‘Project Runway’ Finale Recap: Girl, Messy

Project Runway

See You on the Runway

Season 21

Episode 10

Editor’s Rating

4 stars

****

Photo: YouTube

Here we are, at the end of the road — the end of the runway, if you will — and, well, was it worth it? This Project Runway season has been a roller coaster, especially frustrating because of how often it felt like the series was shortchanging us in terms of what we watch it for (design time, mentoring time!) and being overloaded with drama. But also, this format just works as a reality competition, especially for people who watch these shows for a glimpse into specialized processes that they may not themselves know how to do, and I’m including myself in that group. Project Runway isn’t overcomplicated, its judging process isn’t too nebulous (we can all see the same outfits, you know?), and it’s an easy watch. Making this show should not be that difficult, and season 21 really tried our patience. Still, I have to say: I enjoyed myself, I hope you all enjoyed these recaps, and since that casting announcement at the end of this season finale certainly suggests more Project Runway is coming, it seems like we’ll be back here again at some point — to discuss who will follow Veejay as the next winner of Project Runway!

Because yes, Veejay wins. Not Jesus, who again has to face Michael Kors, who helped eliminate him the first time he was on the show back in season seven. Not Ethan, who made his first collection ever for this episode. (Good for him, truly.) But Veejay, who has been a bit of a dark horse in this competition, has made some outfits that were great, some that were safe, and some that very nearly got her eliminated. Her final five looks referenced the Terminator franchise and were incredibly beautiful, a mixture of flashy metallic leather and luxurious-looking knits that the judges deemed more worthy of the win than Ethan’s fantastical Gothic collection and Jesus’s maximalist Barbie-pink outfits. The episode tried to fake us out, making it seem like Jesus’s collection would get the win because of how much the judges discussed the models loving their outfits. At the end, though, it’s a crying Veejay accepting Champagne from Christian, hugging her mom and aunt, and claiming to be friends with Jesus (???) while celebrating her win.

Let’s back it up to the beginning, because last week’s episode ended with Antonio walking off the set and complaining about Veejay and Law Roach. We start right there again with Antonio telling a producer “I don’t want it,” Jesus attacking Veejay in his confessional, Ethan admitting he agrees with Veejay’s earlier comment about the twins maybe not needing the prize money because of the fact that they’re established designers, and Nina making me laugh by doing the Psycho stabbing motion and screeching sound as she comments on how competitive the designers are. That’s the personality I’ve been missing, Nina! As the judges deliberate, Nina seems very cool on Belania and is still explicitly critical of Antonio’s skills; “I don’t think he is an evolved designer” is a great way to capture how rough around the edges Antonio’s work seems. And, well, because I think Nina gets whatever she wants on this show, it’s Belania and Antonio who are out. (Did anyone else clock Nina’s “Veejay is a threat to them” comment about how the other designers seem to freeze her out? A little too much foreshadowing for me, but fine!) Meanwhile, Ethan is the winner, but that final triumph doesn’t get him any kind of advantage in the finals, so it feels empty. Maybe a couple hundred dollars extra in his budget? Or the automatic first choice of the models? Give my man something.

Remember when finalists used to have a couple months to design a dozen or so looks? Admittedly, those were the Project Runway glory years; most recently, in season 20, the finalists got just eight days to make eight looks. The challenge now is more in line with that: five days, five looks, $7,500 budget, and they start right now. (By my math of a couple of days per episode, does that really mean they shot this entire season of Project Runway in, like, three weeks? Absurd.) Jesus talks a big game about how he’s motivated by Antonio’s exit and wants to get revenge against Veejay. I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already assume. In Mood, the designers’ plans become a little clearer. Jesus decides to do an all-pink collection because that’s what Antonio would have done, and we see him getting pink lace and feathers and various fabrics with gigantic 3-D sequin flowers and patterns. Ethan is going in a more “expensive and regal” direction, inspired by his drag persona, Utica, and we see him going for crystal-embellished fabrics like the one he used for the Wicked challenge. And Veejay is going in a completely different direction with a lot of silvery leather inspired by Robert Patrick’s metal shape-shifting assassin in 1991’s sci-fi classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a movie Veejay says she used to watch all the time with her dad. (Foreshadowing moment No. 2: Veejay saying she wants to “achieve that villain power” and become unstoppable.)

Antonio, Miss Joan, and Yuchen show up to be the assistants to Jesus, Veejay, and Ethan, respectively, and then everyone gets to work. At first, Jesus and Ethan are both very productive — the former is surrounded by fuchsia outfits on dress forms and the latter has hand-draped five gowns with various crystal accouterments, including more 1920s-style caps and cowls. But when Christian shows up on the second day to help them pick models (and to witness a nasty fight between Veejay and Jesus over Jesus’s preferred model, Jessica, whom Veejay initially picks and then hands over to Jesus after he cusses her out so bad), he has some concerns about everyone’s progress. Christian says Ethan’s looks are too similar to what he’s done before and that would “100 percent” keep him from winning. Spooked by the advice, Ethan decides to pivot. (We’ll get back to that later.) In Jesus’s situation, Christian notes that the bright pink and feathers make it seem like “a party,” but he points out that the shade is extremely “Valentino pink,” and he doesn’t want Jesus to be criticized for referencing an extremely well-known design house. And then at Veejay’s station — well, there are no clothes made yet, and Christian is shocked. (Me too! We are two days in!) She explains to him her plan to manipulate leather panels into “different angles and weird shapes,” and while Christian likes the idea, he tells her she really has to get to work. No more conceptual discussions — start sewing!

As has become typical for this season of Project Runway, we then skip over the designers’ actual work, so when the episode picks up again on the third day, Ethan has the elements of a whole new Gothic and leather collection that we never really saw him make, and Christian reminds him not to get too costume-y. He also suggests Ethan add a big sculptural gown to his collection because that’s his calling card as Utica, and I sympathize deeply with Ethan as he worries about whether he can pivot again in the time allowed. Veejay has some clothes, but she still doesn’t have a final look; Christian urges her to at least drape her chainmail fabric on her model, Mimi, so that she uses this model-fitting time effectively. And then there’s Jesus, whom Christian tells to edit down his looks.

Then we zoom forward to day four, during which Heidi and Christian inform the contestants that their final judging panel will consist of Heidi, Nina, Law, and Michael Kors, the latter of whom sends Jesus into a slight spiral. (“Michael was not nice to me,” he says, and we get a flashback to Michael calling Jesus “tacky.”) And then all of a sudden, we’re on day five for the final model fitting and the runway show, and this is edited a little weirdly. The night before the runway show, we see Jesus, Ethan, and Veejay in their apartment, and without much precursor, Veejay abruptly apologizes to Jesus, and Jesus apologizes back. Veejay wants to be friends, she says, and the two of them clasp hands and vow to do so. It’s nice, I guess, but it also feels a little manufactured and a little like Veejay was over all this and just wanted to call a truce so Jesus would stop being a jerk to her and also so she would seem blameless in their seasonlong tension. This whole dynamic was so messy and so dramatic, and I’m not sure how to react to it getting fixed so easily — is it because all the arguments were planted or inflated by producers, or because Jesus and Veejay just hyped up their disagreements so they could get more screen time? A deep sigh to all of this, ultimately.

It’s runway time! With 90 minutes to go, Veejay is still hand-cutting and sewing Mimi’s chainmail gown, and Ethan is dealing with the corset seams ripping out of the back of his huge circle gown. We don’t see quite how he fixed it, but somehow he did, and then it’s time to walk. Here are the collections:

If I had to describe these collections, I would say that Ethan went vampire Goth, Veejay went sexy Terminator, and Jesus went Miss Piggy couture, and the judges and I are basically on the same page! The contestants come out wearing their final looks, and Michael Kors says that everyone’s collections were thoughtful and well-constructed, and then the judging begins. Michael Kors loves Ethan’s final gown, and Law praises him for being a real storyteller. They agree that his outfits would work really well for pop stars (I think Dua Lipa could rock that minidress), but they also think all of the outfits were a little too maximalist and could have been edited more. Next is Jesus, who Michael Kors says “started fabulously” with the two-piece outfit of a cropped top and wide-leg pants. (MK calls this outfit “sportswear,” which really threw me for a loop? In what world?). However, while they have some nitpicks about Jesus’s collection overall, such as the sleeves and zipper on his final dress, Nina emphasizes that all his models looked excited to wear his clothes. Finally, there’s Veejay, who Nina says “did a wonderful job,” full stop. She loved the all-black look; she wants it, so do I. Everyone also praises Veejay’s sweater dress and her final chainmail look, but they think the collection could have used another black outfit to round it out more.

Once the contestants are dismissed from the runway, the judges get more into it. Nina says Ethan’s collection was the biggest surprise, but not in a good way, and she’s countered by Michael Kors, who points out how technically sound Ethan’s outfits were and insists that there’s a place in fashion “for everyone and everything.” Still, I think it’s pretty clear that Ethan is not going to win. It’s really between Veejay and Jesus, and it seems like they’re going for Jesus — they praise his use of color, and they again comment on how joyful the collection was. Law and Heidi didn’t like the all-pink, but Jesus’s final gown was Nina’s favorite, and they say his collection made women look beautiful and seemed most commercial. (I thought most of his larger-sized tops seemed pretty poorly fit in the bust, but that’s just me.) Ultimately, though, they go with Veejay, and I totally agree. They liked how precisely her outfits were draped, thought the looks were easily sellable, and the collection had a strong sense of design and editing that both Ethan’s and Jesus’s collections lacked. I’m on board with all of this! And I also think that Veejay’s outfits had a level of sophistication that the other collections did not. Ethan’s looks were incredibly fun, but as stagewear, and I’m sure Jesus’s exuberant looks have clients. But I saw Veejay’s clothes as having the broadest appeal, while also feeling edgy and unexpected. Veejay cries when she’s crowned; it means a lot to her that she’s the first trans winner of Project Runway, and Jesus and Ethan are both gracious in defeat. That’s another season of Project Runway in the books, and I hope that next season, we’ll get longer episodes, more time in the workroom, and more varied contestants. Until then, you can always rewatch the exemplary 20th season on Peacock.

• The outfit I most wanted to wear this episode: I actually really liked Jesus’s runway outfit, the black jacket with the flame accents. And pretty much anything from Veejay’s collection; please, give it to me.

• FYI that Project Runway winner Bishme Cromartie designed Tyra Banks’s Wicked-inspired judging look, if you want a closer peek here.

• Speaking of Tyra: “They wanna fight each other, they wanna fight y’all,” she says of the contestants. I laughed, I’m sorry.

• Did anyone else think that Law’s final comment to Belania about how her looks defy streetwear, “but we don’t believe they will be popular on the runway,” was odd? Those same looks had won a couple challenges; I’m not sure why all of a sudden that would preclude her from doing well in the final. Also, “popular” to whom, the judges, or to some hypothetical clients? Weird phrasing all around.

• The Veejay and Jesus reconciliation is just so hard to accept when the two of them were really awful to each other throughout, and especially in this episode, when Jesus tore into Veejay about taking the model Jessica and claimed that no friend would treat Jesus like Veejay is treating him. You’re not friends! It’s hard to be friends with someone who keeps calling you a “bitch” all the time, or with someone who keeps razzing you and your brother! But maybe the two of them deserved each other, honestly. Jesus saying to Veejay’s mom that they fought a lot “because we’re sisters and we love each other” — if you say so, I guess.

• Moment of the season was Heidi asking Ethan why he bedazzles everything and Ethan replying with a theatrical gasp and a purposefully histrionic “I’m gay!” admission. Great comedic timing there from Ethan. I also think his pincushion is shaped like Totoro, which is adorable.