Project Rami! Week... um... semifinals

Rami! Rami! Rami! We can't express how excited we are for you right now! And very proud. You have withstood the lustful/envious gaze of Michael Kors, the overly critical gaze of Ninagaahceea (as Heidi calls her), and the, frankly, quite frightening gaze of Heidi Klum, all to make it to the pinnacle of the Project Runway Experience: Bryant Park! Bravo! (Ha, ha.)

Of course, we're not too surprised Rami made it, but we had our doubts for a little while-- namely, when he created yet ANOTHER, however immaculate and gorgeous, draped evening dress (right) for the final regular challenge, inspired by the artwork found in the Met. And really, when we saw him looking so intently at the Grecian statues in the classics room, we practically saw the show's producers licking their chops, and we wanted to scream at him not to take the bait. And he did, and the judges called him out for draping again, but it all worked out because they (very wisely) decided to give him AND Chris another chance. But, unlike last season, only one of them would progress to the finale-- after, of course, creating an entire collection and showing their best three looks to the judges. Sneaky, sneaky!

Cut past the rather uneventful reunion special to this week's episode, in which Tim Gunn visited each of the final four to check on their progress, as he does every season. Nutshell: Christian works out of a closet, essentially (no pun intended) and appears to have a rather lonely private life; Jillian still makes us feel tired and her entire family is more interesting than her; Rami's house is just as tasteful as his designs and his life story was, of course, heartbreaking (though we wish he would have mentioned Palestine...); and Chris remains wacky and fun and sweet and has friends who appear to be just the same (what was UP with that guy's apartment?). Focus now on Rami and Chris' designs: Rami's have been inspired by Joan of Arc and appear quite intriguing, except such oddities as a mustard-colored coat that Tim identified as very heavy, and Chris' heavily made use of-- yes-- human hair as trim. WTF? Suffice it to say, Tim was weirded out, and so were we. And although the designs he ended up showing the judges were actually quite nice, we couldn't get over the hair part (I don't think they could, either-- their expressions were priceless) and did, for the first time, agree that they were actually quite costumey. Thankfully, we won't have to hear the judges utter that word again, because poor Chris got auf'd in favor of our boy Rami, whose three looks didn't really offer too much to criticize save for the overdone-ness of the teal coat, which was still very well-made. See the three looks Rami offered up below:




















(Credit to this third one goes to ProjectRunGay, with our thanks, because Bravo's image of the dress really sucked. And, coincidentially, it was our favorite look out of the three.) Best of all, Rami LISTENED to the judges, and although we often suspect they've been smoking hashish, it really paid off this time.

We can't let Chris go, though, without saying how good of a job we think he did and how much we have really come to like him over the season-- even more so than his designs, which we never actually thought were as questionable as the judges seemed to. Chris has a bright future ahead of him, whether he chooses to spend it desgining costumes or clothing.

And so, we look forward to next week, in which we will get to watch the runway show (and Posh's grapefruit-like boobs popping out of whatever she wears-- best guest judge EVER), and find out who the winner will be. Truly, we think Rami has an excellent chance, based on what we've seen of the collections so far and on the fact that he is a true talent. Good luck, Rami!