Project Runway 4 - ep. 5 - Everyday Women

Tonight's challenge: to design a new look for an everyday woman who's just lost a lot of weight. These women would be the designers' client and model. They lost anywhere from 50 lbs. to 140 lbs. each. It's a clever challenge that incorporates aspects of what's worked in previous seasons: making new clothes out of old clothes, using "normal" women as models, designing for a client.

But this episode will be most remembered for a never-before-happened event. Jack voluntarily leaves Project Runway! This storyline has been teased to us for three episodes. Though spoilers are all over the Internet, tonight was the episode where he quits. Jack, who's HIV-positive, developed an infection that required him to seek medical treatment. Last week's losing designer Chris March gets a second chance. He's brought back to take Jack's vacated space and embarrasses himself by continuing to design costumes.

Chris March's design, a blue top over a black skirt with red trims, is hideous enough to elicit two of my favorite quotes this episode:























"It's a little Shirley MacLaine when she played a hooker with a heart of gold." - Michael Kors
"That was so Paris hooker 50's." - Michael Kors

The judges had to select between Kevin's and Christian's designs. I like both designers and Christian ends up winning. His design not only fit his client/model very well, it was also praised for being "commercial" in its look. Significantly, the guest judge was the head designer from Gap Inc., someone who knows the value of a commercial look for normal, everyday people.