Project Runway Junior Season 2 Recap: Finale Part 1

Project Runway Junior gets its first two part finale, and we find out who will show their collections to the judges on the runway.

Project Runway Junior became a runaway hit last year, as the first season of the kinder, gentler, and above all, younger version of Lifetime’s flagship show struck a chord with viewers who were tired of drama over design. Perhaps then, it was inevitable that for the second season, they would elevate the kids to a two part finale that apes the finale of the mainstay program–down to the extra long episodes.

Last year, the visits home, the runway show and the results were all expertly crammed into 44 minutes. This year, we have an expanded two parter. Home visits get to take longer, workroom worries get expanded camera time. And at the end, the first show to the judges will determine between the two bottom dwellers of the finalists, in hopes that the judges’ preferred (white, maler) contestant will stop crashing and burning so they can put him in the runway final presentation with a semi-clear conscience.

This year, the designers get $4000 and five weeks to design six piece collections. The finale next week will be held in LA, at FIDM, which last host Tim Gunn’s ill-fated The Voice like Under The Gunn spin off.

Home visits apparently do not include Tim getting a budget to fly and see the contestants as he would for the regularly version of the show. (But then again, the finale also doesn’t include showing during NYFW, which it did last year.) Instead the kids take facetime like videos from their home town, where they shaky-cam images of their partly done designs, and their parents and other family members butt on in to get a moment on TV.

Instead the “emotional” Tim Gunn family meetings are held in LA. After all, since these kids are minors, a parent or guardian is required to be on hand during filming–it’s just that up until now, the show has kept them off camera. Tim also gets to semi-apologize for putting their children into “such an intense incubator” like Project Runway Junior. In return the parents tells stories about how their kid nearly died (Izzy), talk up their kid’s designs (Chris), how their kid is a procrastinator who drives them nuts (Chelsea), how their kid is fabulous and mature (Hawwaa), and how they saved their kid’s collection because they have a crappy house that leaks when it rains (Tieler).

Of course, the main focus is Tieler versus Hawwaa. Sadly, Hawwaa seems oblivious, at least until they get to the workroom, and Tieler pulls out a collection that clearly is *not* a crash and burn scenario. Let’s see what Tim thinks.

Hawwaa: She says she was “inspired by the circus” and “wanted to do something fun.” She basically did the same sort of looks we’ve come to expect from her, but higher end Her funfur outfit that makes Tim smile is hilarious–but if she was trying to give the judges the excuse to say she’s not sophisticated, then she succeeded. Tim does not tell her which two outfits to send down the runway, which I think she was really hoping for.
Tieler: At first glance the collection, which he says in inspired by Van Gogh is actually inspired by basketball, all blue and loud yellow. But then he starts pulling them off the rack, and everything is deeply embroidered, with a delightful floral and bumblebee motif going on. Tim points out that without the embroidery his collection is actually basically nothing, begs him not to mention Van Gogh and basically orders him to show specific outfits.

Not that we should be fooled by the bad critique. Tim, after all, knows the judges want it to be Tieler who goes through, whereas, it doesn’t matter quite as much what Hawwaa does, there are judges who are set on sending her home.

Day of runway, and the other contestants are nervously flitting around, offering to help Hawwaa and Tieler, while obviously feeling deeply uncomfortable over the whole situation. Noted that the Hair Salon, which hasn’t gotten much attention this season, is being done by the regular Name Dropping Hair People. At least Tieler is not having fit issues for once.

Let’s see what the judges say, and if things go exactly as we assume they will.