Before I get into Simone's unfortunate brocade-print scarf cum jacket -- and the judges' perhaps hasty aufing of Simone -- I have to say, when normally blunt-but-sweet Heidi starts issuing Michael Kors-esque zingers like "It looked like she was pooing fabric," you know it's on.

After a "when's it coming back?!" hiatus, it was a case of The Smart (Rami; Sweet P, I underestimated you!), The Sad (Steve), and The Fugly (Elisa) on Wednesday's Project Runway 4 premiere. The 15 contestants were challenged to "sew us what you got" with $50K worth of Mood fabrics, and the result was a random hodgepodge of mostly over-the-top textures, prints, colors, and silhouettes that had no business sharing runway space -- but every business sharing screen time.

After all, it's about the "wow" and the lack of it, according to the judges, is why Simone's self-described "modern romantic" look was the first to expire while Elisa's "I didn't follow my intuition" turquoise dress (and, I think, why Carmen's gold lame top and black "I Dream of Jeannie" pants) survived.

Which makes me wonder if Rami has what it takes to get to Bryant Park.

On pure design, he's among my faves, but between first-to-sniffle Ricky, I'm-a-big-deal Christian, and let's-grass-stain-pricey-fabric Elisa, more than ever, it seems the mandate is Put on a "Sew" or you're auf.

Think Simone would still be on if she'd been less normal?

They should have kicked off Elisa. This was obviously a case of the producers telling the judges not to let go of the kook too early. She'll be good for a few more laughs before they say 'Auf Wiedersen' in a few weeks.

Posted by: Steve at November 15, 2007 06:11 AM

What saved Elisa was that she constructed the dress with only one seam - not an easy thing to do. Simone deserved to go. The look was unimaginative, boring and amazingly poorly constructed.

Posted by: Mark at November 15, 2007 11:30 AM

i agree that simone needed to go...at least elisa's dress had some imagination behind it. does anyone know who designed the boots that the model wore with the dress?

Posted by: Erin at November 15, 2007 12:02 PM

RAMI was the only one who deserved to win last night...he had chic and style and taste and talent...I have never ever seen so many ugly outfits on a Project Runway show...For that matter I have never seen a show with more commercials than last night..wonder how many minutes the actual show was compared to the commercials...bluefly wall and tim gunn acknowledging it was super...as is the airport in her choos...
let us hope there is more style forthcoming...

Posted by: ellin at November 15, 2007 12:26 PM

simone definitely seemed like she had something authentic going on..beautiful colors, kind of a messy chic personal style. elisa should have gone. what mascaraded as creativity was really just a mess. she's been probably been doing too much yoga. i'm a yoga teacher. i know. you really can do too much yoga. too much of anything causes you to lose your grip on real life.

Posted by: snow at November 15, 2007 12:38 PM

I really liked Chris and Christian last night. What a great show!

Posted by: Laura K at November 15, 2007 01:35 PM

I thought that Kit's dress was fantastic! Wish they had shown more of her. The rest were such drama queens.

Posted by: Karen at November 15, 2007 07:25 PM

Does Rami get any compensation for inspiring the dress featured on "Shop the Runway"? Also, the featured dress looks almost nothing like the original. Will feature imitations be truer to the original design?

Posted by: Emmdy at November 16, 2007 07:11 PM

Hmm...my comment didn't post. Test test.

Posted by: Emmdy at November 16, 2007 07:12 PM

Rami definately deserved to win. My personal favorite though was the purple dress, as I prefer color in my wardrobe.

As for the turquoise dress, I think both the bottom designers should have been aufed. So that would have included the 'make shift' shrug dress, and the 'pooing' fabric dress.

However the judges chose only one designer to go.

So yes that designer deserved to go.

Hopefully the turquoise dress designer will learn from her mistakes.

If not, then she'll be 'aufed' next week.

If anything in the past seasons, the judges have been pretty consistent about aufing those who do not learn from their mistakes.

Posted by: debrarae at November 19, 2007 10:05 AM

Did anyone else think Jack's dress, the white halter with black embellishment and blue sash/bow, looked very similar to Season 3 Robert's innovation dress? Remember -- he used the duvet cover for the skirt, chandelier for a "necklace" and tied it all up with a red sash and bow. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I also liked Rami's dress because it did show what his design aesthetic is. The others just seemed to be sending design projects down the runway.

Posted by: Karen at November 21, 2007 08:01 AM

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