Congratulations, Leanne!!!

WooHoo! We haven't been this happy for a win since Jay McCarroll won it in season one. Don't get us wrong, we could understand Chloe's win, barely accept Jeffrey's, and begrudgingly give it to Christian, but it's nice to have the one you're really rooting for win the big prize.

That episode was a nail-biter, though. Honest to God, we thought right up to the last second that Korto was going to win it going by the winner's edit she seemed to be getting.

We love Korto and we loved her collection but we really thought it was a close second to Leanne's beautiful, never-before-seen clothes. And that was the reaction in the tents at the time. Korto's collection got some applause but the crowd really did go wild for Leanne's and over and over again as we made our way through the dense crowd post-show, everyone was saying it had to be Leanne's to win.

We are, of course, going to be talking about each look in each collection at great length in the coming days, but the Leanne vs. Korto question is settled when we look at it this way: If you were to take away all the styling choices and remove all the color from each collection, which one would stand up more?

For us that answer is obviously Leanne. Korto's collection got a big boost from the incredibly rich colors, the extravagant jewelry and the masterful styling and staging (loved those fans), but in terms of pure fashion with a capital F, it's just got to be Judy Noodles.

As for Kenley, to us she was a distant third. There's a lot to recommend in her collection but it's simply not one that we respond to well and kudos to the judges for not letting her slide on her rather obvious ripoffs of other designers. Also, since everyone's been talking lately about their all-time favorite moments of Project Runway, the look on Mean Girl's face when she found out Tim was going to be the judge just shot to the top of the list.

Still, Kenley did send out a highly polished collection and it should be noted that even though the collective talent level was low this season, the final three really were the most talented and most polished of the designers and each of them put on an impressive show.

As we said, much to discuss in the coming days, but we just want to also congratulate Korto for winning fan favorite and we hope there's a check attached to that and also congratulate Tia for winning as well. She looked stunning in that blue gown.

And finally...

Star quality, baby.


[Photo: Getty Images - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

Wedding Noodles

The judges' reaction to this dress was one of, if not the, most overwhelmingly positive reactions to a garment the judges have ever had on the show. At one point during the breathless gushing, Tom turned to Lorenzo and said, "Wow. They are totally moist."

And rightfully so. Neither the pics nor the video do this dress justice. In person, it is absolutely breathtaking. On video, it tends to look heavy and ponderous but in person it has a light, wavy, dream-like quality to it.

It has a somewhat strange silhouette that still manages to be flattering and beautiful.

And normally, we would find that little flap at the bust distracting, but it's crisp and the proportions are just right, so it doesn't bother us.

They had absolutely nothing bad to say about this dress and their compliments were, as we said, breathless. At certain points, they seemed almost speechless. We can't think of any other time - maybe Jay's Chrysler Building dress - where the judges were so ebullient in their praise.

And if we were judges, we would be too. This is definitely among the top looks ever produced on the show.

We're happy to see she ditched the original design completely because that dress was heavy and overdone. It looked like some sort of air filter.

Leanne has an intellectual approach to design and someone like that naturally responds well to constructive criticism. It's notable not only that she took Tim's advice about her wedding dress...

But she also took his advice about shortening the length of the bridesmaid dress. The floor length hem takes the focus away from the beautiful bodice and makes the dress look bland in comparison.

Turning it into a shorter dress keeps all the focus exactly where it should be. We think this dress is equally as pretty as the wedding dress and unlike a lot of the entries (all of them, really), this looked to us like a bridesmaid's dress.

The only issue we can see is that the petal pleats in the bust look a bit sloppy.

We suspect she simply didn't have enough time to execute them properly.

And it looks like she played around with the design a bit before deciding which way they should go. We actually like this version better.

They don't lay correctly and it does some weird things to her bust. It looks like her right boob exploded. Still, this is only a minor complaint. We got the idea behind them; we just don't think she had the time to execute them perfectly. The judges didn't seem to have a problem with them because they never mentioned it.

And she didn't use the bridesmaid dress in her final collection (although one of the dresses had a similar skirt), so she must have been less than thrilled with the results herself.

Still, despite that, these two dresses really were breathtaking and really did look like they belonged in the same wedding party.


[Photos: Getty Images - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

The Return of the Noodle

Well, after last week's practically noodle-free look (that the judges didn't like), Judy brought them back in a big, big way.

We're of two minds on this one. Lorenzo thinks it's gorgeous and Tom thinks it's good, but problematic.

We can both agree that she did the best job of all the designers in drawing a straight line from inspiration to realization.

There are some real problems with the execution here. We're big fans of the noodles, but not to the point that the rest of the dress looks puckery.

The problem here (at least according to Tom) is that there are just too many noodles. She went a little overboard and the placement on the hips doesn't necessarily make for the most flattering silhouette.

Although we had to laugh at Tim's big ol' queen characterization of it as a Hello Dolly dress. Close, Tim but you're thinking of Funny Girl.

And if we're not crazy about the noodle placement on the front, we're even less crazy about the look from the back. The way the noodles outline her ass like that looks...kind of unsophisticated.

And the stapled-on-at-the-last-minute scrap of blue didn't help.

Don't get us wrong, it's a pretty dress, it's just not the best we've seen from Judy.


[Photo: Barbara Nitke/Bravo - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

Let's wrap this one up, bitches!

Ugh. We're so over this challenge. Let's rip through the dresses and get to the fun stuff at the end!

Lorenzo loves it, but Tom is bored. It's just alright. Not really avant-garde and as much as we love Judy's noodles (especially after her BP show), we think she may have returned to that well one time too often.

The back's nice.

Next!

Suede watched I Dream of Jeannie as a kid and thought it was avant-garde cinema.

It's lame, it's silly, and Suede should have gone home for this totally uninspired look.

Oh, it's also badly made.

Next!

Fucking ridiculous.

We will give her credit for one thing only: she understood that one way to approach avant-garde fashion is to really go to town on shapes and silhouettes. Unfortunately, the shapes and the fabrics she choose gave us an Evil Queen from a Disney movie. Bleh.

And if you're going to make such outrageously large sleeves, you should at least make sure you make them both the same size. Then again, delusion ruled the day with Veronica this episode.

"Looking around the room I'm not impressed with anyone's design. Mine is the only one that looks avant-garde. And I feel like I got this challenge in the bag."

Yeah. The air bag.

"I thought it turned out really cool."

"Ha. 'Cool,' she says. She looks like a goth clown. There is nothing 'cool' here, let alone avant-garde."

"Excuse me? I'm, like, young and pretty and shit? I think I know what's cool. See the flower in my hair? Cool."

"Oh please, Bettie Page. You wouldn't know 'cool' if it threw up all over you. Which, incidentally, reminds me somewhat of this garment. Vomit. A big plaid bag of it."

"Now, Nina - can I call you Nina? I know you're, like, Miss Fashion Editor or whatever, but I really don't think you get what I've done here."

"Oh, honey.

Mommy's face is still swollen, so I'll just sit here and let the other bitch handle this one. Michael?"

"It's INSANE! The whole thing! YOU'RE insane! I think it might be making ME insane!

INSANE!"

"..."

"Yes. I think we're done here."

"Stupid, lazy American cow. Telling ME I don't know where the boobs go. I fucking made my fortune off these tits, bitch."


[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravo - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]