Project Runway "Unconventional Recycling"

The second episode of the season had a lot going on. An unconventional materials challenge. A team challenge. A 5-piece collection in one day. I suppose the show runners wanted chaos because it seems like a good recipe for it in this episode.

Overall, the thing that set apart any designer was being able to craft literal recycling garbage into what appeared to be good materials. For less successful designs, those designers struggled to get a good silhouette. It was certainly difficult material to work with, but it made their models look boxy or clunky, or that they were wearing garbage.

Sidenote: I'm getting tired of designers saying that making clothes for curvy models is a challenge. If you design clothes for sale, you should be able to design for regular people. The standard NYC model isn't a regular woman, so I don't know how these new designers are expecting to make a living after the show is over if they can only sell clothes for six foot tall women that weigh 100lbs.

Runway

The Wabi-Sabi team collection overall had a lot of cohesion, and some of the looks were outstanding, as a couple dresses really did look as if they were transformed into leather, but a couple of the pieces still looked boxy and like plastic garbage being worn. Their looks also generally had too much embellishment, just to make them look more similar but it negated from the outfits themselves.

The Tsunami collection had less cohesion but the story was much the same. A couple good looks while the rest seemed boring or uninspired. A couple looks still appeared to be garbage bags on models.

Ballin' on a Budget had a crazy good collection that stood out. Great colors, good fit on everyone, and cohesive, shared elements in all. I loved something about every piece, but especially Kenya's newspaper dress, Brandon's checker print outfit, and Ayana's dress that looked great in motion.

Judging

Yay! They picked the right winning team.

It was a toss-up for the losing team, but I can't disagree much with Tsunami being there, given most of their looks still looked like garbage bags.

Ayana won, and her look was amazing in motion since it had so much movement with the fringe, but at rest, the front of the garment was boring and hodge-podge looking. I loved the bottle cap back though, it was super clever. Honestly, I would have picked Batani's outfit for the win because it looked good in motion as well as when standing. The neck piece alone was terrific, but every other aspect of it stood out as well. It was remarkable she threw away her original design and still pulled out that gem.

I disliked several of Tsunami's looks, and I thought they had the right people at the bottom. Sentell's look was the least transformed of any other looks, so I fully agreed on this call. It looked sloppy, and it looked like plastic. It had no structure and no silhouette. Shawn's look was bad, but at least it was shaped to her model's body.

That said, I'm not looking forward to more Shawn drama because she was in the bottom twice and she'll need to overcome another crisis of confidence on the next episode.