Aug/090
Labor of Love
This week's episode of Project Runway was popping at the seams... literally. After a few seasons with the lovely host Heidi Klum being pregnant, they wait til she isn't preggers to do a maternity outfit competition. 
To guest judge this one the very pregnant Rebecca Romijn greets the judges. The one thing she mentions is that despite being pregnant, she still enjoys her shape. She doesn't want a flowing dress covering her bulge, she still wants a beautiful silhouette and something nicely tailored.
The designers are off and running with their ideas being a bit all over the place. Most have never designed an outfit for a pregnant woman, so they are in new terrain. The women have the advantage off the bat, especially since some of them had been pregnant before. Its clear that a man is going home this week and if I had to bet on it, a woman is going to win.
Filling in for Michael Kors this week is fashion designer Monique Lhuillier. It is fitting, because now there is a panel of judges consisting of four women who had at one point been pregnant and know exactly what kind of clothes they would have liked during that time. The fashion show begins and we see looks ranging from casual and simple to more elegant and tailored. When we get to the top and bottom group, we are left with three men and three women. Shockingly, the women were the top three. Let's take a look:
1st place: Shirin, 2nd: Althea, 3rd: Lousie
It is a bit hard to see in the photos, but Shirin's design had really beautiful stitching around the belly, kind of showcasing it but not drawing too much attention to it. There was some draping at the top, but it didn't muddle the silhouette. It was wearable and quite attractive. She even made a jacket to go with the outfit with a killer patterned silk lining that made the whole ensemble pop. Althea's navy cocktail dress was slimming and elegant. You could definitely see a pregnant celebrity rocking that outfit on any red carpet and making the best dressed lists. Louise's dress wasn't my cup of tea. It was a bit too nightgowny and red sating makes me cringe. However, it was beautifully detailed, excellently constructed and well thought out.
And now... the losers:
Losing designs: Ra'mon, Mitchell and Malvin
Ra'mon made a dress that looked like a bowling ball bag. He was going for something interesting with a play on depth and proportion, but the array of shades of purple and the shoddy construction put him in the bottom three. He had nothing to worry about next to the other two messes though. Mitchell can't sew to save his life. The judges like the idea of the outfit, but his execution was excruciatingly bad. It seemed like he was going for teen pregnancy chic to me, but the delivery was just dreadful. He said he was happy just to have a model with clothes on this week. Yah, great accomplishment. Somehow, he wasn't eliminated. Poor Malvin was. He was such a conceptual designer and couldn't mesh that concept with a ready to wear look. Drawing inspiration from a mother hen, he fashioned the belly as an egg and added a feather detail to the neckline. It was a tad bizarre and it didn't go over well with the judges. But I am going to miss seeing what he would have made for the coming weeks. The conceptual designers on the show never actually win, but are really interesting to watch.
Models of the Runway was dreadful, but I can't seem to turn away from it. One of the girls got a callback for a commercial and the others are jealous. Nobody wants to work with Mitchell because he sucks and he is a 'model switcher.' Other than that it was a bunch of girls sitting around with nothing to do. At least give them a challenge or something, make it a little entertaining!
Let's check up on my picks:
Althea Harper, Epperson, Gordana Gehlhausen
All three are holding strong. Althea was in the top three, but Epperson and Gordana were barely shown at all. I am nervous for next week because they are in teams of two and Epperson looks like he was paired with Qristyl and they were not getting a long. Uh oh.
