Dr. Whitfield

CH for the win!

Or at least, that's the way it should have gone.

Model: Lisa Blades

Not that we think it's a set-the-world-on-fire dress or anything, but it's cute and stylish, well-made and interesting. So of course the judges passed on it. Ah, Season 6, why can't we quit you?

Granted, we would have liked to have seen a dress that had something to do with the original design other than just its color. Even just a couple of sequins or a feather here and there would have been sufficient.

And granted, there's a minor titscrepancy there, but still. It was a sassy little cocktail dress with some interesting detail (and we don't mean the pockets).

Seriously, why was that the one thing the judges raved about? "Pockets! She really thought about it!" No, what we like, and what bumps this up from being a somewhat plain LBD, is the detail in the bodice.

What IS that, exactly? The doom and gloom lighting isn't helping us figure it out. Are they frayed seams? Pleats? Regardless, it's a technique Dr. Whitfield likes to pull out of her trick bag and it really helped the design this time.

Additionally, the look had some nice proportions to it. Love the skirt. It doesn't look like she took Tim's advice to use the green fabric underneath. We wonder why.

Edit: Apparently she did use the green. Chalk up its non-appearance to the medieval lighting.

Still, it was a solid entry from Alex's favorite designer and even though she doesn't get enough love from the judges, who have collectively decided that only Irina and Althea are deserving of their constant love, it's obvious that she's the constant #3. Think about it: she's rarely had a misstep at all in the competition. It's just solid work, week in and week out, without the technical issues of Althea or the occasional taste issue of Irina. Good job, Dr. Whitfield.

Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:




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



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Gordana

Don't hate us!

Darlings, we know she's popular among the viewers and we know that a lot of you want to lock Heidi in a room somewhere for being mean to her - and we like her too! Honestly! She's a sweetheart! - but that doesn't mean everything she does is golden. In fact, we think she's been floundering in the competition as much as Christopher has.

Show of hands: who thought she was going home when this popped up on the screen?

Model: Matar Cohen

And who thought she was going home when THIS popped up on the screen? Because we did.

Oy. Honeys, sweet as she is, there's just no defending this look. It's limp and it's sad and it's got all these weird details that we can't quite wrap our heads around.

It's strange to us that she chose yet another grey look. Last week she was defensive about using grey, so why return to it this week?

Sure, the original look was grey but that's no reason to return to it. Companion pieces don't necessarily have to be the same color; they just have to evoke the original piece in some way.

ANd to be honest, we don't really see how this evokes the original piece. What were the elements of the original piece? Asymmetrical collar, strips of fabric cut on the bias creating a diagonal effect, with frayed seams.

Well, she got the frayed seams part, but that's about it. We can't say we particularly like the seaming here. In fact we think it's kind of weird looking.

And we really hate that limp, formless collar. And the styling! Why do that to Matar's hair? She looks sad. A sad girl wearing a sad outfit. Rosa Klebb on a bad hair day.

No, we can't get behind this one at all. There were a lot of strange, indefensible choices made here that we just don't get. The original piece had an edgy, sexy vibe to it and we've looked high and low, but we can't find any similar such vibe on this look.

Nick kinda nailed it when he compared it Soviet-era office wear, but apparently Nick's been feeling the wrath from the Polish viewers. As he wrote on his blog:

"And to my Angry Polish Bretheren:

I hear that you are a bit miffed at my "She looks like an office Worker from Warsaw Poland" comment regarding Gordana Gelhausen's sad grey suit look. Sorry I wasn't specific enough, I meant to say "From pre-Cold War Communist Warsaw Poland..." You see in TV land, you must be brief with your comments. I didn't mean to be disrespectful to office workers in Warsaw Poland--it was a joke kiddies. I am sure that there are A LOT of sexy, glamorous and beautiful office workers in Warsaw Poland--and I am sure I will hear from them! You can go ahead and say that all Greek and Venezuelan office workers look sad and gray--and I won't take it personally."

Don't mess with the Gordana fans, Uncle Nick. They are FIERCELY protective of their girl.

Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:



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


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Chinstrap

Oh, honey.

"When my garment walks down the runway, they're going to look at it and go, "That's a Christopher piece."

Oh, honey.

Oh, HONEY.

This concludes our summary of reactions to Christopher's decisions this episode.

Actually, that's not quite true. At some point when we saw the direction he was heading in (i.e., the same direction he always heads) we actually yelled out "Jesus Christ, Christopher! Really?!"

Model: Katie Sticksel

Because how unself-aware do you have to be to not realize that this look is just a basic retread of every single other look he's done this season? How unself-aware do you have to be to realize that doing the same thing week after week is exactly why you've been in the bottom so much?

And how unself-aware do you have to be to not realize that this is in fact the worst version of your typical "volume, volume, volume + needless frippery" aesthetic that the judges lost interest in weeks ago?

There's a question here that needs to be asked and it's such a basic question that we're surprised the judges didn't haul it out: Who is wearing this dress? Where would anyone wear a dress like this? We'd say it looks costume-y except we wouldn't be able to figure out what exactly it's supposed to be. One of those old toilet paper roll covers that you can buy at church bazaars maybe?

Not to mention how cheap and badly made this thing is. The black portion of this look, the "over dress," as they called it, fits her terribly. What's with all that extra fabric hanging off her left hip?

Sure, it looks similar to the original dress but only in that he made the same dress and removed anything interesting or stylish about it.

The ruffles on the bottom look cheap and way overdone.

And those petals are ridiculous. This kid has absolutely no tools to self-assess or edit his work.

Wow. We're cranky this morning. But we can't help it, kittens. This isn't just a terrible entry. It's the latest in a long line of terrible entries representing all the same mistakes. And to watch the show and hear Christopher say over and over again that he loves what he's doing and he thinks the judges will love it too is just painful to hear. He can make pretty dresses when he sets his mind to it, but as a competitor in a design competition he's severely lacking in the skills one needs to make it to the end.

We know a lot of you are pissed that he's still here and that he should have gone a while ago. We can't say we disagree with that, but we will say this: we suspect that he's still her because he showed so much promise early on in the competition and the judges are loathe to let go of that image that they had of him starting out. Besides, it may be cynical of us to say this but let's face it: at this point it's all about biding our time until they whittle the pool down to the final three that we all know is coming. Maybe he should have gone home this week (or last week or the week before that) but we're fairly convinced (in fact, we're sure of it) that he won't be walking a collection down the Bryant Park runway.



Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:



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


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Meana Irina

She's not here to make friends, you know!

Kittens, should you ever find yourself on a reality television show, please, we implore you, do NOT haul out that tired old "I'm not here to make friends" line. It's so cliche that it'll only make you look stupid. We suggest the following: "I'm totally here to make friends! I have a long emotional history of fucking over the people closest to me! I'm a sociopath!" It means the same thing but it's got a little more panache to it.

Not that we think Irina's a sociopath. She's just a relatively talented designer who's received a bit too much love from the judges and thinks everyone else around her is miles behind her and doesn't deserve to breathe her air. We have to say, for all her bitchiness, we tend to agree with her points about half the time when she assesses the work of the other designers.

And come on, who didn't love her little crash and burn on the runway when she thought the judges were going to back her up on her plagiarism charge?

Model: Kalyn Hemphill

This wasn't a bad entry. No, wait. Scratch that. This was one of the better entries. There. That's a little more accurate. We do like that sweater.

But man oh man, do we ever hate that belt.

It just looks sloppy and the fabric adds yet another texture to a look that has too many as it is.

Look at all that crap on the ass! It looks like an upholstery sample book.

And that laceup on the back is tacky, tacky, tacky. In fact, Nina pointing out that the dress was a little cheap and slutty was just about the only part of the judging with with we totally agreed. We're all getting used to the crack-assed judging this season but we're getting damn tired of the judges failing to point out the obvious flaws in the pieces they deem their favorites. Look at how badly this is executed. Not a word from the judges about that.

And look at the weird fit issues on this thing! Nina! We know you were fighting a losing battle against the tacky brigade but why didn't you point this out?

About the only thing we can compliment (aside from the sweater) is the fact that she did manage to make the pieces look like companions.

In the end, she earned her second place finish. But the only reason it scored as high as it did was because there was so much ass on that runway. All we can think is, if this piece had appeared in, say seasons 3 or 4 and had to stand next to pieces by Laura, Uli, Jeffrey, Rami, Christian or Jillian, it would have wound up on the bottom easily. That's a sad statement on the quality of the judging this season. Nina tried her best, but she was overruled by the "I would wear this" judges.

Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:



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


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Auf Wiedersehen!

Oh, thank god!

We're not such horrible bitches that we're happy to see a contestant go, but we were biting our well-manicured nails last night because we were afraid if they sent Gordana home all hell was going to break loose in T Lounge.

Heh. Didn't work this time, Guy's Guy.

And he must have been seriously feeling the pressure because all of a sudden not only was he speaking, but really bitchy words were coming out of his mouth. Say what you will about Irina, but she can walk the walk as well as talk the talk. When it's someone who's spent virtually the entire competition at the bottom of the pile, smack-talking just comes across desperate.

And while there were a lot of accusations flying around last night, we have to say, that is EXACTLY the same collar. Irina acted like she invented big sweaters but let's face it, a stand-up collar made entirely out of zippers is unique enough that Althea's accusation was warranted.

In the end, for all that drama...

Model: Kojii Helnwein

He really didn't have a lot to show for it.

And once she made that face, we knew it was all over for Lord Silverbottom.

We'll give him credit for this: it's the most "designed" thing he's sent down the runway. In the parlance of PR, he "really thought about it."

Of course that doesn't mean those thoughts were actually good ones, but still. After weeks of him sending the most basic, boring looks down the runway, we'll at least give him props for trying to do something new.

Of course "new" doesn't necessarily mean "good."

We kind of like the bottom half of it now that we can see it better.

We like the sash and we think the little zipper pulls as embellishments was kind of a cute idea. Since there was so much talk of plagiarism last night, we feel compelled to point out that the construction of that skirt looks decidedly Christopher-like.

It's the top of this thing that's such a freaking disaster.

Disregarding the plagiarism charge, this collar is way off on the proportions.

And there's just too much going on with that bodice, not to mention how poorly it's constructed. Plus it looks a little like a diner waitress's uniform.

And can we please do something about designers who, when they decide to be edgy, think "I know! ZIPPERS!" Designers, it's been DONE. A lot.

And finally, there's nothing about the second look that makes you think of the first one, zippers or no.

We would have felt a tiny bit bad to see him go if he hadn't been such a little bitch last night. And of course, ending his time on the show with the oh-so-original "I'm too edgy for the masses" excuses had us opening the door and pushing him out.

If there's anyone to feel bad about it's Kojii, who we think is a wonderful model with a unique look and a ton of charisma. She worked the shit out of that thing and it was all for naught.


Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:


Exit Interview:


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



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