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.

I'd rather have more Chris March

Really, bring back Chris March. You did it once, maybe could we do it again? Then I would have a designer I actually cared about in this year's crop. Instead, I just keep rooting for one of my five least favorites to get eliminated every week. At least this week I got my wish.



Okay, Blayne seriously needs to put tape over his mouth and stop speaking. Immediately. I think he might be sealing his fate in the fact that he'll never be able to get a serious job in his life because every employer will just keep saying, "oh, you were the licious one."

There's nothing wrong with this outfit. Which is probably the most distressing part of it all, because I wanted him to make something terrible, but he didn't. It's perfectly capable, and it looks like it's straight out of Adventures of Priscilla. It fits his Queen perfectly.

He really did need to think about the wings falling though, I know costumers who are more competent when it comes to that, but when they're standing up like they're supposed to they are pretty fun and wild.



Thank goodness that's the last time I'll have to see Daniel look so appalled at the judge's opinions of his work. Did you see the condescending look he had when talking about the challenge? The man didn't want to make a drag queen outfit and so he didn't, he thought he was above it. That's fine, Christian thought he was above everything and somehow managed to make everybody love him anyway. But Daniel came right out on the runway and said to RUPAUL of all people that he didn't want to be tacky etc. Um, you don't really know your audience, do you Daniel?

The dress is pretty, it's really nice. It's made out of great fabric, and if he had made it for another challenge I would have talked about how great it was. But once more he came in about three levels short on the challenge. He never was somebody who really could make things pop (after the cup dress anyway) and kept making rather boring, simple outfits. So I'm not surprised that this was the challenge that did him in.



I think Jerell had a bit of a difficult task ahead of him, because La May seemed to be one of the more subtle Queens on the stage, and how do you impress in a drag queen competition if you're subtle?

This is, again, a very costumey look (I hate using that word but it's all I've got for Jerell) and while that's what the challenge called for, there's something about how the collar and the dress go together that doesn't work.

But, I really think that Jerell ended up on the bottom three because everybody (except Daniel and Keith) did such a fabulous job that they had to pick SOMEBODY and they had to say SOMETHING negative about it.

It was a great dress, and so it's a little longer, it's not THAT long. And it's plenty dramatic. I think Jerell just ended up in the bottom three of a very strong group, and the judges were more harsh than even they wanted to be.



I find it amusing that Joe, who seemed just a touch too uncomfortable with the challenge, was the one who won. But he really did take his Queen and give her a fabulous outfit. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if she goes and buys it off the auction so she can keep it.

It does look so fabulous on her, it fits so perfectly. It's eye-catching, it's fun, it's dramatic. There's so much about it that's perfect.

I'm not sure that I think it should be the winner, just because it is rather simple and doesn't amp up the drama that extra little bit.



This is such a terrible outfit, and if it wasn't for how insulting Daniel was on the runway, I really would have wished for Keith to go home because of it. It does the Queen no favors, it isn't fun, it isn't well made, and it just doesn't convey anything except being raggedy.

I can't for the life of me figure out what Keith was doing here. Apparently he really needs Kenley to temper his crazy and deconstructed ideas, because he could have done something with this if he had scaled back and edited a little bit. But instead he just went all out and it looks terrible. It's like he ran out of time and glued strips to a bra.



This is so typical of a Drag Queen outfit that I really don't have much to say about it. It's pretty, it's well made, it's very classic and goes with the client's style very well.

But it doesn't really pop, does it?



I love this dress, I absolutely would have picked it for the win over Joe. The biggest reason? Because Sweetie obviously loved it, and loved wearing it. It made her feel beautiful, it made her feel confident, and it showed in the way she wore it.

And that, my friends, is an amazing success. She looked and felt fabulous. The dress had drama without having too much, it fit perfectly. I love the colors, I love the sculpture on the shoulder (and unlike Blayne's wings, it was made really well).

Korto is becoming one of my favorite designers this season.



If Leanne had wanted to bring out the word surrealism, she certainly could have with this dress. I don't really like it as much as most of the other's this week, but it's a little wacky and a little fun, and it fits the client.

I love the colors too, they work so well together. There's not a false note for the fabric at all. It certainly isn't a winning garment, but it's a good effort. There's just a few more awkward looking parts to it, but I can't put my finger on what.



Stella gets a challenge to make an outfit for a drag queen, and she makes this? I'm so baffled by it. It's interesting, a little different, but I really don't see what it's about, what point she's trying to make...

I just don't understand the plaid. Not enough to think it's a bad garment, but enough to say "Eh?" I actually would have put it on the bottom instead of Jerell just to ask her what she was going for.



Dead grandfather's advice aside, what the heck was actually up with those little lettuce roses on the gloves? I didn't like it, I don't understand why Tim loved it, and I just don't get it. The dress itself is fun, but it doesn't look like a showstopper. It looks like something Hedda Lettuce would use as an intro outfit, or something for a more casual event instead of a show. It's a party dress.

But I guess the challenge didn't specify that it needed to be a show dress. Actually, looking at it, it seems like a traveling outfit to me. Like she's about to get on the train to go on some sort of exciting adventure.

I definitely like it, but it's again just the middle of the pack.



I am one of the only people who probably doesn't really like this outfit. I think it definitely deserved to be in the top three, because it does very perfectly fit the Queen it was made for. I completely agree with the top three pics (and the bottom two). But I don't like this better than Korto and Joe's for one reason: it's too much. I know, can you have too much with a drag queen? But I think this one does get there, because there's just so much going on. Not to mention that I can't imagine her actually doing a show in this. Modeling? Sure. But anything past a runway walk, what would she do? It doesn't look like she's meant to really talk, you couldn't do stand-up, you couldn't really dance...maybe you could sing, but for some reason the makeup and garment together make me think it's not meant for somebody who will be making any noises at all (maybe it's the white mime-face).

I will say that I'm so glad RuPaul mentioned Mahagony because I was desperately trying to figure out what it reminded me of.

I think Terri is probably starting to get frustrated, and I know her fans must be. She's had fantastic showings for a few episodes now but not managed to pull out the win. But I really don't think up to now that she deserved it yet. But I see it coming, I think she'll get there, and I can't wait to see it. I might be tired of her ego, but I'm in love with the fact that she really puts herself out there and makes outfits that I can remember the next week and want to talk about. Most of the other designers aren't accomplishing that yet.