Project Runway PDX designers survive the red dress mess

By Erin Flesch, NEAT contributor

This week’s Project Runway episode four, entitled “Design Your Heart Out,” bathed viewers in a sea of red chiffon… and Campbell’s soup? Because February is National Heart Disease Awareness month, designers were asked to create a signature look for a group of women impacted by heart disease.

The challenge was to design a gala dress for each woman to wear at the Campbell’s Red Dress Awards at Fashion Week. The gimmicky (read: annoyingly sponsored) aspect of the show was that the designers had to incorporate “Campbell’s branding” into each look, most choosing to use the logo-adorned Campbell’s fabric provided. Not exactly a recipe for high fashion.

Our Portland pals will be back for next week’s episode (victory!), but their looks did not garner enough attention to merit an in-depth analysis from the judges (booo!). Seth Aaron Henderson and Janeane Marie Ceccanti (who designed the dress on the right) have staked their claim firmly in Project Runway middle-ground and continue to keep a low(ish) profile. Both designers struggled with the fact that they were not working with the typical size-4 model. Seth called it his “biggest challenge as a designer.”

Given the nature of the assignment (designing for real women with heart disease) and the fact that the designers had only one day to complete their garment, the vibe in the workroom was mostly all work and no play. The only “drama” involved Janeane accidentally dunking her dress into a bucket of water, temporarily setting her back. Seth started his look over completely in the 11th hour after Tim Gunn asked, “When did you go Grecian on us?” and advised Seth to not lose himself as a designer just to please a client.

On the runway there was a whole lotta red going on, which had the effect of making all the dresses look a little boring and well…not fashionable. All of the designers chose an almost exclusively red palette. Seth (rocking a punked-out Alfalfa look) broke the mold a bit by using black on the bottom half of his retro fifties-style dress. Janeane’s gown looked gala-appropriate and pretty but did not stand out much from the crowd.

The one who took home the golden soup bowl (okay, that’s not real) was the sweet and talented Amy, whose strapless flowing gown of chiffon and charmeuse wowed the judges by being both elegant and modern. The auf’d was no surprise: So long, Jesus. His cougar-rific short, tight look of satin and crystals horrified judge Micheal Kors, who said it was like he “took a checklist of everything that could look tacky and combined it into one garment.”

Hopefully next week’s episode will offer a bit more in terms of a final project. I’m hoping for less red, more time, and higher fashion than corporate logos can offer. See you next week at Tanker! (And let’s hope the Blazers game doesn’t cut into our TV time again like it did last night!)

Don’t forget to cast your vote: We’ve set up a fun little PDX Project Runway Poll where you can vote for your favorite Portland designer. Who do you think has what it takes to win Project Runway Season 7?! Find the poll in the right sidebar of The Neat Sheet’s home page. Vote now!

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