Project Runway Season 15 Recap: Final Four Finale, Part 1

Image via Lifetime

Our final four contestants settle in for the process of designing their Project Runway Season 15 finale lines for Spring 2017’s New York Fashion Week.

We’ve reached the end of our Project Runway journey, but as is customary for the program, the final proceedings will be stretched across two weeks and three and a half hours, with two full episodes dedicated to the process of going to NYFW. Tonight will be a 90 minute episode, covering the 6 weeks the designers had between the ending of taping the regular season in July and their Fashion Week showing in the tent at the beginning of September.

And that means home visits. After a whirlwind send off by Heidi and Tim, we montage quickly through the weeks until we come to Los Angeles and the home visit with Laurence.

It’s an emotional one, where we get the full backstory of how she has an adult daughter (she gave birth at 16), and her relationship with her family (her father disowned her and she disowned him back.) As for the clothes they are “vintage Laurence” if you will. There are leather pieces. There are jumpsuits. There is not actually a leather jumpsuit. There is a jacket or two to die for. And there is Tim, who has had all this laid on him and comes away loving her her collection–and her children. (She has a elementary school aged son who her adult daughter has been raising during Laurence’s time on the show.)

Image via Lifetime

Rik also lives in LA, which is mighty convenient. In order to switch things up, Tim meets his mother and his aunt and they….go bowling. During this we learn that Rik’s aunts are “living their dreams” through Rik, and doing the sweatshop work of embroidering all his designs. And what designs they are. The denim pieces with the rainbow stitching are stunners. There’s a lot of optical illusion gags too…and glasses. Those glasses… You are going to love or hate them. Tim worries that there are three different collection segments with nothing giving them a through line.

Then it’s up to Boston, where Erin has just graduated from fashion school. It’s ten days until fashion week, and she has to admit…she doesn’t have anything to show Tim. She’s been designing her own fabrics and textiles and hasn’t actually gotten around to, you know, making clothes. There are swatches to look at, but mostly just drawings. Tim is very pleased with what he sees though, because it’s going to be totally Erin…if she finishes. Then it’s off to meet Mom, a mentor from school and a bunch of school friends who clearly insisted they *had* to meet Tim, and Erin was all too eager to show him off to.

Roberi is in New York, and his family is all in overseas. Since Tim won’t be meeting them, we get a quick clip of him Skyping with them, before cutting to him and Tim out and about in New York City, walking along the river. His tale of sacrifice, of selling nearly everything to get a work visa to come to the US and try and make it here is only more poignant in the time of Trump. Then it’s back to his studio (much smaller than everyone else’s) to show his pieces to Tim. Tim worries he, like Rik, has too many ideas, and too many partial collections instead of one cohesive set of ten looks. In fact he says something incredibly cruel: he says Roberi is a dressmaker and not a designer.

And then they’re all back in New York, back in the hotel, back together and heading to Parsons, ready to unbag their outfits for fashion week.

Image via Lifetime

Tim gives everyone a once over to see how they’ve edited since his critique. He’s also hoping to help them choose which three outfits they will show to the judges in this episode. Though he presents it as a chance to “tease” the judges, in reality, this is the production’s last chance to stop any total horror show moments from happening and embarrassing them at NYFW on camera, and course correct any terrible styling choices.

We cruise through the Product Displaying Makeup People and the Name Dropping Hair Salon, and then it’s on to day of runway, to see just how badly these guys come off in front of the judges.