Spoilers! Project Runway, Episode 7

Project Runway, Season 6, Episode 7: The Sky is the Limit! Who’s the winner this week and who is “auf”?

Lesson for the week: If you want to work with specific clients, you’ve got to be able to give them what they want…

Bye bye, Louise.  You were sweet and pleasant to the bitter end.

Poor Louise! After dodging a bullet last week with her subtle design, she did a classic crash and burn last night by trying to “step up” the design for the wrong client.  The problem: last week she did subtle for a film costume, and this week she did ruffles for a clothing line that is known for it’s sleek modern designs.  Fail.

Louise is a good designer, whose style is very distinctive and pleasing to a specific client.  She obviously doesn’t do pressure very well, even though she remains calm and pleasant (unlike a few others), but she doesn’t seem to be able to come up with the right answer quickly when the client doesn’t match her natural style.

This may not be as much of a problem in her real world as it is on Project Runway, but it would be a problem in mine!  I have chosen to do a lot of designing “on demand”, which means making holiday jewelry in the middle of July for a magazine to shoot, and working with colors and materials that may not always be my first pick.  Often the deadlines are tight.

This lack of flexibility could also be a problem in doing commissions for clients with vastly different taste from your own.  Think about it long and hard before you decide to jump into the commissions market: you have to figure out how to please the client and still be true to yourself.  Sometimes it’s just impossible to please both of you, and then you’ll have to figure out how to politely decline the job!

Congratulations Irina.  Please lose some of your arrogance.

On the other side of the room last night, Irina was making a dress that perfectly captured what her client was looking for.   The client would be thrilled, but she better forget about ever having employees with her attitude and manner.  Who would ever want to work with her again?  The remarks she makes about the other designers, does she realize they will see the show later?  Even as she stood there with a winning design, she proceeded to throw her partner under the bus.  Not necessary.  They already know you were the team leader.  They also seem to know that you are difficult.

Don’t be difficult when other people are working for you or with you…it’s not nice and it’s not pretty.

Images: MyLifetime.com