China Syndrome

Project Runway - Season 5, Episode 8

Though I don't mind the goofy or off-kilter challenges, I like it when the show comes up with a challenge as simple as "Make a garment in this particular style. Go." It's easy for contestants to excuse shoddy work on weird challenges ("Of course the judges didn't like my dress. How often do you think I make clothes out of spinach leaves?"), but there's no hiding when they're given almost free rein.

In tonight's episode, the designers are taken to meet Diane von Furstenberg, who as far as Kenley is concerned, is Jesus. She cries at the mere sight of the Stylish One. She can afford to be a bit unfocused, as the challenge is to make a garment that reflects the old Hollywood style of a Marlene Dietrich movie which takes place in Berlin and Shanghai. This challenge may as well be called Knock Me Out of the Park, Kenley. The winning design will be sold, which charges everyone up. Nothing very noteworthy happens during shopping and construction, so it's on to the runway show.

Leanne, who has come out of nowhere, makes a beautiful dark blue dress, and vastly improves the layered jacket, which looked bulky and dumpy during construction. The other favorite is Korto, who slips a peek of banana yellow beneath a black and white dress, which looks lovely. That's really it for the good ones, but there has to be a top three, so the judges pretend that Kenley's simple dress is awesome. Eh. It's well made, but that floral print was probably stolen off some grandma's sofa. Leanne takes her second challenge in a row, which is fairly rare. Other designers are fair to middling, but never fear. There's always some truly awful design to tear apart. Joe makes an ill-fitting garment that includes metallic hot pink. What, you don't remember all the metallic hot pink from those '40s movies? When Jerell is on, he's on, but when he's off, it's hard to beat his sheer crapitude. He just can't stay away from those goofy hats.

Tiffany: "Didn't she deliver the telegram in Clue?"

Blayne once again brings the tacky-licious by making some weird-ass jodhpurs. Stella creates a collar that aims for exotic sophisticate, but as Diane points out, looks kind of vampiric instead. In the end, Joe, Stella, and Suede's faux-camouflage wind up in the bottom three. Odd. I'm no Suede fan, but Jerell's was so much worse. Stella gets the boot, which kind of sucks. Not that she blows me away as a designer, but wouldn't it have been fun to see what a thirteen-piece leather collection would look like?

Overall Grade: B+