Leanne, one of three 'Project Runway' finalists
Bravo

Leanne: She's more than just Not Kenley.

Tonight is the season finale of Project Runway. This is when the Fashion Week collections are judged, the winner is crowned, and two disappointed people decide how to cope with defeat.

Leanne should win.

In all honesty, as long as Kenley doesn't win, that's fine. Kenley gives me hives. Kenley's voice sounds to me like a deflating balloon that has been genetically crossed with a seventh-grader. And as we've discussed, Kenley has been saved from elimination at least twice when she absolutely should have gone home.

Sometimes, you don't even know that a show has any legitimacy until you realize that a particular outcome would really hurt its legitimacy, and a win for Kenley would demolish Project Runway's legitimacy. People like this show partly because it was one of the first reality shows to showcase actual skill — not always, but sometimes. Not reliably, but at least sporadically.

Less talent than Great Performances, but a lot more than The Apprentice.

So when you're relying on talent, you can't keep somebody in because she's the only remaining person with an objectionable temperament who melts down and cries and makes good television, and then hand her the victory to boot.

And so, Leanne should win.

The case for Leanne, after the jump...

 

When I saw her wedding dress and bridesmaid's dress last week, she won me over. For whatever reason, there are no photos available of the dresses from last week's show, but take my word for it: Leanne led the pack. Not only because her wedding dress was attractive and her bridesmaid's dress was attractive — more than could be said of Korto and Jerell's offerings, sadly — but because they made sense as a wedding dress and bridesmaid's dress, respectively.

That's where she differed from Kenley. Kenley's bridesmaid's dress, given baffling and generic praise by Michael Kors for how "cute" it was, was nevertheless so short that it would never have appeared at any wedding I have ever attended, nor would it flatter the vast majority of women. One of the secret charms of a good bridesmaid's dress is that it should flatter a variety of body shapes. You know what doesn't? A tiny dress that reveals about half of the thigh.

Leanne's dresses, on the other hand, clearly belonged together. She had come up with a design theme centered around waves, and it showed both in the pattern and in the color palette. She absolutely destroyed that challenge, and the hint we saw of her collection in development made it look like what was to come would be equally good.

Of course, if they want to hand the prize to Korto, that's also fine. She's very talented. she's smart, and she has a sensibility that tends to be dramatic without being...well, to quote a past contestant, it's not overly fierce.

I'm not proud of it; I'm not defending it. But for me, it's Anybody But Kenley.