Project Runway 4, Episode Six

Manolo says, ayyyyy! The best challenge yet, to grab the giant fistfuls of second-rate but popular candies and candy merchandises in the candy store and to transform this mass of junk into the fashion.

This was the sort of challenge that made the original Project Runway so delightful, and not something about which Michael Kors could ecstatically shout “super commercial!!!!”

For the Manolo, the best part of the evening was that the likable chubster Chris, over whom the Manolo had begun to despair, showed that he could produce the completely wearable, and yet also sophisticated, mature, and attractive outfit.


Likewise, the Manolo agrees that Rami, the designer of immense talent, should have been the winner. His dress was fun, and beautifully constructed, and interesting. One could spend many happy hours staring at the details and admiring the cleverness of this piece.

The Manolo now feels safe in predicting that Rami will be in the final three, if not the overall winner. He does beautiful work, and he has the mature and stable personality. The other two? Kevin, and/or Christian and/or Jillian. Pick two.

As for the second place finisher, Jillian, it is clear that she has absorbed the Ralph Lauren aesthetic, and that thus she has no problem with the excessive wickety-wack, or the bizarre shapes. She consistently produces items that have the clean, classic line. But, at the same time, it is clear that she lacks sufficient imagination. For the example, what distinguished her candy outfit was not the shape, but the material. Her work seems to the Manolo to be substantially derivative. The Manolo also finds her whinging insecurity annoying, but that is the entirely different matter.

The most satisfying moment occurred when the little boy Christian was sent off the stage in the first round with the okay-but-not-great finishers. One could tell that he was crushed by the knowledge that his outfit was not judged among the best. Oh, such deliciously sweet and nougaty schadenfreude! The Manolo would go into diabetic shock if this puffed-up pipsqueak were to ever land in the bottom two.

Speaking of the puffed-up pipsqueaks, the Manolo gives you Zac Posen, perhaps the most smugly annoying person ever to appear on the Project Runway, which is indeed saying something.

Zac Posen radiates smug the way the sun radiates heat.

Query: Is is just the Manolo, or has anyone else noticed that Michael Kors does not look quite as orange?

Answer: Perhaps it is comparative. Maybe Michael Kors only seemed pale in comparison to this…

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