...Of course, not working in teams...or with groceries...usually helps

Last night's episode of Project Runway was the second strong one in a row...at least from a runway point of view. To be honest I've tuned out of the "backstage drama" portion of the show. The ones that might have been the ones you love to hate have mellowed out; the ones you thought you might love never really stepped up to be that object of fandom, and frankly...haven't they reduced Tim Gunn's "mentoring" to a handful of "make it work"s and "carry on"s this season without a whole lotta substance going on?

Any way, after yet another meaningless model elimination, we discover that the challenge is to design a look for Diane von Furstenberg's next collection. The collection is based on a Marlene Dietrich movie, Foreign Affair, which is set in Berlin, Shanghai and New York. Obviously it's cosmopolitan, mysterious, international.

The designers get DVF's "look book" to pore over, and they get to use DVF's sample room for fabrics etc., so no measly budget and visit to Mood to worry about. Life is good for the designers this week, eh?

The possibility that Dietrich's character may be a spy leads to some fairly lame spy-talk by the designers...including Leanne slinking about and talking about how she'd like to be a spy. She'd probably be a pretty good one, since she does sort of disappear into the wallpaper, right? She calls herself a Leannimal, get it: Lee-animal? Um, OK, Whatevs.

Tim does what become his 60 seconds of rounds...with some odd-looking skin tone...did anyone else notice that? Maybe it's my TV, but he looked like self-tanner gone wrong on one side of his face.

We have our one true lively moment when Stella completely disses Rachel Zoe, the previous week's guest judge (and focus of a new Bravo reality show because she's a "celebrity stylist"/ I believe Stella accuses her of wearing a "muu muu", which should be the kiss of death for any stylist if true.

So, let's move on to the runway. Once again Nina Garcia is mysteriously absent, and in her place is Fern Mallis (who runs Fashion Week.) DVF is of course the special guest judge.

1. Joe sends a fairly chaotic Shanghai-inspired outfit down the runway. There's this orange long-sleeved shantung top. There's an inexplicable wide fushcia belt. Because orange and fuschia SO scream Shanghai in the 30s, not Jersey in the 80s. There's also a really poorly made black skirt and a weird black hood/scarf with fuschia lining. While there's some nice variety of texture going on, the overall effect is messy, and not at all elegant. Marlene Dietrich would not be caught dead in that skirt, let's just start there.

2. Leanne captures the 30s extremely well, if perhaps a bit more Ginger Rogers than Marlene Dietrich. There's a long purple gown, very 30s inspired with a plunging neckline and ornate clasps at the shoulders. I'm not sure the black belt with a rhinestone buckle was the best waist definer, but the taupe short jacket with capelet provided a heavier, contrasting texture, and also gave a nice mannish accessory to the elegant gown...and mannish clothing was one of Dietrich's trademarks.

3. Terri's outfit was two-thirds successful, featuring really well-made herringbone slacks and a black velvet smoking jacket that provided nice textural and silhouette contrast to the slim pants. The blouse (featuring fireworks, per Blayne) was not a big hit with me. But I didn't have to see too much of it.

4. Jerell's outfit was also two-thirds successful. I liked the black jacket and the gold brocade tunic top, but I did not relate to the blue accents, particularly the blue vinyl-looking belt. It looked cheap and tawdry, not cool and sophisticated.

5. Korto designer her own 30s inspired halter gown, featuring a black and white zebra-like print (without actually being an over-the-top zebra print.) This was paired with a short black jacket with very full elbow sleeves, and splashes of yellow chiffon fabric bordering the halter neckline and emerging from a slit in the front of the dress. The silhouette was dramatic, the execution looked flawless. Do I love yellow? Did I even love the print itself? For myself, no, wouldn't be what I chose to wear...but it made a statement and I could admire it objectively :)

6. Blayne (wearing some funky headbands that remind me of Travolta in Staying Alive...and no, not the sexy Travolta from Saturday Night Fever, the sweaty Travolta from Staying Alive) is 50% successful, but the part that didn't work REALLY didn't work for me. The black jacket with a pop-up collar and double fasteners at the front? Nice. The puffy pantaloon knickers with a tight band at the knee? Hid. Eeeeee. Ous. That is all.

7. Suede created another long gown in some sort of pseudo-camo fabric, but it was really kind of a schmatte. It had a couple of nice details, a low back, a shirred waist, but it also was too voluminous and didn't go at all with the tweedy vest he paired it with.

8. Stella tried again to make something pretty and polished, and basically failed again: Pinstripe pants that fit horribly, a taupe vest with a tie front where even the tie looked wrinkly and messy. The cape was OK, but a bit too big and overwhelming.

9. Kenley created a single piece: A shantung dress with an untraditional floral print. She used black trim at the neck, waist and hem. Yes, it was well-made, and pretty. And like a million dresses you've seen more, really. I agreed with Heidi: meh and double-meh.

In the end, the judges no likee:
Joe
Stella
Suede

And they likee:
Kenley
Korto
Leanne

Shocking as it was, Leanne won two episodes in a row...talk about a dark horse. (I also found it shocking that it was between leanne and Kenly for the win, not Leanne and Korto.)

Unshockingly, Stella ran out of time and was auf'ed.

Which I couldn't disagree with at all, although I could venture to say that Blayne's pantaloon kncikers deserved a special place in hell, if not the bottom three.

What did you think?