Project Runway Season 10 Episode 12: In A Place Far, Far Away. Memorable Quotes From Last Night's Episode

As each challenge comes to an end, the remaining Project Runway designers are left with mixed feelings. They’re happy that they’ve made it to another round, but the urgency and pressure of producing perfect garments is starting to weigh down on them. Messing up is simply not an option, and this challenge is the most crucial. This piece determines who is going to New York Fashion Week, and by the end of it all, someone’s dreams are going to be crushed. When the remaining five designers met with Heidi, they were told that they would be meeting Tim at a far away place – and far way it was. The designers met up with Tim and L’Oreal makeup expert, Billy B. at the Oheka Castle on Long Island (definitely not aware that such an enchanted place existed on Long Island). Eyes were wide and mouths remained open as the designers took in their surroundings – it was a complete fairytale moment for the bunch. They definitely weren’t in the city anymore. Once there, they were told this week’s challenge would be to create an Avant-garde outfit inspired by L’Oreal’s new makeup line, Electric Fantasie. They were each given a makeup palette named after an enchanted person. The Wise Mystic was Dmitry, Enchanted Queen belonged to both Christopher and Fabio, Seductive Temptress was Sonjia and Melissa got the Artsy Muse. 

After walking around the grounds of the castle to get inspired, they headed off to Mood with a $400 budget – the biggest one yet. They would have two days to complete this look. As usual, the designers rushed around Mood to find their ideal fabrics and anything else they would need to complete this challenge. Once back in the workroom, things started to unravel for the designers. After unpacking all of her supplies, Sonjia realized that her gold lamé fabric was nowhere to be found (At this point, I think that something’s going on with Mood because this has definitely happened before with Elena). But the self-proclaimed “Make It Work Queen” didn’t let that stress her out for long. She quickly came up with an alternate plan of action and began work. However, it was funny to witness the designers watching each other create their looks. There just seemed to be a whole lot of judgment going around about who’s look fit into the avant-garde category. But once Tim Gunn made his rounds for the critique it was clear that no one’s look was truly avant-garde. Before he left he also had a little heart-to-heart with Sonjia basically kicking her in the ass and telling her that he knew she wasn’t designing to her full potential. But hey, what’s Project Runway without some tough love from Tim Gunn. With a lot on their minds, the designers took a step back and really thought about their work before diving back in for another round. One thing that didn’t change was the fact that Melissa was still swamped with work and running out of time. The workroom seemed a little less chaotic than in previous episodes, but maybe that’s because there were less designers running around. Regardless, things seemed to progress rather smoothly with the exception of Melissa who was scrambling until the last minute – so typical. Once makeup was complete and avant-garde looks were model ready, the final five headed out the door – Melissa obviously the last one out.

Because of this challenge, the runway show was one of the more interesting ones this season. The looks came in a wide range as each designer had his or her own interpretation of avant-garde combined with their L’Oreal makeup character. It was all very out there and sometimes that easily showed on the judge’s faces including guest judge Zoe Saldana. The runway show was a fierce one, and it was apparent that coming to a final decision would not be an easy one. This time around, no one went to the safe room. They all stood together for judgement. However, for the first time this season the critiques were all over the place. There wasn’t one look that the entire panel loved or hated. Each one of the judges held a completely different opinion about the creations. While Heidi hated something, Michael loved it, and what Nina thought was mediocre, Zoe adored. But Michael was definitely the most vocal and held back no criticism. This made it hard to pick out who was the weakest link since positive and negative comments were being thrown out to everyone. In the end, Dmitry and his Wise Mystic suit won the competition, and made it to New York Fashion Week!  Christopher and his Victorian Gothic Enchantress would also be competing at Fashion Week along with Melissa’s Artsy Muse. It was now down to Fabio and Sonjia. Would the true avant-garde make it to the next round or the girl who had been strong in the competition since the beginning? For this decision the judges had to take a step back themselves and think back to every competition. And they ultimately decided that it would be Fabio who got the chance to live out his dreams while Sonjia was sent to pack up her belongings.