After Kate crashed and burned with possibly the worst dress ever produced on Project Runway, the remaining five designers compete to see who will move forward to Fashion Week. Or as Heidi puts it, “That sausage is dangling right in front of your nose right now.” The designers are shipped off to a butterfly house to meet with a makeup artist blah blah blah mascara with “fanned out fluttering volume,” and the designers will be creating an avant-garde look inspired by butterflies.

From sketching butterflies to pulling fabrics at Mood, and then back to Parsons to make it work. Justin is making something with chunky monkey piping, Bradon is rolling fabric into bouncy nude noodles, and Dom is wondering how the heck he’s going to turn that into a garment. The next day, Bradon envisions a tank top and mini skirt in the front that becomes a gown in the back. Like a wearable mullet.

Tim Gunn visits the workroom. Don busts out a crazy combination of prints and wonders if it’s overkill, but Tim encourages her to be bold. Helen shows Tim a black cocoon cloak with an orange dress underneath, and he doesn’t think it’s working at all. Basically, lose the cocoon. This triggers a major meltdown of tears and sniffles, and Tim just backs away from the crazy lady and visits Alexandria. She has a black dress tarted that looks like unfinished rags stitched together, but beautifully.

Bradon shows Tim his dress-in-progress, and he thinks the back is spectacular, but when Bradon starts plopping those noodles on the dress, Tim cautions him about attaching the crafts project onto a beautifully draped dress. Then Bradon attaches one to the waist and all of a sudden Tim gets the shivers. So carry on, Bradon! Justin shows Tim the fabric-wrapped rope and Tim likes where he is going with it, but the fabric looks cheapo. At the end of the day, Helen worries that “they want avant-garde and I’m giving them another practical evening gown.”

When the designers arrive in the workroom the next day, Tim lets them know it is not a runway day. Instead, there is an additional challenge and both will walk the runway. Tim presents the losing looks and must transform it from a loser to a winner. Dom chooses Jeremy’s frumpy red suit jacket and flowered dress, Alexandria picks Miranda’s plaid pants, Bradon chooses Sue’s placemat dress, Helen goes for Kate’s hideous outfit, and Justin selects his own eliminated dress because he’s a little bit insane and a little bit brave. Dom takes that ugly red jacket and made it majorly modern by using the sleeves as a crazy collar. Jeremy sexes up his unsexy dress, and Helen seems to have totally scrapped Kate’s dress altogether.

It’s runway time! The judges are Zac Posen, Nina Garcia, Heidi Klum, and Emmy Rossum. And Tim Gunn, of course.

Dom’s avant-garde look is a gorgeous mix of patterns that floats down the runway like a parade float.

Alexandria’s black dress is a little too ordinary and the color washes out on the runway.

Helen’s orange gown is gorgeous, but I’m not sure what’s avant-garde about it.

Justin’s black and white dress is beautiful, that dress is stunning and you wouldn’t have even imagined it was under that cape.

Bradon’s bizarre swashy stick dress is…weird, but not appealing.

Now, the before and afters.

Dom slicked up the suit real good.

Alexandria made a frumpy outfit a hot look.

Kate’s ugly dress is now a gorgeous pencil skirt and crop top that has nothing to do with the original dress.

Justin totally redeemed himself by making an adorable cocktail dress.

Bradon’s tiny little dress looks like a garbage bag.

Heidi thinks Justin’s look has a lot of drama, and the reworked piece is so improved that it’s unrecognizable, and Nina thinks the avant-garde dress is his best work in the challenge. Zac Posen and Nina are bored by Helen’s avant-garde look, and Nina calls it a “pumpkinfest.” But, everyone loves her reworked design and Emmy drop Beyonce’s name for some reason. Heidi loves Alexandria’s avant-garde look, but not so much the reworked look which is kind of like a punk costume. Nina feels exactly the opposite—thumbs up to the reworked look, and thumbs down to the avant-garde look. And Zac doesn’t like either, so who knows. Nina says Bradon has two spectacular looks which I don’t get at all. When Dom takes the stunning jacket off of her model so that the judges can see the jumpsuit underneath, Nina nearly passes out from its beauty. Zac applauds Dom’s ability to break up prints in just the right way, and Heidi cannot believe how well those crazy prints work together.

Nina and Zac want to eliminate Alexandria, but Heidi wants to save her. Ugh, just get rid of Helen, people! She’s the worst. Not the worst designer, but the worst human. Anyway, Bradon is the winner, and Dom is also showing at Fashion Week. Heidi lets the remaining three designers know that what they did is not strong enough to guarantee a spot at Fashion Week, so they will all create collections and battle it out for a spot on the runway.

Next week, the designers create their collections and Tim Gunn makes housecalls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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