Project Runway

Or, why Hillary will never be president, part 3. Or, reality TV bites the girls in the ass one more time.
I thought the girls would win it this time. Two out of the three finalists. Three of four judges. Yet, Jay, the only male in the competition prevails on Bravo’s first season of Project Runway, a haute couture design contest. I don’t know anything about couture so I knew that finalist Wendy Pepper, the mom from Middleburg, was in trouble when I liked her designs best. They made sense. They were pretty. You could imagine someone wearing them. But Wendy Pepper, a pretty good brand name, had been made the villain of the piece by the producers by virtue of an uncool look and an on-the-verge-of-menopause personna. But, what do you expect from an almost middle-aged woman who’s been working in her basement making party dresses for rich ladies in the Virginia horse country? Kara Saun was the favorite. She had raced through the competition winning many of the challenges with sleek, sophisticated designs and an above it all Nubian grandeur. Kara Saun was better looking than most of the models. She never came close to being kicked off the show. Had it easy; deservedly so based on performance. But, at the finals, she cracked, blew up at Wendy, accused her of not having a soul, while getting lost in her own lack of ethical standards. You see, Kara Saun violated the contract which said that the finalists could not accept donations of materials. The idea was to build a collection for $8,000 and Kara Saun, a fairly successful Hollywood designer, got a friendly shoe manufacturer to make shoes for her, essentially for free. People have an infinite ability to rationalize their behavior and, in the end, the shoes effectively eliminated Kara Saun from the possibility of winning.
This left Jay, a strange, humorous dumpling of a fellow who wears knit caps with ear covers and strings that dangle down. Jay was the unknown prodigy who emerged from a rural area of Pennsylvania where his dad designs and makes septic tanks and his mom crochets. It was Jay’s amusing thesis that a fusion of these talents created his own design gift.
Jay was obviously some kind of genius. Even I could appreciate the colors, cut and texturing of his creations and I actually think he won going away though, on the show, they tried to make it look close. He was different. He was unique. And, he surprised. He will be famous. Kara Saun will get hired to do a major motion picture and Wendy Pepper will always be in demand in Middleburg. And, Hillary will never be president. Kind of sad that the girls never win.
And you people who never watch TV, you missed a good one this time! 

Update: Linda wishes it to be known that Austin Scarlet, the young
fellow who finished fourth, will be the real winner of Project Runway. Scarlet Fever will sweep the nation.

Comments

[Noble Smith]

Well, I burned through the two hour finale in about ten minutes via TiVo and enjoyed seeing Jay at home in PA terrorizing silver-haired guy with his hunting rifle (nice!). After watching the three runway shows I had the same opinion. Wendy made the clothes a woman would want to wear. Kara the clothes you couldn't wear but looked cool in a sci fi LA way (did you notice the funky walks with those wacko tight-ass skirts? Watch Shawn Young's entrance in Blade Runner and you'll see where she got her inspiration). And Jay made the clothes that just stood out and said "The reason this guy wears ponchos all the time are because his balls are so big." He's the Michael Gondry of fashion (Gondry is the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and numerous mind-blowing cutting edge music videos (one of which is actually done entirely with animated crochet and knitted material!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). So I think they picked the right one. But they will all have careers. I would be surprised if Wendy Pepper doesn't get a bunch of work outside of Middleburg. Kara will be doing film work and being shouted at by PETA members. And Jay will have buttloads of money from his boutiques in Japan and Nike will actually come out with the Air Jay Moonboot.

[Mariko]

You guys really liked Wendy Pepper's stuff? I kind of agreed with Jay's assessment that she was designing what a totally frumpy middle aged woman thought young women would want to wear. I mean, look at her own clothes. They were horrendous! The "What to Wear" girls say never to wear tapered pants, and there she was wearing tapered pants practically every episode, and making her butt look ENORMOUS! I'm sure she's very talented in the work she does, but I don't think she's cut out for the couture world of today that plays mostly to hip, young, urban RICH women. I think she was totally out of her element. She has no real sense of the aesthetic of her audience. Just my 2 cents :) Plus, I wouldn't personally want to wear the clothes in her collection although I liked some of her stuff in the challenges. I wouldn't wear Kara Saun's stuff either although I liked it but I WOULD really wear Jay's. Not only was his Chrysler building dress the coolest thing in the whole series, his collection, in my opinion, was really wearable, although I wouldn't wear a whole outfit at once.

Anyway, I agree with Linda too that Austin Scarlett was really talented. I wish he had been in the running. It would have been so fun to see his stuff! Stupid Nancy O'Dell!

[Tammy]

It still burns me that Wendy even made the final 3... Her hateful spirit turned me immediately against ANY design she might come up with and to keep thrusting her adorable daughter down everyone's throats as a reason to justify her hatefulness is unconscionable as a mother. Austin was far more deserving, he consistently delivered beautiful pieces at every challenge and he was never unkind or hateful, Austin is Austin, a kind soul in a cut throat world.. Who cares is Austin designed as he saw fit... did DaVinci ever have to hear the criticism that he always paints like DaVinci? No.. that is becuase true talent must be true to itself. Bon Chance Austin Scarlet, where ever you are.!

[Bart Smith]

I think Jay will be a big name designer. Right up there with Galiano and McQueen.

Austin will make lots of money just doing his classic haute couture, but he isn't that original.

Kara Sun has good technique. But who would wear that stuff in her show.

I watched at least 6 episodes and never saw Windy being that bad. She was just old and that's how we are, when young people act crazy.

I thought in the finale, Kara Sun showed how evil she was. Snapping up the good models, trying to justify her $1000 shoes, and most surprising ....not talking to Windy. How immature is that... plus rude. Windy's mom was great though.

[mg]

Greetings from Florida!

So, I noticed that during the finale things got really tense between Kara Saun and Jay. Why? When Jay arrived and he saw Wendy, he was begging for Kara Saun to arrive. He was really looking forward to seeing her, and I expected them to be inseparable with her calling him Jay Bird every 10 minutes or so. But that didn’t happen. What went wrong? I think Kara Saun changed and her true colors were revealed to Jay. He even rolled his eyes at her on a few occasions. It was as if she was ignoring her good buddy. She was on a mission to win the contest (hmm, sounds like Wendy’s attitude the whole time). It’s also funny how the producer’s plan sort of back fired. Wendy was supposed to be the villain! Kara Saun and Jay were supposed to be the protagonists. In the finale, Wendy didn’t do a good job of playing the crazy bitch role, and Kara Saun came across as the bad one. And in my opinion, using those really expensive shoes that were specially made for her collection and getting advice and a favor from her friend, who must have been a fashion insider, was unethical. It’s interesting that EVERYONE had a problem with her actions, and yet she didn’t see anything wrong with it.

So, I don’t think Wendy was as bad as they made her out to be, and conversely, I don’t think Kara Saun was as good as she was portrayed before the finale. And honestly, I don't see why everyone on the show singled out Wendy. As Jay pointed out during the finale, project runway created such a contrived environment—he even reconsidered his feelings about Wendy. She may have some bad qualities, but at least she’s like an open book. There are no surprises with her. Kara Saun’s actions, on the other hand, portend a cold and mean-spirited agenda. But we’re left wondering about her true character. Anyway, I just think it was a contest, and they were all competitors. Also, I was glad that Wendy turned on Kevin during that one episode; he deserved that after being so rude to Starr in one of the earlier episodes (what goes around comes around).

[Matt]

First off, congrats to Jay. As the final of the three shows concluded, I asked my roommate which one she thought was going to take it. It took her a second, but she eventually responded, "well, it's hands down Jay." I couldn't have agreed more.
But I've had something else on my mind since the show aired and for that reason I searched out this blog. Since arriving I was pleasantly surprised that there are other people who don't think Wendy is evil, (unlike my roommate, who is convinced). It's not like she had the judges in her pocket. On every episode she wasn't the worst participant, end of story. I'll be the first to tell you that she wasn't the best. All this fuss about her being sinister really got under my skin because I felt it was obvious the hatred for her was borne out of other peoples' resentment at her success, not her attitude.
That is one reason I enjoyed the last episode so much. The champion of this wanton disdain, Kara Saun, had things fall apart for reasons that actually did merit the vitriol she seemed so ready to dish out. She didn't stop at criticizing Wendy and not let her clothes speak for themselves. She tried to cheat her way into making nice clothes and then not expect criticism from the others. The icing on the cake.
The other aspect of her work that bothered me is that it was inspired by The Aviator. Jay's work, and even Wendy's (albeit to a lesser extent), was much more original. Theirs was an expression of some internal feeling. Kara Saun's was an interpretation of what she saw at a movie. It was mainstream, and superficial. The construction and aesthetic of her work was better than Wendy's on most counts (especially the see through number, what's up with that?), but overall I was distracted by her subterfuge and mimicry.

[Grace]

I was disgusting by Kara in the final episode. Looking back at past episodes, I noticed that Kara is a terrible sport. In episode#4, the Rockstar challenge, when Sarah didn't pick her debutant gone bad or princess gone bad she was upset. She was also upset when her Banana Republic dress didn't get chosen either. I realized those were major oppurtunities, but I felt it was a throw back to her character in the final episode. She is a costume designer, just like Mario said. As a fashion design student at The Fashion Institite of Design and Merchandising, I feel it is easy for me to judge the quality of their work, and Nina Garcia is wrong! Jay's work has been consistently fabulous, more often than anyone else he always fell into second place. I feel that Nancy O'Dell should have picked Austin's dress because she is an older woman, not a rockstar. I feel that Wendy's clothing would be worn by many women and she is a talented tailor and has a gift for textiles, if only she had explained her vision before the collection hit the runway, that it was Virginia in the Fall. Kara's work to me is never original, always too safe, it's been done. Even if you've been doing those things for years, the minute it pops up in a Gucci spread in Vogue, pitch the idea. She should also test her garments for movement. I know Austin's work is very vintage but it still takes risks. I am enamored with Jay's work. No one has done it. I was glad Kara didn't win, on an ethics note...She doesn't have them, she feels she is above it, nice guys finish last!

[Hank M]

I found this page because I searched for Austin Scarlet -- I can't believe he still doesn't have a web page of his own. I liked this show alot because participants were judged on things they DESIGNED & MADE.

I believe they kept Wendy Pepper on the show (even at times she clearly had the poorest design) to try to appeal to viewers in the red states -- she was "middle American" vs all those urban freaky people.

If you're disappointed with Wendy losing, I hope you watched the end of WICKEDLY PERFECT. An attractive young mom (with no skills, no taste, no knowledge of style) won over an obviously gay man (who had skills, taste and a helluva lot of knowledge).

[Breck]

The person who wrote: "It still burns me that Wendy even made the final 3... Her hateful spirit turned me immediately against ANY design she might come up with and to keep thrusting her..." This is amazing! If there was ONE person who was hateful it was Kara (I'm so Wonderful) Saun, gag.