The Challenge:
This week’s challenge is designing for the mucho preggo Rebbeca Romijn. It can be for day, night —- pregnancy’s all the time!!

Sirui: I thought, especially given that they are used to size 0 waifs, the designers did a really good job. The clothes were feminine, modest, and even a bit sexy. They should design maternity wear all the time!

Jon: I don’t know if I need to see more huge models, but you’re right, previous designers have generally had a bad time overall when it came to designing bigger sizes but this group did pretty well all around.

Sirui: Plus-size is kind of eh, but I am fascinated by maternity stuff! I love the belly!

The Workroom:

In the workroom, the designers are excited, but confused. Tailored versus drapey? Silk versus jersey? And exactly where does the baby go? Others are less practical in their planning. Malvin’s muttering about the egg, and the mother hen.

Sirui: Did he not learn anything from Ari’s elimination?

Jon: I think he’d have to be on the same planet as her, or at least the other designers, for him to have learned anything from that.

Sirui: His dress in the first round was sane though. He is capable of normalcy, when he’s not married to THE EGG.

Sirui: Tim comes to critique. Some of the designs are looking really lovely, some not so. Malvin gets more and more literal and tells Tim that he is making pants to turn a woman’s legs into chicken thighs. Hm.

Jon: I am worried that Malvin is going to make us both look foolish for having publicly expressed our interest in him in the first episode. Also, I am amazed at Tim’s ability to resist rolling his eyes or making other faces to the camera for the audience in reaction to the terrible ideas/attitudes he sometimes encounters. But instead he just says “You’re not boring me”. Which is perhaps just as great.

Sirui: The designers themselves play critic. Mitchell encourages Ra’mon, but compares the dress to a bowling ball bag. I like Ra’mon’s thinking (design a fun dress, that happens to be a preggo-dress—rather than a preggo uniform), but Mitchell’s right. The dress is retro cheap.

Jon: It should be noted that Ra’mon came up with this concept after taking the judges’ advice not to play it too safe (after last time) too far.

The Runway:
The designers parade their outfits —- mostly cute drape dresses and tunics in brighter colors. Louise, Althea, and Shirin come out on top. Shirin’s super wearable dress beats out Althea’s gown, and wins this week’s challenge. Ra’mon sucked, but not as badly as Mitchell and Malvin. Mitchell showed poor execution skills, but Malvin got sent home for overlooking practical fashion aesthetics to fulfill an abstract concept. Bye Malvin!



Sirui: From the Safes, I took note of Epperson and Logan. With Logan I thought the gold leather color was adorable, but I was especially keen on Epperson’s jumpsuit. The fabric (off-white jersey) looked sophisticated, and I love the length on it too, with the crinkling at the ankles. I hear pregnant folk need to pee a lot, so maybe a jumpsuit’s a bad idea. But I would have liked to see him in the final three.

Jon: Logan’s made his model’s belly protrude even more — but in a proud, classy way? If that’s possible. Epperson’s did look sophisticated and should’ve been a contender for Top 3.

Sirui: ::smirk:: He was a contender for the top three. Technically, they all were.

Jon: You know what I meant! But hey, since winning Project Runway is one of “bucket list” items, think of it as your first step toward your goal…

Sirui: Louise doesn’t impress me, I am biased against the 1940s. From the top two, I really had a hard time deciding between Althea’s and Shirin. Althea’s was gorgeous, from the midnight navy to the open back cut to the ribboning around the bust. But Shirin’s I could actually wear. It’s a happy dress!

Jon: Hmm. I liked Louise’s, even though it did look a little lingerie, as the judge’s noted. Althea’s had it’s strengths but even the smart choice of dark navy couldn’t stop me from thinking it was made of jersey (which people kept mentioning and mentioning) and therefore cheap. She certainly dressed it up nice though.

Sirui: I disagree with Jon on the fabric choice- I thought it was a great pick! Jersey is soft and stretchy, ie super comfy, perfect for preggos. And it’s while it’s not standard evening wear fabric, it can be kinda lux for a flowy day top or dress. Chanel used it!

Jon: I stand corrected! Admittedly it didn’t *look* cheap. Still, I liked Louise and Epperson’s better than Althea’s. But who cares — the important thing is that Shirin won! Her’s was my favorite. Plus as we mentioned last week, she’s a cutie. Go Shirin!

Sirui: Mitchell has a sharp eye for ready to wear, once again proves that he can’t sew. He really can’t. But I agree with the judge’s decision. I love Malvin a lot, but his design was bizarre and ugly. Chickens are really weird.

Jon: Mitchell’s outfit had attitude but was really horribly put together. Heidi said, “It looked like I sewed it. And I can’t sew”. I wouldn’t have minded if he Mitchell had been the one to go, especially seeing how it was his second time in the bottom. I liked Malvin too for some reason. He was another bizarre but charming, quiet Asian guy, in the mold of Top Design’s Wisit. I like to think that if he’d stayed we would’ve had a challenge or two that played to his eccentricities and seen something unimaginably unusual and winning.