Project Runway Season 13 Episode 11: The Yeti's Curse!

Greetings, Project Runway Fans 

and welcome to another edition of.....

Let's 

Make

a Deal!

It's that classic game of choosing a door and hoping you get

a new car!!!!

You don't want to get ZONKED!

We're down to six designers.  They traveled across the Hudson River to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to get the materials for this challenge.

Brooklyn has never looked better!

Tim's button bag identified teams of two designers each.

At this point, I lost total track of the rules for picking the containers. The key rules were that the materials for each designer's look were contained in the storage container and designers could bid on them one at a time.

Each bin had different contents. Every team ended up with more than enough material to make two looks.  It was humorous to see designers focus on one object or another.

Amanda was fixated on a painting of a yeti.

Emily just had to have the chairs.

When the designers returned to the studio, Kini made one fatal move:

He cut the protective plastic off the yeti!

It unleashed PURE HAVOC in the workroom.  The yeti was everywhere....

And mysteriously, Emily begin trimming her chair jacket in YETI FUR!!!

Coincidence?  I think not.  

Tim walked in with an announcement

"Make a third look.  We'll help you out by allowing you to use Mood fabric but you have no extra time."

Wait just one minute. Let's take a closer look at Tim's pocket square.

The YETI!

And who was helping Korina choose fabric at Mood?

The yeti!

And who was helping Korina with her design?

The yeti!

Try as hard as she might...she just....couldn't....shake....THE YETI'S CURSE!

Kini and Amanda

Team Yeti managed to tame the beast.

Kini's soccer ball dress will be one of the iconic looks from this season.

Kini and Amanda tamed the yeti into a jacket and teamed it up with an exuberant skirt made from nearly impossible-to-work-with tablecloths.

Amanda used the Mood fabric for a two-piece outfit trimmed and backed with the yeti.

You could easily see someone like Katy Perry wearing these outfits. They certainly captured the imagination of the judges and the fun that Kini and Amanda had showed through the designs.

The collection wasn't without problems, however. Once Nina instructed the soccer dress model to remove her fuzzy jacket and give it to the model in the pink outfit, all was right with the world. Almost. Not a word about Amanda's wonky pant seaming was mentioned. See what happens when you have fun? The judges overlook all sorts of sins!

Korina and Emily

And if you're not having fun?  The judges notice EVERYTHING.

Nina hated the sweater.  Zac Posen said that "leggings are overdone."

"Bite me, Posen!"

But the judges really unloaded both barrels on Korina's layered outfit.

Let's see....they thought the cape was sloppy, the hat was goofy and the boots weight the outfit down.

All of that was pretty legit. Once the cape was removed from the outfit, a green, leather turtleneck was revealed.

A green, leather turtleneck. Just because you CAN make a green, leather turtleneck doesn't mean you SHOULD.  Then again, without the cape, she could have had enough time to make the green leather top a showpiece and not an afterthought.

Nina also mentioned that Korina "goes for Native American motifs too many times." This sent Korina sputtering in defense. She really only had used a native motif once this season and was criticized for "not showing her point of view." She uses it legitimately, as a Native American.

Patricia Michaels was not criticized for using Native American motifs. 

Nina's critique was TOTALLY out of line and Korina could have respectfully stood up to that. But either she didn't or she did and it was edited out.

Thing is, Korina hasn't dipped much into her ethnic heritage this season. She presents herself as a young, modern designer. Just about everything she puts out on the runway has a modern twist to it. She's not a sentimentalist.

Nina's critique aside, I think a more astute observation would be that Korina knows her technical superiority and uses it as a bludgeon. If she can't out-design the competition, she will try to overpower the judges with technical difficulty. I'm really surprised that guest judge Christian Siriano didn't hone in on that right away. You get no credit for making five, six garments in 24 hours if they aren't impeccable.  And the most technically complicated garment isn't going anywhere if it isn't designed well. The most creative piece in the three-piece look was the cape and the design and fit were awkward.

Sean and Char

The model waddled down the runway, bound at her shins by a lampshade. I thought I saw TWO lampshades in the storage bin. Could they not have been joined to make one larger piece?

Sometimes, the only helpful thing these garments do is give Nina Garcia an opportunity to pontificate on the sorry state of today's fashion.

"I'm sick of the sheer panels everywhere."

On that subject, I suspect Nina speaks for many of us.

Sean did a fantastic job on the FRONT of packing quilt jacket, although I fail to see how impressive mesh pockets are.  The outfit underneath was unremarkable.  But look at it from behind in the next picture.  Why the back peplum?  To me, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

Char's jacket was puckery and poorly designed.  The sheer panel made the look more cohesive, but it also ruined the proportions of the outfit.  More skirt and less sheer would have been much better.

I would have had no problems with a Char auffing this week, but Nina couldn't make up her mind and both Char and Korina were sent back to the workroom with their partners, to make another look in an hour using all the leftover fabric from previous challenges.

Char and Korina

Char immediately went for the fabric she used for the "Heidi Goes to the Schmemmys" challenge. Korina just grabbed whatever there was the most of--the most being Kini and Amanda's crappy black tablecloth.  

From the start, Korina's spirit seemed broken by the judge's harsh critique coupled with disbelief that she was competing against a competitor that had been saved from an auf by Tim Gunn. 

On the other hand, Char was energized, focused and produced her best outfit to date. 

Had Char done this outfit for Heidi's challenge, she would have been on the positive side of safe. In reality, it's a solid dress. The cape like thing on the back seems a bit too dramatic for no good reason. I admire Sean's ability to roll the hem on the chiffon fabric in an hour. I just got through sewing a rolled hem on a dress with seven ruffles and a full hem.  It took me days. The color is beautiful, also. Another plus.

You can see very pucker and pull. The dress is shapeless and poorly designed. The yellow piping is barely noticed. The two fabric types do not juxtapose well. I'm not exactly sure I buy Emily's theory that "Korina cannot sew a good dress all full of hate." I just think that she was thrown for such an intellectual loop that quickly spiraled into an emotional loop and her creativity just shut down.

At this stage in the competition, 11 days have gone by and more than 11 people have left. When you come to the runway with what you think is your best technical work and have it skewered by the judges, it's hard to recover.  

So Korina is out, only to be brought back as a helper in a team challenge next week. Looks like, from the previews, that things do not go well.

I don't know how much of Korina's persona is editing or how much is really her. She seems to struggle with likeability. The thing the judges see week after week is that she seems to lack a clear design point-of-view. There's no doubt that Korina is extremely talented and smart. it's just a shame that she melted down in such a public fashion.