Bravo
(Season 5, Episode 14 – Season Finale)
It’s been a crazy ride, folks, but we’re finally at the end. This season has been unusually torturous, leaving me to wonder if Project Runway is worth pursuing anymore. There was a time when I would staunchly defend the show and force naysayers to change their mind after multiple Clockwork Orange-style viewings, but maybe this painful season marks the end of an era. Or maybe this is the start of a massive improvement. Perhaps that whole Lifetime mess has made Bravo realize it should treat Runway better and pay more attention when she gets a haircut or spends extra time on her make-up. I’m just sayin’, Bravo, show your love a little bit a love.
My favorite part of the episode was when Heidi revealed that special guest judge Jennifer Lopez was being replaced by Tim Gunn. Ha, Kenley! HA! How Plus, Tim Gunn is super-wonderful and it was fantastic to see him take on that position at last. Now that I think about it, Tim is the only person on Runway that hasn’t given me any reason to totally hate him. That means extra hearts for Tim.
Kenley: [THIRD PLACE] I really don’t like Kenley as a person. There. I said it. As if my dislike isn’t palpable through the screen. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I tried to look at her collection objectively and I still didn’t like it. I mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again: I loved that she took on the challenge of painting her own fabric, but it looked extra-horrible. Her bridesmaids dress was cute. And that was it. I had my fingers crossed that she wouldn’t win, mainly because choosing a person with such a horrible attitude without the design to back it up would be sending a terrible message to all up-and-coming artists. Also, that girl needs to stop crying.
Korto: [SECOND PLACE] Korto’s strengths are truly in construction. Her silhouettes are lovely and her construction is almost just as strong. Although her jewelry was super-interesting, I also found them pretty distracting. In the end, Korto’s collection was light years ahead of Kenley’s but wasn’t close enough to Leanne’s quality to make it tight competition.
Leanne: [WINNER] Before the third model even came out, I knew Leanne was going to win. All her outfits were cohesive and clean and impeccably done. Her models looked like they were born for those garments. Leanne was far from my favorite throughout the season, but she really pulled out all the stops for this collection. Everything pointed to a solid win. Also, I didn’t know what Michael Kors was talking about, saying that he was worried she’d be known only for petals. She’s shown that she can do a variety of things, and even her petal motif in this collection was treated differently enough with each garment that she kept things interesting. She was definitely the best of these three and deserved the win.
Clacked by Annie Wu 
on Oct 16, 2008 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I found it interesting that they seemed to forgive Leanne’s garments that were falling down and not functioning properly to give her the win. Seemed a bit off to me.
As much as I liked her designs, Korto should have won.
I agree with you Akbar, Korto had the more interesting collection. I was rooting for her from the beginning because she is from my home state but she had more interesting silouettes and a varied color palette. Leeanne’s was good, just a tad boring and repetitive.
Did you notice that 2 of her models were America’s Next Top Model alumni? Bianca was 4th runner up in Cycle 9 and Dani was the winner of Cycle 6. (If they mentioned it, please forgive I was in and out of the room.) Both were wearing that vibrant green color that looked fantastic on them.
I’m also glad I won’t have to listen to Kenley’s nasally b*tching anymore. I wonder if she really will wear that Bride of Big Bird wedding dress one day.
I was keeping my own scorecard all season and I had Leanne picked as the top designer from early on. That’s amazing because I never get things like that right! Her collection was beautiful, cohesive and had gorgeous movement. You could see shells, sand, water and waves in every piece.
Korto’s collection was amazing too. I’m glad she added the two pieces because they really filled out the collection well. My only complaint was the two short green dresses – one was REALLY short. Who could actually wear that in real life? It didn’t seem representative of her typical style and proportions. I was glad she made it to Bryant Park and I would have been happy if either she or Leeanne won. I just felt Leanne’s collection had all the elements to justify the win.
Buh-bye Kenley. Karma hit you like a boomerang when Tim was made the fill-in judge. That was positively divine!!!