Nick is love. Santino, not so much

[jlh]

How much do i love Tim Gunn? So much! So much! If I weren't sleepy I'd make an icon.

Okay, so let's review who has been in the bottom so far:

Ep 1, Diana, Daniel F, Heidi, John
Ep 2, Andrae, Kirsten
Ep 3, Marla, Raymundo
Ep 4, Santino, Daniel F
Ep 5, Marla, Lupe
Ep 6, Nick/Santino, Diana/Marla

and who has won so far:

Ep 1, Santino
Ep 2, Chloe
Ep 3, Nick
Ep 4, Daniel V/Andrae/Zulema
Ep 5, Santino
Ep 6, Daniel V/Andrae

So we know that:

• The easy kills are gone, and what's left now is picking off the mid-range designers, the ones that haven't spent much time on the runway, one by one. This is always the meat of a competition like this, to see who can hang on the longest with the truly strong designers (last year it was Robert because Wendy doesn't count) and who goes out #8 instead of maybe #5.
  
• Marla, seriously, whatever. I know Diana had her fans but I agree with Tim that she was gimmicky, which for me was sealed by the poor sewing on her party dress for Nicky Hilton. A little too conceptual for this contest, I felt.
  
• I find it interesting that the unholy gayboy roommate quartet of Andrae, Nick, Santino and Daniel V is intact, while Emmett has had a room to himself since Daniel F left. Poor Chloe will now be rooming alone too, while Zulema and Kara are left to carp at each other in their room.
  
• Andrae is fine as long as he isn't allowed to go into hysterics, but that isn't enough to make it to the final three.
  
• If Chloe isn't in the top three I'll be surprised. She's just so consistently good and she gets it and she stays pretty calm and positive. But I think she's a lot like Kara Saun in that I'm not getting a feel for her personal design sense—she's such a chameleon—which could make for an uninteresting collection.
  
• Daniel V is a fucking awesome team leader and has really emerged as a force to be reckoned with. I wouldn't at all be surprised if he makes it to the final three.
  
• Emmett is a great problem solver, but that isn't enough. It would be pretty ironic, after designing so many things that already look like ice skating outfits, if he loses on the challenge to design for Sasha Cohen.
  
• I really like Kara a lot, and her designs are great, but I don't think she's making it to the end. However, she's in a race with Andrae for the title of the Robert "mysteriously still in there with five designers left" prize.
  
• Nick is my very very favorite, and if he isn't in the final three I will have a freak out. Thanks to some exhaustive analysis of a moment in the "this season on PR" previews (when Zulema asks for a walk off) I was semi spoiled for the outcome of this episode, but I was still sitting here thinking OMG, if fucking Santino gets Nick's ass off this show I will personally go to wherever he's hiding and kick his ass even if I have to stand on a chair to do it.
  
• I bet Santino just finally crashes and burns and then stalks off petulantly. The mystery is why he wants to win every challenge, when the consistent winner last year, Kara Saun, didn't win the big shebang and the winner, Jay, didn't win a single challenge. Good, consistent work, Santino. Kors was right; Santino thinks he has something to prove. It makes for good television, and he's undeniably talented, but he is going to fuck up again and there won't be a less talented designer there to save his ass. In that way he's more of the Wendy Pepper of this year than we thought. Except the part where he can actually sew.
  
• Zulema will hang in there through sheer willpower, and for that reason I wouldn't want to count her out of the final three.

I can't predict a final three because Santino is such a wild card, but my ideal final three would be Nick, Chloe and Daniel, with Zulema doing the decoy collection and Kara being the "Robert".
[Poll #650613]
Thank you for playing.

Comments

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Ely loves me. Thank you. I missed you but for more than just your mad skilz.

You can preorder the barbie through the Project Runway Store (http://projectrunway.shopthescene.com/) for only $25.

Apparently Andrae and Daniel's window looked better in person, while Kara and Zulema's window looked better on TV—unsurprising, as it was all graphic and sort of set designy. I too liked Chloe and Emmett's window the best but I think it was too Bergdorf's and not Banana enough, much like the dress. I'm very sure that Santino is still there because they didn't want to cut Nick, whereas if Emmett had been with Santino they may have lost.