Crafty Manolo

PRAS returned this week after ducking out on Thanksgiving night… which was probably a good idea. Some of what I saw last night would not have sat well after a full meal of turkey and salad and mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie.

Anyway. Last time on Project Runway All Stars: Designers are inspired by photos sent in by fans. Laura does her best low-rent Marie Antoinette impression while Joshua feels her pain. Anthony Ryan wins with a dress where I can see the inspiration, but am not wild about the results and Andrae is finally given a mercy killing for his painfully bad zip up panel skirt and matching tube top.

What happened this time? Read on to find out!

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Okay, I don’t know what’s been up with WordPress the last few days. First it wouldn’t let me log into the blogs for days, and then when I finally manage to get back… I discover it didn’t publish this article when I hit the publish button.

So at long last, here’s friday’s article, with my apologies.

Last week on Project Runway All Stars: Designers learn ‘aerosol art’ techniques which they must use on fabric to create a piece of wearable art. Laura honks off everyone in the room with her judgmental attitude and general humorlessness. Andrae, for once, isn’t in the bottom three, much to his relief. Emilio wins with a rather fabulous suit with a huge collar, while Suede is sent packing for covering his dress in spray-painted polka dots. Who will win this week? Tune in to find out!

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Regular readers of this space may remember this look by Austin Scarlett shown in his finale collection for Project Runway All Stars season one:

I went on record at the time as believing this fabulous wedding gown would sell very well if it went into production.

Well, it seems that Austin agreed with me, because I was scanning an article at Brides.com about the best looks in Scarlett’s 2013 bridal collection, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but this:

That’s right! It’s a slight re-working of the same gown, and Brides agrees with me that it’s a winner.

Can I call ’em or what?

Last week on Project Runway: Designers who were born mostly in the eighties and nineties are asked to make seventies discowear – only tasteful and modern – to go with Nine West’s terrifying new disco shoe line. Wendy Pepper believes she has an edge because she’s old enough to remember disco the first time around… but gets auffed for making a punk hooker Halloween costume. Uli makes something that bears no resemblance to disco, either, but wins in a truly baffling turn of events. Kayne creates the only thing on the runway that looks like it might have poked its head through the doors of Studio 54 and nearly gets auffed for coming up with something entirely too modern. I’m still trying to figure out last week’s judging and here we are again.

What will happen this week?

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There’s nothing better for perking up a sick Twistie than a good dose of fashion hijinks.

Of course if you want to know more, you’ll have to follow the cut.

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Well.

Another season, another season of Project Runway All Stars.

As per usual, I’ll put in a cut so as not to spoil those who haven’t had a chance to see or take up the entire page for people who don’t care. As if.

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Yes, it’s a new season of Project Runway All Stars starting tonight, so set your DVRs to stunning!

My personal faves I want to see make it to the end? Well, I’ve always said Uli was robbed back in season three, Andrae made what I still consider to be one of the top three designs ever in PR history when he made that fabulous gutter water evening gown, and I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Anthony the colorblind testicular cancer survivor from New Orleans. What? I appreciate someone who comes so much from behind and who has kind of an amazing color sense for not being able to see it the way most of us do. And while I don’t necessarily expect him to go very far in the competition, I do have to admit I’m going to enjoy having Casanova back on my screen. I find him kind of weirdly charming.

Here’s hoping for a quick and relatively painless reality demise for Wendy Pepper whose primary career since season one has mostly consisted of embarrassing herself and anyone who knows her on national television, Poison Ivy whose personality has all the charm of rampant kudzu and whose design aesthetic is a perfect cure for both sleepless nights and restless leg syndrome, and Laura who I mostly remember as being the one who kept nattering on about how everyone would underestimate her for being so, so pretty… while competing against an actual Miss Universe contestant. In fact, I had to go back to my recaps of season nine to recall who the heck she even was. That’s how much impression her designs and personality made on me.

Oh, and Suede will only stay off that second list if he has finally learned either to refer to himself in the first person, or has at least figured out how to use the third person consistently. And if he never, ever tries again to dress female javelin throwers, weight lifters,  and water polo players in cheerleader uniforms.

In other PRAS news, season one host Angela Lindvall is being replaced by Carolyn Murphy.

I hope I find her more scintillating than her predecessor.

Either way, tune in tomorrow for the skinny on all the tears and recriminations.

Tim Gunn!

Actually, no, it isn’t, but a girl can dream. In a perfect world, Tim would win pretty much everything, so there. And what he doesn’t win, Eddie Izzard can.

Anyway.

Read on to see what I thought about every little thing that happened last night.

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Last week on Project Runway: Designers create avant-garde outfits based on make up collections. Nearly everyone does something that’s half good, half bad except for Sonjia who chooses this moment to attack her model with Irish wedding table linens and is sent home. Four are designing for Fashion Week. What will happen this week?

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It sounds like a concept for one of Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries. It sounds like a throwaway line on an episode of Paula Deen’s cooking show. It even sounds like something Martha Stewart might suggest to make life so much better.

What it doesn’t sound like is something that people do competitively or for a living… but it’s real.

What it is? Butter sculpture.

That’s right. Sculpting with butter. See that manatee and diver above? They are painstakingly carved out of butter and displayed in a refrigerated case. Well, they were back in january at the Manatee County Fair in Palmetto, FL. That gorgeous sculpture is the work of food artist Jim Victor, and he’s done some truly amazing work. Seriously, he sculpted Paula Deen’s grandson in butter, Milton Hershey in chocolate, and the Mona Lisa is all Italian food products. When you get done marveling at those, be sure to see what he does in wood and mixed media, too.

But the butter. For another idea of how amazing this medium can be to sculpt in, take a look at Sri Lankan  artist Vipula Ahtukorale’s magnificent Pied Piper in pastry margarine:

And, with the new movie Butter opening in limited markets last weekend, we add to this notable list… Jennifer Garner.

The film follows Garner as the reigning queen of butter sculpture at the county fair while she is challenged by upstart newcomer Yara Shahidi. So far the reaction from audiences has been lackluster. All the same, I may just go see it when it comes to my neck of the woods. I have some burning questions about butter sculpture and I’d like to see it in action.

Still, I would have loved to see Christopher Guest and his crazed band of co-conspirators get ahold of this concept. Imagine what Fred Willard might have sculpted!

Actually, that just might not bear imagining.