Minnesota loses one on "Project Runway"

[Ra'mon in an Anthem Heart tee; image courtesy Lifetime]

Tonight, one of our own went home on “Project Runway.” Judging from last week’s previews, we could tell Ra’mon-Lawrence Coleman would be in trouble for his bright green, lizard-like piece. The designers were given a theme based on a genre of movie, and Ra’mon’s was sci-fi. After calling his first look, a bright green jumpsuit, “Kermit the Frog gone wrong,” he wisely changed it to a dress, but that didn’t seem to help. Tim called it “sublime, or a big hot mess,” and his eventual design was deemed by Heidi Klum “a hot green mess” with another judge calling it “swamp thing.” Our worst fears came true, and Ra’mon was auf’d.

On the upside, our other homeboy Christopher Straub came out on top. He was back with another showstopper, a charmingly inspired “vampire bride” look had the judges gushing, making us think he was going to take home the win – but was upset by Nicolas. Strangely, Tim thought Nicolas’ winning sci-fi dress was “too safe” in the workroom. What’s up with this judging? At least according to previews, Michael Kors will be back in the judging chair next week. Did they not want to give Christopher two wins? Because his look was the obvious winner – it had a strong concept, had a modern twist, looked expensive, and was a wearable look. Don’t they realize that Ra’mon is an overall stronger designer than Louise? It was between his and Louise’s “snoozefest” of a dress – and though Louise has consistently made predictably dull, period looks nearly each episode and Ra’mon has shown unique construction and concept, his “mess” was eliminated over Louise’s boring look.

In Episode 5 news, Project Rungay just put up a review of Ra’mon’s entry for last week’s newspaper challenge. They say it’s an understated design, and more impressive upon subsequent viewing. They particularly liked how he made the newspaper look like “two fairly sophisticated prints.” They also had good things to say about Christopher’s design, saying it “moved beautifully” and “he wanted a showstopper and he succeeded.” Go-to PR blog Blogging Project Runway had a reader vote, and what do you know? Christopher’s design came out on top.