the top. I don't recall the judging as clearly as I should because, like I said, it went by way too quickly. After all the pausing and rewinding I had to do just to get something to write down about each look on the runway, I was too tired to keep up the trend for the judging. But from what I remember the judges chastise Zach for poofiness of his skirt making his model's butt and hips look big. They say the same thing to Sami while also pointing out that her look is poorly constructed, but they don't hate the taxicab influence. Victoria is told that the strips are tacked on and lazy since they don't go all the way around the skirt. 

For the top looks, they compliment Maya on the color and the movement and the guts it took to make a jumpsuit like that. The truth is I had forgotten she'd made pants when I watched it on the runway; the fabric moved so well that I thought it was a dress. They do call Samantha out on her poor finishing of the hemlines on her garments (though I think Christian mentioned liking those elements), but ultimately can't limit the amount of good things they have to say. Kelly hits on the intended androgyny behind the whole thing, and there was something refreshing about it being noticed. Christian's points about the belt being big but not functional, and great because of all that were also really nice to hear as I loved that belt. They also all love Jaxson's look and the amount of thought that went into it. Someone points out that he didn't really intend to use the grey fabric on the front until he saw the back of the colored neoprene he bought and realized how well it would work, and how you can still see some of the color just peaking out on the front adds dimension to it all, and it pointed out just how much this kid was thinking in the moment to be able to create that look. 

In the end, Samantha wins and Sami goes home. Personally, I would have sent Zach home this week because I think Sami's look at least told us a bit more about who she is as a designer and I tend to think that the holding of ideas is better than no ideas, and that's the difference to me between these two looks. But I think Tim might have saved Zach with his comments to the judges that he whipped out that skirt in like an hour. It wasn't a good skirt, but he was at least capable of doing it quickly, so maybe that was worth keeping him around for another week. But either way, my main impression of PR JR is that it stands to be able to justify it's existence in a way that no other PR spin off has. Certainly, it's still Lifetime trying to squeeze every dime out of this series that it can. But these kids are all adorable and talented. They're personalities are bigger than the contestants we just spent the last couple of months watching, and the show has kept enough of the strong PR elements that the transition shouldn't be jarring. In short, I'm watching this until it gives me a reason to stop, and I'd love it if you guys watched along with me. 

Loose Threads:

--Let's get this out of the way early: Hannah Davis does not have Heidi's stage presence at all. She's beautiful, and she at least delivers her line as well as can be expected, but she's not charismatic or compelling. I don't remember having a problem with her criticisms at least, so she might make a better judge than host. But still, she might be the weakest link of the show. 

--I'm curious to see what the biggest flaw and drop off is between this show and the regular PR. My early guess is in construction issues. The number of darts that were off center and Samantha's messy hemlines were some of the early warning signs, but we'll see. 

--What I don't expect these kids to have a problem with is a lack of ideas and creativity, but we'll see about that too. A lot of these first looks were fairly simple and straight forward dresses and silhouettes we've seen before. I'm hoping that has more to do with first challenge jitters than anything else.

--If this isn't just jitters though, I think there's a big gulf between the talent levels here. Seeing how Jaxson and Samantha seriously thought out their designs and executed them well compared to just about everyone else's simple dresses was striking. 

--The winner will get a full scholarship to FIDM and $25k! Not to mention a spread in Seventeen magizine and some sewing stuff. It's a great prize since it's age appropriate, has the ability to seriously change these kid's lives, and shouldn't lead to nearly as much stupid product placement. 

--Samantha spent like $40 on her entire look! I'm seriously impressed by that. I said it looked elegant to me, and I stand by that even though I wish she had cleaned up the hems.