by Todd Betzold

Is it just me or does anyone else think there have been more than the normal amount of team challenges on Project Runway this season? The designers are back in teams tonight and fundraising on the streets of NYC to raise money for the fabric to make their designs...what???

 

Christopher is upset that the judges decided to keep everyone the last challenge and not the challenge that sent Nathan home...get over it girl! The designers head over to the runway to meet Heidi Klum to find out the next challenge. Tim Gunn has all the details in the workroom for the next challenge. The tables are full of arts and crafts, so the designers are excited (Melissa) and over it (Elena). Tim said they will not have a budget for this challenge, but they will be doing their own fundraising! They will be creating merchandise to sell to people on the street. There are three stations in the workroom with white t-shirts to use to create the designs they think will sell. Tim said they can also offer fashion advice, do alterations or whatever they want to raise money.

 

To throw another wrench into the mix, the designers will be working in teams of three with no team leaders, all collaboratively. Tim chooses the teams from the button bag. He picks Christopher, Sonjia and Gunnar (all of them know this will be drama with those two queens on the same team)! The next team is Dmitry, Elena and Alicia. The last team is Ven, Melissa and Fabio. They have three hours to work and fundraise!

 

The designers get started on creating their designs to sell. They have no idea what the actual challenge is, so they are all aiming to raise as much money as possible. Gunnar and Christopher seem to be working together well, for now! Elena, Dmitry and Alicia are spray painting t-shirts and they have come up to look like crap. Dmitry wants to add something to the shirts, but Elena says no and it is so lame. Dmitry is over Elena and said you never hear anything positive from her and no one is going to buy from her because she is working depression.

 

Tim comes back in and it is time to head out and make some money! They have two hours to sell. The designers are struggling and no one wants to buy their shirts. Elena asks people if they want to buy these crappy shirts. Who does that when selling? Even if it is crappy, you don't mention it to your possible customer! One hour left to sell and we have seen no designers sell until Ven, Fabio and Melissa sell one! Christopher, Gunnar and Sonjia are starting to have fun with it and the sales start coming in, as they do for the other designers. Tim catches up with the designers and tells them he will see them in the workroom the next morning and they will learn more about the challenge.

 

The next morning arrives and the teams head out to meet Tim Gunn. Melissa's Team raised $800.48, Gunnar's Team raised $684 and Elena's Team raised $500. The designers will remain in teams and the money they raised is their budget. For this challenge, they must create two cohesive looks for fall and one of the looks must be outerwear. Sonjia is excited because she loves fall and she loves outerwear, so she is ready to shine! One member of the winning team will win this challenge and one member of the losing team will be heading home.

 

The teams have 30 minutes to sketch before heading out to shop. Elena, Dmitry and Alicia don't seem to be on the same page, but the other designers seem to be sketching together. They head out to shop and Gunnar's Team did not use their time wisely and they must split up to get everything purchased. Time runs out and they head back to the workroom.

 

They start working on their looks and Christopher is glad he was not put together with Elena and she brings down her teams. Elena and Dmitry keep having little fights about their looks and this is only going to erupt on the runway.

 

Tim Gunn heads into the workroom for his critique. For Elena's Team, he said he thinks the sleeve on the jacket might be distracting and told Alicia to keep her eye on the fitting of the pant around the crotch area. Dmitry tells him he is going to do exposed darts, which shocks Tim and the other designers...we'll see how this works out. For Melissa's Team, Ven does the fan-affect yet again and he needs to change his look. Tim said the skirt, which Ven made, doesn't belong with the rest of the collection. For Gunnar's Team, Tim asked Sonjia if she needed different sleeves for the jacket and she might be overdesigning. Elena said Christopher's coat is the ugliest thing she has ever seen.

 

Melissa's Team tries to work out the issues with the skirt and Melissa and Fabio want to get rid of it, but they don't know what they are going to do. The models come in and Fabio said he is in love with Gunnar's dresses. Gunnar said his dresses are holding their collection together, even though Sonjia's and Christopher's jackets were supposed to be. Ven redoes the skirt and is not happy with it and it is not him, but he ran out of time. For Elena's Team, she is not happy with Alicia's pants and Elena wants them changed, but Alicia thinks they are fine.

 

The morning of runway show and Dmitry said that Melissa's Team had an $800 budget, but their designs look so cheap. The models come in and Sonjia is loving her jacket and feels this could be a wow moment. Melissa is worried about her pants and said they must fit! Ven said he was worried about changing his skirt, but after seeing the complete collection he thinks they could be on the top. Elena wants to keep the coat on until the very end and then unzip it at the very end. Elena said Alicia's pants don't work with her jacket, but Alicia doesn't want her look covered up the whole time on the runway.

 

Time for the runway show and out comes Heidi Klum. The judges tonight are Heidi, Michael Kors, Nina Garcia and guest judge this week is Anna Sui, fashion designer. For Elena's team, it is the same dress Dmitry always does, but it is done nice. The jacket is good by Elena and Alicia's work is not seen much because of that jacket! For Gunnar's Team, Sonjia's jacket is great and works so well with Gunnar's dress. I am not a huge fan of Christopher's coat, but Gunnar did great this week on the dresses. For Melissa's Team, Ven's skirt looks just blah, but the jacket Melissa did is great. Fabio's jacket is blah also and the whole look is frumpy.

 

Heidi said that Gunnar's Team is the clear winner and one of them will be the winner tonight. The other teams did not do so well and one of them will be heading home tonight! For Gunnar's Team, Michael said the play of textures for the dress is great. Heidi said Sonjia's jacket is her favorite piece and it is really pretty. Nina said the tailoring of the jacket is exquisite. Anna said she thought it was really smart to use your strengths in making the designs. For Elena's Team, she said she feels Dmitry overtook the work and made a whole look and they didn't work together on all the looks. The cat fight begins between Elena and Dmitry. Nina said this didn't work as a team challenge for them and they keep seeing dresses from Dmitry and Elena always does the same jacket with volume and it doesn't work. Michael said the shawl had nothing to do with the dress and Elena only designed a coat that needed to be closed and he is falling asleep over Alicia's garments and no one was working together. Anna said all of the conflict they are expressing is coming out in the clothes. For Melissa's Team, Nina said she likes the white jacket and fits her beautifully, but it wasn't her favorite collection from them. Heidi said this was her least favorite collection and she doesn't want any of them and it didn't work at all. Michael said the wool coat is a flop and it is just sad. Anna said they all could have done better on the fit and execution and they were being too nice to each other and didn't challenge each other enough. Nina said they were the group that raised the most money and it looks inexpensive.

 

The judges discuss the designs and it looks like it might be Sonjia winning because of the jacket they all loved. For the losing designer, it depends on the team they choose as the losing team, but it looks like either Alicia or Fabio going home tonight. The designers head back to the runway and the winner of this challenge is Sonjia (she said fall and outerwear was her strength, I guess she was right). Gunnar, Christopher, Melissa, Ven, Elena and Dmitry are all safe. That leaves us with Fabio and Alicia and one of them will be heading home. Alicia is out, so Fabio is in and safe for another week. Who did you think was heading home tonight?

 

Project Runway airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

 

(Image courtesy of Lifetime)

 

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