Posted by Sarah Henning September 4, 2008 at 10:20 a.m.

Project Runway Season 5, Episode 8 - DVF

Wow, I'm running out of people I hate. Not that I'm a hateful person, but sometimes reality shows and crafty folks in the editing booth can bring out the worst in people.Stella, she of the deep New Yawk accent and unabashed love of all things "punk," "biker," and "rock n' roll" (her words, of course), finally said her goodbyes, a week after making the worst dress of the episode but being saved by "sad chicken" Kevin's mouth.![][1]But really, it wasn't surprising. She was destined to be doomed the second she found leather and fur in Diane von Furstenberg's fabric room.The challenge was this: the designers were assigned to make an outfit that would fit into the DVF fall collection, which was inspired by the Berlin-to-Shanghai movie "A Foreign Affair" with Marlene Dietrich. The designers were given look books with the collection's pieces, as well as a chance to grab fabric from DVF's own private fabric library.Seems straight forward enough. Just do your own spin on the multi-piece look of the collection using fabric from the designer herself and that's that. The winner gets a prize better than immunity to these folks: a chance to have his or her look produced and sold as part of the line - to American Express Card holders (naturally, we saw Diane's AmEx card commercial at least twice last night).Given the looks DVF sent down the fall runway, Stella was a goner from the start. The looks were based on '30s and '40s aesthetic and not a single one could be described as "rock n' roll," "punk," or "biker" or any of the other words Stella often uses to defend her style. Then, she found the leather and fur fabrics and - bam! - an instant head start to the bottom three.Meanwhile, the challenge seemed tailor-made for pin-up girl Kenley, and, boy, did she know it. She frequently ended up on the camera in tears, so stressed by the idea of wanting to do well, yet she decided to take a calculated risk. Kenley chose to make a single garment, rather than a multi-piece outfit like those that populated the collection. Her rationalization, which is a good one, is that with as little time as they had (less than half a day), it would be really hard to execute a well-made outfit that contained more than one piece. She didn't want to send down the runway something that was falling apart at the seems because she ran out of time. So, while her competitors were busting their behinds to make jacket-pants-vest combos, she concentrated on one beautifully cut Shanghai-inspired dress.And you know what? She might have been right. All of the designers who did more than two pieces didn't execute them well at all. In fact, the top three - Kenley, Korto and Leanne - all made dresses, and Korto and Leanne both made just an extra piece, a coat, each.Meanwhile, the night's bottom two, Joe and Stella, each made three pieces that were poorly executed. Ugh. Suede, the other bottom three member, made just two pieces, but they were poorly paired (Michael Kors likened Suede's model to getting dressed in the dark) and not flattering in the least.It seemed like a toss-up between Joe and Stella in the end. Stella had survived so many times (remember her trash-bag getup in the opener?) I thought for sure she would live another day. Joe's outfit did look all wrong, but he had been a consistent performer and there was no discounting that.But the judges decided to finally let Stella go, and she actually looked relieved, telling Heidi that her ego was too big for her to be on the show. And, without a tear, she marched out, barely even turning around as she squeaked into the back room in a completely black leather outfit, natch.![][2]So there, one less person I hate. Though it seems that even though I haven't despised her, everyone in the Project Runway workroom is at odds with Terri. Look, they cry, she's a one-trick pony who has somehow managed to find a place at the trough! Well, she's more one-trick Rami than one-trick Stella, which probably means it'll take the judges a while to diagnose her. (No offense to Rami.)A few parting thoughts: - No good zingers tonight, what's going on, Michael Kors? - Leanne gets two wins in a row (her indigo dress and coat were fabulous!). Could she really win it all? - Blayne seems to have stopped saying "licious" for now... thank you, my dear back-room editors. One less person to hate. - Does anyone miss Nina? - I want to send Jerell a cardigan or something to cover up that bony chest of his. - Who's your guess for the next to go? [1]: http://worldonline.media.clients.elli... [2]: http://worldonline.media.clients.elli...