and the winner is...

Last night marked the end of the sixth season of Project Runway. Well, it actually ended in February, but we finally saw it! Before I get to the finale, I'd like to send out a huge thank you to Hell's Kitchen. I had so much fun co-hosting l'étoile Fashion Trivia this year. It was great coming in every week, getting to know the staff, and drinking my weight in bellinis. And to the Fashion Trivia regulars (especially Christopher, who became our weekly guest of honor), thanks for coming by week after week and participating in what were sometimes brutally hard rounds, and humoring Kate and me by laughing at our lame jokes. You guys are the best! Now, on to the show. Carol Hannah was still sick. Althea was still an airhead. Irina was still "Meana." It was pretty much what we expected.

Carol Hannah's collection was the most disjointed of the three, containing some of the evening's highest notes (her blue Grecian 13th look) and the lowest notes (what was that horrible purple tunic-y thing?) of the episode. As per usual, her work was impeccably tailored. Her collection was the most colorful, and certainly the most fun.

Carol Hannah's beautifully draped 13th look

I really really want to wear this dress to Walker After Hours tonight.

Although I didn't quite get the inspiration of Althea's collection (she mentioned that that she was inspired by science fiction from the 50s and 60s, which I didn't see), I liked a lot of the individual pieces. It was great sportswear. And though I could see myself wearing multiple items, sportswear doesn't always translate the best to the runway. The collection didn't have any show-stopping numbers.

I do love the sweater from the opening look.

Althea's lovely and wearable 13th look

Irina's collection was a whole lot of black. What did it look like? I could barely tell, because it was almost all black. When she'd received critiques from Tim Gunn, as well as Nina Garcia and Michael Kors, it was mentioned multiple times that the collection could really use some color. When black goes down a runway or is photographed for an editorial, a lot of the detail is going to be lost. So when Irina sighed in sadness on the runway that you couldn't make out some of the intricacies of the collection, I was delighted that Nina called her out on it. It was a poor choice, and she'd been told in advance that it was a poor choice. But whatever, she won anyway.

Irina's 13th look

Nina thought the tees were "intimate." I thought they were lame.

The highlight of the episode was certainly guest judge, Suzy Menkes. I don't know how Lifetime managed to snag her, but what a coup. The woman holds an Order of the British Empire and a Legion d'Honneur in France. She is one of the most respected fashion writers of all time, talks like Mary Poppins, and rocks a pompadour. I love love love her. More judges like her, please.

Now that the finale has aired and Irina has been revealed as the winner, I'm extremely curious as to how this whole New York Magazine plagiarism scandal is going to go down. If you haven't heard, New York Magazine recently noticed that Irina used their "Reasons to Love New York 2008" on one of her pieces (image below). This is seriously shady intellectual property right business that obviously wasn't caught when the finale was recorded. How can Project Runway justify a winner who has blatantly plagiarized material? And furthermore, why did Irina (who, ironically, was regularly accusing Althea of copying her) even feel the need to use the New York Magazine article? How hard could it have been to brainstorm her own list of reasons to love New York and have those printed on her design? Who knows who this will end, but as The Cut pointed out, New York Magazine totally has their new softball uniforms.