The final episode! Whew, that was quick! I am so excited that shortly there will be a new winner of “Project Runway”! At this point the competition is still anyone’s to claim! Lucky for the designers, Tim has offered to run to Mood for them and pick up some fabrics while they continue to work. Surprisingly, only two of the designers, Kelly and Ashley, take him up on the offer as the other two, Edmond and Candice work on minimizing their collection.
You can feel the tension in the workroom as the designers scramble to finish their collections. Even Ashley, who had the highest amount of praise, is beginning to feel her collection is not exciting enough. Kelly is over her head bedazzling everything in the collection. Candice is taking apart dresses to minimize the collection and Edmond is frantically trying to “sex up” the collection by adding additional pieces and recutting the ones he already has finished. When it is time for the designers to pack up their collections it is truly anyone’s competition to win, and it will be interesting to see how each collection comes together.
First up we have Kelly!
Wow, this does not look like the same collection that she showed the judges just a few days ago. I don’t know if it was the lighting or the finishing touches, but the collection actually looked very clean and easy. A favorite look was the show opener with the clean white pantsuit and the bedazzled crop top. My second favorite look was the loose fitted dress with the mesh panels. Another favorite was the bell bottoms with the green sequined top. I would have liked to see more of that fabric in the collection. In addition, while I liked the silhouette of the dress made from the wood printed spandex fabric, I would have really liked to see it done in a more expensive fabric. Unfortunately, a lot of the fabric collection looked cheap on the runway. I believe that it will majorly hurt her chances for the outright win. She did a great job of capturing her inspiration, but I think would have been more successful if she went more glam and less rave.
Edmond – I am really excited to see how he has sexed up this collection. But, to be honest, I was disappointed in this collection. It was all over the place. I do not see one woman as the customer, but rather two or three different inspirations. There was some sexy, some sweet and some basic. It is especially frustrating with Edmond because 1)he is so sweet and 2) he shows signs of absolute talent. Not all his pieces were amiss. His third garment was perfection to me. It had a gorgeous sleek fabric with an extremely skilled drape. However, he follows that up with a tiered bubble dress that looks like it is made from a student on a tight fabric budget. That same feeling repeated its self with the two standout finale dresses. The white dress looks like a school project and the following black dress is the perfect combinations of dramatic ruffles with the sleek cross back. Looking for all the world like a dress fit for the Oscars.
Candice – Unlike the judges, I liked a lot of this collection. It had some absolutely stunning fabrics. I do wish she had used more of the cherry blossom fabric within the collection, which was showcased on her opening look. It is a chic, beautiful print and brought some movement to the collection, which was full of stark, leather pieces. I also wished that she would have done a more innovative take of the corset that we so often see. That lack of any diversity followed with her pants, which were all straight leg and fitted. I would have liked to see some more interesting patterning/drape in her separates. I really enjoyed her jacket, and would have liked to see more pieces with drape. I absolutely LOVED her finale dress. She was so right to ditch the hoops and let the dress move. The fabric and cut were stunning. Unfortunately, it was preceded with the second to last dress, which was a disaster.
Ashley – This was another strong collection. There were a lot of stand out pieces, and some more basic looks, a theme with this year’s contestants. I thought she had the strongest looks with her garments that featured a hint of sheerness. Again like the preceding collections, I LOVED her finale dress, and I would have loved to see more of that vibe throughout the collection. Its flower detailing would have been a nice add on skirts or tops. Some of the looks still seemed to have a bit of fit or construction issues and seemed a little basic for a runway show. Overall, it was a strong, cohesive collection and I think will ultimately be crowned the winner.
It looks like I was right! Ashley is ultimately crowned the winner! What do you think? Was the right designer crowned champion?
