Project Runway 7, Episode 8: Elementary My Dear

I got home in time to watch it last night! Moving forward my posts should be fairly timely.

It’s Raining Pants
Pants. Pants! Everyone’s making pants. I don’t think anyone made pants last season, and this season it seems like there’s at least one pair per challenge, if not more. Either pants are “in” right now, or the producers are paying out bonuses for every pair the designers make. I’m just surprised no one’s commented on it yet.

Edit Reading
It’s harder and harder to read the edits as we get deep into the season. With fewer designers, there’s just more time to highlight them all. Still, Maya and Ben clearly were going to figure into the top or bottom from pretty early on.

Maya & Mila
Even though Maya did well with her water gown, she still came out of the episode with an aura of impending doom hanging about her. It’s as if the judges have her in their sights, and if she makes one false move, she’s gone. Mila, on the other hand, forced out of her black & white color-blocking comfort zone by the challenge, showed she can’t really do anything other than black & white color-blocking… and was finally called on it.

The Loser
Oh Ben… a teary-eyed phone call home to your husband… no designer could survive that, or those jock-strap pants. Was getting that extra payout from the producers for making pants really worth it? Although the hair-goblet gown that Amy sent down the runway was a close second. I bet the only thing that saved her was that she hadn’t called home that day. If I’m ever on the show and the producer’s make me call home on camera, I’ll be sure to make it as unemotional and boring a conversation as possible. “Why yes, they do have good craft services here. The lemon-water is excellent.”

The Winner
Jonathan finally won a challenge! It was really hard to see any detail on his gown on television, but you can get a reasonable look at it on the website. It’s fairly amazing, and he really used his model well. Cerri’s my favorite model to this point. As I’m not a big fan of Seth Aaron, I didn’t mind his midnight-air gown getting passed over, and Maya’s was too derivative apparently.

Statistically Ordinary
I keep thinking that it’s so unique and interesting that we’ve gone so deep into the show without eliminating a designer who had previously won a challenge, but looking back at elimination charts of past seasons, it’s actually not that uncommon. Nor is it out of the ordinary to have so few repeat winners at this point (only Jay has one 2 challenges). Nor is it unusual that Maya’s gotten so far without winning a challenge. Kara in Season 2 made it all the way to the final 4 and never won a challenge. I guess I just like looking for statistical patterns.