Top Design - "Window Display" (Episode 203)

Big Daddy loves his "mirrahs"!

It's getting a bit more quiet in the house, and Nathan is glad to be put one step closer to being a "starlet of design." Nathan's new solumate Wisit says he was a graduate of Parsons, but was never happy in the fashion industry. Eddie jokes that the next challenge would involve "two dollars and a box of macaroni and cheese." He's hoping for an individual challenge this week so he can show off his skills. The remaining designers gather in what looks like a strip mall parking lot (are they in Florida? We're overrun with those things!) India is there to tell them that they are at what will be an "exclusive boutique in LA." This weeks challenge pairs them in order to create window displays. As always, the teams are assigned randomly via drwaing. The designers' clients are former "Project Runway" designers. Sweet P (yay!) from sesson four, Daniel Franco from seasons one and two, Andrae Gonzalo from season two, Jeffrey Seballa from season  three and the evil Santino Rice from season two. Each one of them has designed a garment which will serve as the inspiration for the window. Eddie (paired with Teresa) is delighted to be working with Santino because he's all "bitchy, attitude, talks back...I mean, a little bit of me. Kerry and Wisit are working with Jeffrey (and his disturbing 70s-era porn star moustache), Ondine and Natalie are working with Sweet P (God help her), Shazia and Nathan are with Andrea and Daniel is with Preston and Andrea (who, in case you didn't know, is married to Ricky Schroder.) The newly-formed teams have 30 minutes to meet with the clients and pitch their vision. The designers will then pick their favorite to be the team leader.  

Santino calls his black outfit (with hooded jacket) "sick" and says he wants people to be "shocked by the innate beauty of the installation." Eddie was hoping he didn't come off as too "preppy" to Santino and said his outfit looked like a "masquerade," which was totally what Santino had in mind. Tereas knows that Santino and Eddie have hit it off and she takes a back seat and lets Eddie babble away/kiss ass/repeat everything Santino says. Sweet P's dress (which I would gladly wear) is a multi-colored, strapless maxi dress, which P describes as the evolution from cocoon to butterfly. Ondine worked on "Sex and the City" and boasts that she's done "many, many window dsiplays." Natalie can just go ahead and sit this challenge out. Of course, Natalie doesn't know when she's beaten and throws a bunch of crazy Natalie-esque ideas at Sweet P (at least she's not proposing a tribute to the bombing of the Chinese at Hiroshima.) P is loving the girl power and thinks her team will emerge victorious. Daniel's dress is all chartreuse fabric - and lots of it. Andrea says that she would buy that dress in 30 seconds (which is the amount of time it would take to ask her husband - Ricky Schroder - for the money to buy it.) Daniel has even written a poem to go with his design, which just sounds like a list of what he wanted in his window (floating, black branches, gold sand.) Andrea was so glad he made it easy for them to do their best work. Nathan and Shazia are with Andrea and his boring grey dress. Andrae mutters something about his dress having somethig to do with the election and says he sees a "murky, bizarre, uncertain time." Nathan's "unnerved" by the dress - he's not seeing "uncertainty", he's seeing "Debbie Downer." Andrae continues to throw out adjectives ("dramatic and dynamic") and Shazia seems to think she knows what he wants. Nathan's not seeing all of this activity in a "plain, pretty dress" but wants to honor Andrea's vision. Jeffrey (with Wisit and Kerry) based his theme on "Blade Runner," but Kerry thought it was "Blades of Glory." I love me some Kerry. He had no clue what he was talking about. Wisit thought post-apocalyptic LA could be conveyed with a rococco room with grafittied walls. Jeffrey wasn't sharing that vision. Kerry made up for the Will Ferrell reference by throwing out the name of artist David Hockney and suggested using layered mirrors and tile Jeffrey says he has all the confidence in the world in "Big Daddy." The other PR designers pick their team leaders. Andrae chooses Nathan (they look similar, actually) Daniel picks Preston, but tells him to listen to Andrea. Sweet P goes with the older person on the team (how diplomatic of you, P!) Santino obviously goes with Eddie.

The teams have 30 minutes to plan their overall design and have $400 to spend on fabrics and wall coverings. Team Preston is still using Daniel's poem as inspiration. Bossy Eddie is talking to Teresa about Santino's vision, whichh he interpreted as "Venetian mansion on the river...the archways, the tattered curtains...." Teresa wisely just said "yes" to all of Eddie's suggestions. Nathan is having a hard time hiding the fact that he doesn't "get" Andrae's vision. Big Daddy Kerry was nervous because he now has to see the "kaleidoscopic" concept through he proposed to porn 'stache Jeffrey through. Wisit has his needle stuck on rococco. Kerry says his partner (in the competition!) can't get past his "Bloomingdale's foo-foo" ideas. Wisit insists there's nothing special about having a mirrored wall. The next stop are hardware and craft stores, where each team has $500 to spend. Preston made a beeline for the trees, because of Daniel's vision of his design to be "floating through the trees." Ondine got 12 boxes of butterfies at the craft store, a pretty obvious interpretation of Sweet P's dress. Wisit was dipatched to mirrors and spray paint but none of it was available at the store (suuure it wasn't), so he decided to get "pretty things" to accessorize their window with. Kerry bought "every frikkin' mirrah" (that's "mirror" for those of you not from the South) at the hardware store. Bossy Eddie was breaking all sorts of stuff as he gathered the supplies for his window. Everyone then headed for the Top Design showroom, where they were greeted with all sorts of furniture and home accessories. They get 15 minutes and $600 to spend in there. It's a madhouse as all of the designers grab merchandise. Nathan, for some reason, grabbed a bunch of wicker pieces for his window, but Shazia didn't this Andrae was a "wicker guy." Nathan said he didn't want to "play it safe" and wanted to add some multi-cultural pieces. The teams then head back to the faux strip mall where they have three hours to work in their windows. Eddie thinks it's imperative to "communicate and plan," which, from what I could surmise, meant Eddie barking orders to poor Teresa. Preston spent his time painting the trees while Andrea painted the walls. They wanted to take care of the "big ticket items" immediately. Shazia asked nathan if their wall was "straight" and he replied that there was "nothing straight on this show." Ha! Now it's Nathan's turn to discover that Shazia's not a hard worker. He knew that he would have to take control. Kerry doubted himself about his Hockney-esque vision and let Wisit talk him into hanging full sheets of metallic wallpaper instead of the 1" x 1"  squares he proposed. He thinks he's straying from the designer's vision. Ondine and Natalie know they had to get all of their painting done that night.

In the midst of this designing chaos, Todd showed up. He asked Nathan if he had looked at Andrae's "sad" dress against the grey background and Nathan said he had not. Nathan said he was going to shatter a mirror for some cool effects and Todd suggested they glue the glass to a piece of paper before shattering it. Shazia said Todd was the greatest "feedback person" she's ever known. Todd also gives Kerry some hints on how to hang his "mirrahs." Kerry left Wisit to hold up his mirrah while he cut some wood (that's what he said...sorry) and it was proving a diffcult task for teeny Wisit (he actually called out "yoo hoo" looking for help.) The mirror ended up sliding down the wall a few inches. Kerry's about to "drop kick him to Jesus." The designers are spray painting and breaking mirrors like crazy. Teresa says she has no problem being an assistant to Eddie (because I'm sure if their design sucks, she's going to make sure he takes the fall.) Preston and Andrea were spreading pebbles on the floor of their window, and Preston sure sounded like a natural as he told Andrea to "spread it." Tomorrow they needed to tacle the difficult task of "floating" the heavy mannequin.   

On elimination day, the teams get an additional four hours to work. Kerry is still faced with hanging his "mirrahs" to get the kaliedoscope effect he was hoping to achieve. Preston is still trying to figure out how to hang the mannequin. He keeps telling Andrea to "put the bar in her butt." Not Andrea's, the mannequin's. Nathan is optimistic that the window reflects not only what Andrae wants, but also his own personal vision. Andrae pays the team a surprise visit and says he had bad childhood memories of wicker. Uh-oh. Boyfriend has a flat-out "aversion" to it. Nathan was not happy at all. Sweet P is nervous that the gals aren't going to get her window done in time. But the girl worries in style. I love Sweet P. Jeffrey hates his window, saying there was too much wallpaper. Kerry was mad at himself for listening to Wisit. Daniel was excited about Team Preston's window (probably because he dictated exactly what he wanted with his poem.) Santino wasn't happy about the wall color in Bossy Eddie's window. Eddie says Teresa is just taking her time and not being much of a help. Poor Kerry was overwhelmed and was unsure of what to do. Wisit suggested they paint the outside windows black to make it look like a smaller space. Bossy Eddie aged his overly bright violet wall color with ebony stain. Nathan is just "freaked out." Natalie was painting Swtt P's name on their window when time ran out (which is good, as she probably would have had enough time to spell her name wrong - Sweet Pea, Sweet Pee, the possibilities were endless.) Teresa said everyone was worried about the judging after last week's double elimination.

The judges arrive to check out the designers' work. Jonathan's husband is a window designer, so Shazia knew he would be super-critical. First up is Nathan and Shazia's "Political Turmoil" display for Andrae. It's a grey background with shattered mirror shaoes in the background and on the ground. Jonathan asked about the concept and Nathan babbled on so much that Kelly said the window "needed Cliff Notes" and didn't get the ethnic accents. Shazia said it had to do with "Pakistan and the Eastern countries" and how Andrae's dress "confused the east and the west together". Someone's been talking to Natalie....Andrae said it wasn't what he imagined. Next up is Ondine and Natalie's "Butterfly Emerging" window for Sweet P. There were lots of mirrors, gauze and butterflies. I thought it was cute. Ondine was slightly uncomfortable. Sweet P "absolutely loved" the window. Kerry looked absolutely defeated as he said hello to the judges. Their "Blade Runner" concept included the blacked out windows, which Wisit said would make the viewer want to come in for a closer look. Kerry thought the blacked-out windows lent to his kaliedoscope concept. Side note: what the hell is Kelly doing with the disco beret/ bed head look? Jeffrey said it definitely wasn't his vision. Big Daddy isn't ready to fly back to Atlanta yet. I hope he doesn't either. Bossy Eddie and Teresa's "Venice at Night" window for Santino is next. Teresa said it was "dark and edgy" with strips of ribbon and broken glass (these designers sure like their broken glass, don't they?) Disco victim Kelly wanted to get a closer look. Santino says that overall, he's happy. Last up is Preston and Andrea's "Paris By Night", which is exactly wnat Daniel asked for - floating, trees and rivers. Kelly loves the dress and Jinathan loved the background color. They did a good job - it was probably the most effective display. Big Daddy knows he's going to be in the bottom.

Jonathan said two teams stood "head and shoulders" above the rest - Preston and Andrea and Ondine and Natalie. The winning team this week is Ondine and Natalie, who was "super ecstatic." Bossy Eddie's was criticized for being "sloppy" and didn't properly show off Santino's outfit but he and Teresa are safe this week. It's down to Team Kerry and Team Nathan (in a fabulous silver lame roller disco jacket). Jonathan was surprised that Wisit, with his background in fashion design, was in the bottom two. Wisit thought it was "high end." All Kelly saw were "mirrors and breasts." Kerry said he thought Wisit was talented but felt he and porn 'stache Jeffrey connected over their vision and he strayed from it because he listened to Mr. Rococco. Wisit said Jeffrey was just too demanding. Jonathan said Nathan and Shazia's window was "a mess" and that "their narrative made no sense." Margaret noted that they did satisfy their client, but the window wasn't attractive. Nathan admitted that he never liked Andrae's dress in the first place. Shazia thinks they didn't "get there" with their concept. India asks Shazia who should go home for her window and she said if the window sucked, she'd go home. Nathan said he wanted to move on, even if it meant throwing his teammate under the bus. Kerry admitted that he's responsible for the failure of the window and Wisit hems and haws before saying that Kerry did his best and doesn't necessarily have to be the one sent home.

During deliberation, Margaret compared Nathan's window to a "high school art project." Jonathan says that Shazia has been working under the radar and all of the judges agree that she has "been behind someone" since the beginning of the competition. Margaret said Wisit and Kerry were capable of so much more than they displayed this week and Jonathan said they had the "wrong client." The judges don't know who's to blame for their failure. Ultimately, the team on the chopping block is my beloved Wisit and Kerry and Big Daddy is winging his way back to Hotlanta. Awww! We'll miss you Ker-Bear! Next week, the designers work with bachelors!