It seems like they did that on a previous season–maybe the Chris/Christian avant garde challenge? Of course, I may be talking out my ass, but it does sound awfully familiar.
I frankly don’t see where the winning avant garde look was really any more awful than any of the others. They were all bizarre and unflattering, which seems to be what avant garde means in fashion. And of course it wasn’t beach wear–none of the avant garde looks were. My understanding of the challenge is that they weren’t meant to be beach wear, but rather high-fashion, weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird pieces that used the surf looks as a generalized jumping-off point. And in that context, the neoprene dress succeeded as well as any, and better than some.
That’s not to say I liked it, by any stretch, but it had a lot of features the judges just seem to eat up with a spoon. For some reason, they always piss themselves with glee when someone sends down a dress with those hips that stick out like the model has a coat hanger taped to her ass. They adore it when someone hand-dyes a variegated color effect. They love love love a lot of ripples and folds and “textured” effects across the stomach that make someone look 5 months pregnant–for some reason they seem to think that shows off a woman’s figure. (Possibly too much time around Heidi, they think pregnant=underwear model?) And Ra’mon’s dress had the coat hanger hips, the variegated hand-dying, and the folded textures. It makes at least as much sense as that god-awful plaid monstrosity Jeffrey made that they were all drooling over.
When I heard Tim Gunn speak at the University of Maryland in October, someone asked about the auctions of the looks that take place after every episode and he made a comment that there is one look he’ll be buying this season because he thought it was so hideous, but a judge said “I would totally wear that dress!” (and the dress wound up winning), so Tim was going to buy it and make her wear it. He also said it was lime green neoprene :-).
Unfortunately, that means I knew who was going to win as soon as they sent the designers back to Mood to pick out the fabric for the avant-garde look.
Fortunately, that means we can now see one of the judges (Which one was he talking about? Heidi? Nina? Other chick?) wearing that monstrosity - comic gold.
IIRC, Tim also said that the judges were in disagreement over the winner/loser. I noticed that Max Azria was conspicuously absent during the times the judges commented on the neoprene horror… . .
I wanted to like Epperson when he told a couple of the guys that his youngest son was the same age as them. I am really sad that he turned out to be such an Ass.
I wanted to like Q when she talked about designing for all shapes but I am not fully sure she can design her way out of a paper bag. With Mitchell gone, she is not long for the world.
I am beginning to wonder who to root for. Maybe the girl with the Persian name. That dress in the maternity challenge was awfully pretty, and I don’t think we have seen a lot else that is.
For some reason the website only gives one designer for most of the dresses so it’s hard to remember what most of the teams were. I found it interesting that the judges seemed fairly happy with all the dresses. Even the “worst” ones they were mostly praising, or had a lot of praise for at least one of the pair. One thing I thought all the designers failed on was making their two designs go together.
For Epperson’s group, I liked the green dress a lot, and the macrame on the other dress was really nice too. I don’t think they deserved bottom two - I wonder if the judges put them there because of the team work issue.
I actually liked Nicolas’ loungerie fabric avant garde dress. It was a little provacative but what’s wrong with that? The cut itself was not revealing, and the combination of different fabrics was really cool looking as well as fitting into the sea foam theme.
Gordana’s top was nice but the skirt looked weird. And the only design that managed not to look crappy in brown. And actually for most of the designs I didn’t like the use of brown, both as part of the dress itself and also as part of a beachy theme. Johnny’s design had a nice weaving thing going and use of shear, but the poof and the color brown were not working. Qrystal’s thing was bad, the brown was horrible and the fit was not flattering, and the green poof was like an after thought.
Ramon’s flowy sea foam dress was nice, but the avant garde look was a horrible horrible mess. It looked like a 3rd grader had bunched up some construction paper and then spilled his juice on it. Seriously what were the judges thinking? I laughed when they all said “I would wear that… with a few alterations”. I really have to wonder if they made him win just so they could make Mitchell think he was safe. He almost deserves to win for making two dresses pretty much by himself, but that avant garde look deserves no praise and should have put him in the bottom two. I also thought it was funny that all Mitchell could lay claim to was the swimsuit that you couldn’t see at all. The judge comments seemed a little set up, I have to wonder whether or not they get to watch the workroom video before the judging.
I liked Shirin’s red bra with flowy pattern dress, Althea’s black number was nice although not very beachy, and the blue watery dress from Carol Hannah worked well. Chris’s hat was a nice touch although it was a risk with the whole hair emphasis, and I really liked the barely visible swim suit underneath. Logan’s was really nice with the surf suit top and poofy bottom. Kojii the model did not do it justice though, what was up with her horrible scowl and weird runway walk? I like the colors on Logan’s other dress with red and the black and white top trim, but either the dress was badly fit, or the model is pregnant or sticking out her stomach, there wa sa huge bulge in her stomach area.
I’ve been wondering what happened to the model part of the challenge - in past seasons the winning designer could often choose a new model. As things stand now there’s not much of a contest for the models.
Actually, there is, but all that footage is saved for the Models of the Runway show, so it’s not visible in PR so much, anymore. It’s only 1/2-hour and really complements the competition show quite well. Worth watching (it’s on right after in the initial Thursday night broadcast).
I saw part of that late at night last week, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I’ll try to catch it again. Thanks, ArchiveGuy. I’ll try to tune in next time. The model drama could get fun in past years. I’m thinking specifically of Morganza of season one!
I think what I like most about the Models show is that, since they’re not in direct competition with each other (it’s the designs and designers that are judged, not them), there’s almost no cattiness, and most of them come across as very sweet and supportive of each other. Only one personality has been contentious so far (Fatma), and her crush on her initial designer, and the subsequent overbearing flirtations, played a major part in him jettisoning her for someone else.
Still, despite giving all the designers–not just the winner–the option of picking someone new each week (a first for the show), most obviously have a good relationship with their models and tend to stay quite loyal. If anything, from all appearances, the models are even more fiercely devoted to their designer than vice versa.
Vanessa is a nasty piece of work, too. Fatma is a batshit crazy bitch and a bunny boiler to boot. Vanessa is a drama queen and shit-stirrer. No wonder they clashed.
That little clip where they had Fatma saying “Me and Logan. Logan and me!” was hilarious. Do you think she’s spending her downtime writing “F+L 4ever 2gether?”
I watched the first two MotR episodes last night. It’s just fascinating how a girl can work it on the runway like that and then turn out to be such a complete dork offstage. Katie is totally cracking me up.
Though she’s probably hurt and pissed right now, Fatma might live to be grateful that Louise picked her. I think Louise might have what it takes to go pretty far, if not all the way, in this competition, whereas Logan hasn’t really impressed me much either way yet. We’ll see if she schmoozes up to Louise as much as she does to the male designers. She will if she’s smart and can recognize skill when she sees it.
Sometimes cable companies move stuff around. You may have to hunt through your program guide or check the company’s web site to find your new Lifetime channel, but you should be able to find the number one of those places. (Assuning, of course, they’re still giving you Lifetime.)
