Project Runway: Episode Two

Episode two felt like classic Project Runway, successfully resolving last week’s boring challenge issues and revealing a promisingly high level of talent. “The Fashion Farm” opened with weepy Janeane from Portland and cute-as-a-button Anna confabbing in the apartment about how they hoped the next challenge would involve something “very New York. Like, weird, eccentric New York.” Aren’t non New-Yorkers quaint?

Instead, the designers were taken out to a farm where they found their models standing in a field like a group of extremely tall Cabbage Patch Kids, dressed in burlap sacks.
  
Twist!

Tim then informs the designers that their challenge is to make a party dress out of the sacks for the models to wear to an industry event. (I’m not entirely sure why it was necessary for the group to travel to an actual farm in order to procure burlap, but so be it). Because the models are the clients, they will be choosing the designers they want to work with.

Double twist!

The model-as-client gimmick has been done before, and served no real purpose this time except to stir up a minor brouhaha when Mila’s model from last week selected Anthony instead. Fortunately, the drama didn’t drag down what was otherwise a pretty great make-something-out-of-nothing challenge; the kind that usually results in at least a few shocking reveals on the runway.

There were so many creative looks that it was hard to figure out which would be the judges’ favorite. As Tim eloquently pointed out, many of the designers did manage to make something rather grand out of those humble sacks. I loved Anthony’s swirly, strapless red dress and Anna’s sweet printed frock, neither of which were selected for the top three. Scorned Mila was vindicated by her sleek, metallic looking dress, and Amy’s burlap petal dress was pretty awesome, but I agree that Jay’s funky, feathery skirt deserved the win.

The “bottom” three took on a whole new meaning when it was revealed that Ping did not successfully manage to cover her model’s buttocks. (The fact that the poor girl apparently had to attend a party with her ass hanging out may be the one reason to watch the stupid Models of the Runway companion show.) However, Ping is quirky and has a unique point of view and so she was spared.

Jesus is quickly solidifying his position as the designer who hangs around in the bottom two for weeks on end, until eventually you suspect that he/she would actually prefer to be put out of his/her misery. But this time Pamela was the one sent home for her tacky, denim-like mini-dress. She was gracious as she packed up to leave, expressing an outpouring of love for her fellow designers. The sad truth is that by the end of the season, we’ll all be struggling to remember her, but no one ever said that fashion was kind.