Season 10 Discussion

[yeswedo]

Discuss all things season 10 here. Designers and episodes listed below.
 
Originally aired from July 19, 2012 - October 18, 2012

Designers:

• Alicia Hardesty
• Andrea Katz
• Beatrice Guapo
• Buffi Jashanmal
• Christopher Palu
• Dmitry Sholokhov
• Elena Slivnyak
• Fabio Costa
• Gunnar Deatherage
• Kooan Kosuke
• Lantie Foster
• Melissa Fleis
• Nathan Paul
• Raul Osorio
• Sonjia Williams
• Ven Budhu

 

Episodes (TVDB):

1. Road to the Runway - Season 10
2. A Times Square Anniversary Party
3. Candy Couture
4. Welcome Back (or not) to the Runway
5. Women on the Go
6. It's My Way on The Runway
7. Fix My Friend
8. Oh My Lord and Taylor
9. Starving Artist
10. It's All About Me
11. I Get a Kick Out of Fashion
12. It's Fashion Baby
13. In A Place Far, Far Away
14. Finale

[KimberStormer]

Eleeeeennnnaaaaaaaa!!!  I think she might be my favorite "character" in all of PR, just beating out Jay.  Although I would never want to be on the receiving end, her flip-outs in the team challenge (which is the most iconic Elena moment, surely?  Or is it this one?) were great to me because they were coming out of her passion for her art.  She really, really wanted that photoshoot to look good.  I don't think it was even about the challenge, it was about making something she could feel proud of.  It never seemed personal to me--it was never about "I hate you", it was about "I hate the way this looks".  She basically never managed to make anything good during the season--I liked her print challenge look a lot but her print was absurdly ugly--and I thought she was sort of like Unicorn Boy--she makes beautiful things with enough time, but she could never deliver given the show's constraints of material and time.  So it was a very pleasant surprise to see her come into her own more in All-Stars.

 

This season had a high percentage of designers who were not cast to win, but to lose, and all three of the most prominent ones went out in one single episode: Buffi, Kooan, and Andrea.  An interesting bloodbath.  If I felt like Kooan or Buffi could ever have gotten a bit of respect from the judges, I would have been more upset about it, but they were only cast to provide shitty Michael Kors one-liners and Nina Garcia sneers, so it was probably for the best.  At least they went out with some dignity, unlike Andrea, who did do the impossible and somehow escaped from the fishbowl unseen. 

 

I can't say I have any interest at all in fan faves Dmitry or Christopher, but I did like Fabio.  A real sweetheart and easily the most interesting of the final 4.

[Oholibamah]

This Season is the only one I've actively enjoyed since Season 7. In fact, it easily shares the title of strongest Top 6 with Season 7. And hell, if Gunnar and Alicia are the weakest members of a Top 9, that is pretty damn impressive: they are preferable to some of the finalists in other seasons.

 

That said, I find this season lacked "wow" moments. My favorite designs of the season would probably include Dmitry's Print Suit and Shark Suit, Fabio's LBD, Makeover and Couture Gown, Melissa's Blue Dress, and Elena's Print Windbreaker. But even they were little more than flattering, well-made clothes with not a whole lot of groundbreaking fashion.

 

But in some ways it made the show more fun. I liked seeing consistently well made clothing week to week with a Top 5 that could have anybody win. Although I personally think Fabio was both the most consistent throughout the season as well as having the best collection (of the finalists - Elena obviously blew the rest out of the water), Dmitry was a very deserving winner.

 

But mostly, this:

 

 

Eleeeeennnnaaaaaaaa!!!  I think she might be my favorite "character" in all of PR

Edited August 13, 2014 by Oholibamah

[auntlada]

Was this the season where the see-through shirt was deemed dowdy and old-ladyish (or something like that)?

[Xazeal]

I loved Elena, and I LOVED her collection. It's a travesty that she didn't get to compete with it, because it blew the others out of the water in my opinion.

 

This wasn't a terrible season, but I also noticed a lack of "wow"-moments. And although I thought most of the contestants were perfectly enjoyable, I can't really say I found any of them, bar Elena, particularly exciting. In general, the season is just fairly forgettable to me for that reason.

 

And while Dmitry is a funny guy who definitely did well throughout most of the season, I really can't get behind him winning for that collection. Especially when I thought Fabio's was far superior, and neither of them held a candle to Elena's.

Edited August 13, 2014 by Xazeal

[Oholibamah]

I can't really say I found any of them, bar Elena, particularly exciting.

 

This is true, although Dmitry played so well off Elena's energy that they need their own fucking reality show. However:

 

1. The comparable lack of drama was incredibly refreshing, especially bookended by Seasons 8, 9, 11 and 12, all of which were completely heinous.

 

2. Melissa, Fabio and Alicia seem like three of the coolest cats the show's ever had. Exciting TV, probably not, but I totally want to be friends with them.

 

I found Christopher extremely annoying, and Ven was like a blackhole of charisma - but if that's as bad as it got, I will take it every day of the week and twice on Thursdays.

[larapu2000]

I loved Dmitry's print suit, and the awesome Rockettes outfit he made, I think it was midnight blue.  I thought Christopher's NY skyline was pretty, but almost a little on the cheesy side.  Melissa's print with the bloodlines was awesome, but she did have a tendancy to be a one way monkey with her necklines.

 

Dmitry was by far my favorite, though.  His expressionless and hilariously dry talking heads were a thing of beauty.  

[TudorQueen]

High - and low - lights of this very interesting season for me:

 

The baby challenge - hysterical!

 

The Dimitry/Elena reality show, as noted.

 

Ven's abhorrent conduct in the 'real woman' challenge, leading the judges further down their 'Origami Rose is the Emperor without clothes' road.

 

Kooan's sad withdrawal from a competition in which neither an internationally renowned designer nor an editorial 'arbiter' could see his Tokyo Pop influenced aesthetic as anything but a joke.

 

Tim and Heidi with the Rockettes! The challenge was good in a number of ways, but the introduction to it could not be beaten!

 

Christopher's sweetness, the whole business with Andrea notwithstanding.

 

Tim's final cry of "SON-JEE!" as he herded the designers to the runway time after time.

 

Falling a little in love with Fabio Costa

[Ann W]

I wish that Kooan hadn't quit when he did - he was a strange fellow, but i was interested to see what he'd come up with.  (I didn't mind Andrea leaving at all - it's too bad she took up a space someone else could have used).  At the very least I don't think a runway collection from him would be boring.  As an aside, I found it interesting that he's now working at Mood.

 

I've been catching up on the seasons of Project Runway that I haven't watched (Thank you my little streaming device!) and have watched 8, 9, and 10.  I'm about to skip 11 and 12 to watch 13 so that I can comment on more recent episodes. (eta:  Drat!  They won't let me watch 13 yet, I guess that I'm destined to be at least a year behind.  I'm sooo unfashionable!)

 

I have to say that while I'd rather gnaw my own head off than to work with Elena, she really grew on me.  I think her mistake was in going a bit too far in trying to please the judges.  I would have been interested in seeing her do a collection.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Ann W

[millennium]

I finished this season just this week on Hulu Plus.    I liked it a lot, mainly because the four finalists seemed like decent people who respected each other (as much as you can respect an opponent in a competition).   Not one of them had a truly voice-raising or bad-blood moment during the competition.   Dimitri came close with Elena, but even that was low key.

 

I would grade all of the finalist collections a solid B.   Nothing especially memorable.

 

I didn't like Elena very much.  Just because you're earnest doesn't make it okay to act out.   I loved that she was auf'ed on the most awful challenge of all, the baby challenge.

 

I started the season very anti-Gunnar, but his vibrant and fun personality won me over, especially in the real woman challenge.  He was very gracious at his auf-ing.

 

Ven should have done a better job of censoring himself in the real woman challenge but I can understand his frustration.  Not only did he have to contend his client's problematic figure, but there was nothing engaging or inspiring about the woman either, not a drop of personality (versus, say, the other woman with a similar shape whose sparkling personality outshined all the other clients on the runway)

Edited September 18, 2015 by millennium

[Ms Blue Jay]

I'm rewatching (probably my favourite season?  2, 4, and 10 seem to be particularly amazing) and there's a few things I can't believe.

 

Sonjia totally got screwed out of a Final 4 spot.  Melissa's second to last challenge outfit was so completely not avant garde yet the judges kept raving that it was (Ugh, Zoe Saldana).  It was a (tank top?) a pleather vest and a skirt.  It's actually making me so angry!  Sonjia forgot her gold fabric or lost it at Mood and the poor woman totally got screwed here, even though I loved her final look -- it was a green dress made to look like parts of the top were floating on bare skin.  The judges made fun of it for looking like a figure skating costume.  Mind you I like Melissa (as I seem to like EVERY contestant on this season minus Ven!) I just don't think she needed that Final 4 spot badly over Sonjia!  

 

In the end I preferred Fabio over Dmitry for the win.  And looking back through the whole season, there were a lot of challenges where I didn't think Fabio did very well and escaped elimination.  Melissa was probably a more successful designer than he was through the whole season.  So it's a toss up between these 5 designers, and even Elena, who all did well at different points of the season.  I can't discuss Ven without going into a rage, so I won't. There were also challenges where I thought Gunnar should have won -- like the winter collection where he made the 2 leather dresses.  

 

I'm also very in love with Christopher!    Glad that Sonjia, Christopher, and Elena all came back for Allstars.  Would love to see Sonjia and/or Christopher come back for the next one too.  Two of my favourite PR personalities.  

 

The Kooan stuff was incredibly heartbreaking.  The editing made it look like this completely innocent cartoon kid's love for fashion was completely crushed by Meana Irina.  It was like dealing with Irina made Kooan quit the show !  I'm sorry, but that's what it did seem like!   After dealing with her and the car challenge, it was like his spirit was completely crushed.  He told everyone he just felt plain sad, and promptly quit!  The weirdest thing is that security then removed him!

 

Gunnar is so completely beautiful in that real woman challenge.  

 

I'm sure I've talked about this at length, but besides Santino's fantasy over Andrae and Tim Gunn fighting at Red Lobster, Fabio becoming so personally involved in the Animatronic Baby Challenge and losing sight of the reality that his baby wasn't real, and not born of his seed, and becoming so attached to the thing is the sweetest and funniest thing in Project Runway history.  Fabio cooing at that baby and patting its back to stop screaming?  I could watch that entire thing on loop.  Elena:  "My baby's name is Asshole."

Edited December 12, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[AndySmith]

Overall I thought this was a good season. Compared to other seasons, I didn't mind the lack of drama. Sometimes it is nice to see a group of people competing with each other who are still (relatively) supportive of each other and seem to enjoy being around each other. What can I say, that's one of the reasons I also enjoy So You Think You Can Dance. At least Elena spiced things up, so it wasn't too boring.

 

Dmitry definitely deserved to win over Fabio. I'd have had Sonjia in the final four instead of Christopher. Elena was fun as a person to watch, but as a designer at that point in her career, she shouldn't have made the final four. Mileage varies, of course...