
Project Runwayâs resident dad Tim Gunn is super disappointed with the showâs latest cast of designers. In fact, he says he âhatedâ this season. The winning designer thinks maybe some of that is Timâs fault.
Anyone who watched Season 14 would agree on some level with Tim, whose main gripe is with the designersâ lack of motivation, not their talent. This season featured some of the best contestants in terms of skills, but many of them tried to coast into the finale with safe designs.
âI have a theory about it, which is that they just werenât hungry,â Tim told Entertainment Weekly. He referred to audition videos of one of them âsitting by a pool.â
âI just thought, theyâre not hungry! Most of them. And I think that was largely the issue,â he says. âI wasnât at the auditions [this] season for the first time ever, and I blame myself, because I wouldnât have put up with a lot of it.â
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Tim is, fairly, blaming everyone, including the judges, who he says gave conflicting feedback (Donât they always?). âOne says itâs black, the other says itâs white, and they donât really listen and they donât really look,â says Tim. âIt makes me so cross and pissed off, frankly.â
All that said, the season was entertaining. Ashley, who was just OKAY to death throughout and hid behind her insecurities, ended up becoming the showâs first plus-size designer to win, with a Fashion Week collection inspired by Mexico in the 1950s.

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In response to Timâs tough critique, Ashley told E! News:
âIt kind of hurts to hear that he doesnât think that we brought it. Because at the end of the day weâre listening to him and weâre listening to the judges, so somewhere along there someoneâs not doing their job...This is our lives right here and weâre putting everything on the line, so it hurts a little bit to hear that because we put everything into it and it almost makes us feel like we didnât deserve to go to fashion week or we donât deserve the outcome that has happened.â
The biggest flop this season was perhaps Swapnil, whose unwillingness to step outside his comfort zone (and his general laziness) cost him. (Note that he still got to show at Fashion Week because the show needed decoys.)
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While one of my favorites, Candice, made a few great Elvira-worthy gothic designs, her final collection had little creativity. Nina called it âderivative.â

Warm and lovable Edmondâwho auditioned for the show every season before finally being castâdesigned one of the most clever dresses in the showâs history: a wedding dress made from Hallmark cards.
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But after making it through to the final four (on a Tim Gunn Save), Edmondâs ruffle-filled collection fell flat.
The look on the left is the worst of Edmond, and the right is what happens when he kills it.
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My bright spot throughout the season was always the showâs eventual runner-up Kelly, a former deli worker whose off-color clothes perfectly reflected her kooky personality and who shouldâve won the whole thing.

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Given that the show has failed to produce a real superstar designer since Christian Siriano in season four, Timâs expectations for Project Runway and its contestants are slightly unreasonable. The truly hungry designers in the world may not think competing on a reality show is even worth it.
Contact the author at clover@jezebel.com.
Images via A&E, Lifetime