PRAS: The Dog Ate It

OK, one of the real problems with me doing this as opposed to pros is that this isn't my job. I'm actually studying Performing Arts in college, and when that gets tough (which it does) it's really hard to find time to do Project Runway, especially when the episode is, frankly, mediocre. With that in mind you get one quick post about all of them together, in  order of my score.

Christopher- Probably deserved to win. It was my favourite design I think, although the idea of the structure in the plastic is something I've seen before. In fact it looks almost exactly like a poorer version of Leah da Gloria from Project Runway Australia season 4's winning unconventional materials design. The scissors were really cool, but I hated the rainbow neckpiece, and frankly bullying as an inspiration point is cliched and clearly a desparate attempt to get sympathy. It was a good fairly good effort, and the right winner, but it makes me kinda sad that this won in all-stars.
Elena-Another very good effort. In fact, a better dress than Christopher's in my opinion. But the various commenters who've said she's too repetitive have a point. Certainly I disagree completely that she should have been sent home, partly because it's not SO much  as to be a huge issue. Personally I feel like if you put all four of her looks thus far down a runway together they'd be a pretty good mini-collection, and not too repetitive. But I did bump her down to second because some of it I have seen before and I'm concerned that this may be all she has to offer.
Viktor- It's OK. It looks like school supplies, and it's a bit muppet-y. I also hate the pins that look like the dress is pinned to her. Still, it's a cute dress, and 3rd is where I put it.
Irina- I didn't respond to this, because the colours, textures and silhouette are all kinda the opposite of my taste. But I saw it as what it was, a good design, but not very modern or fresh. It had pretty ingenious use of materials, and this was the only one that I thought really didn't look like it came from a school. But at some point she should have stepped back and realised it was like a little girl's princess fantasy dress. One of the better entries for sheer thoughtfulness and good construction.
Korto- I'm not mad, just disappointed. The skirt is great. The design of the top is retty good, but let down by awful execution. I really hate the clips, although I kinda get what she was going for. It's just OK, just about safe
Jeffrey-I actually don't hate this. Jeffrey seems to have me "on side" because I didn't hate his avante-garde bug design either. Well, not from the front. In that case and again here, I appreciate that he tried to do something interesting, and it kinda worked. I think if her ass hadn't been out, it could have been safe, and I wouldn't have sent him home even with that...unfortunate detail.
Seth-Aaron- He could have gone home for this. It just looks like a joke. It's out-there, but not in a cool avant-garde way, in a "people would point and laugh" way. I hate everything about this really, but especially the kickball on her head, which looks like...a kickball on her head. Buck up, S-AHD.
Mychael- He could have gone home for this. It fell apart, and so did he. The only semi-good idea is the rope bustier, which I've seen before, done better, and didn't like it much then. The shades of purple he used were pretty, but the red ruined it. This is a crappy, flimsy paper dress that he could have left for, with no complaint from me.

PRAS: Cocktails left untouched

 Mychael

Well, it's not too tight. Obviously, it is ridiculously short. The hemline's too high, and while the wrap skirt's nice it kinda points up at her crotch. Combined with the plunging neckline it's all a little too much flesh, which means once again Mychael has gone hootchie-mama. Actually that's not fair. I said last week that Mychael plays with the bounds of sexy, and this has just about the right amount of sexy without her looking trashy. That said, there's a lot here that I love. The colour is gorgeous, and works perfectly with his model's skintone. The construction's good, and the shoulders are very flattering on the model. The back is simple, really nothing there, but it's kinda beautiful for it. Mostly, though, I love the flowers, which are cleverly done and beautiful. It's a fantastic little dress for a sexy cocktail dress challenge, but I have one problem. The colour, the flowers and the shine of the fabric, combined with the bare skin, make me think a bit of "exquisite but slutty bridesmaid's dress," like Mychael might sell 4 of these for an expensive couture wedding party. Although it feels like this girl's going to a wedding, she won't be leaving it alone. If you know what I mean.

Seth-Aaron 

OK, this is gonna show just how little of a clue I actually have about fashion to anyone who hasn't already guessed, but I rather liked Seth-Aaron's work again. It's very very 80s, but unlike Jeffrey's geriatric 80s nightmare, I can happily see calling this an updated modern take on the 80s. It's a strong look, and a girl going to a party in this would make an impact. The neckline and cutouts in the front and back look great, and I like that the back is all-black. The colour combo is very Seth-Aaron and I also like it. I don't love the cut of the skirt, the flare's a bit weird, and it's also too short, like as in short enough that she couldn't bend over without exposing everything. But on the whole it's a young, fun and flattering look, styled in a way that makes it cooler. I think I can just about agree that it wasn't quite in the top, but S-ADHD had one of my highest scores.

Irina

 

I don't quite know what to....how do I......This is fucking weird. But d'you know, I pretty much love it. This should have been vying with Elena for the win. Black-Heart Russian has real skills. It took me quite a long time to realise that it was made of feathers. Well, covered in feathers. I don't love that the detail in the back isn't feathered (did she run out of time or...?) and the cuffs are awful. A sleek strip of the patent leather would have been perfect, but hanging loose it looks weird in a bad way. Still, I love the top, the juxtaposition of patent leather, sheer and feathers, all used perfectly and overall it's a sharp, sleek, sexy, unique dress, which is perfect for Irina. It's pretty stunning, and I'm sorry to see this go uncommented upon. Still, for me, fantastic job, and in my opinion Irina is clearly the one chasing Elena the closest. Seth-Aaron and, surprisingly, Christopher are racing for bronze (Christopher is just a little in front,) Korto and Mychael are doing OK in 5th and 6th respectively and Jeffrey and Viktor are right at the back. It's not at all how I expected the season to go, but I'm kinda pleased by it. Except for Viktor, who I thought and still kinda think might win the series but who for me needs to do a LOT better to chase the leaders. Full rankings and scores for all episodes will be posted along with comments for tonight's show, an unconventional materials which looks pretty tricky, especially since they KNOW the judges will absolutely slaughter anyone who uses fabric.

PRAS: Praise the lord, some fashion!

Having said that my bottom 3 from the final 6 were Viktor, Christopher and Jeffrey, and having covered that Melissa's work was OK but quite expected, you probably know that these were my top 2 for the challenge. At least before we include the middle entries, which were pretty good. So, lets go.

Elena 

Prepare for shock and awe, as I say something you who've read my last two posts about Elena never thought they'd hear from me. Elena should totally have been the winner this week. This just accomplishes everything you'd want it to (more or less.) Perfectly wearable fashionable cocktail dress, check. Sexy without being slutty, huge check. New and interesting, check. BEAUTIFULLY constructed, check. Looks like Elena without being totally what is expected of her, check. The seaming is beautiful and done perfectly. It's quite simple-looking, but that's only because it's done in white. It is very much constructed and designed. The judges took issue with it for being referential of Balenciaga, but I really don't think it's so obviously a rip-off that they ought to have marked her down for it. She had a cocktail called Sardinia, and chose to be inspired by Italy and Italian fashion. I'm not sure taking the fashion of Italy as an inspiration was the best idea (which by the way is the ONLY issue I have with the design of the dress) but it's done so well. This looks like a dress from the Elena Slivnyak collection at Milan Fashion Week, and that's fine. The neoprene is an ingenious fabric choice, especially because its main use is in wetsuits and Sardinia is a popular destination for divers, and it fits like a glove. There's one other thing I don't love, and that's the wristband. The dress just doesn't need it. But I don't think it needed anything once the purse and shoes were on, and the cuff probably detracts less than most other choices she had. Couldn't she have made a clutch or something? Oh, and the hair. The make up is great but I'd love to see sleeker, cleaner hair. The judges may have said it was too sporty then but I want to see the back of the dress, even though it looks very simple. Either way, it's a third truly amazing look in a row, and the judges were right, she needs to stop talking her work down because it's good. In fact, this was near perfect. Since they didn't give her the win when I really feel she clearly deserved it, I'm sorry to say that I don't think Elena is the winner the producers have in mind, even though if you ended the series now she'd pretty much HAVE to be the winner. Yet another spectacular look, and I'm gonna let her keep her name as a reward, rather than giving her a cruel nickname based on maybe her heritage or her general insanity(Tom and Lorenzo called her "Insane in the Ukraine," which I love.) Another great job, Elena.

 

Korto

The fact that the judges gave completely contrasting critiques ("Lose the belt/this would suck without the belt") is, to me, yet more evidence of the amount of bullshit that is sometimes dumped on the runway to justify what can at times be seemingly arbitrary decisions. And the decision to rank this dress 7th, just above Jeffrey and Melissa is pretty arbitrary. The back is kinda ugly, I really hate the square of fabric with the straight lines coming off of it, and truth be told, I just don't think patent leather works with this printed fabric, but change that for a matte black fabric and it's pretty great. Love the hem, love the print but the patent leather is such a big mistake that it would possibly be a low scorer. And to be honest there's not a huge amount going on without the patent leather, so it kinda does fail. This is the first time I've started typing a critique from memory, rather than having the look in front of me. Won't be doing that again, because in my head this was a lot stronger than it is in reality. Korto's been doing edgy for the last two challenges, and I've yet to see if that's a deliberate evolution or just what the challenges called for, but this feels like an attempt to infuse the Korto I was crying out for last week with some edge, and it doesn't work. I don't know if it's possible even, but it's not managed here. Do better, Korto. I believe in you.

PRAS: Nearly invisible and practically unwearable

 Christopher

There's the Christopher I've been waiting to disappoint me. Along with various other things that haven't reared their ugly heads yet, one of Pissy Chrissy's signatures from his own series was fabrics that were far too pale for the task, and for the model. This is such a fabric. Now, having seen the episode it was quite a pretty dress, although I still don't think it was interesting or challenging enough for a high score. The fact he took upholstery fabric and made it look like it did is an achievement, but when the top 3 and bottom 3 were called back, I would have guessed that the bottom 3 would be this, along with Viktor's and...well, I'll get there. Because apart from having been a little too easy, maybe "just a pretty dress," I also had a number of problems with it. First, the fabric is just too pale. It photographs HORRIBLY (which is something at least one of the judges ought to have known surely) and the reason that I had to see the episode to know that the dress was pretty is that, in photographs *does best Phoebe Buffay impression* "I can't see it, I can't SEE it!" Huh, my best Phoebe Buffay impression isn't that good. Who'da thought? See for yourself, in the front and back views, you can vaguely see that there is a dress, but it's only really in the third view that you even get a glimpse of what it might look like, and even then I have issues with the dress I can see. I hate that the lining sticks out beyond the lace in the side view. I also feel that it's just too literal a '20s inspiration, that they went to a cocktail bar and he instantly thought "speakeasy." That was last season. The crystals are the most modern thing about it, and they're kinda cheapening it. To me, this was probably safe, possibly bottom 3 although nowhere near going home, but almost definitely not top 3. Sorry, Christopher. I've liked your work a lot thus far, and had you been in the top for either of your first looks I'd be quite happy, but this was only OK. Back to dark colours, I think.

Jeffrey

I.....Well I guess it's.....No, this is just bad on every level. It's a dress that could only have been bought in the 80s, and even then it would have been dirt cheap. It looks incredibly tacky. Come on, floral-print hot pink velvet halter with a crystal neckpiece, hanging crystals and a bare back, paired with a feathered handbag. How cheap and 80s is that? In all fairness I liked the bag on its own but it's so wrong adding feathers, and gold chain to the list of elements that don't work together. I also love the colour and print but on velvet, not gonna happen. Ever. Obviously this joined my bottom 3, along with Christopher and Viktor. It possibly should have got him sent home, and I can't help but feel that that would have been delicious, to see the arrogant former winner sent home this early while someone who didn't even make fashion week the first time was getting complimented on great work challenge after challenge. Ultimately, there are three winners, two of them putting out good-to-great work, and they can't all win. It's almost as unlikely that they'll all make the final three. At some point, they're all gonna fall by the wayside so that a winner can be crowned. If the producers have already decided who it is, which is a strong possibility, it's unlikely to be one of the past winners. If not, it's pretty clear Elena has put out the best work, and if that continues rewarding her would be the best way to go. Either way, Jeffrey is going home at some point, and when he producess a look as bad as this in challenge 3, there's no reason to save him. Melissa's time had come, and I can't object, but Jeffrey is now equally under the pressure, and he's gonna need to buck up big-time. Good luck to him.

PRAS: When not using black becomes your funeral

 

Oh poor Mortissa. You had targets all over you, didn't you? They were waiting to send you home, and you would have had to pull out your best work to stay in. And the thing is, you almost managed it. This was a pretty good effort. I mean, there's not a huge amount to talk about here. Melissa has made this dress before, and that's not a great thing, but I don't think they mentioned it. The front, I don't love the wrinkling, and I think it does kinda eliminate her shape, but with Melissa that could easily be intentional. The back is gorgeous. I love the bareness, the asymmetry and the colours are fantastic. She shouldn't default to all-black so much. She could, and possibly should, still give a dark feel to her looks but use some colour. It would be a nice surprise, an interesting juxtaposition and I think women would want to wear it. The cuff is a great idea executed horribly. In all fairness, not a horrible look, probably not the worst of the challenge, but just not the unmistakeable wow she probably needed to redeem herself. I know it seems pretty much everyone on the internet thinks Jeffrey should have gone. I'll keep my opinions on that until the next post.

PRAS: The two sweetest words in the English language! Default! Default!

 

Congratulations, Viktor. You are the winner of Project Runway All-Stars. His work is getting worse, but his scores are getting better. Go figure. This is the "season-wide scoring plan" writ large. The scores are arbitrary and owe nothing to the work in his case. I LOVE the print, adore it. But it's quite busy, and there are lines going everywhere. The last thing he wanted to do with it was break it up and repiece it, because it's just distracting. The back of the skirt is a fine way to use the print, but it was better the way it was, and the best way to use the print would have been to cut a single piece and make a dress from it. And since that isn't really an option in All-Stars, he should have left the print and found something he could make work. The flap at the bottom is awful, but that's not all. I also hate all the straps front and back. The challenge asked for sexy but even so, with the length that's still a lot of flesh on show. Anyway, it's not that flattering. Somehow, it's vulgar but not sexy, which is quite a feat. I like the sleeves. There's stuff here worth liking, but on the whole I really don't. There weren't exactly rich pickings on this challnge, I'd have to say, but this is still waaaaay below the top.Whatever, Viktor. I liked you better when you were being ignored.

PRAS: The Thorax

Viktor

Ironically, for this one I would have been happy to see Viktor in the bottom. It's just weird and not in a good way in this case. From the front it's an Anya Ayoung-Chee muu-muu with a Laura Bennett plunging neckline rendered in a Laura-Kathleen Planck sheer with the back from Korto's avant-garde look from her season inspired by water and Aquarius and something inexplicable as a trim. It's a combination of loads of other designers and I just don't see Viktor anywhere in it. The bug...maybe. Avant-garde certainly not. I really did hate this a lot more than Jeffrey's, and it was just ahead of Melissa and Daniel on my scorecard.

Seth-Aaron

 

Well I'm disappointed. S-ADHD's really playing it safe. Kidding. Next to Irina's (which really worked) and Jeffrey's (which sorta worked) this was the most avant-garde. It's also very Seth-Aaron. I love the architecture, the shapes and the colours. The hard plastic "exoskeleton" was a good way to evoke the bug, if a little literal. In fact, it's a truly spectacular dress. But it's too normal, too like something you'd have seen in an 80s music video and too much like something Seth-Aaron would make for a ready-to-wear piece. In my opinion, it was flawed right from the concept up, although everything else was very well done. Definitely a middle entry. By the way, the skirt fabric is awful. It looks like a patent-leather trashbag.

Christopher

 

Dammit, can someone check my vital statistics? Am I ill? Because once again, I really liked Christopher's work. Is it possible that Christopher has progressed as a designer? This could be the new stage in a strong fashion evolution, and I didn't think Pissy Chrissy had it in him. Anyway, I absolutely love the front and back panels. That print is fabulous. I don't think the metallic fabric is quite stiff enough to do the structured hip he wanted so the execution is less spectacular than the idea could have been. I hate the clear plastic on the upper legs, but the way the spikes on the arms seem to be floating, as if they could actually be part of her, is pretty cool, and the styling is great. He was in the middle again, but I think he must be closer to the top than the bottom, because this is another good piece.

 

Korto

I absolutely love this. It's a fabulous suit, taken somewhere amazing by the pleather (I think) binding. I love the legs completely tied. I love the swirl over the shoulder, love the belt and love the almost Leanne Marshall-esque draped pleats in the hem of the jacket. It does kinda give me the bug inspiration, and I'm starting to think this is deliberate on Korto's part that she's proving that she doesn't have to rely on colour and can do fabulous things with black. It's interesting but I find myself wanting Korto's fabulous colours, prints and textures. It certainly beats Daniel's suit with stuff added from last week (which I hated) because I haven't seen this suit before, and the stuff added isn't a cliche and doesn't look tied on. It's fabulous. It was top-worthy. But I'm longing for something with the African inspiration.

PRAS: Avant-Garde Bugs and Try-Hard Fug

Elena

 

Damn you, Underbitch! Another excellent job, and hers is by far the strongest output over the first two challenges. I'm happy for her, I like Elena, but I'm kinda pissed, because Underbitch isn't an appropriate nickname for someone who's putting out this kind of work. I'm pretty sure I can't just call her Bitch either. I'll get back to you on that one. Anyway, another kickass Elena design. And I say Elena design because it really is kind of a list of all Elena's favourite elements: the colour blocking, the neutral colours (admittedly with  pops of bright colour here and there in this case,) the silhouette (aggressive and a little cocoon-like,) the structured shoulders, the length and a kind of....deliberate chaos she likes to achieve through symmetry. But d'you know what? I don't care. They all work, and they're put together beautifully. There's a lot happening here, which again is very Elena, but she has a real talent for pulling it all together. I've looked over this thing a hundred times and the one thing I don't like are the yellow panels on the back of the arms. Other than that, it's amazing. Love the shoulder spikes and I can see the bug the best in this one, even maybe a little too well. But it wouldn't have won, just because it wasn't as avant-garde as I'd like. It's right at the edgiest part of wearable, which is perfect for Elena, but when the challenge is avant-garde I need more somehow. Another amazing look, Elena, now for the next few challenges please retire: colour-blocked leather and outerwear. I love them, so do the judges, but you might get labelled repetitive. Keep going strong and, if the competition isn't an enormous fix, you may have a shot.


Melissa

Oh, sweetie, have you booked your ticket home for next week? Because if I were you I'd get right on that. I am, by the way perfectly aware that not only are they not reading this but "next week" happened several months ago. It's just fun to pretend. Anyway, this is so wrong. I do think Daniel made the worst look for this challenge and the worst pair of looks, but the judges could have sent Melissa home with no complaints, not from themselves, not from the other contestants, not from many of the fans. There was the tiniest hair's breadth between her and Daniel by all accounts. The one thing that saved her in my eyes was that she has taken risks and tried to push boundaries. God, this really is awful. Actually, no, it's a perfectly fine dress, a fairly good Melissa creation in a lot of ways. But this is an avant-garde challenge, and much as I hate to agree with Alyssa Milano, there is nothing avant-garde about a little black dress. This has, at most, achieved a slight edge to it. The straps are really cool, but there should have been dozens of them grabbing the model's arms. The weird thing on the back is God-awful, a real "what were you thinking?" moment. There's just not a lot of anything happening, except the straps, which should have been taken farther, teh back detail, which was taken way WAY too far and various conventional LBD details. It's dull, and it's disappointing, but the judges wanted Daniel to go instead, and I'm fine with that.

Irina 

In my judging session,  this was the clear winner. Yeah, it's weird and it is borderline ugly, but at the same time, it's strong, statement-making, dramatic, disturbing (in a good way given that it's a bug challenge,) sexy and I can't stop looking at it.  At one point she had plans to use both the  yellow and black of her bug. I'm so glad she didn't. A textured black gown is very Irina, but this is like nothing I've ever seen before. Maybe it's not quite avant-garde, but apart from possibly one other design (you know which anyway) it's the closest to avant-garde and I can actually see certain risk-taking Hollywood ingenues wearing it on the red carpet. Apart from the brass back zipper, which I don't understand the thinking behind when EVERYTHING else is black, I love this from top to toe and think it should totally have been the winner. Good job, Siberia. 

Jeffrey

 

What the hell do I say about this? It's bizarre. It's over-the-top. It's actually a fairly good answer to the challenge. What the hell was Isaac Mizrachi talking about, it having to be wearable? Yeah, he's strictly RTW, but with avant-garde, it doesn't necessarily have to be wearable, surely. Anyway, it was never ever the challenge winner, but i'm not sure it deserved to be on the bottom. It's a cool, interesting and new design, and I can actually see the violence and poison of the bug. It's the only one that goes farther than Irina's, maybe a little too far, but to me it would have been safe, for at least trying to push something.

PRAS: Daniel's sadly downturned moustache

 

Sometimes in my head there's some back and forth, some debate about whether the right person stayed and went. This is not such a case. This 100% earned him his ticket home. Melissa's was BAD, and Jeffrey's had some pretty big problems, but this was the worst piece on that runway by a fair way, especially when combined with his output in week 1, which I thought was very uninspired, an embellished version of the look that won him challenge 1 in his season. There are two things here which somehow evoke his inspiration, the Vinegaroon. One is the colour and fabric choice, the other is the neckpiece. And they are both awful. OK the colour is OK, and well matched through the three fabrics, but the main fabric is heavy, ugly and upholstery-like. The sheer fabric looks cheap, and the shiny back fabric looks even cheaper. And the neckpiece, if it was gonna be uncomfortable it should've..... I dunno.....gone there, pushed it somewhere. It kinda looks like a surgical neckbrace. So that's very much a no on the ways he drew his inspiration to a design. As for the rest of it, I don't get it. This dress has no less than three definable hemlines with the mullet hem and the large sheer section. Is that meant to represent the sections of the vinegaroon's body? Because that's kinda cool but it would have to go further with the idea to ever be considered avant-garde. I just don't....it's awful. It's not a dress you'd ever see in a store or a ready-to-wear collection, but not in a good way. The bustline was weird without the toggles, with them it's baffling. I really do like the braided, twisted thing round her back, but I think it could have been harder, more whip-like, put in something harder, as it's a whip scorpion he's meant to be inspired by. Other than that, it's awful, and badly constructed, which is weird because he's usually pretty meticulous. Goodbye and good moustache to you, Daniel.

PRAS: Buggy Knyght

Mychael

 

I'm coming around on this. At first I had all kinds of "this is unacceptable. Get him back and remove his win NOW" planned for this critique. But it's pretty cool. In fact, it's kinda beautiful. Love the colour combo, not colours I'd use but he used them well. The cocoon idea is nice if not particularly avant-garde, but something about the way it seems to be clenching but releasing, and the bright colour hidden under the neutral tone does speak to his point of inspiration and it does go to an interesting place. Here ends the complimentary portion of the critique. I liked a lot of the makeup this week, but the milk-moustache lipstick she seems to have going on here is very wrong. The draped pieces in the back looks a little sloppy and the way the neck goes up into the headpiece in the back makes it look like a karate headband. But there's one thing Mychael always gets wrong. It was a problem in his series, a problem in the all-star challenge, a problem last week and is still a problem now. His skirts seem to always be too tight, and it can make a great design look tacky very easily. Look at this. From the knee up she is showing her face, her hands and two tiny slivers of her back. But the skirt being so tight instantly cheapens it and makes her seem slutty. It seems to be the skirt silhouette that he likes, and I guess it would have been ideal to make a really tight skirt for his cocoon inspiration, but an avant-garde version of the tight skirt would, I think, be tighter, and look deliberate. At this level of tightness it seems like it's just his personal taste in slutty skirts. I don't agree with this winning at all, especially because one of Mychael's big things seems to be playing with the boundaries of sexy, and I would consider this a failed experiment in that. But I'm not totally mad about it being top 3 any more. It's not a bad effort.

PRAS: The Ugly Bug Ballgown Challenge

Didn't they just do this challenge? Except with pretty butterlies rather than ugly insects. Still, I'll admit it's a cool challenge. I think I'd probably hate it in a normal series, forcing them to take difficult and often ugly inspirations and make something "avant-garde." It's seriously hard but most of these designers can handle it, and those that can't shouldn't be all-stars in my opinion. OK, I've not seen the episode yet, so I have no idea exactly how he responded, but Viktor had every right to be pissed at the fact Anya was on the judging panel for several reasons. First, he doesn't deserve a reminder of why he didn't win his series sitting in front of him, possibly critiquing him and even possibly helping to send him home. That could so easily throw him. I know Jeffrey's there for Mychael but not as a superior. It may actually help Mychael, give him a driving force because he wants to beat Jeffrey this time. In this case though it's like Anya won, and got promoted to guest judge, while Viktor lost and will, assuming he gets through the next episode, have to make a look from school supplies. It must feel shit. Second, he feels that he was robbed, said so in the last episode, and, much as I don't think he should have said it, I agree, so there must be some bitterness there. Third, whatever relationships developed through their series (and Viktor really can't have helped this by being less than complimentary behind the scenes) must carry over, and it sucks for both of them because Anya would find it hard to be impartial one way or the other. Also, look at the other alumni who have been invited back: Mondo Guerra, Nick Verreos and Christian Siriano. Mondo was invited back for the print challenge in Season 10, as was Anya, but I didn't mind so much because they were the winners of these challenges in their series, and both love prints and did fairly well. Mondo then returned in All-Stars season 2, but as returning champ, and possibly all-time fan favourite. Nick and Christian, one won, one didn't but there is no question that they are two of the most successful designers the show has produced throughout its history. I don't blame Anya for this, they offered her publicity and probably a fair bit of money for this and she was right to take it, but she should never have been invited, especially to critique people she already knows. That sucks. But whatever.

Project Runway All-Stars: Middle of the Road

OK, I'm gonna have to do this more quickly that I had intended because I want to do a pre-show post as well tonight. It's a shame, because the middle produced a lot of the most interesting looks and they often deserved discussing as much as, if not more than, the top and bottom. I'll do them in order of preference.

Christopher

OK, I don't like Christopher or his aesthetic much. I hate the overuse of punk cliches like chains and safety pins. I hate the combo of black, brown and grey. So obviously this was never gonna impress me. PSYCH! I really rather like this, in fact it's probably my favourite of the middle looks. I love the sort of sloppy, relaxed punk element, but it's chic and put together at the same time. A strange paradox, but it works here. Styling's nice. Love the long top over leggings. I love the shape of the jacket, and the back is stunning. The black piece really is pretty cool. With the chain neck, is it removable? Can you slip off the black and have it as just the brown and grey, because that's really cool? If so, he made two cool, wearable punk outfits.  Much as I hate to say it, Pissy Chrissy really did deserve some praise for this. I hate the bite out of the hem of the top.

Korto

Could Poutyface be the winner they're looking to crown? She was fan favourite in her series, many still say she was robbed, her business doesn't seem to have taken off massively, which is sad, and she's extremely popular. She is, however, an alumnus from one of Bravo's seasons and on Lifetime I'm not sure they're ever gonna reward one of them. But anyhoo. This was a nice look. I like the shape of the skirt a lot in the front, less in the back. The huge zipper, sometimes I'd say no, but since it's punk I'll give it a pass. The three fabrics (matte black, printed and leather in the waist) work really well and are all used near-perfectly.) I love the waist detail, the way she used the print in the front, and especially the back, which is TO DIE FOR. The chains work well, and there are just about the right amount. I don't like the one strip of print that doesn't stick down on the model's right sleeve, and it's not very Korto as I've seen her. Punk was a near-impossible challenge for her with her aesthetic, and this is a fantastic answer to it, but realistically it couldn't have won because Korto would have been very low down the list if I was forced to guess which of the designers made this. In fact I think my first guess would have been Ari. Still, it's fabulous. Good job. You can smile now.

Irina

To me this was absolutely a middle entry. It's not bad at all and it's very Irina. It's trashy in a really cool punk way. The zipper trim's not exactly something new, especially with Jeffrey actually in the competition, but it elevates the design slightly. The straps are absolutely amazing. The zip in the back I could take or leave, but I love the hot pink down the back. The black and white stripes give it a bold graphic element which is actually pretty cool. It's slightly sloppy in a bad way. I like the studs but HATE the way they're applied. There's one long strip running diagonally across the front. I wish she'd just kept that.The uneven hem is clearly deliberate, but it's not for me. I don't think it needed the leather, and I never thought I'd say that. And the red and pink together I don't like, they don't match, complement with or clash with each other and I wish she'd gone for black, white and pink. Problem is, she seems to have been directly inspired by the lyric in Blondie's "A Rose By Any Name" which says "Black and red looks so good on you" and decided to design a black and red dress. It's not a lazy inspiration or design, but the red is annoying me, although it's one of my favourite colours. It's a strong design, but some of the others did very well and to me it falls around 5th or 6th in the rankings. Still, easily good enough to move her on.

Daniel

OK, two sentences which strongly contrast each other. I really like this design. I think it should maybe have 

been in the bottom. I don't have much to say about the design. It is a great suit, one that a lot of women would probably love to have. But Daniel has made this suit several times before. And then he tied a load of dayglo pink string to her waist. It's just not all that new, interesting, and he didn't push himself. The makeup is just so obviously an attempt to go too far in a way the look should have and didn't. The back of the jacket is actually quite cool, it does have a sense of punkness to it, and the string looks so sloppy and homemade it kinda works. The neckline is great, but all in all I'm left with an impression of someone who has barely grown at all in any way since their season, and who doesn't know what to do when they have to leave their wheelhouse for the challenges. I can kinda see it as a 2013 New York-city version of punk with a chicness to it but it doesn't go nearly far enough. I imagine he was near the bottom of the pile and I can't see him lasting long.

Mychael 

This sucks. I would have sent him home for this. No, really. The jacket, which I don't have a picture of her wearing, looks like cheap paper, as does the dress. I have no idea how the jacket looks, because it photographs so horribly. All I can say is sloppy. Also unflattering. The dress is god-awful. This is so trashy, and not in a cool punk kind of way, in a 21st century tacky Kardashian kind of way. That is way too short. And too tight. Yes, her ass looks great but everywhere else it's too tight and puckery. This feels like it could have come from his finale collection of slutty tacky and poorly-made looks. He didn't win for that. There's a reason. This feels like a Mychael Knyght design from 2005 that he was told to make into a punk look in 20 minutes for $5 so added 2 dozen safety pins. Seriously, did they forget to say that he was set some kind of secret unconventional materials challenge, where he was given reams of white paper and some safety pins? That's how cheap this fabric looks. Elena got all that leather for the same price as this. Seth-Aaron, Jeffrey, even Melissa, they all look like they should have cost 10 times the price of this. Did he spend the money on alcohol? Because I can't explain the shittiness of this otherwise. The back detail and the neck cutout are very nice, but that's it. I even hate the styling, on the whole OK, except that the hair is covering the back detail, the glasses are awful and the shoes add to the tacky. Has he started believing his own hype? I hope not.  He's better than this.