Marion eliminated from Project Runway in week 2

Week 2 of Project Runway and it was time for a team challenge. It seems as if every season there is a team challenge pretty early in the competition. Why, I’m not sure and you can’t even say it was to narrow the field quickly because only one designer went home this evening.

I was really curious to see the surprise guest on tonight’s show. The teasers that we saw on Bravo had the designers just swooning. I haven’t seen that reaction since Iman was a guest judge on season 2. The challenge for the designers this week was to create an outfit for a pop culture and fashion icon. What the designers found out from Tim Gunn was that this icon was Sarah Jessica Parker (of Sex and the City fame) and the look was to be a two piece look for her new clothing line “Bitten.” The concept of her clothing line is great – she wants to bring high end, American sportswear to women at affordable prices. Nothing in her collection is over $20. The challenge also was one of budget – the designers had only $15 to purchase fabric and materials and the outfit had to retail for less than $40. Each of the designers had 30 minutes to sketch and then present their designs to Parker. She would then choose seven designers to be team leaders and the remaining designers would pair up with them to complete the chosen designs.

Here’s how the teams were formed (team leader first):

Elisa and Sweet P.
Kit and Chris
Victorya and Kevin
Marion and Steven
Ricky and Jack
Christian and Carmen
Rami and Jillian

For the most part the teams seemed to work well together, with the exception of Sweet P. and Elisa. I can’t even say they worked poorly together, it was just that Elisa is so far out there that Sweet P. had trouble relating to and working with her. For example, Elisa sews everything by hand and does not use a machine. That was foreign to Sweet P. And the whole spitting on the fabric to mark it and imbibe it with energy was just plain strange and weird.

On the runway I liked the designs of Kit, Rami and Ricky. Ironically these three teams had scores that qualified them to move forward, but were not in the top or the bottom. The judges really liked Victorya/Kevin and Elisa/Sweet P. I was really surprised that Elisa’s design was in the top two. The bottom two teams were Marion/Steven and Christian/Carmen. When the judges asked the bottom two teams who should go home both of the team leaders took responsibility for the design and the team. I thought that was just great. I did not like how Christian said he told Carmen what to do and she did it (it made it look as if Carmen did nothing – not sure if that was the case) but I think it’s very good and professional for him to take responsibility for the failings of the team. Marion did the same with his pairing with Steven.

In the end it was Marion who was eliminated. His outfit, in the words of the judges, looked like a costume, dirty, and something you might see on Pocahontas. Christian’s design was right out of the 80’s and Facts of Life (according to Michael Kors). I guess in the end it is better to have a garment that is dated instead of one that looks like a costume in order to not be sent home. Of course Christian’s strong performance last week might have played a role in his being spared from elimination.

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