Project Runway Canada Season 2 Episode 3 (S02E03) Review

Episode 3 of Project Runway Canada, "Colour me Right," aired last night and brought the first group challenge, as designers had to pair up and design two outfits inspired by the L'Oreal Spring 2009 makeup line.

Canadians were introduced to 14 new designers this season: Kim Cathers, Genevieve Graham, Jessica Biffi, Brandon R. Dwyer, Margarita Voultsos, Jeff MacKinnon, Jason Meyers, Baylor Orlando, Sunny Fong, Adejoke Taiwo, Jaclyn Murray, Christie Clayton, Camille Prins and Danio Frangella.  In episode 1, Danio and Jaclyn dropped out of the competition and Camille was sent home by the judges, while episode 2 saw the departure of Margarita.

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Episode 3 began as the designers awake early - 6:30am.  They all look tired and seem to have some trouble pulling themselves out of bed.  As they're getting ready, Kim notes that it's pretty awkward having Brandon there after Margarita was sent home.  Brandon accepts that he needs to stop taking so many cigarette breaks and work harder.  They head off to the runway and work studio.

Iman asks the winner of last week's challenge, Jason to choose between his model and Margarita's old model.  He stays with his model Ashley, which is nice, but Lauren was really beautiful and it's too bad she had to go home.  Iman then announces the next challenge is a partnered challenge and begins pulling names out of a hat.  Sunny chooses Baylor.  Christie chooses Jason, who has immunity from the last challenge, and he looks none too pleased about it.  Christie admits later that she didn't really think that one through, that maybe "picking someone with immunity wasn't the best idea."  Kim scans the designers and selects Genevieve as her partner.  And Brandon chooses Adejoke, which leaves Jessica and Jeff as partners.

Each design pair gets $250, and their task is to create one sophisticated day look and one dramatic evening look inspired by the colours of the L'Oreal spring 2009 palette.  This is a fairly big deal as the winning design will be featured in a L'Oreal campaign.  The designers need to decide who will do the daytime look and who will do the evening look.

Most of the design pairs seem to be getting along, except Christie and Jason have some seriously misaligned ideas - they only seem to be able to decide that they both like bows and are at eachother's throats. 

Each team gets $250 to pay for all of their fabric and notions for both outfits.  Genevieve gets a bit condescending with Kim, vetoing her fabric choice and adding in the interview room that she's giving Kim "constructive criticsm" because they are partners and considers herself an expert on design and attention to detail.  Jeff gets giggly over Jessica's white suburban homey routine, and I have to say that girl is a constant source of amusement for audiences.  Mimicking her 'gang' signs has practically become a national pastime.  Christie and Jason continue to bicker over designs.  Brandon is working much harder, and Adejoke seems to be really good at helping him along and directing him.  She's so cute, like the mom of the show or something even though she's one of the youngest.  Everyone considers Baylor and Sunny to be the strongest team.

Christie is having a bit of a freak-out, crying quite a bit and frustrated over not being able to do the design she wanted to do for the group challenge.  Others note that she's not working well under stress, and she's having trouble focusing and maintaining her confidence - and it's showing in her work.  The next morning, she tells Jeff in the kitchen that Jason 'made' her change her design and he quickly corrects her and reminds her it's ultimately up to her.

Genevieve notes that Kim isn't progressing as fast as she would like, and is still working on the vest she had been sewing the previous day.  Gen notes that she thinks she would have a good shot at winning the challenge, but not with Kim as her partner, which she finds "irritating."  Ouch.

The models arrive and the pressure is on; everyone is trying to finish their pieces.  Brian tells Christie to rise like a phoenix.  Jeff glues his dress together, which is appalling - even he calls it "ferile."  Um, yeah.

--Runway Show--

Adejoke's green day dress was nice but not spectacular, while Brandon's evening gown looked a bit off kilter though he thought it looked spectacular.  The bust of the corset was crooked and ill fitted.

Baylor's daytime outfit drew gasps from the audience I watched the show with - it was so hideous, felt extremely antiquated - like something your grandmother would wear if she was trying to dress up for an afternoon event.  And Sunny's dress - where do I begin...it was beautifully detailed, but tulle overlay atop a miniskirt?  I felt like he was channeling design inspiration from a Vegas wedding chapel - who makes gowns like that anymore?  The strapless mini-dress was gorgeous, and the transparent tulle overlay was gorgeous, but I just wasn't feeling them together.  If I had it my way, the dress and the tulle would have been the same length.

Jessica's bright fuchsia day dress was nice, but looked quite 'normal' as there wasn't anything special about it.  Jeff's one-shouldered gown looked good from afar, it was a nice concept but so poorly executed.  It looked like the bottom half was about to fall off, and when the model walked the train flipped up and you could see the lining.  Tsk tsk.

Christie's outfit, what can I say.  It just didn't work, and she knew it.  Jason's dress was, again, well constructed but so not my style.  Another throwback to Vegas wedding dresses in a single episode, but this incarnation had a long train in the back and a shorter front so the shins were exposed.  Maybe it was more Vegas showgirl than Vegas wedding dress.  The bow on the back was a nice touch though.

Kim sent out a multilayered skirt paired with a fitted beige vest, and as a whole her look was edgy but still in tune with L'Oreal's image I thought.  Genevieve's evening dress was very grecian-inspired, it flowed nicely and had an exposed back - but perhaps not so L'Oreal appropriate.

--Results--

Kim, Genevieve, Adejoke and Brandon are safe and can leave the runway right away.  Jason tries to describe his and Christie's outfits as "cohesive" and the judges scoffed at that.  Christie tries to explain that she didn't follow her heart on the design, and kind of blames Jason but takes responsibility for "not following her spirit."  Iman mentiones that she's said this before, and asks when it is going to stop.

Baylor and Sunny explain that they put a lot of fantasy in their outfits, because that's what they were asked to emphasize.  The judges seem happy with the designs and the fact that they worked together as a team to produce complimentary pieces that both incorporated the tulle element.  I can't believe the judges like Baylor's day outfit so much; one even remarks that she could "see any woman wearing it."  I wholeheartedly disagree.

Rita Silvan liked Jessica's colour choice but calls the design conventional, not classic.  Jeff is criticized for his shoddily constructed dress.  He tries to defend it and Iman reminds him that he's used the "not enough time, not enough fabric" excuse before.

Rita talks about having previously seen the silhouette and concept of Jeff's dress, but much better executed, and I have a feeling she's making reference to last season's winner Evan Biddell.  Shawn Hewson is wearing an "Addicted to Biddell" t-shirt in this episode, which is so awesome - all of Evan's friends in the audience last night were squealing with pride.  Based on the judges' discussion, it seems pretty clear that Sunny will win and Christie is out, as Rita says she's floundering and confused.

Sunny and Baylor win the competition for their two designs, though it was clear that between the two Sunny earned the bulk of the win.  Jason has immunity and Jessica is safe, which left Christie and Jeff remaining.  In the end, it was Christie who was sent home in tears.

As the show progresses, it becomes difficult to predict who might be kicked off the next week.  Currently, the weakest designers in my opinion are Jeff, Jessica and Brandon, so I expect it might be one of them who gets the boot in episode 4.