As opening credits rolled, the mentors zipped into self-editing mode to step up their game by addressing critiques from the first round of judging.Mentor Nick Verreos admitted: "My mentoring approach is still growing." Anya Ayoung-Chee commented, "Having two designers in the top is very validating. I'll keep doing what I'm doing." And Mondo Guerra committed to "continue with mother love, but I am going to practise tough love."
In episode four of Project Runway: Under The Gunn, the aspiring designers were allotted ten minutes to tumble and fumble across the dark, foggy lawn at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, which was staged to mimic an eerie graveyard. The creepy ambience was inspiration for this unconventional vampire challenge, which requires designers to cleverly employ unusual items into a tasteful garment.
"When you are a mentor, you have to let them discover what they want to do," Mr Gunn told the camera. Then he celebrated Anya on her ability to "acknowledge the affection she feels for her designers, yet detach when she's giving feedback, it's a very good quality." Perhaps anxiety took control and stifled that message, and caused mentors to overshoot boundaries and misguide mentees.
Anya vowed to let mentees "discover who they are as a designer. They each have distinct points of view, I want to make sure that continues to shine." Instead, she spooked Brady Lange by steering him to double the age of his muse, and she neglected to urge Nicholas Komor to add flavour to his lean chain dress.
On the runway, Michelle Uberreste's clever mesh neck detail on a crimson red dress that seemed to slither before the camera, took the win for Team Mondo. Asha Daniels, also a Mondo mentee, clutched runner-up for her voodoo priestess look anchored by a dry straw skirt in a cranberry hue. And Brady was dismissed to pack his sewing kit.
"It's hard to sit here and hear them being bashed by the judges," lamented Anya, who put her foot in it this week. Previously, she cautioned that mentees must "make sure they retain their voice in the midst of what is being thrown at them." Poor Brady misplaced that memo and tried to match his mentor's careless cues. "I am kicking myself for guiding Brady away from doing junior," cried Anya, who is now one man down. But still a player with a strong will to win.
She was against a rock to pluck a designer from the bottom who could best avoid another fail. She chose Nicholas and sent Brady to pack his sewing kit. I predicted Brady would fall prey to workroom chatter. We'll be tuning in to be humoured by Isabelle's psychoneurosis, and to see who else will risk trading their voice for a victory.
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