Blogging Project Runway: They Blinded Me With Spandex


1202749838SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen episode 10 of Project Runway, season 4, you might want to stop reading now.

Project Runway‘s week off yielded a meet and greet with Steven Rosengard, as well as a terrific Tim Gunn appearance on The Daily Show (we can tell you’ve got a man-crush, Jon, and we are with you!). All very enlightening, but we were still glad when the show returned this past Wednesday. It was an episode not to be watched lying down.

Bostonista sprung into proper posture when the challenge was revealed—to create a fashion-forward outfit for a WWE diva—and nearly spilled Swiss Miss on our couture when Tim Gunn threaded his lanky frame into the makeshift Project Runway boxing ring. “Grandpa has difficulty with these ropes,” he joked.

The designers were given 30 minutes to sketch, then headed to Spandex House (not Mood!) for fabric. Some designers, such as Sweet P., were obviously uncomfortable around these unfamiliar clients, but Chris was in his element, and Christian flitted to and fro with excitement about the pair of leather chaps in his gal’s future.

At this point in the season, we’re always emotionally attached to the designers; Bostonista wants to be BFF with Sweet P; we loved that she hugged Christian after he schooled her in an arm-wrestling contest. Chris, our other would-be BFF, gave us a new inside joke as he described his creation as the outfit for “a caged animal, rar!” And even our love-hate relationship with Christian swerved to the “love” side when he made up a WWE name for himself, Ferocia Coutura, and declared his power would be to spray the enemy with hairspray.

When the divas showed up the next day for the final fitting and runway, we loved the disco-licious hair for Ricky’s model, and became excited when Richie Rich and Traver Rains from Heatherette took the fourth judge’s place — a perfect match for this challenge.

After watching some powerful runway struts, we had our opinions set — Christian’s creation was fierce, and deserved to win, but were Bostonista to, as they say, throw our beret into the ring, we would be rocking Jillian’s creation. The judges, after admitting their lack of expertise (“I feel like the Pope at a sex club!” exclaimed Michael Kors), agreed. And yet Chris walked away with the win. The judges applauded his lining of a hoodie, while Bostonista cheered his choice to wear leopard print to match his client.

Predictably, Ricky and Sweet P were the bottom two. Nina Garcia slammed Rami‘s outfit, but we took issue with the criticism of Rami’s use of hot pink, which to us seemed perfectly suited to a WWE ring. In the end, Ricky was sent home with no tears (shocker!), and Sweet P was allowed to sew another day.

So who’s going to the finals? The obvious choice would be to cut Sweet P and Chris, but the judges have surprised us before (Austin Scarlet!!!) and they could do the same again. See you next week, Project Runway fans — we’re on the edge of our seat!

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