Saturday, February 24, 2018

PR Avant-garde - SPOILERS - Phones and Snow

This will probably be 48 hours I won't want to re-experience. Yesterday evening my cellphone died - wouldn't accept a charge and went down to red-line. No phone meant no alarm to wake up in time for the gym, and also no way for my security company to contact me if I had problems at the shop. That was a bit more concerning to me since I set up an older Android Tablet for my alarm and it was fine. But, I'm hoping all went OK overnight. 

I was on-line with Verizon choosing a new Google Pixel 2 phone early this morning. Their on-line sales specialist (Jessica, although I'm quite sure that's not her real name), was tremendous. She helped me order my new phone through their website, and I'll be able to pick it up after noon today. Of course, we're supposed to get 6"-10" of snow today, starting at 2 pm, so I might end up closing the shop early for a "snow day", then drop by and pick up the new phone, get the data transferred over and a screen protector and case for it. Then I can mush my car through the flakes to pick up our dinner. It's a journey filled with uncertainty since I have no idea how bad the weather will be, how long it will take me to get my new phone (Jessica said about 15 minutes, I hope she's right), and how bad the roads will be as I continue my journey to pick up our Chipotle for our Saturday night dinner. 

Oh well - let's talk fashion instead. It's much more fun. So ... the avant-garde challenge with RuPaul as a judge. I at least got to see the judges analysis of each outfit chosen as best and worst this week, and I was happy about that. Often the guest judges leave me cold, but RuPaul was magnificent - just like he should have been. Here are the top and bottom designs in alphabetic order of designer. 


Anthony had these incredible pants with a flat bodice. He
usually doesn't do pants, but I actually think he pulled
this look off. I was't fond of the spatter paint, and
that was the turn-off for a couple of the judges. 


Anthony wanted to put the Milky Way into pants that weren't "pageant, prom or wedding", and I think he succeeded. He's a master at getting fabric to sculpt in unique ways. I loved the hair on his model too - rather like the tail of a comet. Georgia loved the peplum going down the pants and RuPaul wanted to "take a chance with those pants". 



Fabio's tassled wrap almost looked too safe to me. It
reminded me of a bathrobe - really didn't seem very
avant-garde to my eyes. 


Fabio described his look as "fringed armor" inspired by Netpune's cold, dark vibes. Anne was quite skeptical when she toured the workroom. Tassles weren't really transmuting to Neptune for her. I have to agree with her, this end look didn't scream "galactic" to me either. It seemed to leave the judges with a "meh" attitude, although Issac called it "hideous". 



I'm starting to look at Joshua as more of a one-horse
pony show than Merline, and that's getting pretty
bad. This gown was a hot mess as it walked
down the Runway. 


I have no idea what Joshua was thinking when he designed this gown. Someone should do the boy a favor and take away his glue gun. He described his design as "editorial bondage gear" and Anne's response to that was "it's been done again and again". Bravo to Anne for that one - ca-ching! On the Runway, Joshua almost came to verbal blows with Georgina, but RuPaul called the look "next level gay s---". Issac seemed to like the design, but hated the color scheme, and Alyssa and Joshua got into a back and forth which didn't show him in good light. His days are numbered, unless he moves up a notch or two in his design concepts, pulling them from the Bordello into the parlor. 



Kimberly was worried about her model staying in her
garment, Anthony was muttering about the "battle of the
streetwalkers" when it came to Kimberly, Helen and
Joshua's designs. 

Kimberly's dress was supposed to resemble a neutron star, formed by the collapse of another star. Hmmm ... I see the collapse part, but that's about as far as I can go. On the Runway, she admits that she doesn't know what "the collapse of a gravitational star" actually means, so there we have it. She designed an outfit based on a concept that she didn't even understand. No wonder it was a mess! Georgina told her that the look seemed "confused", but Jesse Tyler Ferguson said he wanted to use the cape as a Christmas tree skirt! SHADE! 



Merline's outfit was rather nice, but seemed like another
re-run of the same old show. I keep waiting for her
to come up with something different, but maybe
that's beyond her capability. 

Merline's design was inspired by orbits. OK, I can see that in the basic design, but I think it could have been done more effectively (and in fact, it HAS been done more effectively on other runways by other designers). Anne pointed out that the judges have seen her make a dress like this before. She didn't seem to care, but compared to some of the other looks on the Runway, hers wasn't the worst. Issac loved it - wanted one in every color. Georgina called it gorgeous, and RuPaul thought it made the model look dangerous, "like a Bond villain".  



Stanley's design screamed bondage to me, but to him,
it screamed "solar eclipse". He explained solar
eclipses to the judges as having the moon covering
the sun completely. 


Stanley's design was interesting, although I would more likely place the design in the basement of a BDSM Leather club, not as a depiction of a solar eclipse. Still, I liked the collar, and that mask was awesome! I wasn't that fond of the long cuffs and flared legs on the pants. Anything that makes these skinny models look fat, just isn't appealing to me. Still, the design was different enough to catch the judge's eyes. Jesse Tyler Ferguson pointed out that the look was wearable and said he could "see Gwen Stefani going to brunch in this". I guess that must have been a pre-Blake Shelton brunch, because I couldn't see this outfit fly in country music circles. 

So there you have it - the top and bottom looks. Did you guess the winner and who was sent home? Take one more look, and ... 

If you guessed that Stanley was the winner, you guessed right. Out of the top looks, his was the most wearable, although I might have given the nod to Anthony instead. I liked Anthony's pants. 

Who was sent home? It was a tight race for the bottom between Joshua and Kimberly, but Joshua lived to design another day and it was Kimberly who was sent home. I didn't have a problem with that - her past few designs have been uninspired and right now Joshua is providing the "drahma". 

There you have it. If I survive the next bout of snow and get my new phone, I'll be back on Monday. Have a great weekend! 


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