Is it just me or has this short season of Project Runway All Stars actually seemed pretty long? Maybe it’s Alyssa Milano’s robotic hosting or maybe it’s the lame challenges or maybe it’s Seth Aaron’s guy-liner. Anyway, I’m glad this mess will be wrapping up tonight. Let’s hope Seth Aaron, Korto, and Elena’s collections are less disappointing than this season.
Where Are You From?
Alyssa meets the designers on the runway one last time to tell them about their final challenge. The designers are to create a six-piece collection in four days with a $2,000.00 budget. They are to take inspiration from their own personal heritage. Alyssa takes turns reminding each of them what their heritage is (in case any of them forgot): Korto is Liberian, Elena is Ukrainian and apparently Seth Aaron is Spanish.
To learn more about their heritage (because two out of three of these people aren’t actually immigrants… oh wait…) they take a field trip to the headquarters of the United Nations. The each get to meet with a delegate from their country as well as spend some time on the floor of the UN.
Korto left Liberia and immigrated to Canada with her family as a child to escape war. They lost all of their possessions and her family had to re-build a life there.
Her collection is inspired by the traditional dress worn by young girls in Liberia. And of course, because it’s Korto, there’s going to plenty of color, but mainly gray, yellow and white. Zanna thinks her ideas are strong but tells her to be extra careful with her tailoring.
Elena was born in the Ukraine, but she had a hard time adjusting in the United States when her family moved here when she was 10. But she picked up fashion when she was learning more about the culture.
She tells Zanna that she had a real emotional inspiration and her collection is going to be based around the Ukraine’s flag’s colors; blue and yellow. And judging by her sketches, her collection is unsurprisingly very “Elena.” There’s a lot of color blocking and mixture of textures like wool and leather.
Seth Aaron… has Spanish heritage. That is his story. It’s not his fault he’s a boring white dude with his eyebrows drawn in.
But he’s doing the best he can with the Spanish theme. His color palette is red, gold and black and a lot of it is matador-like in structure. He tells Zanna that he thinks it’s the best collection he’s ever made but she tells him she’s worried that he might not have enough time to properly execute.
I Know You Wanna Print That
Zanna brings in some helpers for the finalists; Jeffrey to help Seth Aaron, Christopher (looking cute in his “Team Korto” t-shirt) to help Korto, and Viktor to help Elena. They’re only there for 24 hours, but the designers appreciate another set of hands.
And there’s another twist. Alyssa tells them they all have to create a seventh look made of exotic scarves inspired by countries from around the world. The scarf has to make up at least 50 percent of their seventh look.
Elena immediately freaks out because apparently she’s gone through fashion school and two seasons of Project Runway and yet still hasn’t figured out how to properly utilize a print. But Viktor talks her off the ledge, telling her not to drown in a cup of water.
United Runway
The United Nations is kind enough to let the designers, their models, the cameras, and even Alyssa Milano in to hold the finale fashion show in the main room. Joining Alyssa on the judging panel is Georgina Chapman, Isaac Mizrahi, Zac Posen (yesss), and the second best thing to Oprah, Gayle King.
Elena
The judges all agreed that Elena’s collection was definitely a reflection of her country as well as her design aesthetic. Isaac loves the wool and the leather mixed together but says that some of the pants and skirts aren’t very well-fitting. Alyssa thinks that she spends too much time on the upper parts of her looks, and not enough time on the bottoms.
Although Zac says he appreciates that she knows who she is and who her customer is, most of her looks were just the same thing (with the same sleeve and the same round shoulder) over and over again.
Seth Aaron
Georgina thinks that he created an exciting collection and really demonstrated the deft hand that he has at draping. Isaac likes the textures and Alyssa and Gayle both want to wear his scarf dress, which is impeccably fit and a beautiful print. Isaac does say it’s a styling disaster and Zac says he sometimes has to worry about his looks being too much like caricatures.
Korto
Georgina says Korto’s first look (a light yellow maxi dress) was like a breath of fresh air and that every woman wants to look like that. But the rest of the judges thought that her more structured pieces were not very strong. Isaac says that she’s the most inventive of the designers and really sticks to her vision. He also says he had an emotional connection to her collection, which Zac says is everything in this business.
By the end of the judge’s critique, they’ve completely eliminated Elena from the running, though they all agree she will have a bright future. She’s eliminated first.
Then it’s between Korto and Seth Aaron. And Seth Aaron is named the winner, making him the first double winner of Project Runway. Which means poor Korto is left being runner-up, yet again.
What did you think of this season? Did you find it as lackluster as I did? Do you think the judges chose the right winner? Sound off in the comments.
(Image courtesy of Lifetime)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
