This season's "unconventional materials" challenge is sweet

Oh those wacky Project Runway kids. Sending their contestants on expeditions to recycling facilities, the flower mart and now the Hershey's Times Square store to build outfits out of "unconventional materials." You can certainly argue that this doesn't reflect all that well how the designers would fare in the real world with, you know, real fabrics, but when a few of them get it right you do get to see admirable creativity.

Lest you think that the Hersheys Store is filled only with candy and food, fear not, it has lots of tschotkes and crap for tourists to buy. We're talking product placement heaven. They even have an animatronic robot to greet and say "bye-bye" to customers. Oh. Sorry. That was some really scary Hersheys PR person.

In a five-minute frenzy they all run through the store gathering materials. Some of them in a very targeted way, some (yes, you guessed, that would be wackElisa) with seemingly no rhyme or reason. This is a one-day challenge, so while the mood starts out all fun and games and sugar-high in the workroom, it quickly gets serious.

I pegged SweetP to go home early in the episode because they had her give one of those "I really want to be there for the finals" speeches that usually signifies imminent auf'ing. But as each outfit was coming together I admit I was thinking "She could be the one to save Sweet P" or "No, he could be the one to save Sweet P."

Jillian was the only silly designer to work with actual food, Twizzlers, and it was a nail-biter for her, since it turns out you can't really run Twizzlers through the sewing machine.

So, on with the show:

1. Ricky

Ricky had his best runway show ever, as he sent down a really cute outfit consisting of a sliver corset with a wrap top and a bubble skirt made out of the wrappers of the large Hershey bars. He styled it impeccably with matching chocolate brown ribbons on the model's shoes and around her neck. Not only did this look really cute, it looked really well-made and well-fitted. I think if he had been only a tad more abstract in his use of the branded materials, he would have been Top 3.

2. Chris

For the first time ever Chris shows restraint...and goes for the kind of abstract pop-art look that Ricky should have achieved. The hip length top of his dress was a combination of Hersheys and Twizzlers branding, mixed together to look a bit abstract, over a short brown skirt. He also fashioned a cute Hersheys themed bracelet. It was very Warholian, surprisingly cute, and also his best runway outfit ever.

3. Kit

Meh. She used Kit-Kat wrappers for the strapless top. She made a belt that seemed to be festooned with Rolos. She had a Hersheys skirt. Red and Brown isn't really my favorite color combination, so I didn't dig this whole ensemble. I will say the lace-up back was nice, but that was the only part I liked. I'm not really feeling the Kit-love, are you?

4. Elisa

Oh dear. Yes, this was destined to b the dress that saved Sweet P. It was brown. It had weird stuff emerging from the top that didn't seem to make sense. But worst of all, her model was wearing what amounted to silver lame water wings, and no one can explain why...not even Elisa.

5. Kevin

This outfit was well-done, but a little too serious...no whimsy. There was a brown bolero, a silver bustier with Rolo buttons, and a brown skirt with silver trim at the hem. It was attractive and elegant, but it didn't really take advantage of the spirit of the challenge at all. It pretty much looked like a regular outfit. A brown outfit.

6. Christian

I thought this might be the week he finally gets some dissing. He made a halter dress out of the brown wrappers that hold Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. That's it, end of story. It was kind of pretty and looked wearable, but it was about as plain and simple as you could get. And again, very brown.

7. Sweet P

Sweet P had problems throughout the episode, eventually completely starting over. The outfit she ultimately sent down the runway was so dull and plain. There was a light-colored full short skirt and a silver strapless top. And that was it. It wasn't the hideous monstrosity she started out with (including pieces of broken pottery) which is what saved her, but it was a snooze-fest.

8. Rami

Rami was, to me, the absolute clear winner. He fashioned a halter dress with a short impeccably pleated skirt. There was texture, there was charm, there was even a little purse embellished with Good n' Plentys! It looked well put together, and it also had a little edge. There was the hint of pop-art branding everywhere, but he managed to camouflage it, so that you were wondering "What is that made from exactly?" about many aspects of his outfit. Charming in every way.

9. Jillian

OK, let's be real here folks. If Jillian hadn't used real food (i.e. Twizzlers) to make this outfit, thus taking a big risk no one else took, no one would be praising this outfit. The skirt was a cute flapper mini, using Twizzlers as fringe. Totally cute. but that Twizzler corset top with darker Twizzlers used as a border was actually not only a bit shapeless (making the model look like she had no waist whatsoever) but also pretty costume-y. She looked like a dance hall girl in an 1800s Western saloon. It was an impressive achievement, and parts of it were really cute, but the whole didn't do it for me as much as I expected.

10. Victorya

Victorya finally falls flat. This was a big disaster...a pouffy, short drindl skirt and jumper top with alternating white and silver. It was awful and unflattering and with no discernible style at all.

After the judges ranked them the Top 3 were:
Chris
Jillian
Rami

The Bottom 3 were:
Elisa
Sweet P
Victorya

It was not a particularly quip-filled judging segment, I must say. MK was looking a bit haggard, I thought, so perhaps a rough night had his brain working a little too slow for his usually snark.

It was clear it was between Rami and Jillian for the win, and Rami won, rightfully so, I thought.

It was also clear it was between Sweet P and Elisa for the Auf (mostly because Victorya has been flying under the radar, so they wouldn't auf her yet.) I really thought it still might be Sweet P, but I should have known that after finally telling us wackElisa's back story about a horrible accident and being in a coma that the next natural step was for her to be gone!

I was more interested in what she would do every week than Sweet P, so I'm kinda bummed. The again, those water wings were about as bad an idea as you could have, so you can't say she didn't deserve it!

What did you think?