‘Project Runway’: Holler at your boy!

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What’s been billed as the most ‘underhyped’ season of Project Runway got off to a less-than-fabulous start tonight, which isn’t to mean that it’s not welcomed back with open arms. While it would be amazing to top the designers of the fourth season (especially Rami Kashou, Jillian Lewis and Christian Siriano), maybe it’s just not possible. Or maybe everyone just had a hard time with the first challenge, which debuted in Season One, as the designers were asked to make outfits from groceries and sundries from the supermarket Gristedes.

Many of the contestants took the easy way out and decided to work with tablecloths (aka ‘fabric’) and then were faced with the last-minute challenge of making them not look like tablecloths once Tim noted that they’d all be called out for going the easy route. Only Korto Momolu prevailed by adding some jewel-like vegetables to her well-sewn, vibrant yellow tablecloth dress. Daniel Feld used a bit more innovation with his bright blue solo cup dress, but it didn’t appear to fit the model well or to take the idea beyond its initial concept. Kelli Martin won, rightly, for her innovative outfit made of patterned vacuum cleaner bags (although the burned coffee filter top wasn’t quite as beautiful).

Then there was Blayne Walsh, who made sort of a diaper-romper thing that made absolutely no sense, but anybody watching from home could tell that Blayne wouldn’t be going away anytime soon. Jerell Scott seems to possess some screen-gobbling cattiness and Suede Baum appears to be a poor man’s Kayne, but Blayne (dubbed by some fashion-loving friends of mine as ‘Heatherette Jr.’) has already set himself apart from the crowd in terms of love-to-hate-ism, with idiosyncrasies like his declared fondness for tanning, adding the phrase ‘-licious’ onto everything and saying ‘Holler at your boy!’ in light of nothing in particular. And you have to wonder about people who wear knit hats and tank tops. When compared to the dour Jerry Tam and his nutty ‘plumber in an insane asylum’ outfit, it was clear that a nutty designer with a nutty outfit beats a less-interesting designer with a nutty outfit. Other than Kenley Collins’ use of dodgeballs in her sewing, the rest of the designs seemed either poorly made or poorly thought-out. Guest judge and former contestant Austin Scarlett seemed disappointed that he put on his best Oscar Wilde outfit for this.

Here’s hoping that the designers mostly misstepped on this challenge, because it would be a shame to see the quality of work go down between seasons. On the other hand, we’ve been promised that this is a dramatic, diverse season, so it should provide plenty of summer entertainment regardless of what gets sent down the runway.

-- Claire Zulkey