![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/cd5618410fcd60f997f2f17a975f1d38a8-projectrunway-ep7.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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Project Runway<\/a><\/p>\n Runway Rodeo<\/p>\n \n Season 21<\/p>\n Episode 7\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 3 stars<\/p>\n ***\n <\/p>\n \n Photo: Spencer Pazer\/Disney\n <\/p>\n Stop me if you\u2019ve heard this one before: The twins are annoyed with the other contestants, the other contestants are annoyed with the twins, the twins end up making a variation of an outfit they\u2019ve made before, none of the judges comment on their narrow design aesthetic, and another episode of Project Runway wraps up. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, well, yeah, we\u2019re there, folks. We keep thinking Project Runway is going to zhuzh things up or shake up this season\u2019s established format, and we\u2019re just not there yet \u2014 and we may never get there! So let me just champ down on this bit (yes, I am appropriating horse terminology because of the Western challenge) and get to recapping another episode that made me long for someone, anyone, to ask either Jesus or Antonio if they can make anything but a microsized tube top or a duster coat. I long for variance! And I\u2019m getting nothing in return!<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start the frustrations of \u201cRunway Rodeo\u201d off with the expected. The judges send Miss Joan home for her streetwear outfit, and somehow Yuchen makes it about himself. Look, I\u2019m being a bit of a jerk here, I know. But Yuchen cries on the runway, he apologizes to Law, he apologizes to Miss Joan, he sobs in the workroom when she\u2019s leaving; my man makes a big scene, and I understand that he\u2019s going through it, I just also think \u2026 this was Miss Joan\u2019s moment, and he kind of took it over. Miss Joan ends up comforting him, and although we always knew she was going to leave in a classy way \u2014 she\u2019s 60, she\u2019s survived cancer, she has a business, she\u2019s good \u2014 and although it\u2019s clear that everyone is upset about her departure, I wish this felt like more of a moment for her rather than a moment for Yuchen. But maybe Project Runway went hard on showing Yuchen\u2019s shattered confidence because he basically gets the yips this challenge, designing a look that Christian warned him against with a fabric Christian warned him against, and I couldn\u2019t help but think at the end of the episode that Yuchen really should have gone home instead of Miss Joan. And probably should go home this episode instead of the person the Project Runway editors are heavily implying to be the next contestant out.<\/p>\n This week\u2019s challenge: Western wear! At the runway, Christian\u2019s on a white horse, and Heidi\u2019s reclining on a pile of hay. The two of them tell the contestants that they\u2019ll have one day and a $500 budget to create a Western look. Heidi\u2019s exact phrasing for the challenge is \u201cyour take on Western chic,\u201d and Christian says \u201cfresh takes on classic country Western styles\u201d when describing the fashion trend, and the episode\u2019s description from Disney+ specifies \u201ca modern take on Western chic.\u201d I use all this context because I\u2019d like to emphasize the words \u201cmodern\u201d and \u201cyour take\u201d here; we\u2019ll come back to those later. Anyway, Jesus and Antonio are amped about the challenge because they\u2019re from northern Mexico, they grew up in the culture, Antonio still dresses like a cowboy (although, is wearing a cowboy hat enough to be a cowboy, realistically?), and Jesus says they have \u201cwestern Indigenous\u201d roots and DNA. After shopping at Mood, they both get to work super quickly, and almost immediately, Jesus makes a mistake. He decides to interface his leather fabric (basically lining it with a supportive layer of fabric), and as he\u2019s ironing the two layers, he burns his pale, eggshell-y leather with the hot iron. Veejay is delighted to see the mark that Ethan compares with a pit stain or boob-sweat stain \u2014 I agree with those descriptors, and would add as a comparison point \u201cthe grimy yellowish stain in a frat house\u2019s never-cleaned bathtub\u201d \u2014 and Jesus is despondent because he doesn\u2019t have a backup fabric. IS NO ONE LISTENING TO CHRISTIAN WHEN HE SAYS TO GET ANOTHER OPTION? ARE THE DESIGNERS NOT ABLE TO BECAUSE THEIR BUDGETS ARE SO LOW? IF SO, THEN WHY AREN\u2019T WE BOOSTING THE BUDGET? THIS SHOW DOES NOT SEEM TO COST ANY MONEY WHATSOEVER!<\/p>\n Ahem. Sorry. Jesus is bummed, but then Christian comes in and loves the result. He thinks Jesus should lean into the error by now, purposefully burning more of the leather and creating a kind of pattern, and I simultaneously appreciate that Christian gave Jesus very thoughtful advice and agree with Ethan\u2019s exasperated, thrown-up-hands in his confessional when he reacts to Christian\u2019s guidance. Some more of Christian\u2019s reactions: He\u2019s concerned about and somewhat confused by Veejay\u2019s choice to make a dress out of red vinyl and hand fray hundreds of strips of fabric for it, and he\u2019s flat-out disgusted by Yuchen\u2019s floor-length evening gown made out of silver sequins. Earlier at Mood, Christian had shoved a bolt of similar fabric away from Yuchen\u2019s hands, but Yuchen went with it anyway, and he\u2019s seemingly making a prom dress out of it. Ack! Also worth pointing out: Antonio\u2019s making a fringed, cropped jacket and miniskirt out of pearly faux-leather, and Christian very gently suggests that the look is basic, it\u2019s been done. It has, and it has specifically by Antonio and Jesus! The twins have increasingly relied on silhouettes that consist of a strip tube top or bandeau top, a tiny miniskirt, and a long, layered jacket, and once again, both brothers are doing the same thing. I wish Christian had pushed further with making this point, but he\u2019s not the only one overlooking it; the judges are, too.<\/p>\n The two biggest stories out of the work room are Yuchen\u2019s bizarro stubbornness in sticking with his look (he doesn\u2019t know what Western style is and he\u2019s never heard of Dolly Parton, but he\u2019s not tapping into the other designers for a real genre definition he can use, and he\u2019s refusing to take \u201cMommy Christian\u2019s\u201d advice) and Veejay\u2019s observation (?) that she shares with her enemy Jesus (??) that she thinks Ethan\u2019s snakeskin maxi dress with lacing down the torso and thighs looks like her gray-wool dress with side cutouts from \u201cBoring to Brilliant\u201d<\/a> (?????). Veejay, what are you doing? My extremely unkind take is that she knew her dress was going to get torn apart by the judges and decided to stir some shit with Ethan to take the heat off, but that\u2019s evil-mastermind stuff. The reality is probably that, like everyone else competing on the show, Veejay is sleep-deprived, stressed-out, paranoid, and worried about whether she\u2019ll advance. Either way, I agree with Ethan\u2019s comment that she\u2019s \u201cspewing bullshit,\u201d and was deeply amused by his \u201cI don\u2019t agree that a full crocodile gown has anything to do with her wool minidress,\u201d and Veejay doesn\u2019t bring it up on the runway, so whatever.<\/p>\n Ah, yes, the runway! Is Nina there? She is not, and I must say, I\u2019m feeling uncharitable enough toward Nina, given her many absences, that I\u2019m ready to blame her for Project Runway\u2019s definition of Western fashion, including a picture of Taylor Sheridan and a mention of Yellowstone, Nina\u2019s favorite show. She\u2019s hurt us a lot; why not also ascribe this awfulness to her? Instead, Zac Posen and country star Mickey Guyton \u2014 the first Black woman<\/a> signed to a major country label, in 2011 \u2014 are the guest judges alongside Heidi and Law. The looks are:<\/p>\n Yes, pointy 3D horns! Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll soon explain. Once the runway show is over, Heidi announces that Ethan, Veejay, and Yuchen were the judges\u2019 least favorite looks. That means Antonio, Jesus, and Belania were the favorites, and I honestly was aghast at realizing that the judges had rewarded both the most obvious hot-girl interpretations of the genre and a Melania dress that looked particularly Modcloth-sample-sale. The twins\u2019 looks are basically two variations on the same idea, even rendered in the same color palette, standing next to each other on the runway, and no one is like, \u201cHey, so crazy that the two of you aren\u2019t offering us anything new or different from yourselves, or from each other.\u201d Everyone just loses their minds over how great these two are, and I can\u2019t believe the amount of memory-hole erasing of Wet Seal and Forever 21 I was watching. I have seen all of Antonio and Jesus\u2019s items in many a second-rate fast-fashion mall store of yore, and I have to listen to these judges acting like a buckle-shaped tube top is a new item<\/a>? Please. They\u2019re both really persuasive looks, especially Jesus\u2019s crochet coat, and I can appreciate that the outfits are tied to Jesus and Antonio\u2019s childhood and culture, but very little about them is innovative or unexpected. I didn\u2019t like Belania\u2019s dress very much \u2014 I was surprised that Zac Posen had nothing to say about how crafty those fabrics looked together \u2014 but at least it was recognizably hers and clearly Western without feeling derivative. But the judges are gaga over Jesus turning his burning-leather mistake into a whole look, and he gets the win. Antonio\u2019s broken-hearted since he\u2019s the self-described cowboy in the brothers\u2019 relationship, but Veejay smirks that Jesus\u2019s win is also Antonio\u2019s win, which \u2026 yeah, I\u2019ll give her that one.<\/p>\n Because, unfortunately, I think Veejay gets a really raw deal during the bottom-three judging. The judges assure Ethan that he\u2019s only in the bottom three because he was the fourth-ranked look of the six; they liked his snakeskin dress, even if it felt a little too similar to Roberto Cavalli. Their frustrations are instead primarily with Yuchen and Veejay, and my frustrations are with the episode\u2019s editors. Earlier in the episode, Yuchen explained that when trying to understand the Western identity, he applied it to Tibetan culture, and to his understanding of that culture as a Chinese man. He decides to evoke how Tibetans decorate the horns of their yaks<\/a> by creating 3D boobs for his dress, and he explains that to us and to Christian, but during the judging, it doesn\u2019t come up at all. Yuchen just says he wanted to bring \u201ca little drama,\u201d and all the judges take his dress as a kind of satirical take on Western culture. The dress is definitely \u201cnutty,\u201d as Heidi says, but I don\u2019t actually know if Yuchen wanted it to be \u201chorny,\u201d like the judges joke. I think if he had explained himself (or if we had seen him explain himself), the judges would have had a lot more understanding of his frame of reference. This is basically the same complaint I had about last week\u2019s episode, when the judges didn\u2019t seem to learn that early Harlem inspired Miss Joan for her streetwear suit. Just let us see more of these conversations; we\u2019d watch an extra 10 minutes each episode, I swear.<\/p>\n While the judges think Yuchen\u2019s dress isn\u2019t weird or perverse enough, they simply don\u2019t understand anything about Veejay\u2019s look \u2014 and they don\u2019t really allow her to explain it. What was it about red vinyl that appealed to Veejay? Why go against the grain with a one-piece dress instead of going more outlandish, like the other contestants? There\u2019s just not enough conversation in these abbreviated judging sessions. Before the episode\u2019s cliffhanger ending, it feels like the dresses are on equally bad footing: Law three times says to Yuchen, \u201cWe hate the dress,\u201d while Zac calls Veejay\u2019s \u201ca Project Runway nightmare.\u201d But I suspect that Veejay could be the one to go here, because they actively didn\u2019t understand how her look was Western, while with Yuchen\u2019s, you could at least wear some version of his sequin gown to the CMT Music Awards or something. They think Yuchen\u2019s is simultaneously too kooky and too simple, but Zac says Veejay \u201clost the plot,\u201d and Heidi compares it to a bad costume-party outfit. We know Project Runway\u2019s already fine with imitative work, so my money\u2019s on Veejay finally being free of the twins sooner rather than later \u2014 just not in the way she wanted.<\/p>\n \u2022 The outfit I most wanted to wear this episode: Zac\u2019s suede jacket was nice. And honestly, if Veejay had made a moto jacket of that red vinyl fabric and fringe, I\u2019d love that.<\/p>\n \u2022 Highlights of the episode for me: The chyron shading Antonio as \u201cpot calling kettle black\u201d when he tells Belania that she needs to \u201cwork on the attitude, girl\u201d; Ethan saying that working with \u201creal tits\u201d as a designer, instead of the faux-breasts he\u2019s used to through drag, \u201chas been, like, a journey.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 When Miss Joan says that it was Christian\u2019s fault that she bought her streetwear fabric because he wasn\u2019t at Mood when they were shopping \u2026 did I not say this<\/a>?!<\/p>\n \u2022 Someone smarter than I will surely write something about the connections between Tibetan and Western culture, and please link it; I will read it.<\/p>\n \u2022 In case you also wondered who Casey Caldwell was after Zac Posen mentioned them, they\u2019re a costume designer<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 I always wish Christian were actually a regular judge on the show, because given how often he likes a look that the judges don\u2019t, I think he\u2019d provide such a fresh perspective. Case in point: He actually seemed to like Veejay\u2019s dress and called it a \u201cwild card,\u201d and I do wish he could have been there to explain to the rest of the judges what he found modern about it.<\/p>\n \u2022 Next week: Was that Nikki Glaser<\/a> I spotted as a judge for the season\u2019s first challenge with clients?<\/p>\n VULTURE NEWSLETTER<\/p>\n Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n\n