Designers, celebrities and fashion lovers all “gathered ’round” to see the final runway of “Project Runway’s” Season 13 in New York Fashion Week for Spring 2015.
Spotted in the audience were Edy Ganem (“Devious Maids”), “Jersey Shore’s” Sammi Giancola, previous seasons contestants like Samantha Black (Season 11), Laura Bennett (Season 3) and Nicolas Putvinski (Season 6) and this year’s contestants that didn’t make it to this round such as Carrie Sleutskaya and Kristine Guico.
Heidi Klum entered the stage wearing a fusia mini dress in gorgeous lace. she teased the audience for being so silent, thanked Lifetime Channel and the designers “who worked their booties off” and introduced judges Nina Garcia, Zac Posen and actress Emmy Rossum. Before sending her kiss goodbye to the audience, Heidi mentioned the amazing fact that all designers had only four weeks and $9000 budget to create their collection. She also added that one of the designers had to re-do most of his collection during the 2 days prior to the show.
Since Lifetime wants to keep us guessing, we got to see on the runway collections from 9 designers. The 3 actual finalists will only be revealed on the final episode of this season, that will be broadcasted in October.
First collection on stage was Emily Payne’s, who dedicated it to her father and to her husband. The collection had a pretty romantic, yet up-to-date feel to it. There was a lot of chiffon alongside heavier fabrics, long flowy skirts with pleated collar jackets, creating interesting combinations.
Right after that came Korina Emmerich, who was extremely excited. With tears down her face, she thanked her family and Project Runway’s cast who “will remain friends forever.” The audience couldn’t not fall in love with her … Korina’s collection was very urban consisting of dramatic color blocks of primary colors only, creating simple geometric shapes, almost like a Mondrian painting. Motorcycle jackets, industrial zippers, fringe and a lot of leather were used.
The third designer was Sandhya Garg, who’s inspiration was “Project Runway” itself. It started with pretty conservative, feminine, daytime looks in black and white. Later came more color, letter appliqués and motivational prints such as “take risks today.” Models were wearing shiny blue lipstick, and towards the end everything became a little more avant-garde with three constructed, 3-D looks created out of what appeared to be metallic plastic. It was little bit confusing if you ask me.
The first male designer to present was Alexander Knox, who thanked his mother for her support and said it was a surreal honor to be at New York fashion week. Again we saw a lot of black and white. There were interesting high collared jackets and oversized silhouettes next to crop tops and knee length skirts. Alexander manipulated fabric to create textures with tucks and fringes. An awkward moment happened when his last model walked the runway excruciatingly slow due to a way-too-tight-at-the-bottom maxi skirt, then had to do it again with the designer as closing runway look.
After Alexander came fäde zu grau who thanked his husband John. His collection was very different from the others, with a more punk and even 90’s feel. Straps, snaps, leather appliqués and zippers used as trims, bright colors, overall dresses and crazy fabric combinations with quotes like “if you want to be happy, be.”
Next designer, Amanda Valentine, took us back to the other side and presented our favorite collection by far. Silhouettes were long, flowy, feminine and complimenting to the body, but still seemed very comfortable and airy. Light fabrics combined with a little leather, interesting color blocks and cuts, geometric shapes with a little bit of ethnic black and white prints next to soft, earthy, dark colors. unique but very wearable garments that a lot of women would be happy to wear.
New Zeland’s Sean Kelly was up next, presenting a collection consisting only of black, white and bright orange. There was draped white fabric, tight black leather and A LOT of fringe! What is up with the fringe?
After this tri-chromatic display was Char Glover, who wanted her collection to be about freedom, no rules and no boundaries, suggesting the audience to have a little “sass and fun.” Her collection had a variety of wearable styles, from cocktail dresses to pants-crop top suits. Like she promised, we saw more colors and happier prints. Seems like Char experimented with the fabrics to create different shapes and give it volume – the result was pretty cute although not very cohesive.
The last designer to present was Kini Zamora, with a classic yet current collection. Oversized boxy tops were followed by fit and flare dresses, tailored jackets, evening wear. A lot of volume was created by texture in the fabric, goddets and pleats but without taking away the waistline. Kini used leather, neoprene and almost exclusively heavier fabrics with a color story of only black-white-grey.
Over all, most of the collections seemed very put together and well made, interesting even if not extremely innovative. The biggest surprise, however, came later when Heidi took over the stage again and reminded us all that Tim Gun had yet to accept her ALS challenge! And what would be a better timing than now? Tim then came to stage carrying a bucket, pulled a glass of Manhattan on the rocks out of it and thought a simple cheer would suffice. But it didn’t. Queen Heidi called her boys and showered terrified Gun with icy water (not before runway was covered in plastic, of course.). Not to worry – she gave him a kiss afterwards.
For now, it’s unclear who the “real” finalists of project runway Season 13 are, and who the big winner is. If i had to guess I would say Korina, Amanda, Sean and Zini are strong contestants. Only time will tell, and until then we’ll have to stay tuned…
-Noga Zilber
