How can you root against this?
This week the designers have to create a ready-to-wear "wow" look while meeting a retail budget of $700 - $900. Their guest mentor and judge is Elie Tahari, who actually goes into the workroom with Joanna Coles to talk to the designers and assess their unfinished designs. It's the first time this season that the guest judge has entered the workroom, and I think it should happen more often, because it was one of the most affecting moments of the entire season. The designers learned his bootstrap backstory while receiving advice and encouragement about navigating the world of fashion.
The best moment of the show was when Anthony video chatted with close pal Matthew, who said he was giving up "Beer Night" at work to talk to him. But that's what best friends do for each other. And I'm glad My Sweet Anthony has someone to talk to until we can be together.
Not to be outdone, Ivy has a hilarious chat with ousted designer Casanova. "Oh my God, your head is huge!" That's what she said. No, really, that's what Ivy told Casanova. He tells her to be strong and she'll go far in the competition. I think he meant "farther than me."
Below you can see the designers discuss "Joshua's Temper," which has actually been muted compared to his regular season, but apparently is still a distraction.
Let's take a look at how each of the designers fared!
ANTHONY RYAN - Anthony won his fourth challenge, and for the first time in a while, I have no problem with his winning design. I thought what he did with the print was creative and the final look was eye-popping.
EMILIO - Bottom three, and this was dull, dull, dull, but I think it could be very easily be mass-produced, which was one of the challenges this week.
IVY - Well, they could only prolong the agony so long. After weeks of being in the bottom and scraping the barrel, Ivy is finally eliminated, but as many problems as this design had, I don't think it was the worst thing this week.
JOSHUA - That honor belongs to Joshua, who took a lovely fabric and turned it into Frankenstein's Monster. Not only did it, as Josh himself put it, "Look like she's got a dump in her butt," but her breasts look droopy, and the zipper in the back is cringe-inducing. But he narrowly missed elimination, and moves on.
ULI - Didn't she do a variation on this last week? No matter, because the judges loved the ... whiteness ... of it all, and she was a close second place.
So the top four are Anthony, Uli, Emilio, and Joshua. Anthony and Uli are destined for the final, but is there a chance Joshua could usurp Emilio for the final spot?
What did you think of this week's challenge?
