‘Project Runway’: Did you go to prom?

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I went to prom my junior year, in 1993, with a senior named Josh who had aspirations to be a radio DJ. It was one of the most tremendous letdowns of my adolescent years. I wore a hideous dress and too much makeup and Josh tried to make out with me and I wouldn’t let him because I had decided over the course of the evening that he was a total dork-loser. But about that dress? It was bright red velvet with a sweetheart neckline. I hate to admit it, but it resembled the one that got Kevin canned on last night’s episode.

I absolutely adored this week’s challenge of making prom dresses for high school girls from New Jersey. Catholic school girls, nonetheless! From the get-go, the show had twists. The girls got to pick the designers. (Am I the only one who imagines that decision-making process somehow ending in a pillow fight?) Poor Christian got saddled with one of the stronger personalities in the group, a handful named Maddie, who, according to Christian’s text message (you can get texts from the show if you sign up here), wanted to look like Beyonce for her prom. Didn’t we all, honey.

Prom, it turns out, reveals things. Not just who will ‘go all the way’ or who will be a ‘prude’ or who will drink too much of his father’s booze beforehand and throw up in his date’s lap (that happened to a friend of mine), but it revealed weaknesses in these designers that we may have suspected before but now have confirmation of.

Take Rami, for instance. I’m not going to deny his talent or his stone-cold foxiness, as one commenter put it last week, but he might be a one-trick pony. Or at least, one could easily make that mistake. Don’t make the draped, ropy dress anymore, Rami. You already nailed it in the first challenge. What else you got?

As for Christian, last week he was working everyone’s last nerves with his smug judgments and seemingly unshakable confidence -- or was it arrogance? Either way, Christian got rocked this week by a 17-year-old girl. His dress wasn’t horrible, but it revealed that his normally arch point of view isn’t very flexible.

On the triumphant side, wasn’t it nice to see Sweet P get a fire in her belly and design a shimmery, red-carpet-ready dress? It would’ve been perfect on Jessica Alba. Nice to see you back, Sweet P. Victorya rightly won with her inventive, slightly mod but very now electric-blue dress bedecked in jewels, but I’m still a little creeped out by her. Those claws might be retractable, but they’re still there.

All around, prom was a great concept for ‘Project Runway,’ but I think Kit Pistol missed an opportunity. Wouldn’t she have been the perfect one to have updated Molly Ringwald’s pink-and-lace prom frock from ‘Pretty in Pink’?

-- Margaret Wappler

(Photos: Bravo, Los Angeles Times, Paramount)