Project Runway Rundown: What Did Carol Hannah Do To Deserve This?

"This worries me...."

Well, it took an entire season but after going home with the top 3 designers – Meana Irina, Giggles Hannah and Hometown Althea –  I think I’m finally invested in Project Runway. Though that might have nothing to do with what the girls are actually working on and more to do with watching Tim Gunn first in a flowery apron and then trying to work that old elevator in Althea’s building. Seriously, seeing the fear in his eyes as he stepped into that death-trap really made all the time I invested in this season worth it.

I mean, really, who says, “Gads!”?

Those Lifetime people really shoveled a lot of sh*t into last night’s one-hour episode. First Tim goes home to check in on the contestants, then the contestants come to New York, then they get feedback from Tim AND Nina AND Michael AND Heidi, then they do a model casting, then they get assigned a 13^th look and then Carol Hannah gets stuck with Christopher. Oh, and she’s barfy.

Whew. I get tired just thinking about it all. But I’m also super excited by everyone’s collections – yes, even Irina. But that might only be because I think her dog is super cute and I’m like a puddle of goo in the face of a little white fluff ball. Although I do think her whole t-shirt-under-something-chic idea rocks (even if I did do a fist-pump of joy when Tim made her re-do them all). What can I say? The girl’s got just as much talent as ‘tude. And that’s a lot.

Althea’s collection is a little different than I expected of her (did anyone expect her to go home and watch a lot of Sci-fi??), but I still sorta dig it. And I don’t care what Tim thinks about that sequined jacket-y thing; Althea made that a year ago and sequins are all the rage now. Either she can see into the future or homegirl is a fashion genius.

And then there’s Carol Hannah, whose collection -despite the fact that I find the designer herself highly annoying – might be my favorite. When she said she was inspired by Duke University I was expecting to see something more along the lines of beer pong and comfy sweats for class. But she obviously sees a college campus differently than I do because she’s making some really beautiful and elegant gowns.

Honestly, I’m not normally a tutu girl (something about being the fat girl in dance class scarred me for life), but I would kill to wear that giant tutu-gone-runway to something. Anything. New Year’s?

I have no idea how things are gonna go down next week. Everyone seem to have one stiletto in the weeds right now (except for Carol Hannah who is elbow deep in there), so who will be able to pull it out on the runway? (Note: am I the only one who gets gross mental images when using the term “pull it out”? Yes? OK….) I can finally say I’m excited to find out. My money’s on Althea.

What do you think?