It’s finale night! How exciting, I am seriously amped to see who wins it all. I love the dress Carolyn is wearing describing the challenge for the finale. Anyways, dang, it’s harsh. They have FOUR DAYS to create a mini-collection for $3,000. Uli decides on a “Winter Wonderland” theme which would continue her trend of white. Emilio chooses “Urban Plantation” which is about working women in America – focusing on factory workers wearing men’s clothing inspired by his mom. Visions of Rosie the Riveter dance in my head, this is not a bad thing. Anthony Ryan is titling his “Thin Line” as in the thin line between lightness and dark. I feel like they all picked strong themes and will really be able to show well for each.
Off to Mood already. Emilio is really focusing on more typically American fabrics like denim, plaid, and cotton. Other than that, we don’t get to see much of the fabric choices. Mood goes quickly and they’re back to the workroom. Oooo in walks Carolyn…instead of some terrifying twist, she bring back the eliminated designers to help. Anthony Ryan asks Joshua but Joshua, in tears, says no. It’s just too fresh, poor guy. So Anthony Ryan has Kayne helping him, Uli chose Casanova (because he’s glamorous haha), and Althea is back to help Emilio. Should be interesting!
Oh hey, Anthony Ryan is the fan favorite! Nice! They sure don’t make a big deal about it anymore. Oh well.
Start of the next day, chaos as you’d imagine, and Casanova is already napping. Apparently he’s like a baby, needs lots of food and sleep. Joanna shows up to check in on her designers. She loves this fur jacket that Uli has already but wants to make sure there’s a show stopper. Anthony Ryan has a great yellow and grey color blocked dress but yes, it’s very like what he’s shown previously. Emilio is very organized as far as sketches and fabric samples but has nothing on the mannequin. That is a bit scary. After that it’s make up consults with more clips of Casanova napping. What’s up with that?!
Day three, hopefully Casanova will actually stay awake today. Althea and Emilio seem to be working well together as do Kayne and Anthony Ryan. Casanova…meh. We didn’t see him do anything other than nap. Far too quickly the assistants are gone so the designers are on their own again. Everyone is stressed with 12 hours left, just working like crazy. Heh, Anthony Ryan asks what Uli is working on. Her response? Sasquatch collection. Nice. We get little interviews with each designer about how they each want to win because, duh. It’s 15 minutes left and at least Emilio and Uli have at least one outfit to make still, ouch.
It’s the day of the finale which is being held at Gotham Hall, it is just gorgeous inside, wonderful venue for the final show. Emilio is crazy, he’s putting together a jacket there, wow. We see the models getting their hair and makeup done as well as the show filling up. Crazy, crazy, crazy.
Time for the show to start. Carolyn is wearing another fantastic dress, gown really, tulle skirt with a gorgeous applique style top. Our judges for the evening are, of course, Georgina Chapman and Isaac Mizrahi (who is wearing an insane polka dot suit, he is fab), with Liv Tyler, and Margherita Missoni as our guest judges.
Emilio introduces his collection first, telling the audience that his inspiration is Aunt Jemima and Rosie the Riveter. First look is a cute and very wearable short black and silver polka dotted sleeveless dress with a flared skirt. Next is an oversized white blouse with a faint dotted print with a mini-(almost)corset on the top and a black pencil skirt. Following that is a bandeau top with high waisted shorts, both polka dotted (I hope you’re sensing the theme here) the top white on black and the shorts red on black. His bright printed pant suit follows, it’s a great colorful print. It’s followed by a fantastic bright red jumpsuit, it’s seriously cute. Sleeveless blouse with oversized tied waist on cuffed jeans is next. The next look is a wonderful knee grazing dress in his colorful print with an almost kimono looking top/jacket, I’m not sure. It’s interesting for sure. His last look is a red on black polka dotted dress with a belted short sleeve yet flowing jacket in his colorful print. Overall it’s a strong collection. Very wearable pieces and I can definitely see his inspiration flowing throughout the collection.
Anthony Ryan is up next, his intro is short and sweet…just like him. Strong opening with a floor length, collared long sleeve dress color blocked in black and blue. Ooo it has a cutout back and mesh on the sleeves as well. Next is a look that is kind of meh for me. It’s a looser black top with a peplum paired with yellow and black skirt. A short, sleeveless black and silver dress is next. Followed by a yellow and silver long sleeved but short length dress. All have been color blocked of course, with very clean lines. We have a blue and grey/silver skirt and top look next, it has cutouts so I’m not sure if it’s a dress or it’s separates. A sheath dress in grey and white follows, colorblocked of course with a cut out back. His final look is an almost mermaid style dress in white with blue blocking on top and a cut out back as well as slit to really give the skirt movement. Overall, great collection with cohesion. I almost wanted to see something other than clean lines and color blocking but he did fantastic.
Uli wraps up the show with her “Winter Wonderland” collection. First out is a knee length sheath dress with interesting texture and silver embellishments at the neckline. It’s followed by a long shimmery white skirt with a sleeveless silver top, the silver fabric looks almost like it’s embosse, and a white shrug/scarf of sorts. Silver skinny pants paired with a textured white top and a flowing white, long, fur detailed vest is next. We have an embellished brown/grey fur vest on top of a lace sleeved, silver top and black skinny pants out next. A gold/silverish glittery mid lengnth dress is next with structured shoulders and a fur or feather scarf. Next is a grey and black loose lace overlay skirt paired with a black and silver shimmery top with fur detailing at the shoulders. Her final look is a flowing, floor length grey dress with a deep feather and sparkle embellished v-neckline and fur sleeves/mini jacket, not sure which. Wonderful collection that really encapsulated her theme.
Each designer did wonderful! I love each collection for different reasons and I don’t think that there is a clear favorite. Uli’s was the most “showy” of the three but they all really did amazing.
Time for the judges to evaluate each designer. Emilio is first and they really love his collection, there are some pieces that go a bit junior but they love his cohesion, the story he told as well as the versatility. They love that he used so much color – his red jumpsuit is divine, the judged agreed with me (always nice!). Overall it is a very positive critique. Next is Anthony Ryan and they all adored his opening dress. Isaac says that his opening dress is the best dress he’s seen on Project Runway. I don’t know if I’d go *that* far but it was definitely amazing. They didn’t love his closing dress but overall they loved it and compared it to modern art. Uli’s time in front of the judges and once again, they love it. It’s strong and concise, that there is a fairy tale quality to it. It’s dreamy and they adore how she utilized textures and embellishments. Again, very positive, how on earth will they choose?!
Time for deliberation and there are good and bad of each designer. They love the sellability of Emilio’s and his passion as well as the political statement of the collection but wish it had a real wow piece. Anthony Ryan’s they think is the most “now” of the collections, it was so clear and artistic but they wish he’d done more variation in lengths or been more cohesive with them, they were a bit scattered at mid-leg. Uli’s they agree was emotional and magical, just dreamy but they’ve seen some of it before. It was experimental but wearable.
My nerves are killing me! I want to know who is the winner so of course, it’s time for a commercial. I can’t even predict this week. I adore all the designers and I want them all to win darn it!
Ok, here it is. Second runner up is Uli. Darn. Ok….breath held….the winner is:
ANTHONY RYAN!!
Aww huge congrats!!!
Really congrats to all of the finalists, they all did an amazing job!
Come back tomorrow for photos!!
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Are you serious? You really didn’t know who was going to win! What have you been watching all season?
Lol well I did have a pretty good idea, the judges were pandering to him all season but in the name of objectivity, I was trying to be less pbvious than the judging. Personally, I think that Emilio’s collection was better as was Uli’s.
I liked Emilio’s idea but he needed to…what is it? Oh yeah>>>EDIT! lol The two ideas (Plantation/Rosie Riveter) never meshed for me. Uli won hands down – Forrest Gump-Ryan was a distant third in my book.