Saturday, August 02, 2008

Inspiration take two

Sorry this is a few days late, I was in the land the internet forgot for the week watching the ponies swim on Chincoteague Island. It was a ton of fun, but they also didn't have Bravo so I had to wait until I got home to post.

I know everybody is saying it, but it bears repeating: what's with the recycling old challenges, Runway? The first one was kind of cute, and interesting to go back and do it again. But this one? Blah, blah, and more blah. All it did was really put a spotlight on how dull this pack of designers really are.



I really don't understand why Emily got all the dislike and this dress didn't even make the bottom three. They're really extremly similar, and honestly I think Emily's is better made and more presentable.

Blayne is going to be one of those who is either really good or terrible isn't he? For one, his inspiration photo wasn't all that fascinating. Actually, almost none of them were. For two, what in the world is that collar?

I would have made this dress be out before Emily's, honestly. It's so...amateur and simplistic. It's a little literal, which is never really fun, and it just makes me think of the kind of thing a teenage girl makes when she first decides she wants to be a fashion designer.



First, I don't understand this dress exactly. That little bit of black bodice at the top just makes me think the dress wasn't finished and it's her bra showing through or something. But the fabric is lovely, and if it didn't have that one thing that confuses me, I'd like it more I think.

But it is just rather dull. And aside from the materials, the cup dress wasn't that amazing either. I guess you could argue that Daniel is all about simplicity and classic sillouettes but so far I've just been wondering what he can do and when he's going to stand out again.



I can't understand why so many people seem to think that Jennifer's dress was a bigger disaster than this one. For one, her picture was so typical. It's NYC at night, let's do time lapse of car's lights. Never heard of that before.

For another, it's supposed to be a photo about energy and movement, and this dress has NONE of that. It's just a ruffle. A big, funny looking, not very colorful ruffle. And it looks like it's supposed to go all the way around but one end got detached and is just hanging down the front.

Plus, Emily committed the cardinal sin of saying, "Tim Gunn told me X, BUT, I like my design so I'm not listening." STOP DOING THAT. How many times do we have to repeat this over and over and over? Maybe Tim isn't always right, but don't discount him without thinking about it.

If the dress had been strapless, then maybe the ruffle wouldn't have been as bad, but instead you've got this one shoulder that's thick and doesn't make sense.

The only thing that keeps me from confidently saying this dress deserved to be eliminated is that I think Blayne's was so much worse.



So help me, I cannot figure out what the heck matronly means while watching this show. I've tried to pay attention, and I just don't get it. Is it the fabric? Is it the length? The sleeves? I don't know, nothing is consistent about when they employ that word, except maybe that the dresses are a little more conservative.

This is the thing with Jennifer's garment though: her inspiration photo was actually kind of neat, and different than what most people come up with. New York City at night, and we get graffiti and we get lights every single time. But we don't neccesarily get a well-cropped photo of a pretty nifty looking clock. And maybe it's just that I often find myself taking photos of neat clocks when I'm on vacation, but I like it.

I like her fabric, and I see where she went from her photo to the dress. Okay, it's not gorgeous, it's not perfect, and it maybe deserved to be pretty low on the scores because it's a little dull, and only the sleeves really make reference to the clock. But you can't convince me that it's not a better garment than Emily, Blayne, and Keith's creations. The worst part of it is the top layer of blue skirt, because it poofs out in an odd way. Otherwise, it's not THAT great, but no, it isn't an elimination dress either.

I admit that Jennifer shouldn't have started her whole Holly Golightly/Dali thing and talking about surrealism because it's not in this outfit. She even said in an interview that she was going literal. So that was a major misstep, she sold it wrong. There's nothing slightly surreal here.



I have so little to say about this dress. It's a step up from last week, but at least it looks more like a flamenco dancer than an exotic dancer. The bust fits oddly, and really, that's all I've got. Why are these designers so dull?



I liked Joe's photo, it stuck out in my mind. Plus, he did a more literal take that still managed to be interesting, and kind of cute. But he's still coasting along the middle of the pack, when is he going to do something that's going to get him noticed?



Oh, Keith. His photo was intriguing, the idea was really interesting. Most people in a challenge like this, if they're not Andrae, are going to look for all those bright flashy and beautiful things that make up NYC. But Keith found something dirty and discarded, which is also a part of any city.

And then he went completely in an opposite and strange direction that I couldn't follow. How did he get from that photo to this dress? I absolutely don't get it. It just looks like a bunch of rags pinned onto a sack. The fabric choices don't make a lot of sense to me either. I have no idea what he was thinking, and honestly thought he was going home. Which would be sad, he's grown on me.

To be completly honest, I keep going back and forth on if this one is worse than Emily's, and the only reason I think it isn't is because he at least had a different kind of inspiration photo.



So promising right out the gate, and yet what has Kelli given us in the two challenges since? I know they're designers and not photographers, but her photo was kind of bad. There's a way to take a photo of a fire hydrant and that's not it. But that's just me being picky.

This is not my type of dress. At all, it doesn't even come close to the types of things I like. I can see the Mad Max influence, I can see how it could be an expression of her as a designer. But I don't really care for it anyway.



Okay, I want to say first that I kind of like Kenley. She seems like a nice and fun person, she has a design sense that I like. I like vintage, I like that older pin-up style. I really enjoy some of the clothes she's made and worn so far.

I really don't like this dress and I have no idea why it won. I can't figure out who would wear it, where they would wear it, and what the relation to her photo was at all. It had generally nothing to do with her photo, let's all admit that right here. The colors weren't even similar.

The tulle-like skirt part is interesting, and if it had been with a different pattern for the main dress, or different sleeves on the dress, I might have gone for it. But putting it all together, I just simply don't like it at all. Thick collar, puffed sleeves, bubble skirt...it's all too much.

I have no idea why this won. No idea at all.



Remember when I was talking about Daniel and how he might just really like simple garments? I get that feeling from Korto, she's seems to be very focused on simple ideas done well. But here's the thing: her outfits aren't boring. They're just not flashy.

I don't even remember her inspiration picture, but this jumpsuit is completely wearable and I could see it on store shelves right now. It's nice, it's well made, and it's just a good, solid effort. I can forgive the misstep from last week easily when you put this and the first dress together.



I think I'm joining a chorus from the rest of the internet when I say I want this skirt. Leanne deserved this win, hands down. She looked at the city and found something commonplace for inspiration, and said as much. That's something that a good photographer has, the eye for seeing things that have always been there as something worth looking at, for not glossing over the commonplace and forgetting that it's there.

Then she took that inspiration, and made something classy out of it. Something simple, beautiful, and it's very easy to see how she went from the photo to the garment. But at the same time, it wasn't a literal translation of it, it was just an inspiration.

She learned so much from last week, and I'm sure it makes all the judges happy they didn't eliminate her because I don't think Wesley could have done that. It's always impressive to see that kind of progression from somebody on a show like this. Most of the time they walk around saying, "I don't care what the judges think this is what I want!"

This whole piece is just absolutely fabulous, and I have no idea why it didn't win. Apparently the internet feels the same, because every poll I've seen has said by a gigantic majority that it was the favorite.

Deserved praise, every bit.



Can we eliminate Stella before I fall asleep? Or before she wears those atrocious pants again? Please?

This is so boring and typical that I refuse to talk about it.



Kind of cute, kind of fun, not that fascinating. I'm so running out of nice things to say about some of these people's outfits. Somebody on Blogging Project Runway commented that this looked like it belonged in Michael Knight's collection from season three, and I completely agree. But it looks made well, and it fits her nicely.



I have absolutely no idea why the judges loved this so much. I can see how she went from her picture to this, that's fine. I can see how they enjoy it in a 70's throwback kind of way.

But I just don't like that pattern for the top at all. There was something about it on the show that bothered me the entire time. The horizontal nature of it? The darkness of the colors? I don't know what it is, but that pattern on that dress seems completely wrong to me.

So I didn't like it, and I think I really could have if it was slightly different. A little lighter maybe? I don't know. But I certainly don't get the idea of wanting to get to know a girl that's wearing that outfit. I wouldn't think she was anybody intersting at all. Sure, attitude, I can see that. And I can completely understand why it was in the top, in fact I think the top dresses were the best ones. But I don't understand the overwhelming praise.

It must be that it's just not my style, I guess.

Let's see which challenge they crib off of next week! I would guess a team challenge, but it's not the right number of designers for that. I'm going to guess there's unconventional materials involved.