Jillian Is The Leader of The Pack: Episode 4

At last. Long Island’s own Jillian takes the runway by storm and hands down wins this week’s challenge with the help of Rami and Kevin.

Judge Nina Garcia lays out the mission: Take three dated trends and turn them into a collection that is cohesive and relevant for today.

Each designer chooses their favorite horrid, old trend ranging from pleather to zoot suits, shoulder pads to fringe. Then, they cluster into teams of three, each nominating a leader.

Jillian plays boss lady to Rami and Kevin and she does it well. Their trends? Overalls, poodle skirts and 70’s flair. She rules her boys with an iron hand and an iron in her hand. Her collection – a sassy full-skirted dress, cute little short outfit and modern overalls (oddly, she is wearing not so modern ones), is so good that the judges don’t even bother with the whole who’s in and out suspense thing – the winner is clear. Jillian to the world: “You will keep seeing me in the top, and I will keep winning.” That’s right…own it.

But, trust us. There are big problems elsewhere. And few of them escape guest judge Donna Karan’s well-trained eye.

Ricky, who actually doesn’t cry during this episode, is the leader, but his teammate Victorya is a passive-aggressive beast who almost derails the team. At one point, she says, “I don’t mean to be a bossy cow.” Don’t milk it, sister. Ricky on the other hand, is helpful to her and edits her dress for the better. He is also sweet to earthy Elisa, who has never worked in satin. He figures out a way to speak her language – sort of nature-based psychobabble. His own dress suffers from lack of attention and is poorly constructed. Their collection highlighting neon, cut-outs and underwear as outerwear is by far not the worst but a tad clowny.

Christian as leader is, again flamboyantly cocky, and shows his disappointment when he doesn’t win for his decent takes on the zoot suit, pleather, and fringe.

Kudos to Steven for his Tim Gunn imitation: “Designers, I’m here to tell you that you’re screwed and there’s nothing you can do to fix what you’re working on. Carry on.” But levity cannot save the night for his team which must modernize dancewear, shoulder pads and baggy sweaters. Sweet P does a swell sweater dress and Donna loves it. Hearty Chris is both the leader and the loser. His mess of an evening gown with hideous embroidered jacket is all-out Dynasty. Michael Kors calls it, “Very bad pageant, mother of the bride.” It’s a sad day…Chris is out. Earlier in the day, he jokes that Project Runway should have a perfume…a mixture of blood, sweat, tears and Chinese food. He’s a funny guy. And as he walks off into the sunset he says, “I definitely hope that to this season… I brought fun. Because that’s what my life is all about.” We’ll miss him. –Anne Bratskeir