Lifetime
The Descendants Takes Project Runway Beyond Good And Evil
As our Project Runway coverage returns due to popular demand (we hear you!), a couple of Disney's newest stars guest-judge the latest challenge. Who gets a happily ever after?
Our Players
The Talk
How fitting that we should wake up from the four-week sleep induced when we shared that poisoned apple just in time for a challenge inspired by Disney's new generation of Villain Babies, The Descendants! (I'm just kidding, of course. We're not Snows White, we're totes mean old crones.)
hee! Usually I hate these challenges "inspired" by a show-biz property, and this one isn't the freshest, but I thought the show did a better job of showing us how easily a good/evil "concept" outfit could verge into costume.
Before we get into the looks: props to previous challenge winner Michael for assigning Claire and Shawn to opposing teams. Not that it ended up making much difference, but God bless him, he tried.
I think it's about to go DOWN on that front next week, but yeah, he had to try. At least we weren't deprived of Kenya's "ffs" faces in the interim.
Can we start with the judges' winning look, Brandon's? Because it was not mine. I gather he was going for a Comme Des Garçons feel with the boyish silhouette and artsy cuffs, and I guess the smock was kind of a pre-makeover Cinderella reference. Sometimes I don't jibe with the judges because what they appreciate from an artistic standpoint isn't what I'm looking for as a fashion consumer, but in this case, it also seemed poorly constructed to me.
I got the sense they wanted to seem "hip" by liking it, and I don't HATE it, but how is it evening-wear? I can see it on Rihanna, but it's not evening, not the cut, not the fabric.
I actually think all the "Good" designers had a hard time meeting the evening aspect of the brief, though maybe I'm just biased by the colour stories they chose. You?
True -- and now that you mention it, do you think there might have been an off-screen order to stay within certain traditional palettes? Because I don't feel like anyone picks, say, Amy's Necco-y colors on purpose, necessarily.
Oh, AMY. Once again, I was out of step with the judges on this one; Amy's look would have had her sent home if I were there: it was the depressed nightie version of the gown Gwyneth Paltrow won her Oscar in.
I was okay with it where it was. I dislike velvet, because it reads cosplay to me, and that pink is disastrous, but it had a chicness to it. ...What did you think of Ayana's, which was also safe? The hem was kind of a fiasco but from the butt up, it was cut like a diamond. And: pocket. Hashtag Buntnip.
I appreciated that Ayana admitted straight up that the skirt got away from her, because it definitely did. I have found it fascinating this season to have her in the competition because modest fashion isn't something that tends to get much play, particularly given that all the designers have to have it in the back of their minds a judgment of sexiness from Heidi tends to be determinative of their progress through the game; last week's lingerie challenge was interesting in that respect because it allowed Ayana to do more given that the look was for a private context. ...I guess all this by way of saying I wasn't crazy about this one. If the bodice had gone all the way to the hem, I'd have been more into it.
I'm liking watching Ayana too, for the reasons you mention, but I'd have found that version of her dress as dull as Claire's look, and too predictable. And speaking of Claire, let's talk about our bottom three for a moment before we get back into whether there was a more deserving winner. No question Aaron had to go; whatever that was, "ready for this competition" was not it.
Did you think either/both of the others should have gotten the auf too?
The main problem with Claire's, for me, was that she delivered one-day-challenge work on a two-day schedule; there was nothing to it and it still looked rushed. Aaron's came out poorly, but at least his seemed to have an idea behind it, so I might have kept him over her for that reason.
Samantha's wouldn't have even made it into the bottom for me; it wasn't in my top, either, but of the three bottom looks it was the strongest in terms of tailoring and craft.
I'd have kept Samantha in the bottom, but also kept her in the competition; that cut isn't my favorite, and the details were muddy, but the dress did give her model good booty. Claire, I'd have sent home too. Workroom faffing around entirely aside, her looks are dull and Mandee's-window.
Sarah, I am really dreading how long the twins are both going to be kept in the competition because they are the only ones the viewer can really hate on a personal level. Everyone else is so adult and chill! Or are getting great edits to make Claire and Shawn's codependence all the more irritating. I can't even handle hearing them talk when they're being completely anodyne. Why do they sound like the least popular Tri Delts running a house meeting about the importance of following the chore wheel?
Or that sophomore who just learned the phrase "interrogating the text" and is molasses-ing up every fuckin' women's studies class with it? Like, I didn't hate Shawn's look this week, but it's nothing new, and it's...made by Claire, mostly. Both of y'all, git.
Yeah, Shawn's was fine but unmemorable. Like I said, I think the Evil looks overall were better than Good -- and on that tip, I will say I thought Margarita was robbed not even to have been in the top 3. Her model was sexy as hell and clearly loved wearing that gown.
I get it, I guess -- my notes say that the cut's "a bit Dynasty," which isn't a bad thing per se but the judges may not have wanted to reward "costume." But I loved that fabric, and frankly, that she had such a middling outcome after a personal-story lead-up that seemed to indicate that she was either the winner or out? Was weird.
That was definitely a weird fake-out. That said, I was all in for both Kenya's and Michael's looks. Kenya's suit could have possibly used a bit more embellishment, but she took advantage of the extra day in the workroom to make two impeccably tailored pieces and I respect that.
I love that bib on Kenya's so much, even though I could never wear it -- I would look like a ship entering port -- but I'm so tired of pepla, I did mark it down a bit for that. Still, flawless pants, and I was thrilled she made a comeback. But I wanted Michael to win again. Granted, getting Liris to walk for you is 80 percent of your battle this season, because she is THE queen, and that the remaining 20 percent for him was that fabric, but he got out of the fabric's and his model's way, which is an achievement sometimes.
I'm so with you on Liris. I want a Liris spinoff where people say stupid shit and she glares at them for five minutes and then stomps off regally. (Come on, at least a web series.) With that headpiece, Michael's could have been the most costume-y of them all, but as you said, Liris sold it. She can't not.
I just spent a full minute trying to think of something Liris would look shitty in, and I literally got nothing. Mascot costume; trash bag; my prom dress...nothing. Project Liris is on.