Experiential Fashion Show is the theme for this week and this will be the final Runway show and final elimination, leaving us with the Final Four. In today's challenge, the designers must combine fashion, art and architecture into an interactive room display where the fashion will be framed by a room, and the elements will play off each other. I would find this extremely difficult. It's a two-day challenge with a $500 budget at Moon, and they will have the help of conceptual artists for their actual room build-out.
 |
| Garo Sparo designed a futuristic gown with many removable features. His model was supposed to be dressed by animated arms, rather like the old cartoon series "The Jetsens". |
Garo has done experiential fashion in the past and is fairly comfortable with the concept. He wants the future - people being dressed by robotic hands. Bishme wants to return to his Baltimore Blooms theme. His consultant suggests flowers bursting from the walls. Sebastian wants a Grecian palace with his model being a sculpture amidst the columns. He wants yellow walls and a purple floor, but is uncertain about his direction and physically exhausted. Hester is aiming for a Rococo Bondage Picnic Theme. Tessa is working for a Japanese slant - a wabi sabi tone (the acceptance of transience and imperfection) mixed with her childhood background as the daughter of a ceramic artist.
 |
| Sebastian Grey selected his favorite model, Mimi, once again. He dressed her in a structural statement of heavy, weighted fabrics for the skirting hanging from a much lighter weight bodice. It was a marvel, because that heavy skirt should have pulled that top completely out of shape. |
They get nine hours to work on Day One, and will start Day Two with a field trip, accompanying Christian Siriano to an unknown location. Although most of the designers have started making their designs in the final nine hours of Day one, Hester couldn't make up her mind until the final hour in the workroom. Now she'll have a truncated single day to pull her design out and have something to present before the judges.
Tessa's fabrics actually are really nice, and I like her design concept. Of course, I've liked some of her designs on paper in the past, when their execution ended up to be sorely disappointing. I'm reserving judgment. The field trip turns out to be a trip to the Council of Fashion Designers of America's location in New York City. It was inspirational, but it left me rather underwhelmed, and if I had been a designer under a time deadline, I would have been thinking "Thanks, but no thanks". Back in the workroom, Hester is finally making her outfit, but the top is almost a copy of last week's design. Christian encourages her to move away from that and be more daring.
 |
| Bishme Cromartie chose a rose-gold lamee material and made it structural. His goal was a flower sprouting out of the grey concrete - a spot of color in the drab. |
The models come in. Garo's design fits his model perfectly. Hester literally takes her shears to her design while her model is wearing it, to make fitting and style adjustments. Sebastian's dress fits his model perfectly but he hates his design. Tessa's design is busy and needs serious work. Bishme has a great top, but that's all he has. He needs to make a skirt before the night ends. After the models leave, the designers were brought over to look at their rooms.
Bishme hates his room. His designer made it look like crumbling brickwork, but he wants grey concrete walls with flowers bursting out here and there. He has it repainted and redone. Tessa loves her room - shelves, completed pottery and a potter's wheel as the focus. She wants her model to play with the wheel, creating vessels from the clay. Garo wants real arms for his futuristic room, and it's looking pretty good. Hester is stressing - she loves her forest-style room, but still has no outfit for her model. Sebastian is upset with his room and his outfit, retreating to speak to his designer in Spanish, trying to explain his room concept with greater clarity. After everyone returns to the workroom, Sebastian has a meltdown and threatens to leave, beginning to walk out. So unexpected! But after chilling out for a bit, he's back, renewed and ready to tackle the challenge once again.
 |
| Although Hester and Garo's rooms were high scoring, Tessa's room was the most liked by the judges. Here, her model stands in a room of shelves and racks with a potter's wheel to the left. The model often sat down and played with clay on the wheel. Very intereactive. |
The morning of the runway arrives and the designers are sewing until the last possible second, then models and designers head over to their rooms where the models are positioned in their rooms, ready to be on display. It's a major show, but one where the models aren't working the Runway, rather the audience is walking around from room to room, along with the judges.
The judges split into two groups and wander along with designers from CFDA and other invited guests including modern pop icon Cardi B (apparently a personal friend of Christian Siriano). The variety of designs and how they are presented in their rooms is fantastic. My favorite design and room is Garo's futuristic room with fashion elements that can be peeled off or put back on. Very innovative. I also loved Hester's room - a forest scenario - but I wasn't fond of her actual dress. Tessa's design was interesting - I've always enjoyed the Japanese aesthetic and I love that she pulled away from her normal black and grey. Sebastian's room confused people, but they loved his dress. Bishme's rose-gold structured gown was elegant among the flowers of grey Baltimore.
 |
| Hester Sunshine went for her usual fabric love - plaid. I'm not sure what she sees in the fabric, but she has a specific audience she designs for and she's confident with her choices. |
We then had a unique chance to watch the judges as they returned to the workroom, where each designer's body of work for the entire season had been brought together so that the judges could see the growth of the designer through the season. I loved this retrospective. In seasons past, old designs would often be sacrificed for do-overs or mix-and-match challenges. That didn't happen in Season 17. Instead, each of the Final Five's designs were completely intact and displayed on mannequins sequentially. It was extremely interesting to see their designs from week one through this - the final week in the workshop. Whoever goes on from here gets time at home to create a collection to walk the Runway during New York Fashion Week. A brilliant goal well worth striving for.
One thing I loved about the final walk through of the designer's repertoire for the full season was seeing each designer's growth. I'm really looking forward to seeing final collections from each of these talented designers. I know which ones I love and which ones I don't, but (fortunately), my opinions don't matter.
SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
It came down to Sebastian or Garo for the win of the week. After much deliberation, Garo was declared the winner of the challenge. If Sebastian's room had been better - more Grecian, less yellow and purple - he would probably have won this week. It's going to be a great New York Fashion Show Runway. The judges also moved Bishme along to the finals, and as much as Hester's designs were avant-guarde, it was decided that they were also cutting edge. Hester will move on to the final showing. I love the fact that the girl who was kicked out of two different major fashion schools for keeping to her own vision will now be one of the four finalists.
It's Tessa's time to leave. I probably would have sent Tessa home a while ago. She kept her place by default - only because other designers on select weeks were worse than her.
The designers will get five months (!) to create ten looks with a budget of $10,000. Next week we get home visits from Christian and probably the final Runway. I'm reminding you that you're going to get my report late because I'm on vacation next week, creating my own beautiful and original works in metal. I won't leave you hanging, but it's not going to be a timely posting. Sorry about that but schedules are schedules.
So, there you have it. I hope each of you have a wonderful Friday and I've got to get this posted and head off to the gym. Still no swimming, but at least I'm working out every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment