Project Runway: Episode 5

Project Runway:
It's My Way On The Runway (Bitch)

It could be said that this week's episode of Project Runway has been the most explosive and bitchiest yet. The designers were given their brief from Marie Claire fashion director and judge, Nina Garcia: split into two teams and create a collection of garments suitable for women in the workplace. The looks were to be then photographed with the intent of featuring in Marie Claire's new "@ The Workplace" magazine, however only the winning team's collection would actually be featured. This brief was a recipe for bitching, arguments and complete clashes from the beginning: after seeing how the designers reacted when paired up in episode 3 to create a look for past Project Runway designers, you just knew that someone would blow up in this challenge!

First up with the teams. Seeing as Sonjia won last weeks challenge, she was able to choose her first team mate. Her decision? Elena - purely for her technical sewing skills. Yeah, can't say I would have made the same decision. After Sonjia, Nathans name was picked from a button bag and so he had the next choice. Following this, each designer chosen then had the decision of who would join their team. In the end, Team 5 consisted of: Christopher, Ven, Nathan, Gunnar and Fabio. Team 6 included: Melissa, Sonjia, Elena, Dmitry, Alicia and Raul. First off, who in their right minds would choose Elena to be on their team? *face of utter astonishment* You just know from the start that she's going to lose her mind over something, attempt to take charge, steal the limelight and throw one massive bitch fit. Oh, and she's going to design some hideous OTT shoulder detail.

The amount of arguments and hissy-fits in this weeks episode could last the rest of Season 10: As we all know by now, Elena is extremely high-strung and temperamental. To begin with, she lost the bag of fabric that she bought from Mood for her design and as a result, had to use some extra material that Dmitry offered as a Plan B - which she obviously wasn't pleased about. Then she wasn't quite happy with the shoulder-ruffle-detail-thing that she designed for her jacket, so proceeded to throw it across her work bench. Later at the photo shoot, she decided that none of the props available were suitable and that the majority of the end photographs weren't quite up to her standard. She was rather vocal on her opinions as well and so, got herself into countless arguments with both Melissa and Raul. Oh, she even had a bitch at the hair and make-up team, demanding that the models be in front of the camera whenever she said. Raul's issues came from his designs landing him in the bottom two a few times and his previous elimination. He worried  from beginning till end and refused to really take in the teams perspectives and ideas for the collection. Then the claws came out. On a few occasions: one being at the photo shoot and again after the Runway show, Raul told Elena that he hated her and I quote, couldn't stand her! Well, who else wants to give Raul a pat on the back? I have to agree with him on this subject, but it was still a little shocking to hear him come out and say it to her face. 

Anyway, I'm about three paragraphs into this post and I haven't even mentioned the clothes! Team 5 were given the task of creating five looks and had a budget of $1000, whereas Team 6 had six looks to create and were given a slightly higher budget of $1,200. Straight away, Sonjia took charge of Team 6 and decided that it could perhaps work out for the best if each team member created something that they felt the most comfortable with, rather than create an entire look each. They didn't exactly have a theme or colour palette ready for entering Mood like Team 5 did, but they seemed organised even though Raul was going in the opposite direction from anything they suggested. Team 5 had a colour palette and decided that they would create a look each. Let's see the designs, shall we?

Team 5:

Christopher

Fabio

Gunnar

Nathan

Ven

I'm going to be honest and say that I totally hated Fabio's dress. While the judges loved it and thought it was versatile for women of all ages, I hated it. The design, the shoulders, the material - I didn't like anything about it. Ven's skirt and top were gorgeous. I would look at any woman wearing that and wonder where she bought it from, but it doesn't change the fact that Ven is a one trick pony. I said this in episode 2, and each week has only reinforced my opinion. He goes for architecturally structured floral designs. Beautiful every now and again, of course, but it gets boring when you see it in his designs every single week. Show me some versatility in your design capabilities Ven!

Team 6:

Dmitry

Alicia (trousers) & Elena (jacket)

Alicia (trousers) & Elena (jacket)

Melissa

Raul (top) & Sonjia (skirt)

Raul (top) & Sonjia (skirt)

My favourite from Team 6 has to be Melissa's dress. That dress is so modern, chic and fashionable, yet completely professional and powerful for any work environment - I absolutely love it. It's definitely something that I would wear to the office myself and it looked fantastic when photographed for the editorial. I also loved Sonjia's skirts: that blue pencil skirt really stood out with the bold colour, but looked insanely flattering and suitable for the office. The worst look for me? Elena's jacket with the OTT shoulder details. I get that that sort of detail is her aesthetic, but she clearly knows how to tone it down, so I don't know why she feels the need to have it in 99% of her looks. Not flattering or fashionable for me at all.

Both teams scored the same amount of points in this weeks challenge, so that meant that this weeks guest judge, Marie Claire Editor-In-Chief Joanna Coles had to really work with Heidi, Nina and Michael to decide which designer would win this weeks challenge, and which look was the worst, meaning elimination from the competition. They chose Melissa's stunning blue dress as the winner and chose Raul as this weeks loser. That's got the hurt: two eliminations! Raul said in his vlog that he was happy to be leaving the competition at this point in time and said that creating garments in seven hours just wasn't for him. I can't say I'll be sad to see him go: his designs never really hit the mark with me.

What did you think of this weeks episode? Did you agree with the judges decisions? Leave your comments below!

Photo Credit: www.mylifetime.com