Project Runway "All Dolled Up"

The latest episode of Project Runway was pretty good. The challenge was to dress My Scene Barbie. The designers had to make a full-sized version of the outfit for their model as well as a doll-sized one. Half of the contestants seemed to misunderstand what they were doing. They were using Barbie as mere inspiration for a real woman's dress instead of making a dress that would actually work on a Barbie. Some of the dresses were too couture for this Barbie, who is supposed to be a 16-year-old hipster. On the other hand, Kara's dress looked so much like a Barbie outfit that the model appeared to be wearing a costume. The winning designer, Nick, had the right balance of doll and woman in mind. He said he was designing something that he could see his niece picking out for her Barbie, and I think he was right on the money. His outfit looked great on the doll and the model without looking cheap on either one.

There was a minimum of drama on this episode, which made me happy.
--Kara, the self-professed Barbie fan, went nuts when she lost her Barbie's hat and wasted most of her design time looking for it. Somehow, I don't think she would have come up with anything better even if she had used the full time.
--Andrae went from crying on the runway last week to attacking the judges this week. All they asked him was why he didn't have his model wear the Barbie wig that was provided. Tim Gunn warned him earlier not to cry, but he went too far in the other direction. I'm beginning to agree with others that he is being kept on the show for a little spice because his outbursts are more memorable than his clothes.
--Marla, the oldest contestant at 51, seems to have extensive experience in the fashion industry. According to her bio, she started out sewing pieces that she sold on the street. Why, then, doesn't she know how to piece her outfit together or use a sewing machine?

Raymundo was the designer eliminated this time around. In a time when Bratz dolls are super popular, I totally understood his desire to create an outfit that didn't make Barbie look like a hoochie. However, his execution was poor. The outfit looked like something that I would have come up with when I was making Barbie clothes out of fabric scraps.

Since this was a doll competition, I thought I would get the opinion of my resident fashion doll fan. C1, my eight-year-old, picked Daniel F's design as her favorite. She had a lukewarm reaction to Nick's winning design, but she thought Raymundo's dress was ugly.