The 11 designers of this season of Project Runway Canada at the Casa Loma garden.Crave
This week’s episode opens at Casa Loma, Toronto’s beloved castle-on-a-hill and the city’s go-to stand-in for anything that needs to look vaguely grand. Here, it functions mostly as a picturesque backdrop for the judges as they inform the designers of their next task. Everyone is in a cheery mood except for Charles Lu, who was positioned as one to watch in last week’s premiere but failed to make the top three in the elimination challenge. He’s shaken yet determined.
Host Coco Rocha introduces this week’s assignment: inspired by L’Oréal Paris (the show’s title sponsor) and its annual Le Défilé show during Paris Fashion Week, each contestant must design a glamorous eveningwear look for an influencer under the guise of celebrating all kinds of beauty. It’s presumed that these influencers represent inclusivity, but we’re oddly missing anyone visibly over the age of 35.
Charles Lu discussing his design with mentor Aurora.Crave
It’s the first time this season that the designers are creating clothes for real clients, which sparks understandable nerves. What if the influencers, assigned to the designers at the start of the challenge, aren’t picking up what the contestants are putting down? They’ve got two days in the workroom to make it all happen. But first, it’s off to the fabric store, where they must select materials in L’Oréal’s brand colours – black, white, gold and red – and stay under their $600 budget.
All of this prep happens before the designers even meet their clients IRL. Naimo Awale, who landed in last week’s bottom three, opts for linen because the material features heavily in the Instagram feed of her client, Nidal Kabashi. Doesn’t Awale know that creases on the runway are the kiss of death? Meanwhile, Delayne Dixon is on the hunt for houndstooth – a pattern she associates with the powerful, unapologetic woman she typically designs for – and black sequins, which typically don’t mix.
Delayne Dixon's runway design.Crave
When the influencers finally arrive for their fittings on day two, feedback is inevitable. Toronto’s Little Feather Migwans has crafted a one-shouldered gold top for creator Jaclyn Forbes, who promptly asks for something symmetrical instead, sending the designer into a spiral. Awale’s too-simple linen dress is all Kabashi wants to wear, proclaiming that the accompanying cape looks like something her mother would wear (she’s not wrong). Meanwhile, Montreal’s Catherine Préfontaine, who made the unfortunate call to guess the skin tone of her client, Stephanie Moka, discovers that her feathery nude bodice is reading as dark brown. She’s forced to scrap the look and start over in the eleventh hour.
It’s on to the runway, where Greta Constantine designer Kirk Pickersgill serves as a perfectly on-theme guest judge (he’s dressed everyone from Julia Roberts to Jennifer Lopez for the red carpet). High praise goes to Toronto streetwear designer Rome Ramsay for his ruffled and corseted look, and to Lu, who wows the panel with his blend of theatricality and precision. He somehow tailored an eyelet lace corset with belled sleeves onto a molded black evening gown and made it feel wholly original. Dixon’s houndstooth look – with matching piping and cascading sequinned sleeves – is a showstopper, and she’s deservedly crowned this week’s winner. Lu is crestfallen not to have won, and it shows all over his face.
The flops, as foreshadowed, are Awale, Migwans and Préfontaine, who miraculously all stay in the competition. Reality shows are known to occasionally save their lowest scorers from elimination, but it’s unclear why Project Runway Canada would do that this early on in the game. Here’s hoping we’ll find out why they’ve kept Awale in the competition for this long and that she wows us next week.