Project Runway 4, Episode Nine
Manolo says, after studiously avoiding the internets and the television, the Manolo was finally able to see the latest episode of the Project Runway without having heard any results. And now the Manolo can give you his impressions of this moderately amusing episode.
In short, this was yet another good challenge, to take the sack full of Levi’s jeans and jackets and turn them into the “iconic denim look”. Although, what is meant here by the word “iconic” the Manolo does not fully understand.
The truly iconic item appears only rarely, when design and culture achieve perfect symbiosis, and so to ask the designers to produce the iconic item is to ask them to compose the musical masterpiece of enduring importance and popularity. One might be able to maybe, possibly do this, but only if all of the stars are in perfect alignment.
And so it is with the clothing. Clothing designers produce hundreds and thousands of different designs each year, of which none ever become “iconic”. Indeed, if one is very lucky, one might produce one such item over the course of the entire lifetime of design.
Perhaps what was meant was “iconish”, meaning that the final piece was to be vaguely reminiscent of the truly iconic Levi’s 501s.
But, whatever. The Manolo quibbles, as the obvious intention was to produce the piece that could be creditably sold by the Levis Company, something much more achievable than “iconic”.
And so, after being given their instructions, the designers were off and lumbering across the dirty warehouse floor, grabbing up the denim and preparing for the challenge of making this blue-jeansy item.