Friday, November 13, 2009

Last challenge before Bryant Park

Deeesigners! Theese ees your last challenge! Make it work, ok?

Ok, we've made it to the end of the season! It was a long road of kicking off designers with a vision and creative talent, to get to these designers. Christopher made it through being on the bottom many many times in a row, without having to wear tight shiny pants. Gordana squeezed by the judges hatred of her. Carol Hannah made it with 2 first names and not making a pair of pants. Althea giggled her way to the top. And Irina, well, we knew she was going to make, whether we wanted her to or not. Congratulations!

Tim takes the designers to the Getty Museum to meet the mayor of L.A. (nothing says fashion like the mayor of L.A.?) and gain inspiration. The designers are given some time to walk around and get inspired and then off to Mood with $300. Again, this is there chance to wow. By this time, the designers are burnt out and all the stress of working every day under the scope of the camera lens and Bryant Park in reach has just gotten to them, period.

To make matters worse 2 designers are getting auf'd. At this point, Christopher should be shaking in his boots, but as always, he thinks his dress is friggin amazing. You can't say this guy doesn't have self-esteem.

Irina is a shoo-in, and after her steady wins, she would have had to do something pretty hideous to not make it In. I'm not sure why she made this look. The color is very pale and not very wow. The length of the dress is "matronly". Why is it that awkward halfway length that's not too short or long? Also, the draping looks pretty boring. The judges were very disappointed in her styling of the model. Like I said, she would have to make something very wrong to not make it to Bryant Park. This is not the worst thing, so she is In.

Carol Hannah makes A Pretty Dress. Okee-dokie. I feel like I've already seen this dress about 3 times on this show. In this same color. So, forgive my yawing, but I'm not impressed with this safe dress. But remember, it's A Pretty Dress.


Althea is lucky to have made it to Bryant Park. In fact, I'm betting the judges already wanted her in and just couldn't say Auf her even for this fug creation. By now she really should have realized her time constraints and what she could and couldn't finish. She's been a pretty strong contender all season, so I'm not upset she made it on, but this creation is inexcusable. I mean, on first glance as it's coming down the runway with this fierce model workin it like a part time job, it's OK. But when you really look at it, you see everything that's wrong with it. She spent so much time on the skirt patchwork, she had to cut it off awkwardly on the bottom and threw together a basic top.

Christopher is Out. I can't say I'm surprised. At all. In fact, it just would have been outrageous for him to continue on, but maybe with some time he could have made an awesome collection. We just won't know. This was not the piece that would save him. That same drawstring top and awkward corset style middle with the basic skirt, all with the wrong material. I am proud of him that he didn't add 4,000 things to the bottom of the skirt. It was really sweet to see that a couple of the other designers chose him when asked who should move on to the finals (or perhaps they knew they could beat him?). This show should be for someone who is an unknown designer. However, Christopher has always been limited because of his lack of training, so he can only go up from here. And, like he said, he got to show 12 pieces on national television, that's nothing to sneeze at.

Ok. Gordana was robbed. I'm sorry, but I've had a week to think about it and I just get more upset thinking about it. She was the one that was the most inspired, and fit the challenge criteria the best. The judges seemed to agree that it was a beautiful gown. No, it wasn't complex, but it was elegant, sewn well, and was obviously made out of love for clothes making. I also read an interview with her in it, and she explained that they edited out her dying individual layers of fabric, bleeding the colors with a paintbrush and putting those layers together just so, to relate her inspiration piece, which was the Monet painting.
At one point, Nina Garcia tells Gordana she doesn't know who Gordana is as a designer, and "that's a problem". Well, the problem is, you and Mr. M Kors haven't been there the whole season, so how would you know any of the designers? I felt that to be a very unfair statement.

What really bothers me about this show, is that sometimes they seem to judge solely on that challenge alone, and sometimes they seem to factor in past challenges and keep people that have done well in the past and forgive that one hiccup. They need to decide which way they want to go and be consistent with it! I really would have liked the top designers to include Epperson, Gordana and one of the 3 girls that made it. I feel that would have shown more variety. These 3 girls, while talented and cute, have some similar design techniques to each other. (Whether they just are, or are stealing from one another, well that's a matter of opinion.)

And before I tell you to "Carry On", this is a great article (besides the many misspelled words) by the beloved Tim Gunn, who talks about this season and season 7!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/11/project-runway-tim-gunn-carries-on-to-season-seven.html

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