Project Runway All Stars: “Fashion Face Off”

Part of what’s been making All Stars frustrating this season is that every episode before tonight’s has felt vaguely crowded, a mad dash through three-second quippits and rushed fashion-show footage that never quite adds up to a satisfying, well-rounded episode. Part of that could be the jump back down to an hour after growing used to regular PR’s bloated runtime, but the bigger issue is the fact that, unlike regular PR, where the first four or five episodes are packed with soon-to-be-gone chaff we can ignore outside of their few moments on screen, on All Stars we’re invested in some way, positively or negatively, with all the designers from the get-go, so only getting to spend mere minutes—or even seconds—with them feels like we’re being denied something. On regular PR, by the time we get down to eight contestants, we’ve established favorites and villains and want to spend more time with them, and having fewer contestants to check in on, the show obliges, stretching out and developing personalities and storylines a little more. Going into All Stars, we already had favorites and villains, and having them treated like regular PR chaff felt like a bit of a ripoff.
So it’s probably no coincidence that episode six is the first time it feels like PR:AS has some stakes. We get to spend a lot more time with the eight remaining designers in the workroom—just the designers, not Joanna, who is late for lunch and has to go, dammit—and drama subsequently develops. Rather than letting Jerell and Michael bitch in a couple of five-second clips and then abandoning the Great Cape-Coat Controversy to the cutting-room floor, as they might have in an earlier episode, the producers goose the situation, ordering Joanna Coles to put down her Blackberry and pay attention to the designers long enough to yawn out a “gather ’round everybody” and deliver some vaguely threatening thoughts on being original on the runway. Then later, when Mondo and Michael C. sneak off for some spaghetti and talk about how hurt Michael is at Joanna’s implication, the producers coincidentally let Jerell know there’s food so that he can coincidentally enter the room just as Mondo is coincidentally asking Michael “Do you think it’s just a coincidence?” And just like that, their meal turns from spaghetti to awkward, and the seeds are sown (seams are sewn?) for what Jerell predicts will be an “interesting runway.”
And it is an interesting runway. Not necessarily from a fashion standpoint—there’s a lot that was wearable, but very little boundary-pushing; then again, this is a sportswear challenge—but from a judging standpoint. Part of that success is built into the challenge, which is a head-to-head showdown between two designers who each have to create a “weekend getaway” sportswear look for one of the four seasons and send it down the runway at the same time as their direct competitor. (One designer from each season will be in the top and bottom.) A larger part of that success is Cynthia Rowley, who barrels into judging with claws bared, apparently looking to fill this season’s Michael Kors-sized bitchiness void. She’ll get her due in the Stray Observations section, but it’s worth noting that this was also a very, very good challenge. Again, not necessarily from a fashion-spectacle viewpoint, but in that it challenges the designers in a practical, telling way. It’s specific—“design for this woman”—but not overly specific—“oh, that woman is Miss Piggy”— allowing them to choose their inspiration of their imaginary woman’s weekend destination and judging how well they evoke it. (Plus, the head-to-head challenges are always more fraught with peril.)
Thinking up your own inspiration can be tough, though, as seen in Michael C. and Mondo’s fumbling. It’s not that surprising to see Michael C. scrap his high-backed winter vest concept and start over with a coat that looked a lot like Jerell’s—as Isaac points out during the judging, his talent lies more in execution than original design—but it’s a little distressing to see Mondo struggling to come up with an idea, and referring back to last week’s winning design in conceiving his new one. (And, oddly, styling his model just like his direct competition, Kenley, would.) And the idea he eventually does come up with—the female version of himself going to visit his mom at her 60th birthday party, which he’s missing—has just enough of a whiff of bullshit around it to crinkle your nose. When his black-and-white basket-weave shorts and soiled-kerchief top end up in the bottom, he starts crying like it’s a personal affront to his mom in a manner that seems borrowed from Michael’s bag of tricks. If I were a more cynical person, I might say Mondo’s trying to recreate some of the sentiment of the episode from his season where he told his mom about his HIV. But dammit, I still love that lil’ guy and his inexhaustible collection of glasses frames, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to unfortunate editing and producers egging on drama.