Project Runway All Stars: Avant-Garde in Lights

This week the designers were required to use lights to make avant garde designs that would be shown on the runway under black lights. Even more specifically, the design had to be appropriate for a stage performance for one of renaissance man Pharrell Williams' musical clients. (Client unspecified.)

Now, avant-garde challenges aren't my favorite. I suppose I just want some semblance to practicability in fashion, no matter how small that semblance may be. In light of that, I find that critiquing this challenge was about immediate gut feeling more than anything else.

For the most part my gut agreed with the judges this week, except for Austin's winning design. I'm not romantic in nature or in aesthetics, so I just wasn't crazy about his dress. I was impressed with the shape he got out of that giant overskirt, but I thought the rest of the dress looked a little sloppy and ill constructed. Or course, none of that really matters when you turn off the lights, and it really was refreshing that he didn't use neon. I did agree with the judges that the lights should have been distributed more throughout the skirt and between layers of netting and tulle.

I may sound like a broken record, but again Mondo was my favorite. I'll admit that it's probably because his design was the least "out there." After I poo-pooed his styling last week, he really ramped it up to make a complete look. I loved the weird little helmet he made. It was all very TRON. He also showed a lot of forethought in incorporating his lights by encasing them in the design rather tacking them on top like the rest of the designers did, and in that respect he was more innovative.

Kenley's dress was her same old dress shape. I could not for the life of me understand why she didn't match the plaids on the bodice! Again! But with a top covering it, I suppose it didn't really matter. However, the construction of the dress and the spacing of the plaid she made with the tape looked practically flawless. I have to say that I kind of loved that gird top she made. It was wacky but interesting. I think it would have been even better if she sandwiched lights between two layers of that grid fabric and made it glow from the inside.

I was worried for Michael. I did not like his outfit when it turned the corner. The general dress silhouette with the stiff loops in the front was great, and I loved the big lights running on the inside of those loops. It was the over-abundance of neon green and that shapeless "bow" on the back that got me down. But with a little editing of the neon tape, and throwing that "bow" straight in the trash, I can totally picture Lady Gaga in this getup looking all sorts of ninja.

I thought Jarell was going somewhere great with his dress in the beginning. That peplum piece was looking fantastic. But as soon as his outfit turned the corner I knew he would be in the bottom simply based on the maxi pencil skirt. It made the whole look awkward and cumbersome. He was also too heavy handed with his styling, which really weighed everything down. And so, he was eliminated. I can't say that I'm terribly sorry to see him go.

Afterthoughts:
Was it just me, or did everything look much better in the online photos than on the television?

Did you see Austin's silver and black sequin top in the first 15 minutes of the show? It was incredible.

How lame was it when Joanna said this challenge was certainly the most "electrifying" challenge on PR? Serious eye rolling happened.

"They're called fairy lights...coincidentally enough." Austin describing the lights he purchased.

"I live for Teletubbies. Seriously." Isaac Mizrahi, ladies and gentlemen.

Bonus from the PR website: The many faces of Austin Scarlet.