Project Runway: Menswear! #pr9viktor

Wow.  Last night's Project Runway was kind of all over the place.  The designers finally had a menswear challenge, but it was for a band of normal-sized rockers who needed to define their image before doing their first Rolling Stone cover.

That said, I have a bone to pick with the editors of the show.  Lately, they have had a tendency to overly feature the antics of the designer that will later be eliminated.  I felt they did it already with Bryce and Becky, and they need to stop it!  Immediately I noted that Olivier was heavily featured, and I predicted it was foreshadowing his dismissal.

It was another team challenge... sort of.  There didn't have to be a leader or group aesthetic, it just allowed two designers each to outfit a member of the band.

Viktor's pleather jacket (credit)

Major annoyances this episode were Olivier's complaints about the client and the Garnier product placement.  Olivier needed to go.   He refuses to design to a client's needs/wants, he can't sew for anything other than a stick-thin model, and he is a weakling that is irritating to watch.  He appeared to be brilliant, winning a challenge early on... but week after week we see NOTHING from him.  As for Garnier, I can't even count how many of their products got screen time/mention this episode.  It's a business, I get it, but tone it down.

I don't even know how to begin describing the outfits.  Even the judges were all over the place, disagreeing on many things.  I didn't like the Pocahontas look of Anya's, nor the braids that Bert choice for hairstyling.  Laura's looked like an old lady outfit.  I liked Bert's pants.  I initially thought I liked Kimberly's until I saw it close up... the lack of runway walk kept me from really seeing the outfits until later.  Josh's look was wild, and could have been toned down, but it wasn't bad.

There was a clear loser.  Olivier's outfit didn't fit properly.  It didn't match the singer's style.  It was Olivier's style, he was uncompromising, and it was dreadful.  He kept complaining about how large his client was, which is ridiculous.  He was the clear loser.  And he does MENSWEAR?!

While I didn't feel initially there would be a clear winner, Viktor shined.  I didn't like the print on the jacket, but his denim rocked and the pleather jacket with braiding was pretty cool.  I think it was right to choose him for this challenge.  I really didn't give Viktor or Josh much credit earlier in the season, but they've really stepped it up to become, in my opinion, the front-runners.  If you'd asked me earlier, I would have guessed Anthony Ryan or Anya, but now Anya's lack of sewing skill/versatility is showing and Anthony hasn't produced much lately.

But only time will tell!