“I am not a team player,” said Hester Sunshine in “The Future is Here,” the second episode of “Project Runway” season 17. That’s not an encouraging thing to say after you’ve been assigned to a team for your latest challenge. Indeed, Sunshine turned into Sunburn as she clashed with her teammates Garo Sparo and Nadine Ralliford. The biggest source of tension: Sunshine’s obsession with tulle. But was Ralliford too hard on her? Scroll down to vote in our poll at the bottom of this post.
The “Future” challenge was to design forward-thinking looks that would highlight body modification details on their models. Garo Sparo, Ralliford and Sunshine had to create their cohesive mini collection for a woman with shoulder horns — weird, I know. Unfortunately for her team, Sunshine’s idea of cohesion was to use tulle, tulle and more tulle. When they went over-budget buying their fabrics at Mood, Sunshine even ditched some of their other materials so she could keep all her tulle.
Mentor Christian Siriano warned them against going all-in on tulle, which could result in tacky bridesmaid looks. But it wasn’t until long after they bought their fabric that Sunshine changed her mind — no more tulle! She asked Ralliford for some of her fabric, and Ralliford was understandably frustrated, but she eventually compromised on her look to give Sunshine the material she needed.
And then Sunshine changed her mind again — bring back the tulle! Unfortunately for Ralliford, Sunshine had already chopped up the extra fabric she gave her, so Ralliford couldn’t use it anymore. Ralliford didn’t hide her disdain for Sunshine throughout the challenge — or if she tried, she didn’t hide it well. She called Sunshine a “high-strung baby,” yelled at her for talking too much when she should have been working, and then called her “Freddy Krueger” for taking her fabric and rendering it useless. All the while Garo Sparo stayed out of the line of fire, keeping his nose down and avoiding his teammates’ drama.
Garo Sparo ended up being the only member of the team who was actually happy with his final design, but the drama turned out to be all for naught since the judges declared them safe and advanced them to the next round. So was Ralliford’s rage really justified, or did Sunshine really drag down the whole team? And will they get along better after this is over and they no longer have to collaborate with each other (if they’re lucky)?
Be sure to make your predictions so that the contestants can see how they’re faring in our racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the next episode airs every Thursday on Bravo. You’ll compete to win a spot on our leaderboard and eternal bragging rights. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our reality TV forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
