Project Runway Philippines: Finale and Photos

Just came from Solar's special viewing-slash-party for the Project Runway Philippines (PRP) Finale. By now, you'll know who won. But before anything else, let me suspend you a little bit by discussing more detail. I previously wrote that Veejay's collection was a disappointment. I've since had a chance to take a closer look and I saw that his collection turned out to be elegant and well-made. The thing going against Veejay's work was his choice of fabric. Under the bright lights of the Runway, the fabric appeared washed out and failed to stand out.Philipp Tampus's collection was surprisingly fresh and his use of crochet was impressive. He went a bit too far on some clothes, but all in all, he also showed his mettle.


Aries Lagat's final salvo won over the crowd. As I mentioned earlier, he had a surprise twist in the end: an elegant short dress that transformed into three other pieces of clothing (see photos, below). I think this scored him a lot of points with the judges, and eventually got him the right to be hailed as the first winner of Project Runway Philippines. Congratulations, Aries!




And congratulations to the production team of PRP for neatly concluding the show.

PRP was able to successfully match the US version and even added its own flavor. Teresa Herrera is great as a host, the judges were smart and gave the contestants the right push, and Joji Lloren's mentorship added the humor and flirtatiousness that is missing from Tim Gunn. 

Here is another hallmark of PRP's Filipino-ness. In the US version, the stressful final round always brought tension among the contestants and even within teams. In PRP, however, the teams bolstered each other and the finalists were compassionate with each other.