Missed Oppurtunity

I understand that in a way they wanted the designers to have some sort of investment into the sign that they were using, so they wanted them to do either theirs or the auf'd designers. But here's my issue: we could have had this great fashion show type situation where each of the twelve signs was represented and everybody was working on something different. You could have even tried to do that first season thing where it needed to look like a collection instead of separate pieces. Instead, we get lots of the same sign over and over.

And only one person picked Leo! I guess there was only one Leo, but that's just not right. Obviously we Leo's are the most interesting sign ; )

On with the show:


This garment is so much of a disaster that I can't even begin. It reminds me so much of the terrible-ness that got Emily sent home, and nearly had Blayne thrown out too that same week. What in the world was he thinking? How could he have conceived of this idea and thought that it actually made sense? What in the world was he thinking when he chose that fabric for the base part of the outfit and then puckered it that way so that it looked like old pantaloons?

What does have to do with being a Libra? I get the idea of playing with weight and balance, but how does this actually convey that? I don't see that really even at all. I'm completely baffled.

I don't really understand how Blayne made it this far in the competition in order to be this bad at this stage in the game. I suppose because of his habit of being on one week and terrible the next week.



I really wish we had been able to see more of the judges talking about the top outfits, because I want desperately to know why this dress won. First, it's not avant guarde. I might hate that term, but it doesn't fit it. Second, if I saw this and had to guess the sign it represented I would say Pisces because it seems fish-like with the scales and the green colors.

I also think that it makes the model look like she's leaning back in a weird way when she wears it, and maybe she is. But there's something about it that makes her look wrongly proportioned. The top is sort of baggy and loose too, which does her no favors.

I'm not saying this is a BAD dress. I'm just saying it shouldn't have won. It certainly is nice, it's well made, and I do like the skirt and think it's pretty interesting. But why it won, I'll never know.



I kind of don't care at all about this design. I don't see it really representing anything about the zodiac. I like the fabrics but really, it's just sort of there. It's not bad, it's not good. It just is.

It's another one of those outfits that the next day I couldn't remember even seeing in the show, let alone what it looked like.



Okay, I realize avant guarde does not mean wearable. I get that. But this is the thing, when Christian and Chris created an avant guarde look last season, it was completely unwearable and yet it was fabulous and gorgeous. This? This is neither of those things.

First, I don't care what Kenley says this has no relation to Aquarius. And I realize that the two fabrics don't have to MATCH but really, they could do better at it than these two. Kenley might want to be known for prints (which is what my text message said last week when they were doing the Diane Von Furstenburg challenge) but really she needs to work at figuring out that fine line that's involved with "matching" contrasting prints. I haven't seen her achieve it all that well.

This is the worst thing about this episode though, not only is this garment off the wall and strange, not only does it not fulfill the challenge, but Kenley turned into a horrible person somewhere along the line. I kind of liked her before, but she's just turned a little more every episode and I want to put duct tape on her mouth.

It's fine if she's in love with her design, she should be. You should be doing something you believe in. But the way she expresses it seems intentionally obnoxious. She's also rude to the judges, and you can think what you like about the judges but that's just a stupid thing to do. But in the end the thing that drives me the most crazy?

"I don't look at collections."

If that is true, my dear Kenley, then you are a failure. You can't be a writer without reading, you can't be an artist without appreciating art. What do you do in film school to learn to make films? You watch a LOT of films (trust me on this one, a lot) and you're encouraged every step of the way to look at other films that have done what you're trying to do so you can see ways they failed or succeeded as well as developing your own idea about the topic. If you want to be a fashion designer and you want to say, "I don't look at collections" then you're doing it wrong and I've lost all respect for you.

I'm almost sad that she stayed, and that's saying something.



Korto's dress really captures the essence of her zodiac sign, Aquarius. But it does so in a rather expected way, I think. The dress itself doesn't seem very new or edgy either. I love it, don't get me wrong, I just think it wasn't out there enough and that might be Korto's weakness.

I do wonder about the little jumpsuit that the model is wearing under the sheer overlay of the top. It looked a little odd coming down the runway.



I have to admit that I think Leanne should have taken home a third win in a row. Not just because I like her, not just because her colors are so gorgeous. But because if you look at the top designs it is clearly the one that took the challenge as inspiration and then went somewhere else with it. She didn't make a direct representation of the zodiac sign, she made something that is tangentially related but more about the avant garde portion of the episode.

It is something that you could take and then tone down into a ready to wear outfit that would be a huge hit. I can't necessarily look at it and see Scorpio, but I can see how she got there once I know. With Jerrell, even after I know what he was doing I don't see what he was thinking.

I do think that there's something about the dress when it's shown in a photo like this one that you don't get, and it doesn't look as good in a picture as it did on the runway. It's definitely something that needs to be seen in motion.

It does make me wonder if the designers supervise the photo shoots, because I don't know why the model is smiling the way she is.



Honestly, as much as Terri's attitude bothered me, and as much as I think her inability to be a team leader makes me think she should go home, I think Suede should not have stayed in this instead of her.

This outfit is not just kind of boring, it's not typical, it's poorly made. It is so badly made that it reminds me of the first time costumers try to mess around with satins. It's puckered and mangled and just sad to look at. But at least Suede didn't try to make himself a martyr. But really, he should have gone home. Sorry Suede, you seem like a great guy though!



It depresses me that this is the only representative we have of Leo. That makes me downright sad. Leo isn't just a fire sign, it's also a sign that denotes royalty. This does not look like royalty.

I think if she ditched the gold skirt for either a different gold fabric or something else entirely, I would like it so much more. But as it is the fabrics just don't go well together and I just don't like them.

But the thing that bothered me most was Terri's attitude. It was useless, it was baseless, and it made me cranky. She intentionally set up a situation where she was doing all the work and then tried to get somebody to feel sorry for her about it. She wanted to be a martyr for her efforts and that's just stupid. Even if you don't like Keith, he knows how to sew a straight line so have him sew the straight lines. It's not that hard. Give him the crap work, sure, but don't just tell him to get out of your way and then get mad at him for listening to you.

While it may have been a touch petty, I like the way Keith handled it. He basically said, "Fine, I'm not going to fight you, there's nothing in it for me." But he wouldn't just sit there on the runway and take the blame either. I'm impressed that the judges realized that Terri was the problem and didn't try to say "Why didn't Keith stick up for himself." Good on you judges, did you review the tapes or something?

In the end, like I said, I still don't think this deserved to go home because really, Suede's was much worse. I may not be a huge fan of Terri's work (I don't actually understand why so many people loved it so much) but in the end, she's proved herself to be more skilled than Suede and I'd rather see her collection at Bryant Park.

Another administrative note: For those of you who have LJs and would like to add the Syndicated Feed for this blog to your friendslist, my friend Domynoe created one for me! It's at http://syndicated.livejournal.com/1girlsopinion/profile. Thanks!

Back to the same old

Project Runway, the highs and the lows. The great challenges and the fun drama followed by Kenley crying a lot and forgettable designs again.

Ah well, not much to be done about it. I did enjoy the challenge, and I did quite enjoy some of the top looks. I just felt like there were too many people in the middle again. When I went through to save the images, all I could think was "Oh yeah, that is what Jerell made, isn't it?"

Shouldn't I remember these things the next day? I would think so.



I have no idea what this is. The jacket itself is really cute, I like it. But those pants, what in the world are those pants? I understand nothing about this ensemble, even though I can forgive the scarf as just a splash of colors. But the pants...I just keep going back to those pants. It's the wrong fabric for them, and it's the wrong look in general. I just don't understand it even slightly.



Jerell doesn't know how to turn himself down from 11, does he? He can't just make fashion, can he? If you took off the bright blue belt, which frankly doesn't belong at all, and the jaunty little hat, then you have a cute little outfit. But it's like he's compelled to take it up that notch into costume. On the one hand, inventive styling really helps you stand out and be interesting. On the other hand, why is he that way week after week after week?

I do think this is a cute outfit, but like I said, I forgot it entirely in the meantime.



Okay, I would like to point out the absolute saddest part about the previous two outfits. Up until I just looked at this picture, I remembered that the challenge was to create a look to go with Diane Von Furstenberg's collection. I completely and totally forgot about the entire "A Foreign Affair" influence until I looked at this outfit and tried to remember why he wanted an oriental look.

What does that say about the previous two? That they failed utterly to convey the influence of either old Hollywood or the film. That must be where Jerell's jaunty hat comes in.

Back to Joe's outfit, which is a bit of a mess. I actually kind of like the little hooded wrap/shawl that he's got, but I hate most of the color choices he makes. Why the hot pink with the more orangey-pink of the shirt? Why the glittery black with the satiny black? I'm baffled.

The idea is okay, actually. It's the execution that fails completely. Like I said, the colors are off. They're poorly chosen and they don't go together. But then to have an uneven hem at this point in the competition is a little ridiculous, and for everything else to be lopsided in the back? I'm confused. And the open back almost could have worked with the hooded shawl IF the fabric had been a little less...trashy. It could have been pretty if he had done maybe all black or more muted colors. But those bright pinks just don't flatter the design at all.

I might try to make a shawl like that though.



I ponder that pattern. I think the dress looks great, and it could have been the most impeccably made thing that Project Runway has ever seen. But looking at it on the form Kenley HAD to know that it wasn't going to be enough. She obviously knew, she interviewed about it constantly. So why didn't she conceive of even a little shrug or a shawl or something? Why didn't she try? I understand her protests about making the perfect dress, or the collection needing a simple look (and isn't that presumptuous?) but at the same time, she should have known the judges wouldn't buy it and they wouldn't care.

But the thing that kicks it over for me is that I really never warmed to the print. It would be a great print if it had a solid to temper it. Even a wrap or a small jacket could have broken it up and made it really so much better. Making the top in this print and the skirt in a solid could have done something great for it too. But instead I just think the whole thing looks so busy that I wonder who could wear it.



I expected Korto to win as soon as I saw her put that splash of yellow in the underside of the dress. In this picture the dress isn't as flattering as it could be around the hips, so maybe a bit more tailoring could have helped. But I love the interplay of the print and the yellow solid.

This outfit really does seem at home in high fashion, and I could see it on the runways at Bryant Park. My only problem, and what makes me step back from saying it should have won, is that I don't see the exact correlation between the influence of the film and the dress. But then, I often don't see the influence in finished garments.



I have to say, I really love that Leanne won with immunity. It was a great thing to see because she's just so darn cute and excited all the time. But I do have to admit that as far as fashion goes, I like Korto's dress better.

That isn't saying I don't love this one though, I do like it. I think the coat probably could have stood to be a little less bulky. But the dress is fabulous and I can really see the influence of old Hollywood in the design, without it being too retro.

I think I just still have problems understanding how the jacket fits with the dress. I see how it's an intersection of masculine and feminine and such, but at the same time, it doesn't seem to go like an outfit meant to be together. It seems to be an accidental success where the woman put on the wrong jacket or just had to grab something before she went out. I do think the jacket on it's own is really great though, it's the kind of thing I'd like to wear.



Of all the crazy things that Stella has made (and worn) throughout this show, I think that the model really works this look in this picture and makes it hard to understand why she was eliminated when compared to the other bottom level looks. But in motion and on the screen it really was just a mess. It looked to me like it needed another trip through the iron.

I'm surprised about how the fit ended up because Stella makes tight pants as a matter of course. So how did she mess up making pants? Was it just that her heart was not in it? Was it the fabric? I've got no idea. I do think it's interesting how Stella didn't pay a bit of attention to the challenge. Maybe she wanted to be out, I don't know.



I'm actually kind of confused by this print even being in Diane von Furstenburg's closet in the first place. But I suppose it could be used to good effect, it just isn't here. Also, it's boring. The jacket doesn't look well tailored or well made.

I think the positive thing about this episode is that none of the bad designs are THAT bad, but I also think that's part of what makes this season boring. Where is the crazy German lingerie?



I do really love this coat, but I have to say that the designers and their comments about Terri making the same thing over and over are really spot on. She's reminding me of Christian, only with more understandable ego and a lot more imagination. Did I say that out loud? Anyway.

I think the print worked out pretty well here, but I do wish that Terri would bust out a really fabulous floor length gown or something. What else can she do? Where is she going with this? What kind of collection would she make? This is not to say there isn't a market for Terri, there is. She is going to be very good at what she does and make money at it. I just don't know why that makes her a Project Runway winner.

A housekeeping note: I'm sorry these are getting posted on Friday's these days, but I've started grad school and I have class on Wednesday and Thursday nights and it's the first chance I get to write them up. But I should be able to continue to post them up on Fridays. Also, there's now and RSS feed for this blog, click the link over the right that says subscribe and you'll never miss a post!

Finally!

I can't believe it, but seven episodes in this season of Project Runway seems to have found it's feet, and so did the designers. All it took was horribly blatant product placement! I can't believe how good this episodes was, it was like I was in a completely different series. Maybe it was that Laura came back. If you follow my blog you'll know I'm not actually a huge fan of Laura, as much as I think she did impeccable clothes I also didn't really buy into her specific style. But she did know what she was doing and it almost made up for Rachel Zoe, who I really just can't stomach.

On to the showcase of this episode, since the challenge was just so dang weird, the clothes!



On the dress form and in the sketch this dress was amazing. It was so pretty looking, and I thought "Hey, Blayne is going to pull it out once again! When is he going to stop doing this to me?" But no, instead when the garment actually came out onto the runway it just...was fitted so wrong it was depressing. What in the world did he do to make the top fit that poorly and couldn't he have stuffed her bra or something to make it a little better? Heck, Leanne stuffed our model's hips!

The concept was great, the fit was terrible. And that seemed to be universal in the lower levels of this episodes.



I hate the styling of this outfit but I can see how it's "runway styling" and not "everyday styling." But the garment itself is really great. It had some problems with bunching, but I've started paying attention to other people's clothes lately and realized that fitted clothing just bunches strangely all the time, it's only flat when you just put it on or something.

But the ideas here are sound, the colors are great. It's a little on the micro side but I love it still.



This is a little too similar to his work in the Olympic challenge, IMHO, but I like that he incorporated the logo for the car. It's a really cute outfit that I could see on the girls that walk around race tracks for some reason (do they hold the flags? I'm not sure, I'm not that into racing). But it really looks like something you'd see around a track. Only, the cars were Saturn's and I'm sorry but race cars they are not.

I love the colors though, I'll say that. I'm a huge fan of that color palette.



This is the thing about Keith's downfall: he forgot what the judges are there for. It's kind of easy to do. See, I'm in film school right now and I know how it is to be in classes or be judged by people constantly who are critiquing your work and going on about what you're doing wrong. I know how easy it is to get down on yourself and assume they hate you.

But the other thing I know, and the thing that Keith lost sight of is that the judges aren't there to make you into somebody else, just like professors aren't (if they're good professors, I've had some that did seem to want to make me in their image). What they're trying to do is help you be a better you. Help you find your voice and use it to the best of your ability, to be the most effective.

Keith couldn't figure that out, and that's part of why he's gone. If he hadn't made those comments on the runway, I'm convinced Stella would have been eliminated instead. But he decided he was a victim, and I've been there so I can't make fun of him too much for it.

The dress itself was a pretty big failure, to be honest. Seatbelts are kind of horrible for stuff like this, I've seen them made into bags a lot and they're stiff and have very little give, and they very easily pucker and twist. Though I do think that them making his model sit down in hair and makeup was just wrong. If she walked in and said, "I can't sit in this, it'll split" then they should have worked around it. Maybe she didn't say that, maybe he shouldn't have let her leave the workroom in the skirt. But all the same, something smacks of "not his fault" while at the same time reminding us of "make it work."

The problem, I think, was completely in the top. Sure, the skirt was uninteresting but if it was countered with a truly fabulous top it could have been something, and instead it wasn't.



I love the handmade zebra print so much. That was such a creative use of air filters, and I think Kenley really made something that was creative and used interesting materials. My biggest problem with it is just that it's a little boring, and it's just so much like everything else that she's given us. Where's the thing that's supposed to make it memorable?



I like this coat, don't get me wrong. But the one thing that makes me not love it as much as some is that I've seen this woven seatbelt thing before. They sell these bags at the Hirschorn in different sizes, and they do some interesting patterns to. So that's not really something that is new.

That said, it's still very impressive. I think that Korto is absolutely a lock for the final three, there's no doubt in my mind about it. One of my friends said that everything she's made has been a kimono, and I do have to admit that she goes with similar styles often enough. But she's been strong in almost every single challenge and she's definitely got a handle on herself and her own style.



I am so in love with this garment. Leanne impresses me more and more every episode, and I'm so happy that she's also got a fabulous personality and great manners to go with a good aesthetic.

I just really love what she did, with taking the natural flow of the leather and letting it really just do what it wanted. Also, for me, this is an example of a garment that isn't something you would just wear to work but isn't' so over the top that you look at it and say "WHO would wear that?" It's just well made and well thought out so you look at it and you don't care who would wear it, the model is wearing it and she looks fabulous.

I love that she decided to fray the seatbelt too. I never really thought that much about seatbelts before, but the frayed ones I've seen haven't been nearly as attractive as she made this. You also can see pretty quickly how fast she learned how not to just pile things onto the dress because the trim is so understated and it's really a trim.

An absolutely deserved win.



Stella is the same story as Keith: she was on the bottom because instead of trying to be better at what she does she decided to be something else. But also, because it was a poorly fit, boring and drab little outfit. Not to mention the fact that the seatbelt skirt had this huge pucker in each layer going down the back. I know it's a horrible "fabric" to try to work with, and that puckering like that was probably their number one enemy. But the fact that it was so bad just speaks to how little Stella wanted to work on this challenge.

I'm really a little baffled about Stella suddenly deciding not to be herself. I don't like her garments or her style, but at least she was unapologetic for it up until now. Unlike others, she just said, "this is what I do, these are the clothes I make." Sure, I wanted to see her branch out, but there's a difference between branching out and wussing out.

If the top had been more fitted and the skirt hadn't had those puckers then I think she probably would have still been in the bottom for being a touch boring, and because so many of the dresses were so good. But I wouldn't be thinking she should have gone home.



This is a really fun little outfit, but it reminds me so much of most of the things that Suede has made up until this point. I do like that he was the only one that used some of these materials, but it's overall effect was really impressive, but would have been more so if we hadn't seen this dress from him before just in different fabric.



This is a fabulous outfit, it's absolutely wearable. I could see this model walking into a club right now. Some of the praise that was heaped on Terri's earlier inspiration design fits right here. The only thing for me is that it is a little plain and safe at the same time. And saying that makes me feel like a hypocrite because both things can't be true at the same time.

I wouldn't have replaced anybody that was in the top (except perhaps Jerell, I think that this garment is on par with his) but at the same time, I think it was really fantastic and I could see this actually being sold in stores.

While on the one hand I absolutely hate this challenge because of the product placement and the cheap commercialism of it. On the other hand, it's more along the lines of the flower challenge or any of the crazy weird ones we've had in the past. I also think that these are just the best garments that these designers have produced so far. Congrats guys.