Whoa. Whoa. Whoa WHOA WHOA. I thought for sure they were going to keep Ra’mon. They seemed really into him even though I wasn’t mad about his designs.
Poor guy.
What’s up with Gordana constantly being in the bottom 3? I really like most of her stuff.
But I guess Ramon’s thing wasn’t all that nice. I mean…it was a hot mess.
Well, on with the models. I don’t get all the Logan love.
Whoa. Fatma GONE? Jesus. I thought they’d keep her around longer for the sake of the drama.
I don’t get the Gordana hate from the judges. She keeps winding up in the bottom 3 for no discernable reason. I get that the flapper dress wasn’t fanciful, but it was a costume and it was beautiful. She’s not getting a fair shake.
I thought Epperson’s dress should have won, but Nicolas’ was interesting. I didn’t love Christopher’s. I agreed with Tim about the sleeves, though it seems the judges liked it anyway.
I’m not surprised Fatma was eliminated because she has a very unique look, and I think many designers like a more bland appearance.
From the previews, it appears that Michael Kors will be back. Yay!
NOOOOOOOO!!! I want my Fatma back!!! 
Seriously, I’m really sad about this. In the end, she really wasn’t that much of a drama queen.
How could Althea have picked Tara? Seems like a nice girl, but SO washed-out and awkward looking on the runway.
I’m not sure why Gordana was in the bottom 3 before, but this time she definitely deserved it. Nice dress, but you can find it in the Simplicity pattern book. I thought she was auf-bait. Glad to see it didn’t happen.
Christopher’s dress was really cool, but it was basically just another cool dress. I’d put him in third place, but I continue to be very impressed with his work overall.
Epperson’s was amazing, and Matar couldn’t have been more perfect in it. Over the seasons, we’ve seen a lot of designers getting really pissy and/or basically giving up on a challenge when they got stuck with a bad assignment. Epperson was obviously unhappy about getting stuck with “western,” but he gave it his best effort anyway, and it paid off.
Nicholas definitely deserved that win. The dress was amazing, and the styling was absolutely perfect. But I’m not sure it says much about him as a designer. I have no reason to think that this wasn’t a fluke. But I really did enjoy the dress and the story.
Speaking of stories–You know how Ra’mon was saying that he’s really into science fiction? Well, that was the problem! His concept was completely unoriginal. Lizard women from outer space? How many zillions of times have we seen that already? I’m very sorry to see him auf’d, though.
But come on. Lizard women from outer space??
What was up with Louise’s total fail this ep? She got film noir, which is right up her alley, and we know she can do period pieces, since her whole line is basically 20s-40s era stuff. Yet somehow, she turns out a boring, lame dress that’s neither nor noir really period at all. She’s lucky Ra’mon made Diana from V this week or she would have been out.
Ra’mon seems like a nice guy, but this is one too many times he had to remake a dress (out of ugly green fabric dyed in the bathroom) at the last minute. I think he just could not work under pressure.
Hey, I just realized something–
This week, he made a shiny green bodysuit and then scrapped it.
A few weeks ago, he made a shiny brown bodysuit and scrapped it.
Ra’mon needs to learn to step away from the shiny bodysuits.
Poor Ra’mon. I really think he has more potential to be an interesting designer than Louise.
I thought they wanted something that really could be a film costume, but clearly they wanted “inspired by.” Shirin’s saloon girl, for example, could be a film without being distracting and she was middle of the pack. Christopher’s dress, while lovely, would totally throw me out of a period piece. Lovely as it was, backless and sleeveless is not Elizabethan. Turns out that he read the challenge correctly, though.
I think the problem with Gordanna – as the judges see it – is that she’s a great dress maker, but not a very good designer. All of her outfits are nice and pretty but there’s nothing really memorable about them, nothing that makes you take notice of her.
I too was surprised that Ra’mon went instead of Louise. I thought the judges on PR were all about pushing the envelope and taking risks. I figured failed ambition would win out over boring but not awful.
Well, that’s how it has been in previous seasons, but apparently not this season. Exhibit A: Malvin’s chicken suit.
Well, there’s risk and then there’s just sending your model down like she’s a gigantic egg.
Gordana’s stuff is pretty, but the guest judge was right on the money when she said “I see a lot of your fingers, but none of your eyes.” It’s the problem, imo, with all of her work on the show so far–they’re technically very well done, and pretty, but there’s no…no oomph to them that lets you look at her work and peg it as hers or get a sense of who she is as a designer. That will absolutely kill you in a competition like this. Flying under the radar is fine as long as there’s a Malvin or a Qristal or a what’s-her-name with the quilted silver volleyball vest, but when those people have been weeded out, your ass is in trouble.
As dreadful as some of their designs have been, I felt like I had a pretty good sense of who the previously auf’ed designers were as designers. Volleyball girl and Melllvar were what I tend to call weirder-and-thus-cooler-than-thou, and it came through in the stuff they did on the show. Qristal’s designs were loud and brash and exuberant sometimes kinda tacky, and that fits in perfectly with what I’ve seen on her website. Ra’mon is into an organic-looking sort of architectural, geometric effect in his work, and he likes hand-dyed variegated fabrics.
Exactly. I put Gordana in the same category as Sweet P from a couple of seasons back – both excellent technicians and wonderful at RTW, but no “oomph” factor.
I’m happy Ice Queen won over Christopher’s mess of a Victorian-meets-Western. Really, I honestly sometimes don’t understand the judge’s love – I mean, even Tim said it “No long sleeves?” Something tells me that Nicolas isn’t a one-trick pony though – I think he’s got other surprises up his sleeve.
Oh, Ra’mon :sigh: I really could see where you were going, though.
I thought Epperson or Christopher should have won. Nicolas’s dress was top-three, but not a winner IMO. The ice queen dress was an excellent rendition of a recognizable theme, but I didn’t feel like it was something I’d never seen before. Plus, I just really don’t like Nicolas. . .
Epperson is amazing, I predict he’s the winner here. He remains calm, cool and collected, while putting great heart and technique into everything he does. But if I were a stunning beauty, I’d go to Christopher for a dress to set it off. He seems to understand the concept of “lovely” vs “sexy” which is a tough thing to find these days.
I thought Epperson’s dress was great, and Matar sold the hell out of it. Seriously, she was awesome. I preferred Christopher’s though. And yeah, yeah, no sleeves, yadda yadda yadda, but the “period” thing was supposed to be a jumping off point (as mentioned, Epperson’s dress certainly wasn’t something that a woman of that time and place would actually wear either) and that gorgeous ruffled nape was way better than a sleeve.
TruCelt summarized my feelings about Nicholas’s dress perfectly. And, for that matter, about Nicholas.
I also really liked Irina’s dress. Sure it was cliche, but it was perfectly executed cliche. And Kaelyn (sp?) rocked it out.
Speaking of the models… poor Fatma. On the other hand, yay Koji, who I like better. And while I get the “bland, blank canvas” thing, I also think that Tara is far and away the worst model there.
The saloon dress was totally a costume. How did it get by the judges?
Yes. Agreed. And I agree that Christopher’s dress was the hottest. It looked so well cut, and the materials so lush and expensive looking. Geez.
As for Fatma, love her. * Love her.* Her walk, her voice, her direct nature and most of all, that gorgeous face. Gonna miss her badly.
I thought Fatma had a good look but her personality and voice and just persona really bugged me. It was fun having someone stir things up but I kind of wanted to smack her when she would do the whole “America sucks,” or “I LOVE LOGAN” thing.
Fatma was abrasive, but I’m not sure she was stirring things up, or at least if she did so, in was inadvertent and she tried to make up with people. Vanessa and her crew are the ones cultivating drama. It’s no accident that Vanessa was the one that Fatma really had problems with.
And I have a slightly different take on the America-bashing. I definitely hate it when people from other countries sit there and dis the U.S. But it’s entirely possible that Fatma was trying to start a substantive discussion with the other models. She doesn’t have the greatest social skills however and didn’t approach the topic well. (Or maybe her social skills are fine in The Gambia but don’t play well here.) But she was playing to the wrong crowd. I don’t remember who was in the room at the time, but chances are that nobody there wanted to talk about social issues. I don’t buy into the dumb model stereotype, but this group as a whole is pretty darn vapid.
By the way, why do we never see Celine around the house?
The theme was to make a costume. They were supposed to go a little over the top.
I loved the halter on the Victorian piece. I was hoping he would win over the ice queen one but I guess it must photograph better.
There seemed to be a huge disconnect between what Heidi told them about the challenge, what Tim told them in the workroom, and what the judges were looking for.
At one point it seemed that they were to design a dress to be used in a movie (the winning Narnia knock-off that won purely on the makeup and hair stylings), and then they were to be inspired by the genre (Epperson’s running with the Western theme, even if it couldn’t be used in any kind of Western beyond a Firefly/Serenity type). And that whole business of coming up with a backstory - they’re designers, not screenwriters.
And the judges just seem to be smoking something. Some people got a pass for making a “costume” (can-can dress) and some got nailed for it (flapper dress). No consistency in the judging at all these last few weeks. I’m glad to see that The Angry Orange appears to be back.