Last night's Project Runway: give thanks for mediocre design skills

O how I wept for Dallas' own Marion Lee! His sketch was strong enough to be chosen by "actress and fashion icon" Sarah Jessica Parker but the execution sucked. (See how hard here, far right.)

And therein lies the weakness of these team challenges. Except for Season 1's Vanessa, it's always the designers with interesting concepts who are at risk. Those whose concepts are initially rejected—and who become "teammates" merely sewing someone's else vision—they're safe.

Another truism of the runway: you'll always be safe so long as you're outrageous. Bitchiness, art gallery patois or, in a pinch, a Flock of Seagulls haircut will make up for anything. Lee—so quiet and likable—never had a chance.

ADDED: In that ew.com interview, Lee says, "I don't want to design a cheap, mainstream, budget-store outfit....I kind of got screwed by the challenge." This is wrong, of course. He got screwed by his own inflexibility and now I'm a little less sad. Still, you would think the judges could change things up just a bit, just for once, by keeping the thoughtful, low-key guy, mercifully sparing us all weeks and weeks of predictable attitude, platitudes and Vivienne Westwood imitations.

AND ANOTHER THING: I've now decided the best outcome of all would have been for both Christian and his partner Carmen to be kicked off. Christian for that Flashdance dress and Carmen who, through big crocodile designer tears, said she shouldn't be kicked off because the dress wasn't her concept. How I would have loved to hear a judge point out that as hideous as Christian's design might have been, Carmen's was apparently worse.