Project Runway 5, Episode 13: Kenley Regained

Kenley benefited from what I’ll call the “Santino Effect”. Project Runway is perhaps unique among reality TV gameshows in that it begins airing before it’s finished shooting and the contestants have the opportunity to watch it while they're still competing. Once they’ve narrowed things down to the last 3 (or in this case 4) contestants, they all go home for 2 months to work on their collections. During that two months the show is airing.

In Season 2, Santino was the rude jerk who everyone hated (even though his Tim Gunn impersonation was hysterical). He went home to work on his collection and got to see the asshole he'd been edited to be and came back for the last two episodes trying to be a nice guy.

While Kenley wasn’t nearly as reformed as Santino, she did soften a bit. She made sure to talk nice about Tim and “apologized” for being such a bitch. I put that in quotes because I don’t think Kenley is capable of a genuine display of emotion, but somewhere deep down, I think she was sorry she’d been such a bitch.

I met a woman once who was old friends with Jay, the Season 1 winner. She said they would invite him to parties because they had to (he was that old of a friend) but he'd go around the entire party until he'd alienated himself from everyone and sit in the corner not understanding why no one would talk to him. Kenley seems to be the same way. During Tim's visits to everyone's homes while they were working on their collections he met Korto's family, Jerell's family and "love interest" (his words), and Leanne's boyfriend, but he didn't meet anyone from Kenley's life presumable because she has no one.

(And if I didn't love Leanne already, seeing her take Tim for a ride on a tandem bike through Portland sealed the deal.)

I must say, as pointless as the last episode was, I did like the added challenge of designing a wedding dress to go with their collections. I also enjoyed seeing a look of abject hatred and desperation pass across all of their faces when they learned they also had 1 day to make a bridesmaid's dress to go with it. They'd then be judged on both gowns to determine the final 3.

First off, I knew Jerell was in trouble as soon as I saw his collection. Eep. Then when he said something about it being ok for a bridesmaid’s dress to be ugly, the red flags went up. What can I say? He tanked it.

So did Korto, honestly. Both of their wedding gowns (Jerell, Korto) were horribly overworked, and their bridesmaid’s dresses (Jerell, Korto) were none too impressive either. Kenley’s designs (wedding, bridesmaid) were cute and fun. Leanne’s (wedding, bridesmaid) were stunning. (Although Kenley's wedding dress apparently looked exactly like a recent Alexander McQueen gown.)

I was not surprised when Jerell and Korto were in the bottom two, nor was I surprised when Jerell lost. We knew from the beginning they wanted a woman to win, and now they have an all women final.

Because, of course, Jerell showed at fashion week anyway, you can see his collection here and marvel at the overworked ugliness of it all (as my girlfriend said "he just doesn't seem to understand women's bodies"). As much as I don’t like Kenley, I’m sure her final collection will be better than his. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I’m glad she made it to the final three. (Although, I’m really only saying that because I don’t think anyone has a chance of beating Leanne.) We somehow just never saw the real Jerell earlier on the show.

(Better pictures of Leanne's, Kenley's, and Jerell's gowns)