Project blogway, part tres

Since we last visited, Qhristyl departed, after having pronounced black a "warm color" and saying she never designed in it...even though she was wearing black when she said so. Design, meet aesthetic. And Johnny Methtallica was discharged last week after having accomplished what neither Santino, Jeffrey, cheater Keith nor abhorrent Vincent was ever able to do: Visibly piss off Tim Gunn. Don't fib on the runway, lad, especially when said fib also implicates the guy who went out of his way in episode one to comfort and convince you that you were worthy of being there. The look of combined satisfaction and disgust on Tim's face when he told AddictBoy to go clean out his space reminded me of nothing so much as someone having just been awarded a huge alimony and child custody settlement over a boozing, whoring spouse.

Which brings us to this week, and a shocking and sad farewell to Minneapolis' own Ra'mon and his curious apostrophe. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who had him at least in the final five and very likely in the final three -- and he seemed like a pleasant person and decent competitor as well. But...he really did blow the challenge. Badly. And he knew it.

Having said that, though, I would have still voted Louise out first, given the parameters of the challenge. As awful as it might have looked -- and I have to believe that it looked even worse on the runway than it did on TV -- Ra'mon's dress was still recognizable as something from science fiction. The reptile idea was a good one (he obviously remembered the Borg queen from Star Trek: First Contact); he just couldn't pull it off. Louise's dress, though, was both bad and had absolutely nothing to do with film noir. In fact, it had nothing to do with anything anyone might wear in any genre at any time. All three of the noir designers, in fact, did poorly with something they should have excelled at...because they took the road most traveled: It's gotta be dark, you know, noir.

No. What makes the femme fatale the femme fatale is that the male either doesn't recognize or chooses to ignore the danger there. And to put it in fashion terms, what makes the femme fatale the femme fatale isn't her wearing black -- it's her wearing white. Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, Rita Hayworth in Lady from Shanghai, Jane Greer in Out of the Past: Our/the male's first view of her is in fresh, pristine white...with some accessory -- an anklet, a cigarette lighter -- that suggests something more edgy and far less virginal. Leave the black for the action-adventure folks, both of whom did very right by it, instead of coming up with a take on Natasha Fatale, not the femme fatale...or of coming up with something that looked like a bad costume for a Billy Idol video.

As for Nicholas winning: He's a smug little twirp who won't be there in the final five, but he did do a great job with the concept and execution. I have to believe picking a winner among those three was among the most difficult choices the panel has made in a while -- all three were impressive. (And it was nice to see Epperson's model Matar get her props as well.)

Next week: Michael Kors is back, oranger than ever! (Although Tommy Hilfiger last week had a remarkably tangerine complexion as well.)