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Watch Project Runway New Zealand on TVNZ 2 every Monday at 7:30 pm from October 1, 2018, or watch it on demand.
Switching up the energy, designers face their first quick-fire challenge in a bid to win over host and supermodel Georgia Fowler. But which designers will smash it and which ones will fall flat?
…And then there were eight.
To kick things off, designers head to the boxing alley where Georgia Fowler is refining her strikes and uppercuts in the ring with mentor Andreas Mikellis.
The brief
As an aside, Georgia reveals that waking up to put on her activewear is the only way she’ll make it to the gym that day. No activewear, no exercise. (OMG, she’s just like us!)
Read next: Kiwi supermodel Georgia Fowler reveals all of her favourite things
During the challenge
It’s a new dawn, a new challenge and Judy is desperate to put last week’s eyesore behind her. Caitlin is thinking about how she can make her feminine aesthetic more badass for G.Fowl through her fabric choice. While Benjamin – who admits he’s never done athleisure in his life – is thanking his stars he has immunity this week after taking out the wallpaper challenge. The camaraderie struck between Benjamin and Caitlin is a hot topic for discussion this week with the gloves coming off for Jess and Peni.
“I think Caitlin’s work is mimicking Benjamin’s work because they spend so much time together,” says Jess. “I want to get to the end of the competition with my own designs.”
“I don’t see Caitlin in the top three. Ben knows what he’s doing. Caitlin doesn’t,” adds Peni. — Come on guys, just roll with the punches. No need to throw in the towel.
Runway Day
With just one day to complete the quick-fire challenge, the episode wastes no time in scanning through the construction stage before it’s time for the designers to put in their beauty requests with the experts backstage. But before that, the topic of models is raised, and that got me thinking…
Can we talk about the models for a second?
Don’t get me wrong, I think women of all shapes and sizes are beautiful and diversity is great, but this is a competition and the models in all of their ‘diverseness’ don’t make for an even playing field. Garments sit differently on different forms. Not to mention, if a model doesn’t like the designer’s work, they’re hardly going to waltz it down the runway with persuasion. There’s so much room for favouritism with the top winners getting the first pick of the models and so it becomes this increasingly polarising game where the winners and their really really great models are getting better and better, and the bottom are getting further and further behind with their not so great models. It’s like a card game of Presidents and A**holes. And we all know how that ends. Look, I don’t know. Maybe I’m reading into this too heavily, but I’m certain I’m not the only one who thinks this way.
Judging
Judging this week’s athleisure challenge is Fashion Quarterly magazine editor Sally-Ann Mullin (far right), WORLD director and designer Benny Castles (left), supermodel and host Georgia Fowler (centre right) and guest judge, lifestyle expert Julia Matthews (centre left).
Scroll for the final runway looks below from week seven:
