“Project Runway” Recap: Attack of the Wee-Wee Pad!

This week on Project Runway, designers were asked to think outside of the litter box as they battled it out in the season’s first unconventional materials challenge. Here’s what you missed.

The Challenge: Design an outfit using $300 worth of pet supplies. For the love of god, don’t be boring.

The Drama: A star was born this week, and its name was “wee-wee pad.” Three designers incorporated the absorbent puppy pads into their garments, making it the most talked-about textile of the night. As a result, I feel compelled to apologize to potty-training products everywhere for woefully underestimating their fashion potential all these years.

Just as the wee-wee star was born, two design stars imploded. Fallene was cast as the frontrunner early on in this artsy-crafty competition due to her quirky sensibilities (she put a puking clown patch onto her dress last week), but she delivered a snoozer smock that landed her in the bottom three. And Bert, our boxer-shorts visionary from last week, used his hard-earned immunity to bore us with a forgettable black beach cover-up. Bert, didn’t anyone tell you that with great power comes great responsibility?

Ultimately, Joshua C. went home for committing the cardinal sin of the runway: playing it too safe. And by “safe,” I mean he used umbrella fabric instead of something more urine-absorbent. There’s a hole in my heart where his bowties used to be.

The Winner: Olivier’s hamster-chip-meets-dog-bed ensemble, pictured above. The look was praised as “editorial” by Nina. I agree, assuming that “editorial” is code-speak for “That dress looks like a bloated sheep rolled in sawdust, but the color palette is great.”

Other Looks We Liked: Anthony Ryan Auld’s birdseed dress and Danielle’s dog-rope ensemble.

Quotes of the Night:

• “I wanna pee all over those wee-wee pads!” —Heidi Klum demonstrating the potty-training power of puppy pads in her visceral reaction to Bryce’s wee-wee dress.
• “You’ve gotta have candy-corn teeth to wear that dress.” —Michael Kors’ unique perspective on accessorizing Fallene’s abysmal autumnal harvest frock.

Want to own something from tonight’s episode? Check out www.projectrunway.com to bid on the original garments from this episode and to stock up on all your Project Runway needs.