Woot! The 5th season of Project Runway debuted on Bravo last night and the new season got off with an old start. We got to meet the new cast earlier this week in photos but got to see them in action in person in last night’s premiere ep. I must admit, a few of the designers turned out to be pretty much the way their photos hinted they might be … some where annoying, some were cute and the overly tanned guy, Blayne, is trying too hard to be this season’s Christian Siriano (but without the same level of talent). For the first challenge, the designers were put to the task of taking on the very first challenge that was presented in the very first episode of season 1 of the show:

After the jump, find out who won the challenge, who got sent home (and rightfully so) and what went down on last night’s ep entitled Let’s Start From The Beginning …

Okay … so the challenge last night was to have the designers shop for materials at a supermarket, the very same supermarket that was used in the premiere episode of season 1 of Project Runway. A challenge like this is meant to spark creativity and to test the designer’s ability to create fashion out of unconventional materials … so of course, pretty much every one ran straight for the tablecloths and other like materials to make their outfits — which totally missed the point of the challenge (which is baffling since it was a challenge they should’ve all seen before). Lame. In the end Kelli was in, Jerry was out and Joe (from Detroit Rock City, I might add) & Korto came up with my fave outfits:

Despite the fact that the use of tablecloths was pretty boring, I really felt that some of those designs looked better than the ones that the judges actually liked. Kelli‘s design (the marble-stained dress with the burnt coffee filters bodice) was inventive and well crafted but I thought kinda fug. The staining turned out better than I thought it would but the coffee filter top was ugly. I think she got the highest marks for her ingenuity (the fasteners were made out of notebook wire!) and I suppose with a challenge like this, that is really what counts. Daniel got love from the judges for using plastic cups, ingenious, but I thought the dress shape was really poor — the model looked misshapen and lumpy — I didn’t like it at all. I thought Joe‘s tablecloth and oven mitt outfit was really cute and I really liked Korto‘s yellow kimono thing … if it were a bit more fitted, I think I would’ve liked it the best (props for using produce, too, tho the lettuce and tomato accents look much better from far away then they do close up). Jerry … oh man, his outfit was just stupid. How he ever thought his design was good, I’ll never know. Seriously, the judges weren’t kidding then they said it looked like it was designed for a serial killer or murderer … but to be honest, I don’t think Dexter would even deign to wear that fugly-ass thing. Stella got real lucky that Jerry‘s first design sucked worse than hers … cuz that trash bag thing was just pitiful. I hate to say it but it was a pretty disappointing start to this new round of competition.

So the new season is underway and we still need to figure out the designers and the tone of the season. This season was shot after the news came out that Project Runway would be moving to Lifetime in season 6 … it’ll be interesting to see if any shades of that information make their way to the screen (ie. will the judges act different? will production suffer?). Also, it’s too early to tell which designers I like best … Joe, from Detroit, is gonna get love from me … he’s got talent and he’s from Detroit, duhvs :) The Blayne kid who loves to tan is already annoying but that may change … it really feels like his attempt at the avant garde is an attempt to be the Christian Siriano but, as I said above, he doesn’t seem to have the same level of talent (his outfit was fugly and not impressive at all creatively, IMHO). Again, it’s too early to tell. Things are only getting started … but I dunno, what do y’all think?

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