PR: Auf Wiedersehen

"You are a talented designer with a strong point of view. Auf Wiedersehen!"

Gotta hand it to those producers, kittens. They tried like hell to squeeze some drama out of the last few moments of competition. Instead we got "I learned that I'm strong"-style monologues that only made us feel embarrassed for the people forced to utter them.

And while these final "be inspired by NYC" challenges occasionally yield something of interest, usually it's the same result: tired-ass designs from tired-ass designers.

So, not having drummed any interesting drama with the setup...

They went for it in the elimination.

Look, this is not a perfect dress, by any means. But unlike a portion of the entries last night, this was an actual designed garment, with repeating elements that point to a strong aesthetic and point of view. Of course we'll be getting to the rest of the garments later, but suffice it to say there was little that impressed on that runway last night.

And let's get something else out of the way. That criticism from the judges that she keeps sending the same dress down the runway?

Pure nonsense. Granted, we thought she'd gotten a little repetitive too, but it's not our job to determine the fate of these designers and we would have hoped that the people whose job it is to do so, would treat their responsibility a little more seriously. We know. We're totally naive that way.

But no, the producers wanted an outcome and the judges mouthed the words that would make that outcome happen, overly praising other garments that were either equally as repetitive, considering the designer's previous work, or nowhere near as designed as this garment was.

The critiques were so embarrassingly nonsensical that within minutes of each other, Andy got praised for using black so much and April got criticized for it.

No, kittens, certain names were on a list and if you know anything about this show you know those names have been set in stone from about the 3rd or 4th challenge. April didn't make the list, not because of lack of talent, but because she didn't provide them enough of a character.

Like we said, we don't think this is a perfect dress. The cutouts aren't very pretty.

And that asymmetrical waist is highly unflattering.

But it's at least interesting. What makes it worse is that the judges essentially said the same thing and they STILL sent her home.

For our money, she was one of the few designers of interest throughout this Juniors Section of a season. The show has always been subject to the whims of its producers and in practically every season the penultimate auf'ee was usually a controversial choice, but we consider this one an unusually bad decision.

Bottom line: there are designers going on to the finals who SIMPLY DON'T DESIGN INTERESTING CLOTHES. At all.

She deserved her spot over some of the others. We wish her well and hope she gets that pony some day.


Tim Gunn's Workroom:


Extended Judging:


Under the Gunn


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com - Video Credit: myLifetime.com - Photo Credit: Barbara Nitke/myLifetime.com]

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Labels: April Johnston, Project Runway, Project Runway Season 8, Project Runway Season 8 Episode 12