PR 16 Ep 8: That Other Scandal Show Last Night ... And I Ain't Just Whistlin' Dixie!

All right, so we begin with the ending of last week’s episode, with The Terrible Twins, Shawn and Claire having a Design-Off.

They have one hour to complete a second look in a head-to-head challenge and while Claire instantly sets out to work, Shawn sobs and weeps and whines about how hard this is ... for her; but not for Claire who in the same amount of time Shawn spent crying has designed a new look.

Shawn can’t, she won’t, she doesn’t; she asks to see Tim, to whom she says:

“I want her to continue in my stead.”

And then Claire starts the Ugly Cry, too, before Tim herds them to the runway—where Tim starts to cry—to let the judges know what that Shawn is quitting. Last week’s guest judge, Asia Kate Dillon trots out that old Hallmark sentiment about how if you love someone you set them free—or was it a Sting song?—and then she begins to weep.

I, myself, am not crying, I am cheering that a Twin is out! Sue me.

And so we get a good night’s sleep and the next morning that designtestants meet in the workroom, where Tim and a representative from Dixie ... Dixie! Dixie Cups, that fabulous fashion house of disposable drinking cups ... come to greet them. As this week’s sponsor, they will not only give the winning designer $25,000 but they will feature the designer’s custom print on a Dixie cup!

Oh, the humanity ... and the ridiculous product placement. Dixie-motherf**king-cups?

At any rate, the challenge is to design a print and use it in a look for a “woman on the go” who will not be their usual models, but friends and family of PR staff and crew ... AKA a version of the Real Woman Challenge from days of yore.

Let’s rip ...

THE SAFES

AMY I love this look because it’s edgy and cool, and kinda looks like chaps. I did wish some of the print had been sued in the back, though.

BRANDON It’s good, it’s strappy, it’s Brandon; and at least it’s not a pair of baggy pants. And when he smiles ..... Oy!

Ayana She needs to realize not every client of hers might want that modest design; they might want to show some skin and leg. That said, this is a total ice-skating outfit.

TOPS AND BOTTOMS

CLAIRE

She may have a problem because Shawn is gone, and may have a bigger problem because her client, Cecelia, hates prints. Claire decides to soldier on and do a graphic sort of brush stroke print in black-and-white, though she has no idea what else to do and no one to ask. She keeps talking to everyone around her, and they don’t give her the same Babe Feedback Shawn would have and so she buckles down and gets to work ... stealing Margarita’s design from last week, the asymmetrical ruching.

This will continue to play out, but first time comes by and says the idea of one leg in print and one leg in black is a gimmick, and that Claire’s shirt is a direct copy of ... a shirt Claire has already made; this spin Margarita further out of control because, you know, she invented the side ruche.

Claire scarp that idea and creates a new shirt, but this doesn’t stop Margarita from complaining to Michael, in Spanish, that Claire has a measuring tape in her room and measures at night and then she says something about Claire having pants in the bathroom.

I’m not sure what it means, but I cannot wait to find out.

WHAT SHE SAID

[It] is a bold and dynamic print ... chic.

WHAT I SAID

Is it fashion, though, because women is Smallville dress like this.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Heidi says losing Shawn must have been good because Cecelia looks perfect head to toe; she’s a real woman on the go!

Zac Posen calls the print effective and ready to buy, but isn’t that impressed with Claire’s lack of creativity.

Nina also loves the print—she’d love it on a Dixie cup, though I cannot picture Nina Mother-effing Garcia using a Dixie cup—but thinks the design is so-so.

Guest Judge and ALLEGED model Sophia Stallone loves both pieces and says she would wear them.

Fellow Guest Judge, Yolanda Hadid, likes the top, but is not a fan of big prints.

KENYA

Kenya and her client Michelle instantly fall in love; Kenya is coming for Thanksgiving, apparently. And the lovefest continues with the sweet girl print that Kenya created and the peplum top and the peplum skirt. TIM IS ALSO NOT A FAN OF THE PEPLUM, BUT Kenya cannot be deterred.

WHAT SHE SAID

She looks great, she feels great

WHAT I SAID

I need some Peplum Bismol! Get it? Peplum Bismol instead of peto Bis ... Okay I'll stop!

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Nina Garcia notes that Kenya can always make a great blouse and this one is no exception.

Yolanda Hadid likes the print because it’s small and elegant.

Zac Posen loves the details but he thinks Kenya has been doing the peplum too much.

Heidi loves the color and the print, but hates the double peplum and the too-tight skirt because they are unflattering.

Sophia Stallone would like a simpler top ... meaning No Peplum EVER!!!!

MICHAEL

Michael’s model is Native American and he wants to use that as an inspiration in his custom print, and then make what appears to be a Navajo-esque blanket as pants or a skirt. When Tim sees it, Michael’s client, Halona, says she wants pants and that’s the move they make.

WHAT HE SAID

The pants look cool and interesting.

WHAT I SAID

The top doesn’t seem to have any connection to the bottom and the whole thing seems ill-fitting.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Zac Posen loves the Halona’s walk, but is disappointed by everything else.

Nina Garcia called it an ambitious design, but Michael did too much, and the proportions are off; she says the pants would be better suited to a taller client.

Yolanda doesn’t mind the print but hates the cutouts on the sleeves and calls it overdesigned.

Heidi just says “It’s a lot.”

MARGARITA

Margarita’s client is a fan of prints ... graphic prints ... while Margarita loves florals and watercolors. Uh oh; then, the print doesn’t come out how Margarita thought, but she had a Make It Work moment™ and dyed the fabric; even Tim likes the fuchsia and blue graphic print.

But Margarita is floored by CopyGate and keeps making mistakes, like when she cuts her gray fabric wrong and has no more left and so the dress becomes a fuchsia beach cover-up looking mess.

And Margarita is also a mess, and even starts crying as Heidi tries to start the show; she says she’s lucky to have immunity, though I’d  bet she wishes she had shears to take to Claire’s look.

WHAT SHE SAID

It’s not my favorite but it still pops.

WHAT I SAID

It looks like a ‘Wear Around The House’ dress with a bolero jacket ... what???

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Nina Garcia calls the look confused: it’s a preppy woman on Martha’s Vineyard dress and a cocktail party in the city with the jacket.

Yolanda Hadid doesn’t mind it, but thinks it should have been styled with flip-flops and a beach bag. And she notes that had Margarita not screwed up the cutting and used more gray, it would have worked with the bolero

Zac Posen says he likes the print ... that’s all.

Heidi agrees with Nina and Yolanda that it’s a beachy look, but when Nina asks what happened, Margarita starts to talk about “things” in the workroom rattling her but that she was brought up not to throw people under the bus.

BATANI

Batani is the Print Queen and the color queen so, yeah, she’ll screw this up. Her custom print was supposed to look a little tie-dyed, but was scaled badly on the fabric so it’s washed out and nearly unusable; she decides to cut bits of the print into strip and then use those.

And when Tim sees this mess he’s flummoxed ... Where’s the print? Where’s the color? So, Batani uses some purple fabric she has and makes print-stripes out of her textile.

WHAT SHE SAID

I like the color but [it] has less print than the other.

WHAT I SAID

It’s a purple sack with a print-stripe—and a crooked one at that—and it’s too long!

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Heidi also asks ‘Where’s the print?’ She’s also confused because, from the neck up Batani’s client Sabrina looks polished, but from the neck down she looks like she’s going to Coachella. To her credit, Sabrina says she likes the dress better than the styling.

Yolanda Hadid can only say that she appreciates Batani giving her model what she wanted.

Zac Posen said The Queen of Prints had no print.

Sophia Stallone called the look off-balance due to all the asymmetry.

Nina Garcia is also missing the print, and hates that it’s crooked and used almost as an afterthought.

KENTARO

For the man who uses mostly black, Kentaro got an Indian woman as a client, who wanted a bold, brightly colored dress for a wedding. He is completely out of his element, but he does create what I called a kind of Fuchsia and Orange bamboo print that he’ll use for a kimono-style jacket.

Tim loves the print, but without the jacket, he says Kentaro designed a slip dress that is not his POV. Kentaro listens, wide-eyed as always, and the rethinks his look, slightly.

WHAT HE SAID

I love that it’s airy and flowy.

WHAT I SAID

The dress seems a bit large, but the jacket, with the pleated back is very cool.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Zac Posen calls it “sublime,” and says it has great movement and color. And he noticed that Kentaro added a cute detail of sewing a Dixie label into the jacket!

Heidi agrees about the color but thinks the dress is swallowing the model, causing both Nina and Zac to look at her in shock. She does like it better without the coat

Nina Garcia calls 360-degree elegance and stunning and loves that Kentaro stretched out of his comfort zone to do such a bold colored piece.”

Yolanda Hadid liked the color and then she kept quiet.

Kenya, Kentaro and Claire are The Tops, while Michael, Margarita and Batani are Bottoms.

After deliberating Heidi immediately announces that Claire is the winner and Michael instantly walks off the runway. He tells both a crew member and Tim that he “came to play fair and there’s no fairness in this game.” He tells Tim it’s not just an opinion, but hints at ... cheating!

Back on the runway the judges are practically foaming at the mouth to know what’s going on and Kenya gives a knowing look, Claire looks stunned and Margarita says “None of us want to point fingers.”

And then it’s ... To Be Continued ... for the second week in a row! No winner, perhaps; and no loser.

Margarita went mad about Claire, first about the top, but then she starts speaking to Michael in Spanish about how she saw Claire with pants in the bathroom and a measuring tape in her room. Obviously, this is only half of the story, and I’m very confused what “pants in the bathroom” even means, but Michael says in his confessional that Claire isn’t “playing the game right.”

And I don’t know why, when Claire asked Margarita about her top, Margarita couldn’t have simply said, ‘Don’t you think that looks a little like what I made last week?’ And I don't why Margarita said she was brought up not to throw people under the bus was stupid since she threw Claire under the bus to every single designer in the workroom.

LINE OF THE NIGHT: Margarita about Claire, right before CopyGate:

“Now that Shawn is gone, I hope Claire can design one good thing, and not two sloppy things.”

Careful girl ...

As for sloppy, Claire’s giant visor is killing me.

Michael seems to have it in for Brandon ... probably an unanswered man-crush ... and seems to think that Brandon acts like he's better than the others. Now, unless huge chunks are cut out of each show, I don't see Brandon acting like he';s the best one there. I think Michael's just jealous of Brandon's smile .... Oy!

I don’t think we need all the drama on the PR; I love the creativity of it all, and how people can create something from very little in almost no time, but ... but ... this is getting good! I cannot wait for the conclusion of CopyGate!

As for The Tents ... still Brandon and Kentaro, maybe Kenya; Claire might make it, if she survives the Scandal but only for drama’s sake. Ayana is failing fast; Batani, too. Margarita is good but she gets too worked up and distracted and that could pose a problem. Michael is good, but inconsistent and Amy has yet to break into the top.

What did YOU think?