Project Runway Season 15 Recap: Branded Fabulous!

We’re back for the second challenge of Season 15 of Project Runway, and our first branded challenge as the designers create an outfit for Just Fab!

We return to Project Runway, already in progress as the designers cattily interview their way through another advert for the Hotel that puts them up, before heading to the studio to see Heidi….only to be sent down to the East River. Why the East River? Apparently it’s FAB-ulous.

Just Fab!ulous. Yes, it’s our first branded challenge of the season featuring the Accessory Wall Sponsor and the mob of 100 women they’ve hired to appear on camera with them. The challenge? To create an outfit that will look good on every last one of them. No that doesn’t mean they have to make 100 of the same outfit (though, damn that would be great.) They’re going to make it to fit their model, natch. They’ll also be shopping at Mood, with an $150 budget, which means that whatever it is that wins that Just Fab is promising to reproduce will be in a fabric that vaguely approximates what they pick.

But a trip to Mood is part of the tradition of Project Runway, as is everyone loving up on Swatch before Thank You Mooding their way back to workroom. Still, the best tradition is the one where we skip all the nonsense catty crap and cut straight to when Tim wanders through and judges everyone.

Image via Lifetime

• Alex: Tim is very impressed by his work methods, less so on his time management.
• Erin: She still has a muslin, but considering her time management last week was freakishly on the nose, we won’t worry. Tim’s too busy worrying about her sequins to think about it.
• Tasha: Tim asks if her pencil skirt is “personal” enough
• Rik: A very short check in, where Tim love his shirt dress
• Jenni: A very short check in where the make sure to edit in her obnoxious laugh
• Linda: It’s a grey sheath. She says “urban kimono.” Tim says nothing.
• Cornelius: He has two fabrics that clash. Tium suggests separates.
• Roberi: Time rolls his eyes at the basic clothes and calls them that. Roberi gets defensive.
• Mah-Jing has a denim suit. Tim says socks could be knocked off.
• Laurence: She’s talking jumpsuit. I see Army. Tim says it looks unflattering for anyone over Size 6.

Image via Lifetime

• Brik: He says he’s going for something funky, casual and not trying too hard. He then shows something unfunky, uncasual and trying too hard. Tim looks worried.
• Dexter: it’s a bomber with backwards sleeves. Tim asks why it isn’t a jacket. Dexter has no good answer
• Nathalia: I don’t understand what those loads of fabric are on her dummy, but when Tim asks if she’s over designing this, he’s telling her she’s over designing this.
• Sarah: Tim makes her cover up her hideous green fabric with black and then makes her repeat how much more modern it looks until he’s satisfied it’s sunk it.
• Kimber: She’s showing drawings and folded fabric because she has nothing made. Tim says she needs infrastructure. She claims she’s not worried about time. Uh huh.

And that’s it for check ins! Wow, we checked in with *everybody* this episode. Sorry everyone, that means none of you are safe! That only becomes more obvious as the models show up and some of the fittings are minor disasters. Not that the show cares, they’d rather show us endless shots of “Lady Cornelius form the Land of Shade.” Hey, it’s one way to guarantee making the Top Ten I suppose.

Day of runway and those people who were all pretending their time management was going to be fine are hysterical. Well at least kimber is, and she’s hysterical enough for five contestants. We wander through the Branded Hair and Makeup Studios who are pateintly waiting for it to be their turn to have a branded challenge. The Product Displaying MakeUp Man person even drops a “Just Fab” reference for good measure. How sporting.

Let’s go down to the runway and have a Just Fab treat!