Gowns and Dresses for Olympians - Project Runway Recap

Here we go again. After last week's Tie Dye to Die For challenge, we're now down to six designers, and there are some really strong contenders among them. Brittany, Geoffrey, Marquise, Nancy, Sergio and Victoria are still standing. Each of them have had rough spots, but with such a small field shooting to be one of the Final Four, there is no room for error. Who will win tonight's Olympic challenge and who will be going home? 

Brittany Allen's client, a six time
Olympian and multiple Gold Medal
winner for shotgun, wanted a gown that would
cover her unusual tan lines and be floor length. 

This week's challenge brings athletes from the Olympics and Paralympics to the designers for custom dresses. In a one-day challenge, six female athletes from the US Olympic and Paralympic teams will be showcased, and almost each of them has requested either wither red or black for their dresses. Many of the athletes have requested floor-length gowns. Wheelchair marathoner, Tatyana, wants a train, but one that won't get caught up in her wheels. That might be a challenge, but Nancy is delighted with the opportunity to design for her. With a budget of $400, the designers can go a bit crazy with the fabric choices but will still need to meet the design criteria each athlete has requested. 

Geoffrey Mac's athlete wanted a dress to wear
for partying with a short skirt and a front
slit. The slit should have been more to the side,
and the top should have been more fitted, but
she was very happy with her dress. 

Each designer wants to make his athlete happy, but some of the designs seem a bit too safe and a bit dated. Black and red are the colors of choice, but Sergio is working in yellow once again. Brittany has chosen a sparkling mesh for her gown, and Nancy has black and a soft grey for her athlete. Several of the women are previous medal winners from earlier Olympics or Paralympics games, a couple with more than ten individual or team medals. 

Marquise Foster's Paralympian, Scout, is a very
petite woman who wanted an adult long gown,
something she had never been able to get since
she's usually stuck shopping in the kid's section.
She wanted to feature her prosthetic leg, so the
high slit made her very happy. 

The athletes come into the workroom late in the day for their fitting. Several dresses are almost complete, but Geoffrey is so unhappy with where the waist, bustline and hem are hitting his client that he decides to scrap his first dress completely and start over from scratch. That means he needs to pull a new gown together in less than five hours total. NOT an easy thing to do. Nancy's wheelchair train seems to be working well and she explains to her athlete how she used Velcro instead of other fastenings to make it easy to put on and off. Her client is thrilled with that extra bit of thought that Nancy put into the design. Marquise's long gown for his diminuative paralympic track and field athlete, and Brittany's mesh for her shotgun shooter are working well. 

Nancy Volpe-Beringer's Paralympian is a
medalist in track and marathon and quite an
incredible woman. She wanted an outfit that
would let her be a star, not the wheelchair, and
she specifically wanted a train. 

The next morning comes all too soon, but after drama and more drama in the workroom, the athletes are dressed in their custom, gowns, their hair and makeup are complete, and they are ready to walk, bounce and roll down the Runway. Who will win and who will go home? Only five will remain after tonight. Here we go ...

Sergio Guadarrama's athlete, a beautifully tall and
statuesque woman, is also 22 weeks pregnant.
That threw Sergio for a bit of a loop since he had
never made an outfit for a pregnant woman before. 

Each athlete seemed delighted with their custom gown, and the judges want to speak with each of the designers as well as the athletes. There were a couple of borderline dresses - very short hemlines or skirt slits that were super high, but each athlete looked thrilled as they walked down the Runway and showed off their custom clothes. The athletes were each thrilled, and Karlie said that this was the closest the scores were anytime in the competition. But, someone has to go home, and someone has to get the win. Who's going to pull this off? 

Victoria Cocieru's athlete is a wrestler, with
the sturdy body to go with the sport. She wanted
off-kilter, asymmetric with cutouts, so she was
the perfect client for Victoria's style. It probably
should have been a touch longer on the short
side, but her client was delighted. 

SPOILERS AHEAD. DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO WINS AND WHO GOES HOME. 





So, the win seems to be between Nancy and Victoria. I'm backing Nancy on this one. Victoria's might have been more edgy, but Nancy considered everything about her client and made it so that her customer could put the dress on by herself, wear the train or not, and also gave her two different fabric options for the skirt. My vote for the win is Nancy. 

For the loss, I'm torn between Marquise and Sergio, although Geoffrey also really messed this up. Brittany is probably safe because her gown was very middle-of-the-road. The other three were a bit of a disaster. 

So who was sent home? The decision was that everyone is safe this week because they listened to their clients and made them exactly what they had requested. So we go into next week with six but will leave with four. Next week it's a double-elimination challenge with an avant-garde theme. 

On that note, I'm heading off to the gym. It's Friday, so it's a swimming day - Yippee!!! Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow.