Project Runway Canada – Season 2 Episode 3

Project Runway Canada Challenge: Colour Me Right with L’Oreal Paris

Colour Me Right Challenge

L’Oreal Colour Story: Sophistication and Fantasy

This week’s third episode of Project Runway Canada required skill and a high level of attention to detail, splitting the group into those who can sew and those who can glue. And of course it wouldn’t be a tough competition without a confidence breakdown and lots of tears from certain designers.

The competition begins with the remaining 10 designers working in teams of two. Iman randomly picks names from her velvet bag and the selected designers choose a partner: bottom-ranking designer Christie chooses immunity-cloaked Jason; Sunny picks Baylor; Brandon chooses Adejoké, Kim selects Genevieve, and that leaves Jessica with Jeff. As last week’s winning designer Jason chooses to continue working with his model which means that Margarita’s model, Lauren, gets eliminated from the competition.

The challenge: each team must produce two looks- one day and and one night -based on L’Oreal Paris’ spring/summer 09 colour story.

The coveted reward: the winning designs will appear in a national promotional campaign for L’Oreal Paris.

The designs must take their cue from the colour palettes for day and night looks according to the hair and makeup in the L’Oreal Paris colour palette for spring/summer 09. The inspiration for day is playful: soft bouncy hair, fresh greens on the eyes, vibrant pinks, and “hyper gloss” on the lips. The night look is a swept bang with pale lips and light smoky eye.

L'Oreal Paris "day look" colour story spring/summer 09

L'Oreal Paris "night look" colour story spring/summer 09

The teams appear to be happy with their pairings and the absence of drama threatens to make a boring episode. To the rescue is team Christie and Jeff. He clearly did not want to be paired with her and she privately reflects that perhaps it wasn’t her brightest idea. What was she thinking in pairing herself with the winner of the last challenge- that he would teach her how to sew? Moreover, his immunity means that he can take it easy and produce a mediocre design and get away with it (à la Adejoké last week.)

At the fabric store and despite a common love of bows as a design feature, Jason looks exasperated with Christie’s whining. Christie is laying out the groundwork for a lousy design: she complains that she’s stuck working with the cheap fabric while Jason gets the expensive stuff. (Is this for real? I can’t believe I’m actually watching this.) Theirs is one relationship that just doesn’t work: they fuss over every detail, disagreeing with each other’s concepts and can’t settle on anything. I have to take Jason’s side- after all, who would want to send a model looking “futuristic” when the L’Oreal concept is sophistication and playful? (Christie- you’re so clueless! Even us, the audience, is frustrated with you.)

Back in the work room, mentor Brian Bailey slams the team’s ideas, stating that what they’ve come up with “does not meet L’Oreal’s concept.” Jason looks disappointed while Christie helps throws him under the bus, repeating several times that she already knows what Brian is saying and has been trying to tell Jason all along.

Christie's day look shorts: a work in progress

Brian Bailey: not feeling the L'Oreal sophistication

Brian tells them to sort it out. At the end of the day, the shorts that Christie designs are very bad sacks sewn together. In a fit of tears she cries out that she’s stuck doing a project that she didn’t want to do with Jason. Brian reappears to give her a pep talk to make it work or else she’s done. She’s beyond help and runs away from him in tears as his voice echoes in the work room with the climaxing: “Be strong, walk with conviction, and RISE LIKE THE PHOENIX!” Alas, Christie’s now probably crying in the bathroom stall. At this point, half the home audience is laughing and the other half is wondering who made the casting calls for this season.

"Be strong, walk with conviction, and RISE LIKE THE PHOENIX!"

Meanwhile, the other designers are working without any major drama. Adejoké is impressed with Brandon’s dedication to his design and notices that he’s far more attentive and taking fewer smoking breaks. We hope that this change in Brandon’s attitude will last and maybe he’ll quit smoking while filming the show. Adejoké also expresses concern about the fierce skills of power team mates Baylor and Sunny. Sunny’s determination to win is clear: he’s been finishing in second place so far and starts the challenge by saying that he “wants to win this time.”

Jessica's project: making a "gangster" out of Jeff

Jessica, a.k.a. gangsta girl’s project in this challenge appears to create a “gangster” out of her partner Jeff. Jeff finds the idea (and Jessica) ridiculous and we agree. What’s the deal with the gangsta talk- aren’t you from Toronto?

Kim runs out of time (again) and is left to assemble her skirt as best as she can hack it out. Jeff also realizes that he can’t finish all the sewing so he resorts to glue (!) to hold the layers of his dress together. I can’t believe we’re seeing this. I mean, sending a pinned dress down the runway is bad enough but good ol’ white liquid glue?

Jeff's tool of choice for finishing his brown evening dress: white liquid glue

The Runway Show(down)!

The guest judges for this week are Canadian fashion designer Andy Thê-Anh and Anik Gagnon, the Communications Director for L’Oreal Paris.

Team Adejoké and Brandon

Team Adejoké and Brandon: day and evening looks

Adejoké's day look

Brandon's evening look

Team Baylor and Sunny

Team Baylor and Sunny: day and evening looks

Baylor's day look design

Sunny's evening look design

Team Kim and Genevieve

Team Kim and Genevieve: day and evening looks

Kim's day look design

Genevieve's evening look design

Team Jessica and Jeff

Team Jessica and Jeff: day and evening looks

Jessica's day look design

Jeff's night look design

Team Christie and Jason

Team Christie and Jason: day and evening looks

Christie's day look design

Jason's evening look design

The Judging

Iman starts off the judging by commenting that most teams have one strong designer and one weak designer. Safe from criticism and landing in the middle are team members Kim and Genevieve, and Adejoké and Brandon. They leave the runway and wait as the others face either the highest praise or a serious grilling.

Show host and judge Iman: putting a stop to sloppy design execution

First on the chopping block are Christie and Jason. Christie is asked to explain her design, poor execution, and lack of relevance to the challenge’s beauty theme. Christie defends herself by saying that she didn’t follow her heart but Iman catches her and reminds her that she had similar excuses for her bad design in the previous challenge.

Iman, to Christie: “When is it going to stop?”

Christie (tearfully): “Right here, man.”

Christie: bad designs suffer Iman's wrath

“Man“?! This is Iman-! No one addresses Iman that way, even if you’re in tears and standing next to the lousy shorts/tank getup that you created.

Iman moves on to criticize other poor designs, namely Jeff’s glued brown evening dress that revealed the muslin ‘lining’ as the model walked the runway. He ran out of time? How original. Iman tells Jeff that she wants to put a stop to the excuses for bad design execution. Everyone should be very uncomfortable and worried at this point. Iman is no Heidi Klum and bad design execution gets no pardons.

Softening up the criticism comes Shawn Hewson describing Jeff and Jessica’s designs as the “least cohesive,” to which Rita Silvan interrupts by suggesting that there’s a “contender for that crown,” inferring Christie and Jason’s designs.

Shawn Hewson: “Jason has a responsibility to make sure that the team is successful as a team and sometimes designers have to overpower their team mates if they’re weak.”

Rita Silvan: “Christie seems to be so confused and floundering in every challenge that we’ve had so far and it’s a really a problem.”

Iman, in answer to Rita Silva: “I don’t think I can take it.”

Neither can we! Christie has lost all credibility- despite defending herself by saying that she’s not developing any of her ideas. We watched the show, Christie, so you can’t pull a fast one on us like that. And on top of all of this, we’ve seen your private collections under the label Carny Love and they’re not exactly Fashion Week material. As they say, the truth is in the pudding, my friend.

Today I am preparing a product review of one of the Official beauty products on Project Runway Canada. Read my first post reviewing the L’Oreal Paris Double Extend mascara as seen on the models (and get a $5 coupon off the purchase.)

Special thanks to my dear friend Jordana for contributing to this post: your wit and humour are unsurpassed!

Images courtesy of Global TV.