I already compared Project Runway All Stars to a less appealing menu item in my first post on the series, and so it would be lamentably uncreative to use the same comparison when summing up the finale. However, that feeling never lifted. Even as I warmed to this PR one-off (dear God, please just let it be a one-off) as the season went on, it never felt like anything other than a substitute item that you might order when your favorite restaurant ran out of the dish you’d gone there specifically to enjoy. A perfectly acceptable chicken breast when you really wanted the duck.
My initial disdain softened a bit with regard to some of the participants, and deepened with others. (You may take as given that as much as I may praise any of the PRAS cast, there is not one who I would keep as a permanent replacement for the person that filled their role in the regular series.) Angela Lindvall never really seemed to have much vim, but she did have a certain sweetness that made her seem a little more compassionate when giving each week’s loser the heave-ho than the businesslike Heidi Klum. (I assume she was contractually forbidden to come up with her own catchphrase to compete with Klum’s “auf Wiedersehen.” That’s the only explanation I can think of for her ultra-bland “thank you for being on All Stars” send-off.) However, as nice an idea as a consolation prize may have been for the finale’s also-rans (a weekend in a posh Paris hotel, though frankly I think Lifetime could have sprung for more than a measly weekend), maybe it was a little humiliating for them to be handed the tickets right there on the runway as she told them they’d lost?
I also warmed to Joanna Coles as time went by. She brought an interesting perspective to the workroom that had been lacking before. (Which isn’t to say that Tim Gunn’s avuncular presence isn’t a jillion times better.) I was surprised by how practical some of her criticisms were. Who knew that a fashion editor would actually care about something so mundane as whether a woman could wear a bra with any given garment?
As for the judges, my feelings about the two of them could not be more divergent. I liked Georgina Chapman well enough by the end that I’d be happy to see her on the regular show more often. When she gave a critique, she actually said things that made sense. Apparently this is a novel concept? Because nobody seems to have given that tip to poor Isaac Mizrahi. He was totally worthless as a judge, pretty much throughout the whole season. He came off like some guy trying to do an Isaac Mizrahi impression after watching “Unzipped” a few times… some guy who’s not very good at impressions. Michael Kors may play up the whole fey homosexual designer shtick a bit, often in service to finding ever more rococo ways to say “I hate it,” but he’s both entertaining and constructive in his criticisms. Mizrahi was just an incoherent mess.
Which brings us, at last, to the designers. In case for some reason you’ve read this far but haven’t watched the seasonal finale yet, obviously here come the spoilers. Ho, hum… Mondo won. As my favorite non-LoOG bloggers noted elsewhere, the whole notion of PRAS probably came about specifically to right the wrong of Mondo’s loss to Gretchen’s cavalcade of eyesores in Season 8. And yes, there were a couple of nifty looks in his collection. (I particularly liked his Rorschach-themed print.)
But I have to confess that I was not in love with his aesthetic this entire season, and I thought a few looks in his final collection were just ugly. Combined with his frankly insufferable attitude in the last few episodes, it was hard to root for him.
I was rooting for Michael, which was a total lost cause. I thought his final collection was the most cohesive, and I don’t think there’s anything at all wrong with designing a more commercial set of looks. But it always felt like his inclusion was informed by a healthy dose of condescension (which, in fairness, his man-child persona probably perpetuated), and there was just no way he was going to win. Austin Scarlett, who is to be congratulated for having both the most boring name for his final collection (“Austin Scarlett”) and the most risible story to explain it (something about old vampires and hasidic dandies [yes, that’s right… hasidic dandies]), had a couple of real head-scratchers in his final collection. (Let us never speak of those pink pantaloons again.) But the wedding dress that he closed his collection with was a total knock-out.
Anyhow, now lucky women in “select” Neiman Marcus locations can run right out and buy Mondo’s outfits, and Joanna Coles can figure out which corner of the Marie Claire offices to stash him in until his year as a guest editor runs out. And fans of the regular Project Runway can hope that Season 10, whenever it airs, wipes the memory of this mediocre place-holder from our minds.
I warmed to PRAS with time and didn’t mind Mizrahi at all…the low point for me was the Miss Piggy challenge, and watching the contestants have to pretend to be excited to meet Miss Piggy. Or maybe that was the high point! I also enjoyed the self-consciousness and seld-doubt that the “all-stars” label brought to the show.
Anywho…yay for Mondo, he does interesting stuff and he deserved to win
The Miss Piggy challenge was, indeed, a low point. I never enjoy challenges that force the designers to feign enthusiasm for designing clothes for non-humans.
I thought it was cute. But then, I have a mighty big soft spot for muppets.
I adore the Muppets. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the challenge more if it hadn’t felt like the whole season was desperate for ideas.
I kind of like how Mondo was behaving as anguished as if he were deciding whether or not to create a nuclear bomb, knowing that his inventions might be either the savior or the destroyer of humanity. But he was making clothes. I have a soft spot for that sort of anxiety.
And I liked his clothes better.
But you’re right. It did get better as the season went on. But still. Cannot wait for the real Project Runway this summer.
I kind of like how Mondo was behaving as anguished as if he were deciding whether or not to create a nuclear bomb, knowing that his inventions might be either the savior or the destroyer of humanity. But he was making clothes.
Indeed. His angst was more in keeping with “Will this virus I just engineered wreak untold havoc on the world?” than “Will I fail to sell my garments in select Neiman Marcus stores?”
It certainly was brutally jarring not having Tim or Heidi there. I half suspect that the gaping holes were purposefully left sortof as a form of advertising. Hearing the contestants policing themselves over timelimit or hearing Lindvall hobble across her glaringly inane non-Heidi-catchphrase lines made me think about the real thing more.
Mondo alternately annoyed me and charmed me. I’d always thought he’d been robbed by Gretchen but he’s always come off like a less talented more insecure Christian Siriano. I sure was bemused by Anthony and the episode where he yanked the clothes off that tasty New Yorkers back was ~very~ well received in my household.
he’s always come off like a less talented more insecure Christian Siriano.
I couldn’t agree more.
I sure was bemused by Anthony and the episode where he yanked the clothes off that tasty New Yorkers back was ~very~ well received in my household.
In mine as well. We were also:
1) deeply amused that he seemed to do it with no intention of using the material at all, and just for the sake of seeing the dude in his skivvies. (A goal we laud.)
2) skeptical of Austin’s claim to have landed said dude’s phone number. Not that we doubt the guy played for our team, but we just don’t believe Austin would be his type
I think make comments like that “I already compared Project Runway All Stars to a less appealing menu item in my first post on the series, and so it would be lamentably uncreative to use the same comparison when summing up the finale,” makes me to believe how many ignorrant people exist and how much jeloucy you must have been have towards the finalists. I think that these 3 finalists are very pationat people and they have future and good one. Stop being so negative and begin being creative, it will help to desolve your outrage for everybody else. Project Runway all stars is great and inspiring show and much better then everything else reality tv has to offer to public.
Yes
I think from the very beginning it was evident that they were gearing up for these three as finalists and I had expressed concern from the beginning that Mondo would win because of his loss on season 8. Lo and behold. I believe the show lost a lot of viewers (or at least sparked enough outrage on their Facebook page after Gretchen won…whatever happened to her anyway?) that they had to right it somehow. Sadly, this was not the way to do it.
I love Mondo. I love his designs. I love his conflict. I just don’t love forced drama, bitchiness and designs from ALL of the designers which, quite frankly, weren’t anything that I’ll remember for very long.
whatever happened to her anyway?
I think you could ask this question of every winner who isn’t Christian Siriano. (I loved that Season Whatever winner Irina showed up for the finale, as though to remind the world that she still exists.)
But wasn’t it so insulting to hear the judges exclaim, nearly week after week, “oh you are making this so hard on us” – simultaneously trying to blame the designers while pretending to the audience that the outcome was not a foregone conclusion. So insulting to the audience, so insulting to me personally,especially when Mizrahi (poor man’s Michael Kors-or should I say, mean man’s, double entendre there since Mizrahi is at heart so mean…bravo me!) anyway, when he ramped it up at the end there, as did the others..”wow this is going to be so tough, so difficult, so hard on us…” Puh leeze. I did not fall off the boat yesterday and it takes a lot of gall to treat me, and your other fans, to such raw bs. We all knew what was going to happen before it did, thanks to gawker website. Yes, Mondo got the win to make up for Wretchen’s win in season 8. Why, by the way, did they reward Wretchen for such bad behavior and vile clothing? I wasn’t too happy about Anya’s win either because the top parts of her designs never seem finished. And yes, all of a sudden Coles is concernced about women being able to wear a bra with clothes? SINCE WHEN?!? I have struggled with this problem for ages with clothing, wondering why designers don’t design for women with boobs at all, much less normal (or, for bigger women-large-) boobs. Michael is a good designer with a man-child attitude as you say, and Scarlett is insufferable but talented to an extent. There I said it. Take care everyone.
All Stars bored me. I wanted to like it, but there’s something to be said about new designers having their egos shot down and the various battles that go on as the new designers begin to learn their craft on-camera. You can’t get that with established designers — Mondo, Austin, and especially Michael all have established themselves as working designers. Heck, Austin even had his own show a c0uple seasons ago.