With Project Runway moving channels, adding in exceptional new judge Law Roach, and apparently featuring so many brand integrations this season that the series set a new record for a Freeform show (deep, aggrieved sigh), there’s more than enough to talk about with this revamped season, so welcome to Vulture’s weekly recaps. We’re starting with third episode “Boring to Brilliant,” but here’s what you need to know about the changes shaking up the 21-year-old series. In terms of winners and losers, early rivals Ethan and Jesus have been on top, which is why they’re leading their own fashion houses, and season 19 competitor Caycee Black was the first to go home, in the beginning of second episode “Feel the Burn.” You’re caught up!
When “Boring to Brilliant” begins, it’s with our next elimination, which on-screen text helpfully labels as “Elimination 2 of 9.” (How do we feel about eliminations now happening at the start of the following episode instead of within the relevant challenge’s episode? I’m still not entirely sold.) This elimination is for the athleisure challenge in preceding episode “Feel the Burn,” which Ethan’s team lost. Veejay, Alex, and Angelo are the bottom three, but it’s really between Angelo (who gets criticized for his gray sweats’ lack of “showmanship”) and Alex (whose construction on a pair of hakama-inspired pants was poor, in addition to her corset top being inappropriate for the challenge). Alex ends up getting the boot, which I don’t entirely agree with because at least her outfit had more of an interesting guiding design principle than Angelo’s hoodie and shorts, but she takes it gracefully.
After Alex’s exit, Christian shares details of the next challenge. He tells the group that there weren’t any clear leaders in either of the previous two episodes — which isn’t exactly true because Ethan, Jesus, and Antonio are all certainly positioning themselves as shot-callers, but I’m guessing this was production’s plan before the contestants even arrived. Christian says that Ethan and Jesus are now officially leaders of their own houses and that they need to pick their teams for the next challenge. The next day on the runway, we hear the details of the challenge before team selection. There are three giant burlap bags on the runway, each filled with a “boring” fabric. In an incredibly surreal bit of dialogue, Heidi explains that the task at hand is similar to how PNC Bank approaches investing, saying money management and sewing are both tedious actions that “create brilliant results,” and that’s the challenge. Did you know PNC Bank has a long-standing marketing campaign about how being “boring” is actually being trustworthy? I had no idea because Project Runway doesn’t contextualize this concept and never again revisits this comparison in the episode. It’s odd. Anyway, each team leader will randomly select a burlap bag and use the “boring” fabric inside to create “something beautiful.” They have only one day, and the winning look gets worn by Heidi’s friend and guest judge Sofía Vergara. Good luck!
Ethan picks first, ends up with Yuchen, Joseph (I refuse to call him by his full name), Joan, and Angelo, and gets dark-wash denim fabric. Jesus picks his team second, putting together his twin brother, Antonio; Madeline (whom Ethan had traded Jesus for in an earlier episode, making this an interesting bit of strategy from Jesus); Veejay; and Belania; and his bag includes a dark gray wool. While Ethan says he chose his team to avoid “firecracker energy,” Jesus says he tried to select the best group of tailors, and one of those tactics ends up being a lot smarter than the other—because when the teams get together to plan their collections, Jesus has a real vision for what the pieces should look like. He names his team House of Catalina after a Colombian flower as a way to honor Sofía’s heritage, and he thinks the team should play with floral-inspired silhouettes and significant volume.
Meanwhile, House of Ethan (or H.O.E., which Ethan giggles about) is a mess. Ethan didn’t do much leading in the athleisure challenge, and his team’s looks felt disjointed, while his black-and-red Tron–inspired outfit was a standout. I genuinely think that Law’s criticisms about how Ethan “didn’t give a fuck” about his teammates got to him and he wants to be a better guide this episode. But Ethan is simultaneously too vague with his design ideas and too controlling with his treatment of his team. “Showstoppers” as a design brief means nothing, and Ethan making his team members file sketches that he then selects from isn’t really honoring their individual aesthetics. I’m not saying Ethan’s background in drag is, uh, a drag, but I do think in this challenge, he let himself deviate from the idea of wearable outfits and instead lean more toward dramatic costumes. That’s not the right call for a piece that will eventually be worn by the fairly stuck-in-her-ways Sofía — why would you ever think she would wear that gigantic denim hoop around her face? — and it clearly confuses Ethan’s team members, none of whom is passionate about what they’re making.
That indecision is really clear when Christian tours the studio, and finds Jesus’ team hard at work on a variety of interesting silhouettes and Ethan’s team floundering. Ethan has tasked Joan with making a denim gown with frayed accents and a frayed spiral headpiece, and that nearly sends Christian into a rage spiral: “Every Project Runway designer that’s ever been in this competition has done a frayed-edge denim dress.” Angelo’s pencil skirt is boring. Yuchen’s swoopy and folded “storm dress” seems impossible to finish in the provided time. You can tell Christian is about to lose it when he points out, “Ethan, your team has no clothes,” and girl, same.
Now, normally, I’d complain about how a one-day challenge is inherently ludicrous and the judges can’t be mad about poor results when they clearly didn’t give contestants enough time. (This is my constant issue with The Great British Baking Show’s technical challenges; whenever Paul Hollywood gets snippy about bread being underproofed, I scream, “YOU DIDN’T GIVE THEM ENOUGH TIME, PAUL.”) But by the runway show, it’s clear that Jesus’ team is just, well, better at this—at least their looks are finished. Meanwhile, Yuchen, who eventually abandoned his storm dress and pivoted to a tube top and miniskirt, was sewing up through the final minutes. When Ethan comes out in full Utica drag on the morning of the second day, towering over the other contestants in platform stiletto heels and a Giger–like outfit of black textured latex and lace, as a way to inspire the team to embrace “showstopper energy,” it’s too little, too late.
Runway show time! No Nina, which is kind of weird, but Favorite Daughter co-founder Sara Foster is back, and of course Sofía is here. House of Jesus walks first, and you can just sense how much the panel loves these looks. Madeline sends down a tailored minidress with a big collar and an open back; Veejay, a really beautifully structured dress with crazy-high thigh slits and cutouts; Belania, a jumpsuit with a peplum-decorated vest and an exaggerated and trailing scarf collar; Jesus, a full-length jacket with a dramatic double collar of ruffles; and Antonio, a full-length mermaid-style gown with a fabric flower, a sideways ruffle trailing down the dress, and a sleeve falling off the shoulder. (It’s a silhouette Sofía has worn a million times before, and it’s smart to cater to her tastes.) Obviously, House of Jesus wins, and the top three looks are Belania’s, Jesus’, and Antonio’s. It’s a very praiseful judging! Law congratulates Jesus, telling him, “You’ve shut me up twice,” after their contentious first meeting in the premiere episode. Sofía, Sara, and Law all praise Belania’s look, with Law saying, “I would definitely put Zendaya in this, without a doubt.” And although Law gives Antonio’s look a couple of critiques (he thinks the trailing ruffle should have been a bit smaller to better “snatch the waist”), I really thought either twin was going to win. Imagine my surprise when Belania actually walks away with it, in a nice redemption for being picked last when Ethan and Jesus selected their teams.
That leaves H.O.E. as the losers, and yeah, that tracks. “Law is gonna cut you up,” Christian said, and he sure does; watch Law’s increasingly irritated body language during the runway show and you’ll want to crawl inside of a hole. The looks are nearly all amateurish and awkward. Ethan/Utica’s denim gown with a gigantic loop “window” around the model’s face has a ton of exposed seams and looks difficult to actually move around in. (Sofía’s “How do you get inside the car?” is exactly what I wondered, too.) Angelo’s menswear-inspired jacket is nice, but his pencil skirt with huge pointy angles sticking out the side of the thighs is a somewhat uninspired retread of the pagoda-shoulder trend. Joseph’s massive jumpsuit with voluminous sleeves and legs is recognizably his but not particularly unique. I can’t believe the judges weren’t meaner to Yuchen’s strips of fabric posing as an outfit, but ultimately, I felt most bad for Joan, with her heavy denim dress evoking car-wash curtains.
Ethan/Utica tries to explain the “showstoppers” approach to the judges, saying they wanted to “create a moment … create big silhouettes.” But Heidi points out that H.O.E. didn’t keep Sofía’s preferences in mind, and the judges deem Joan, Angelo, and Ethan/Utica’s looks the worst. Angelo’s construction is poor, Joan let her team leader guide her to a poor design, and Ethan/Utica’s outfit looks like “the cervix is dilating and she’s crowning,” Law says, which did get a big laugh out of me. Once the designers leave the runway, Law somehow goes in even more. “I am really pissed off … I did not come to work and get this beautiful glam to look at a bunch of ugly fucking clothes,” Law says, and Heidi takes it a step further by calling the collection a “costume party.” But who goes home? Ethan’s leadership was poor and arguably self-involved; Joan let herself get manipulated; and Angelo’s now been in the bottom twice. Law suggests cutting all three in a Project Runway first, and Heidi says, “They can all go.” But Project Runway would never do that, right? Right??? Until next week, we wait.
Fabric Scraps
• The outfit I most wanted to wear this episode: Christian’s puffy red bomber jacket was sort of the best thing onscreen. I also admired Veejay’s dress for how edgy it was while not really showing a ton of skin; it had a very smart peekaboo effect.
• Christian is wearing so much denim this episode that I was almost convinced he was subliminally telling us that Ethan’s team won … alas.
• What was in the third burlap bag?! I welcome any and all guesses. Maybe it was actually just burlap.
• The edit is positioning Veejay as a very poor team player, but honestly, I completely understood her wariness about joining either team. Ethan wasn’t a good leader in the athleisure challenge, and Jesus is one of the most aggressively annoying personalities I’ve seen on the show in a long time. I’m giving a little side-eye to the show’s attempt to make her seem unreasonable.
• Back in the day, if Project Runway said a guest judge was going to wear a winning outfit, we’d often see a picture or video clip of that person wearing said design at the end of the episode. I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get any evidence of Sofía wearing Belania’s jumpsuit. I’ve gone through 10 pages of Getty Images and can’t find anything; if someone digs up a picture of Sofía in the outfit, please share! (I did think it was cute, though, that she and Heidi matched for the runway show in the same shade of mustardy puke green that my partner loathes and I adore.)
• In terms of a “denim showstopper,” I immediately thought of the sweeping and dramatic denim ball gown former Project Runway judge Zac Posen made for Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s appearance at the Met Gala a couple years ago. I’m sure Zac, like Law, would have also been very judgmental about the poor seaming in H.O.E.’s looks.
• Coming up next week: The unconventional-materials challenge, a Project Runway classic. This one is tied to fellow Disney property Abbott Elementary (I worry the series is creeping toward overexposure, given the recent It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover episodes), but I always like when Christian criticizes a look with his “the whole booty is out” complaint. A skirt made out of cut-open soccer balls—I am ready for this ludicrousness.
Related
This revamped season keeps the team format going with a lopsided challenge using unremarkable fabrics.
