PR Toons, E6

Uh-oh! Alex is losing coherence!

[Illustrations: Alex Cox/Projectrunway.blogspot.com]


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The Bitter End

Let's finish this, bitches.

Althea:

Model: Tanisha Harper

It's not a bad look. It's sexy with a side of slutty, but nicely tailored and a little expensive-looking.

And we do like the skirt, especially from the back.

...

Oh, sorry. Fell asleep there for a second.

What else is there to say? It evoked a film noir aesthetic without being too literal, but it wasn't exactly an exciting look. Middle of the pack.


Shirin:

This was a pretty decent entry, all things considered.

Model: Ebony Jointer

We're not exactly experts on 19th century dancehall girl costumes, but this appears to be pretty much dead on, which is impressive considering she had no reference materials. We like the colors she used.

And the almost invisible details, like the lacing and the little bows. The only thing that irritates us slightly is the asymmetrical lace around the top.

All in all, another decent middle-of-the-pack entry.

Irina:

"From the last challenge and coming into this one, it reminded me of how good I am at doing these wow pieces."

Oh, girl. Thank god for you and Nicolas or we wouldn't have any smack-talking this year. Nothing more boring than a polite contestant. And nothing better than a smack-talker...

Model: Kalyn Hemphill

...who winds up with ass on the runway. This was one weird look. It's like Alexis Carrington's lingerie with a dryer sheet on top.

We don't mind the lace cutouts so much, except they're sending a message and that message says "Insert penis here."

That's not true; we do kind of mind the cutouts because they're so cheap-looking.

And worse, the whole thing is pretty badly executed, what with all the puckering. Still, take away the dryer sheet and pretend that it's well executed and it's not a bad design. It's just barely a middle-of-the pack entry, though. It's like one point above a bottom three.

Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:






[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]



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The ROMANCE of the CENTURY

Or, you know, not.

We've got nothing to say about the silly romance that never was, but we do think it's awfully funny that they decided to confer on their looks so they didn't step on each other's toes and then they both turned around and produced amazingly similar looks.

Model: Kojii Helnwein

But Logan's was clearly better, in our opinion.

In fact, this may have been the best thing he's done yet on the show. We didn't realize until we looked at these pictures that he had her done up to look bloodied.

We liked that his material (we're assuming it's some sort of pleather) had a matte finish to it. It was more sophisticated-looking than what CH used. Because of that finish, he could get away with a lot of details that would have looked overwhelming otherwise.

And the fit was pretty damn good. Tight, but not so much that it looked vulgar. Nice job.

Model: Lisa Blades

This, on the other hand, wasn't so great. It wasn't horrible, but when it's stacked up against such a similar look as Logan's it comes off a distant second.

The styling was awful and amateurish, in our opinion. She tried too hard to go glam when she should have been thinking "kickass." The coat is a nice touch but it's so similar to Jillian Lewis' signature coats that it was a bit distracting.

TOO SHINY! And the fit is TERRIBLE. Well, maybe not terrible, but it doesn't look sexy or form-fitting, like Logan's does. It looks stiff and it looks like she's wearing someone else's outfit.

And what the hell are those thing around her legs?

We figure it was probably meant to be some cool-looking, gear type of thing for your average action hero, but they just looked extraneous. Worse, the shiny gold combined with the shiny black looked cheap.

We're being a little harsh here. We don't hate it. It's just that these two designers for some reason decided to do extremely similar outfits and one was clearly far superior to the other one.

Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:





[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]



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Girls on the Bottom

Oh, kittens. We're really going to step in it now.

We might as well get this over with, like ripping off a band-aid. Okay, here goes:

We don't think the judges were too hard on Gordana this episode.

*duck*

Are you still there? Are you still yelling at your monitor? Once you're ready to listen, scroll down.

Model: Tara Egan

Here's the thing: we think the judges have been hard on her in previous episodes. We're absolutely in agreement with the seeming majority of our commenters on that point. And while we think the judges had very, shall we say, fluid ideas regarding the criteria for this challenge, we don't think this look works based on any of them.

First, we're going to start with the styling. That hairdo was all kinds of wrong for a flapper look. Way too puffy and big. The thick, heavy eye makeup was a bit too much. Those shoes she put her in are awful. We're sure some flapper at some point wore opera gloves but it's really not the kind of thing one associates with the look. And while we're not entirely sure if the accessories wall contains much in the way of jewelry, the patented flapper look is a lot of long, layered necklaces. Using the left over fringe from the skirt to mimic that really cheapened the look and brought it down to costume shop levels.

Moving on: we'll take the sewers' word for it that this fabric is apparently very difficult to work with. Point for that because the execution on this look is fine; excellent, even.

Except for the glaring uneven-ness of those straps.

And finally, this dress is simply not the right style or silhouette for a flapper look. It's way too fitted. The flapper look was characterized by a relatively loose upper half with a drop waist and a straight skirt. It was meant to make a woman's body look very skinny and angular; all arms and legs.

In the end, it's a decent dress, but no great shakes. And it really didn't work either as a costume for a film or even as an "inspired by" look.

Whew! Done! Still love us? Let's move on to an easier one.

We've been somewhat pleasantly surprised that Louise has shown the ability to work outside her comfort zone and we would have thought that this challenge would be right up her alley, since she specializes in retro clothes that border on costumey. Her first mistake was choosing Film Noir. She clearly didn't have a good concept of what that meant. We would have thought she would run to grab the "period" card out of Tim's hands. She could have done a killer Victorian look, we have no doubt. Before this challenge we also would have thought her capable of a killer flapper look, but as we all saw...

Model: Fatma Dabo

Things didn't quite work out that way. To be fair, it seems that she didn't set out to a flapper-inspired look, but inexplicably wound up with one for a character that should have been inspired by the late '40s and '50s. She could have nailed it with a Mildred Pierce-esque broad shouldered suit or even a Dior New Look-inspired piece.

Instead, she wound up with this. Something that really doesn't belong in any particular era or genre. It has confusion written all over it.

Here's a little quote from her Facebook page:

"Just an FYI about ep. 6: most people don't realize how hard it is. You 2nd guess yourself a lot. As you can see from ep. 6 I had drawn a completely diff. sketch than what my final design ended up as. On our way to Mood, Althea & I were looking at our sketches. I realized we were both doing high-waisted pencil skirts w/ ruffles going down the butt, and blouses tucked in. I was set on this 40's military outfit, but changed it on the way to Mood because I didn't want our outfits looking so similar. I wish I'd stayed w/ my original idea now, because I had a great story for that character & a real direction. Channeling my mind made me lose my train of thought on this challenge."


Even without her backing it up like that, it was easy to guess just from looking at it how much she was second-guessing herself.

It's really not a bad little dress, all things considered.

Take away all the flapper frippery and it's a chic little cocktail dress.

What it is not, unfortunately, is a costume or even a look "inspired by a movie genre." It's just a relatively cute little dress that she tried to tart up in the styling to make it look like more than it is.

Extended Judging:

[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]



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Epperson and Christopher

And the confusion continues, kittens.

Commenters, as is the custom with the internet, have very strong opinions about who was robbed and who was treated badly and who should have gone home this past episode. We're having a hard time signing on to any one point of view because there were two ways to take this challenge and both the designers AND the judges switched back and forth in order to justify their choices.

Model: Matar Cohen

Take this look, for example. Under any criteria, it really is a fabulous look, perfectly rendered.

Honestly, there isn't a thing about this we don't love, from the frayed ruffles to the leather (esque?) sash...

To the split skirt and the suggestion of frayed and weathered petticoats. It's all very evocative and creates a character almost instantly.

The problem is, this was pitched as a costume for a western and discussed as a topic for a western and to be perfectly honest, this would never work as a costume for a western because it's so obviously historically inaccurate.

And before anyone plays the "westerns can be set in any period or place" card, let us just say that while that's true, that's not how Epperson conceived it or described it.

He's the one that said "Western is a period" and he's the one who described the character in strictly traditional western terms.

In the end, he didn't fulfill the dictates of the challenge (at least as far as the judging was concerned) but he did produce something so beautiful that they simply couldn't ignore it.

Model: Katie Sticksel

Christopher's look had pretty much exactly the same problems, with a few extra problems added on. Let's break it down.

This look is gorgeous and romantic, no doubt about it.

We love that sash mimicking a corset and we love the romantic folds and drapes of the skirt.

And that piece on the back of her neck was beautiful and unique.

But let's get a few things out of the way before we move back to the judging issue: this is once again an example of Christopher working in his safe zone. Washed out, almost dingy colors paired with a voluminous textural skirt. If we had consistent judges from week to week, he would almost certainly have been called out for that.

Next, we have to point out that, just like Epperson did, he went toward the "inspired by" route instead of the costume route and just like Epperson did, he nonetheless described it in terms of being a movie costume. Even the judges described it as such, referring to how it would look shot from the back.

The problem is, just like Epperson, this doesn't work as a costume at all. His genre was "period" and this look only slightly evokes a hazy, Victorian-esque period of time and place. Worse, he muddied the waters significantly by blurring the genres and pitching this as a vampire wedding dress. Question: Would anyone look at this and think this was a wedding dress? Is there anything about it that evokes a wedding, period or otherwise, vampire or not?

In the end, we think that the judges settled on the "movie costume" version of the challenge rather than the "inspired by a movie genre" version because they gave the win to the most costumey of all the entries and discussed it in terms of how it would work as a costume for film. For that reason, it's puzzling that these two even made it into the top since they clearly don't fulfill the criteria that the winning look got. Basically, the judges were so in love with these looks (and rightfully so) that they shifted their criteria around however it suited them. We guess that's their prerogative but it doesn't strike us a being particularly fair to the designers.

Extended Judging:






[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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