Project Runway Episode 402 Recap: "I Started Crying"

Okay, now for our refugee from Flock of Seagulls, Christian, who was one of the lucky seven. And, oh, Christian, how your youth betrayed you tonight. Yes, you’re a prodigy. Yes, even though you’re only 21, you’re not out of your league on this show. But sweetie, believe me when I tell you: When Tim Gunn gives you advice, you must take it. He is never wrong.

Christian’s design, a knit dress with a fitted jacket with a pleated front panel, looked hot as hell, elegant, and sophisticated as a sketch, but the execution went way off target. I don’t know what that white zipper thingy was, and not even the rail thin model looked good in the skintight blue dress. But here’s the thing: All the judges kept telling him it was too 80s. I lived through the 80s. I knew the 80s. The problem with this outfit wasn’t that it was 80s. The problem with this outfit was that it was not appropriate for the “Bitten” line, it would not look good on anyone not a size 0, and if you put the actual dress side by side with the sketch, you’d be hard pressed to believe they were the same piece.

Sarah Jessica also chose Ricky. I really love Ricky, but I need him to stop weeping all the time. I know the producers are behind the camera making him cry. I know they like tears on reality TV. But I’m asking as a personal favor, please stop crying, Ricky, and please stop apologizing for being a lingerie designer. Is there something wrong with lingerie? I think not.

This week, he designed a red dress with a gathered top, full skirt, and a waist cinched with a wide black leather belt. This was a dress that was pretty on paper, pretty on the dress form, and pretty when the model was standing there wearing it, but wasn’t really anything special — until the model headed down the runway, and you saw it in motion. Suddenly it became a dress I’d follow anywhere. SJP liked it too; she said it was “sexy and grown up.”