I can hardly believe it, but I’ve just completed the final challenge for my series of at-home recreations of the challenges from Season 9 of Project Runway! And since I’m making my own rules here and can’t get kicked out, that means I made it to the end, and therefore get to make a mini collection and go to pretend Fashion Week! More about that next week, but for now let’s focus onn this, the final challenge.

EPISODE 12: THE FINALE COLLECTION

For this week’s challenge, the designers were taken to Governors Island in New York City, and allowed an hour to drive around and be inspired. I have been to New York a couple of times, but somehow I had never even heard of Governors Island before. I had no idea it was such a gorgeous piece of park land that is open to the public. I’ll certainly have to stop by the next time I’m lucky enough to visit the city.

Since I wasn’t able to drive around like the designers, I took to the internet for my inspiration, and found a bevy of pictures to choose from. Everything I found was beautiful, but I was immediately drawn to photos of the Living Pavillion exhibit from Ann Ha and Behrang Behin’s, which had been on display in the summer of 2010.

Left photo Copyright (c) 2010 SpatialK. Right photo Copyright 2010 Nolan Rhodes

I just loved how the bright, green plants were hanging so elegantly on the upside-down curves of the golden structure. I tried to embody the flowing leaves and bright color in my design, which is actually a one-piece wrap dress that attaches at the waist. I think it’s pretty funky and cool, and hopefully it’s not too literal.

The designers seemed to fall into the same trap that happens every year on this challenge… they mostly fell flat. I don’t know what it is, but they just never seem to dazzle me at the end like they do in the middle. I guess they are just super tired and it’s hard to be really enthusiastic after the grueling weeks of the show. I was as pleased as the judges were with Anya pushing herself to create something different than the usual with her three looks in cream, rust, and black. The black dress was the coolest of the three, but the fact that it was longer in the front than in the back made it sort of looked like it was on backwards to me. It was an easy call for the judges to invite Anya to Fashion Week. I was wholly unimpressed with Joshua’s silver wrap dress and thought the fabric and tank top underneath were both awful. The judges somehow managed not to lecture him for his little skirt and vest outfit, which was terrible. The white dress with black mesh was his saving grace, and the judges picked him to continue to the finale show. Viktor knocked out three outfits in his usual impeccable fashion, and his skirt and shirt were both fashionable and very wearable. The pants and vest were also very nice, if a little boring and his little black dress was unique with the unusual seams that seem to be his forte. Again, it was an easy call for the judges to put him through to Fashion Week. Kimberly’s looks were very “her”, which to me means that they are almost cool, but not quite. For example, her orange top and gray skirt might have been okay if she had chosen a different skirt fabric, because that one just looks like a lining to a winter coat to me. Her orange coat needed a little more tailoring and polish. By the way, did anybody besides me wonder if the model had anything on under that coat? All I see is a coat and boots! Her gray cocktail dress was cute, and really showed her talent for folding fabric in unusual ways. Altogether, it was enough to make the judges want to see a collection from Kimberly, but they weren’t ready to commit to her showing at Fashion Week. I assume they’ll make their final decision after they see what she creates. The judges didn’t give the same lifeline to Laura, whose strongest look was her circle-covered gown that seemed like a good idea, but was littered with construction issues if you looked closely. The jacket was a little better, but the blah skirt ruined it. I have no idea where that slip dress came from, because she had a different third look in the works for most of the episode, but it was the final nail in her design coffin and Laura was sent home. She seemed like a really sweet person, and had some good ideas all along, but I think she needs to do some more work before she can really shine. Best of luck to her!

I’m really excited to see what the four remaining designers create for their collections. They’ve all had their highs and lows, and we’ve seen every season that the collections can really surprise us. It’s anybody’s game at this point, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with!