PR All-Stars: Fashion Face-off

Hello, lovelies! Just spent a lovely evening drinking wine with my best girls, and now am BUI for sure (blogging under the influence!).  Probably the best way to deal with TV recaps, actually.  Well, at least we can be reasonably confident that no one will fall off the stage tonight, barring any model mishaps!

This week's challenge begins with Angela onstage, looking like she's gone on a mad shopping spree.  She's festooned with eight tote bags, and each designer must choose one. Of course they all vie for the most fashionable version--there's an orange leather bag, a green-and-white striped one, and one that's all faux fur--but in the end, it doesn't matter. Inside the bags are luggage tags with a season written on them, and the designers are to design a look for someone planning a weekend getaway in the season they've been assigned. Angela does the math for us--4 seasons, 8 designers--to explain that the two people on each season will be facing off against one another.

PR All Stars: Whose Muse is Whose?

The designers are exposed to daylight, which doesn’t seem to agree with all of them. Austin, naturally, is sporting a straw boater. I’m amazed he’s not clad in a white flannel suit to go with it.  Must have left his punting pole by the Thames. Anyway, they’ve been trotted out to Central Park for some fresh air and panhandling—though in this case, they don’t need money, they need a muse, chosen from among the various people in the park.  And of course, that’s not enough—they have to convince their muse to give the designers their clothing! I don’t really like this challenge—it stretches the designers’ skills, but I always become preoccupied with how sad I’d be if one of my favorite outfits was chopped up into something I didn’t like.

Anthony tells us in a talking head that although he’s often dinged for his big personality, that will be the quality that puts him ahead in this challenge.  He’s right—I would die if I had to approach strangers and convince them to give me their outfits.  “Excuse me, ma’am, would you mind…oh, never mind, I’m sure you don’t want to. Sorry to bother you.” And then I would auf myself and save Heidi the time. (Sorry, Angela, you don’t have a good catchphrase, so I’m casting Heidi in this scenario.)

Ha! Angela throws them a bone by saying that the budget is $150, and the designers are allowed to use any portion of that to convince their muse to cough up the threads. Of course, then they’ll have that much less for Mood, so there’s some calculation at work.  Rami observes that they’ll have a difficult time in New York, because “we know that New Yorkers don’t take that shit very well.” Heh.

PR All-Stars: Good Taste Tastes Good

Hello, PR fans! I type with weakened fingers, as I finally made it back to Zumba tonight and am now spent. Lifetime, be gentle with me. The title of this week's episode gives me some pause, given that last week we had Miss Piggy as our guest judge/client. Tonight are we going to see Charlie the Tuna?

No, but I'm not as far off as one might think. The designers' next challenge is to make an outfit inspired by the colors and flavors of gelato, and they've actually got some poor scoop jockey with a cart from "L'arte de Gelato." April points out that the board of flavor options is rather over the top, and she doesn't even know what some of these flavors are (notably, "Fruits of the Forest"). Michael is last week's winner, so he gets to pick first.  He scampers over and chooses grapefruit, and is handed a tall skinny cone from the server.  He's a little disappointed, because the ice cream is sort of pale blush-colored, not the ruby-red grapefruit color he'd hoped for.

Michael then chooses the next person to pick--Mondo. Mondo wants cantaloupe. Mila chooses "Milk and Sour Cherries." April chooses blueberry. Jerell chooses the infamous Fruits of the Forest, which turns out to be a rich red color. Kenley chooses passionfruit. Austin chooses Vanilla Madagascar (I have visions of a white gown with a Carmen Miranda hat). Anthony chooses green tea. Rami chooses kiwi, and last is Kara, who winds up with "chocolate with cayenne pepper." She's disappointed, but I don't think it's a bad pick--I'm not sure why she's so upset.

PR All-Stars: Model Muppets

Hello, all-star readers! While I'm enjoying the season thus far, I can't say that I'm particularly excited for tonight's episode, "Patterning for Piggy." Not only has the Muppet movie come and gone, but I don't care if these designers can design for a puppet. And I don't really need to see a talking ball of foam judge the dresses.  But hey, maybe they'll surprise me.  And it's certainly ripe for a Surprise Twist, in which the designers think they're making a dress inspired by Piggy, but then at the last minute ALSO have to make a matching dress FOR Piggy! (If it happens, you totally heard it here first.)

Angela comes out and does a coy intro to the challenge, telling the designers they're to design "a flamboyant cocktail dress for one of the most famous fashionistas in the world." She also tells them that this guest has had everyone from Burberry to Prada design for her. Huh. I did not know that. Austin thinks it'll be Cher or Lady Gaga, but the designers all laugh, and a lot of them seem really psyched. The Muppets touched us all, I guess. We see a lot of Miss Piggy shots in various outfits, and there's one with straightened hair that kind of reminds me of Jill Zarin. Ah--"the winning designer's cocktail dress will be modified for Miss Piggy's figure." So they still get to build human-sized clothes, at least. (Good thing--you know how these designers all are about working with plus-sized models!)

In the workroom, Mila decides to go 60s Mod for Piggy, because it doesn't need to be costumey. Kenley tells us she loves Miss Piggy because she grew up watching the cartoon, and I immediately start grumbling that that isn't authentic Piggy. Muppet Show is where it's at! Statler & Waldorf 4eva!  Let's go to Mood and walk it off.

Austin wants a hot pink fabric, but Gordana notes that a lot of other designers are grabbing black. I also observe that this time, the designers keep their own time...no Tim (or even Swatch!) to chivvy them along. With an "All right, Mood, Imma holla atcha!" from Anthony, we're off to the workroom to sew, sew, sew!

Gordana doesn't want to do structure, like the other designers are--she feels that her vision is more free-spirited and flowing, which is beautiful on a woman (or a pig, I guess). Mondo tells us that he thinks her dress is beautiful, quiet and soft, and doesn't fit the challenge requirement of "flamboyant." I'm thinking that all this working footage would be improved if they played the theme to the Muppet Show over the top.  Here you go (here you go, here you go again...)!

PR All-Stars: A Night at the Opera

Hello again, lovely Runway fans! I have made my peace with this new, Tim Gunn-less runway, especially because I have it on good authority that he will definitely be back for next season. Whew! (Also, for all you fans of Gunn's Golden Rules, he's working on a new book!)  I've tuned in early enough to catch the "coming up on this season," and it looks like Isaac definitely won't stay as sedate as he was this week--for good or ill.

Angela welcomes the designers and announces the guests who will deliver this week's challenge: the two men who make up Badgley Mischka! Badgley (or Mischka) demonstrates via self-tanner that orange is always in fashion. The task tonight is to design a dress for attending the opera, and it should be fabulous and creative. (I assume they're referring specifically to opening night at the Met, which I know is fancy because Alex and Simon made a big deal of it on RHONY. See how educational reality TV can be?)

The designers all retire to the workroom to sketch before heading to Mood (with $350, but only a day to make the dress), and I find it interesting to see how few of them embrace the sponsor's HP Think Pads for sketching. April tells us that on her season, she used a ton of black, so this time she's embracing color. Not, apparently, in her hair, however.  Austin tells us he was called "the king of couture" on his season of PR (was he?), and will be humiliated if he doesn't do well on this challenge.

Project Runway All-Stars: Retro Edition

I'm back, lovely blog-friends! And having just come home from seeing The Book of Mormon, I am high on life. (Don't worry, Mom, they didn't convert me--but I am still humming.)  And to quote another sacred text, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I am breathless with antici...PATION at the prospect of seeing all (OK, some) of our favorite PR alums! Into the dressing room we go...

We begin with introductions and--whaaaaa? Where's Michael? Where's Nina? That's right, we have all new judges for this season! I am shocked...but it does eliminate the possibility of playing favorites. Interesting! We get quick clips with all the designers, but while all the faces are familiar, I'm not sure of everyone's names, so we'll wait and see.  There's also a replacement Heidi--another model I don't recognize. But what about Tim? Is there a Through-the-Looking-Glass Tim? I don't think I could handle that.

ANTM All-Stars: The End of the Runway

And here we are at last, fellow Booty Toochers...we've come down to the final three sad, shopworn girls battling for a crown of tin and paste. Who will be the winner? And can they truly be said to have won?

Our opening montage reminds us of our three choices: Creepy Chan, blonde kewpie doll of enormous eyes and bloodlust; Angelea, angry girl from the 716 who works at a bank, so we know she's classy, even if her Greek extends only to "where is the bathroom?"; and Lisa, a 47-year-old mother of three who, judging by her confessional hairstyle, is apparently hot-rolling her hair for her son Joey's wedding on Long Island this weekend.

We return to the house, where Angelea is giddily crowing, "Final Three! Final Threeeeee!" while Allison looks at her feet and Lisa grudgingly allows herself to be hugged.  Then it's time for Lisa's sob story--she has been performing her whole life to "break through the shackles of physical, sexual and mental abuse." She tells us that she's the best she's ever been, and wants to win ANTM to boost her new album and help her charity for abused children.

Angelea tells us that she will fight to the death for this win, and that she sees it as redemptive after her previous loss.  To be honest, we don't seem to spend as much time on her story as Lisa's, but then, we've heard it in every single talking head from Angelea, so we're good.