Why She Lost (and how she could have won)

There are tons of blog where you can get your Project Runway fix. The internet is littered with them and the carcasses of the ones that died in season 1. It’s a bit of an obsession at this point for some. I dread watching it and outside of my first review, I doubt I would ever make it a part of my normal viewing habits. I’m ashamed to say I have viewing habits at all. Never the less, I am here playing Monday morning quarterback on a show that is as vapid and empty as a room filled with aspiring models.

Why did Carmen Lose

Carmen lost not because she was particularly awful. Most of what was designed this show was extremely forgettable. Even the winner’s design was badly bland. Wide stripes with skinny stripes? The show was about diminishing returns and the judges ended up picking the best of the worst.

Carmen lost because she designed nothing. What’s worse than designing nothing though is that nothing got really bad really fast. Did she really expect legendary running back Tiki Barber to come out in what was “supposed” to be a shirt? The zipper on the pant was ridiculously high, the jacket/sportscoat/thing made absolutely no sense except to cover the shirt that was never there. It was amateur hour at it’s finest. I took some sewing classes and I was very bad at it, on my best day I could have put together what Carmen created for this show. That’s saying a lot considering I once stitched together a shirt asymmetrical sleeves that ended up being 8 inches in difference. That’s also considering that Carmen has got be a thousand times better than I ever was.

How Carmen could have Won

Let’s say we could press the rewind button and start from scratch. With a $150 budget, Carmen could have purchased enough fabric to put a pair of dark pants, a dark t-shirt and the simplest sports coat money could buy. This is Monday morning quarterback and my job is very easy because I don’t have the pressure of being on a TV show, wanting to not lose, being given 12 or so hours to create something from scratch and facing Michael Kors at the end of the show. Even without the sports coat a long sleeve dark t-shirt would have helped the cause. Were you Carmen, what would you have done differently?