Pardon me, that would be Sweet . . .

P, not Pea, although however you spell it, there are trademark problems in the dear girl's future.

It took seven episodes for Project Runway Season IV to really engage me and for my gal Sweet P to step up to the plate and deliver some fashion. This is another case, for me, of being careful what I ask for: I wanted a season where the emphasis was on fashion, not personal drama, and I got it -- and it promptly put me to sleep.

Anyhoo, Episode 7 was the prom dress challenge which, after my recent traumatic encounter with the prom dresses in Dillard's junior department, really grabbed my attention. The PR crew produced some interesting designs which, for the most part, did not expose the young models' naughty bits, although, with one exception, the dresses looked too old for 17-year-olds. (In my opinion as a stuffy old broad who would like to see 17-year-olds in pink organza.) It was also generally agreed that this dress by Ricky Lizalde was one of the least attractive to roll down the runway.

Screen cap by the divine duo at Project Rungay.

So imagine my surprise when I found this dress un Chanel's Spring 2008 Couture collection:

Is washed-out and egg-shaped the wave of the future?

Karl Lagerfeld is on record disparaging PR. PR was filmed in Summer, 2007; the Paris Couture collections were held the second week of January, 2008. I wonder if Herr Lagerfeld knows that one of PR's less successful (at least until Episode 9) designers anticipated his design?

In Episode 9 the PR designers were challenged to create, using Levi's jeans and denim jackets, "an iconic look that captures the spirit of the 501 legacy." I wasn't sure whether that meant they were to sew up an iconic look in denim, or to create a design in denim that would become iconic. Whatever; is there a design more iconic than a Chanel suit? And once again there was a Chanel/PR convergence, because Herr Lagerfeld did at least a third of Chanel's Spring 2008 ready-to-wear collection in denim. And this may be the trench coat that designers Victorya Hong and Jillian Lewis were trying to create:

Sorry Victorya, there are some things that are only justified by a pricey designer label.

Actually, doesn't this Chanel jacket look like something a PR contestant would create from scraps?

Kiera Knightly was well and truly fugged for wearing another piece from the Chanel denim collection, as well as a bizarre hairdo and terrible make-up, for the cover of W Magazine. Let that be a lesson to persons who would combine denim and iconic.