10/21 - Project Runway 19 Show Discussion

You know, if they'd just had some kind of discussion about who wanted which models and why instead of rushing the table and grabbing the cards, there might not have been a problem--or at least not as much of one. Meg is such a wild card that it's possible there would have been problems anyway, but at least people would have had the opportunity to explain why they wanted to have a specific model before they were already working on a design. And didn't Christian tell them to work out together who got what model?

I think a great deal of what we saw in Meg was performance. I may be entirely wrong - don’t have a lot to judge. But her activism seemed very performative, which makes me question everything she said.

If I could like that more than once, I would.

Honestly, I also didn't care for Christian approaching the designer who had the model Rajje wanted to ask her to switch. That put her in an awful position because she would have had to tell Christian no as well as Rajje. If Rajje wanted to switch, he should have made the request himself. And frankly, Christian should have stayed out of it. Switching models because a model doesn't fit with the cultural or political statement the designer wants to make could potentially lead to all kinds of demands from the designers about a particular model not suiting what they wanted to say with their clothing, and someone, sooner or later, would be making that kind of request just to get the model they'd rather work with than the one they were assigned.

BTW, I also felt really sorry for the male model who ended up with Meg and then ended up out of luck when she quit. Imagine standing there while everyone argued about how they didn't want to work with you. That must have been a lot of fun for the poor guy who just walked into the middle of that argument.

Sorry, but forgot to add in my original post:

Mr. Red said he wasn't impressed with Prajje or Kenneth.  This is supposed to be a competition.  These are supposed to be challenges--as in, overcoming difficult circumstances and still producing a good outfit.  If you simply cannot design until everything goes your way, well, then you are being coddled.

I forgot all about that poor model.  He did seem rather feisty, though, since he snapped at Meg.  But yeah, it sucked that he was eliminated. And what in the world was up with that stampede to grab a model card?  Talk about unsightly.  I wonder if the producers deliberately did that to amp up the drama.  

Agree they need to find a new host. Adding to the reasons you gave, it would also balance Christian's ego - which he has, but can keep in check. Last season it was their show. This season, it's his show, and I think a lot of the problems you listed in the workroom with him come from it being "his" show.

I saw the writing on the wall for Meg when I posted about her in the last show. It is sad when trouble finds you even though you were looking for it.

I do agree that PR is running with the current trends. I remember when "street wear" referred to daywear clothing....not just THE STREET. I also remember the PR has always been an inclusive show and represented a number of different POVs. What we saw last night was a tribute to our current culture.....like it or not.

I'm debating on whether to watch the rest of the season.  Whatever the rights or wrongs of Meg's behavior, that was just distasteful watching the other designers all gang up on her by rallying around Kenneth.  I'm a high school teacher, and let me tell you, it reminded me of how students will run to watch/get involved once a fight starts.  Part of me is kind of curious, though.  Is this model melee going to continue for every challenge?  And will the designers swap models from now on?  I can just see that can of worms opening and pouring out.  "Eww.  I just cannot design for a full-figured woman.  I'm only used to designing for Size 0 women.  X, do you want my model?"  Or "Eww.  I don't do menswear.  I only do women's wear.  Y, may I trade my male model for your female one?"  

The more I think about this, the more irritated I am with Christian's role in this situation. He told the designers they needed to work out who got which designer among themselves. Instead of doing that in any kind of organized fashion, they just raced to the table of model cards and started grabbing them. If someone really needed a specific model, couldn't they have brought that up at that point and tried to work out a model switch of their own. Obviously, they didn't think that was an option--as it's never been an option before on PR--so they didn't pursue it. Then Christian slyly suggested to Rajje that perhaps he could help convince--was it Coral? I can't remember who had the model Rajje wanted--to switch models with him, putting that designer in a terrible position because if she said no, she'd be saying no not just to Rajje but Christian as well and may have felt as if she was going to look racist for not going along with the request. If Christian hadn't organized that first switch, then Kenneth would likely never have thought about approaching Meg, who, yeah, should have just said yes or no and left it at that but who also clearly didn't feel comfortable saying no--though once she did shouldn't have complicated things further. Honestly, I doubt Meg was long for this competition anyway and possibly shouldn't have been cast at all as the competitive aspects of the show seemed to make her feel very uncomfortable, so it's probably best that she chose to withdraw. That, however, doesn't change the fact that Kenneth then decided to do completely change from his initial idea mid-design to do something he felt he wanted to do "as an artist," thus producing something that really didn't work and didn't really require the model he wanted so badly in the first place. Either he should have gone home for making what he acknowledged was, design-wise, a really poor choice or Darren should have gone home because last week his design wasn't even his and this week, it was his and was bad. Personally, though I didn't like Darren's outfit either, I would have sent Kenneth home because he really didn't have much of a design at all and let his emotions lead him away from a design that might have worked much better.

But to get back to Christian's part in all this, he was a winner of a past season. He's been working on the show for a number of years now. He must know no one has ever gone to another designer in the workroom, when people were already working on construction, and asked for a different model. People have always had to deal with whatever model they have, no matter what. He also knew that he'd told the designers to work out who got what model on their own. Clearly, Rajje didn't speak up then nor did he want to be the one to make the request in the workroom either--he had Christian do that for him. If it was that important to Rajje, why didn't he speak up earlier? Same with Kenneth--why did he wait until they were so far into construction to say anything? Why didn't both of them speak up when people were grabbing model cards? Why didn't anyone say, "Hey, let's not just have a free for all here--let's be fair"? I think Christian needed to think about how they obviously didn't follow his advice on how to work out the model situation and how he'd have felt if he were asked to change models while he was already working on the construction of a garment?

I also think the judges should have been informed about the fact that models were changed--at the original suggestion of Christian that that was an option--after people were already doing construction in the workroom. Obviously, they were informed that Meg had left the competition because none of them asked where she was and they used that as an excuse not to send anyone home. But were they ever told why?

There need to be some changes after this episode--first, they need to come up with a better way to figure out who gets which model; second, rules need to be established about when--or even if--model switches can happen; third, it needs to be made clear to Christian that he can't change the rules in the workroom.

One other thought, if Rajje really needed an African-American model or Kenneth needed an Asian-American model, why couldn't the models they had be switched out with other models without requiring others to switch their models? Couldn't production simply have called whatever agency they were using to see if such a switch were possible without inconveniencing anyone? If the issue was simply wanting such a model, rather than wanting a particular model, then calling the agency for a replacement shouldn't have been a problem. But really, perhaps the designers need to be told that, in the future, they need to deal with the model they have and shouldn't be thinking about designs that can be worn only by the model of their choice or it's going to cause all kinds of problems in terms of designers insisting their aesthetic requires a particular model if they don't like the ones they get. And designing for whatever you get has always been part of Project Runway. Good grief, imagine if they did the "mom" challenge and someone objected to someone else's mother not suiting what they wanted to do?

Welcome to the world of everybody wanting everything to be fair, and it's all about ME, and MY culture, and what I think. "No one has has it tougher than ME. Of course I'm only 21 years old but my thoughts are the most important."
Pretty soon the show is going to start giving awards to everybody because "nobody can be considered a loser. That just wouldn't be fair!!".

On a somewhat lighter note, am I the only one who had never heard of that "influencer" who served as guest judge?  I don't use TikTok, which means I'm ancient.  Anyway, when they first introduced him and showed his "aesthetic," I thought they looked like ordinary clothes. 


And as much as I ragged on Kenneth, I have to say that I would have been happy to see a double elimination, with Darren joining him on the way out.  When his model came out on the runway, I told hubby, "Looks like Braveheart took a side trip to Hot Topic."  Talk about a hot mess. And I apologize for getting Darren and Kenneth mixed up in terms of not completing an outfit in the first challenge.  It's been a long week and I'm exhausted.  


And I hope that Aaron continues to quietly steal the show.  His reversible jacket should have won this week's challenge.  I can't remember if he joined the pile-on with Meg, but he sure seemed to remain in the background during this episode. And I can relate to his background.  Although I am from a different state, I also grew up in the rural South.  In a land where football players and cheerleaders are still at the top of the high school pyramid, it sucks when you're the awkward outsider.

I'm glad Meg went home. She was way too unstable to handle the pressure, and clearly she mishandled the situation. BUT I do think it was kind of crappy to ask her to switch models at that point in the process. I hated how the guy that who won treated her. No need to yell and be nasty. It was a teachable moment. I really appreciated that the guy from Chicago, who understood the broader context and saw that this was a missed opportunity to learn.( sorry havent learned names yet)

I did not agree with the judges decision for the winner and I think the guy who asked for the model change should have gone home.

I felt the whole situation was handled in a disrespectful manner,