Blogging Project Runway: We Want Candy!

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen episode 5 of Project Runway, Season 4, you might want to stop reading now.

After we waited as calmly as possible for three LONG weeks since the last episode, offsetting P.R. hunger by repeatedly watching the promo for this week’s fun-filled field trip to the Hershey’s store in Times Square, it was finally showtime! And sticking with the candy theme, red was the episode’s signature color from start to finish, opening with all female contestants smacking bright crimson lips (did they share a stick?) and ending with Heidi clad in a bright scarlet dress at the runway show.

When Tim, an almost unhumanly bright flower in the wee hours of the morning, woke the bleary-eyed contestants (all of whom could stand to redesign their sleepwear, hello!), it was sheer delight to behold. And equally delicious, the well-mannered woman, who turned out to be the excited face of Hershey’s, then served up a heaping spoonful of look-I’m-on-TV! entertainment—a sentiment seldom provided by reality television these days.

Charged with making an outfit out of promotional material and/or food from the formidable Hershey’s store, the designers were unleashed with no budgetary constraints. We must say that the show’s shtick of maniacally scrambling for fabric options is getting a little, shall we say, Fall 2007, but when all the fabrics were collected, a grand old time began. And we all-out guffawed from the couch at the sight of Jillian awkwardly carrying the excessive number of Twizzlers in her rainbow suspenders that would later become a (hot!) red bustier and fringe skirt.

As the contestants worked, the cameras once again took us into the contestants’ personal lives, namely Elisa‘s, where she confided that she had recovered from a broken neck after being tragically injured by a car in London! What a wild bunch of lives these designers do lead!

In the end, after getting over my shock from the high pedigree of this season’s judges (Zac Posen!?!?!?), we agreed that Rami‘s dress was the clear winner. However, our vote for third place was Ricky over Chris. (Excellent shoe choice, Ricky! Styling is half the battle!) Attached to Elisa’s wacky presence, especially after hearing her personal struggle, we did hate to see her go. But this is a competition after all, and her entry was clearly out.

Stay warm as you wait for next week, Project Runway fans! We’ll be kicking it in (faux) fur boots. Very Heidi-hanging-in-her-frosty-native-Bergisch Gladbach, we know!

Project Runway plays on the Bravo network at 10 p.m. Wednesday evenings.