Project Runway Recap
I’m starting to be obsessed with this show.
It is turning into this tv season’s America’s Most Smartest Model, which, until now, was the only reality tv show that I have watched religiously (or at least not on mute 50% of the time- see ANTM).
Spoilers ahead.
I was so happy to learn that I will be able to buy the challenge winner, Jessica Biffi’s gorgeous dress. I didn’t like the original lime green so much but I love the coral. It is just so pretty and I can actually see myself wearing this to work layered with a chic sweater and not getting called into my boss’ office for a lecture on professional dress.
I’ll probably go this weekend to the Winners in Oakville to check it out. Like one of the judges said, the dress may not translate so well for girls in the upper size ranges and I’m a bit worried about wearing a strapless bra in that dress. If anybody else is going to be checking out the dress, let me know how it works out.
Maybe it is the editing but I think this was the first episode I watched where Sunny didn’t have a monopoly on my attention. Jessica definitely stood out as a designer and as a terrific human being. There was a scene in the waiting room during judging where she was literally caught sitting between drama queens Jeff and Kim and you can tell that she was using all her concentration to not get involved. She has a really cute personality.
I’m also happy that I got my best friend from engineering school – essentially the least likely person you can imagine to like a show like this – hooked on this show too.
He is basically this guy in real life:
Some notes on the format of Project Runway Canada.
I know there has been some discussion about the format of PRC being non-conducive of their best work, tearing down competent designers, and being overly stressful. I wanted to throw my two cents in the mix as well.
But first a disclaimer - I’m not a designer and I can barely sew so I can’t gauge whether the challenges are insuperably technically or emotionally difficult for a competent designer.
With that out of the way….
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This is a reality television competition, not a tutorial.
And that implies two things – one that the show will have all the nasty little things reality TV indulges in and secondly some people will be shown as weaker or less competent than others.
I’m surprised that people are surprised that reality television is trashy and unrealistic. I don’t think the producers of this show made designed it for fashion insiders only. If it was, it would be full of jargon and arcane tech-talk understood by fashion majors. Robot Wars back in the early 2000’s never showed in-depth tutorials on how to build the robot, but concentrated on the nerdy smack-talk and the sweet sweet robot fights. Like anything else coherent on tv, the show needed protagonists, antagonists, some sort story arc and a gaggle of gasp-inducing soundbites. It isn’t meant to be edutainment it was just plain-old unironic entertainment. I mean really, does anybody take The Bachelor seriously as a relationship guide? (If you do, please tell me how it went.) I admit that PRC is a bit more reputable than say Flavour of Love, but in general, you can’t fight the fact that reality television shows produce manufactured situations that attract certain types of people to look past this and apply to become contestants.
There seems to be an assumption that the contestants were duped in some way. I don’t know anything about the audition process but, I would have to assume that their presence in the contest was self-selected. No one forced them to publicize their faults. They obviously thought that they would excel in some way. And since this is PRC Season 2, the contestants should have a good idea of what’s in store for them from Season 1. They knew what they were buying into.
I also see nothing wrong with the structure of the competition.
The time constraint is there to remove those that do not have the instinctive design ability and technical skills. Engineering competitions are similar. For one competition in my discipline, groups of students will have 30 minutes to survey a site and gather data that would typically take a well trained engineer weeks to do properly. Then they have another 8 hours to analyze the data and prepare for the presentation. The judges and everybody in the presentation room have the insight to know that this isn’t the students’ best work but it does display a lot of potential and soft skills. I should note that the most talented teams are able to solve the problem in minutes and don’t even need the full alloted time. They were just too talented as engineers.
I think that it is the same case with PRC.
If you don’t think that the contestants were given enough time, answer a couple of questions: Whose clothes would you rather own? Who would you trust more with an alteration? I bet that you picked either Sunny or Jessica. Even with the time constraint, their talent was still evident.
And do you really think Kim would have done better in the wedding dress episode if she was given more time? I don’t think so. I think with even more time, Kim would have been just as self-defeated.
Also,I don’t think that a stank personality obscures a truly talented contestant in anyway. Sunny’s comment that he is an only size 0 designer didn’t make me covet his clothes any less. Sunny obviously has a skill that cannot be easily commodified while his competitors do. That singular fact is not the fault of the competition itself, all the competition does is bring that fact into light.
I think what bothers people is the fact that PRC is a competition and not simply a showcase of Canada’s raw talent.
Just like in school and in life, there are some people that get 90% and some that are in the middle of the pack and some are just MIA and I guess it is upsetting for Canadian fashion mandarins and armchair editiors to see our homegrown talent cry and get torn up infront of panel.
I guess that’s why I don’t care – I don’t have any friends on the show.
///end two-cents
Re: Sunny’s “size zero” comment – that only means he makes his samples for a size “zero” (usually around a 34-25-25, which is actually a Canadian size 4) then someone else grades his patterns to make the other sizes and then the manufacturers produce the other sizes in production. It doesn’t mean he only produces a size zero – just that only he is used to creating samples in that size, like most designers.
Thanks Gail!