In the immortal words of Casanova, “I am not used to making dresses out of bullshit.” 

That’s right, readers, it’s the unconventional challenge, wherein our fearless designers are tasked with making clothes from things that are not related to clothes. In this specific case, they used holiday decorations. Lots and lots and lots of holiday decorations. The results were, as you can expect, mixed.

Anthony Ryan, Uli and Laura Kathleen all chose to make cocktail dresses using a predominately silver color story. Since the PRAS judges lack imagination, they also all ended up in the top three. Joshua was the only designer to really push the envelope, and it put him in the bottom three. Emilio was convinced he was going home, and threw several glue guns. He was wrong, and ended up safe in the middle. Other than each designer being stressed about the time crunch, it was a low-drama episode. Even Laura Kathleen seems to be so exhausted, she can’t even muster the energy to lord her economic security over the other designers. It’s a Christmas (ornament) miracle. There was a funny moment where Anthony Ryan declared guest judge Kylie Minogue the “biggest judge Project Runway has ever had!” I think I can probably disagree with that at least ten times, but I’m full of egg nog and sugar cookies, so I’m feeling logy. Let’s just toss last week’s guest judge, Diane von Furstenberg, up as exhibit A and call it good.

To the runway!

Emilio

Emilio, as mentioned, was the man in the middle this week. His purple sparkly ice capades outfit was giving him fits, and he wasn’t pleased with the final result. I think he started with a good idea, it just got away from him.

 

The Bottom Three

Joshua

I need you to do me a favor when you scroll down to check out Joshua’s creation, readers. I need you to hold your hand over your monitor to cover his poor model from the waist down. Why? Because his top is SPECTACULAR. His bottoms, not so much. It’s hard to see from the photo exactly how divine this top is, but it was really well constructed, it had just the right amount of sparkle, and he made epaulets out of toy trains. TOY TRAINS, people.

Joshua ended up safe.

 

Ivy

Ivy is trapped in a gold fabric nightmare, apparently, because she made an equally unsatisfying dress in the same color last week. I think Ivy’s days might be numbered. I’m sad, because I despised her in her season, and like Joshua, she’s really grown on me during her time as an All Star.

 

Casanova

Casanova really struggled with this challenge, and ended up making three different looks. His last look, which went down the runway, was made from everyone else’s scraps, as he had gone through all the things he purchased with his first two looks. Sadly, Casanova went home. The rest of this season will be so bland without him. Ivy, who’s become very close with him, cried when he was eliminated, and the rest of the designers teared up in the lounge when they said goodbye. That says a lot to me about who Casanova is when he’s not on camera, and I sincerely hope he is ridiculously successful after his time on this show.

 

The Top Three

Laura Kathleen

Meh.

 

Anthony Ryan

I really liked this dress, except for the giant snowflake pieces on the belt. The bottom hem is covered in a band of mirror, which is really freaking cool, and looked awesome on the runway. I expect lots from AR each week, so I’m not as impressed as I could be by his effort, but I think it’s a cute, fun dress.

 

Uli

Uli was the winner, and she really did deserve it. Her silvery cocktail dress made both Anthony Ryan and Laura Kathleen look like amateurs. She mixed in different metallic shades, and the way her embellishments cascaded down the front of her dress was mesmerizing. I want Uli to make all my clothes. I want Uli to make all my decisions for me. Uli for Empress of Everything, 2013.

 

And that’s it for this week’s recap. A new episode airs this Thursday, but we’re going to be on collective holiday here at P-Mag from 12/24 until 1/2/13. We’ll catch up after our little break.