‘Project Runway’: kids in a candy store

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After weeks of holiday-enforced darkness, ‘Project Runway’ returned with an inexplicable concept: raid the Hershey’s store for materials. Did Heidi owe Hershey’s a favor? Perhaps it caught her binging on its products and blackmailed her into featuring it on the show? What else can account for allowing that marketing oompa-loompa to make so many dreadful puns involving the word ‘sweet’? I suppose it’s a step up from the grocery store but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the designers as they rifled through mega-bags of Twizzlers, Kisses pillows and other plump symbols of an over-sugared society.

Much to their credit, several of the designers came up with spunky, joyous creations. Rami, the challenge winner, made a shiny, busy halter dress that would’ve been perfect for Barbie in Tokyo. Jillian, who actually spoke with some degree of personality this episode (has anyone else noticed her sometimes-disturbing lack of expression? ‘I. will. win. I. will. keep. winning.’ Stare. Blink. Cut.), made a sexy, almost cowgirl-like corset and swinging skirt with licorice. Even Chris, the guffawing ghost of ‘Project Runway,’ made a dress that showed restraint and a sense of fun.

As for the big loser, Elisa, I was shocked that she, of all people, didn’t rise to the conceptual challenge. She claimed to have been going for some sort of macabre Gretel look but guest judge Zac Posen’s critique of her work was dead-on. Elisa sold her dress with arty jabber and her usual enigmatic smile but if she were to walk into a store and choose an avant-garde frock, it wouldn’t have been her own lackluster work in dusty brown, punctuated by inelegant silver globs.

With her exit, ‘Project Runway’ lost one of its best characters. Never mind her talents as a designer, I’m talking pure entertainment value. Every time the camera turns on her, I’m excited to see what art-school mysticism she will peddle next, typically to the bemused horror of her fellow designers. I’ll miss her.

Now, if they cut Sweet P, who’s been on the chopping block lots lately, I’ll be really bummed. Of all the contestants, she seems the most down-to-earth, with her rockabilly combo of sleeve tats and sundresses. Which makes me wonder:

Oh, and any crushes I should know about?

-- Margaret Wappler

(Photos courtesy Bravo)