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| Alan Gonzalez - Lots of sheer fabric with "strategically placed silver leaves. The model's breasts were barely covered and there wasn't really any structure to the design at all. |
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| Brittany Allen - She had a skirt, then she didn't have a skirt, then she had one again. The top was cute, but she couldn't get a handle on working with wrapping paper so the bottom never gelled. |
The producers are well aware of the broadcast calendar so they had Christmas garlands, tinsel and decorations as part of the variety of materials available for this challenge, even though it must have been filmed during warm/hot weather. When the designers awaken, they enter the common room to find Christian and several Christmas trees with accompanying holiday decorations occupying the living room. There are thirteen Christmas sweaters under the tree and the designers are instructed to each put one on. There are also lots of Christmas cookies for munching instead of breakfast. The challenge: make a holiday cocktail dress from some of the materials in the decorated living room. It's a two day challenge, and they have ten minutes to gather their materials and a snowflake for their random draw model cards.
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| Chelsey Carter - Strips of shiny in a mini. Actually not a horrible design, but not hugely innovative either. But, it held together on the Runway, and looked aimed at the Holiday party season theme. |
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| Dayoung Kim - I see hints of her Korean background in this piece, and I loved the headdress. She said Korea didn't really celebrate Christmas as Santa and sleigh, more like how we celebrate Valentine's Day. That was quite interesting. |
After ten minutes and several injuries including an arm gash and a nosebleed, the designers are given twenty minutes to design. Everyone seems to be hoping they grabbed enough material, except Delvin who had strolled through the chaotic room almost yawning from boredom. I'm not even sure he rescued any materials at all. I know he was completely unimpressed by the materials presented. Now ... on to the workshop to see what the designers can make with a bunch of shiny junk.
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| Delvin McCray - He was less than happy with this challenge, deeming unconventional materials below his stature as a designer. Hmmm. It still turned out OK, though. |
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| Geoffrey Mac - He produced a surprisingly sophisticated look. Maybe if he just avoids a trip to Mood, he's OK in his own head. |
Cranberries were a popular choice, as were glitter snowflakes, baskets, and patterned pillows. Wrapping paper and glitter also turned into a mainstay, along with the omnipresent hot glue gun. Nancy, a usually quiet person, is making a lot of noise disassembling and forming her materials into workable form. Delvin is dying on the vine - he doesn't work well with alternative materials. The idea of a challenge like this is to get the designers to think outside the box, designing shape and function, irregardless of materials used. It can be a really tough road to walk if the designers are dependent on fabric with certain weaves or drapes to accomplish their task.
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| Marquise Foster had immunity this time as the winner last week. He had this piece done by the end of the first day and never lifted a finger in the workshop after the Day 2 fitting. |
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| Melanie Trygg used dried corn husks to make this gown, which turned out rather surprising with some really good construction. I rather liked the concept, but it must have been uncomfortable to wear. |
A cocktail dress design offers a broad framework in color, length of skirt, appearance of bodice and basic flourish. As Day Two dawns, the models enter for their fitting. The designers dresses range from Marquise whose design is already complete, to Alan Gonzalez who has absolutely nothing on his dress form. Boobs are showing too much, skirts are too short, tops exist with no bottoms, bottoms exist without tops. As model fittings go, this one is a disaster pile-up of future ideas and implications with only a single toe in reality.
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| Nancy Volpe-Beringer - I really liked this dress and cape design by the oldest designer. I thought it came together really well, but it wasn't cutting edge. I haven't seen anything "out there" from her yet. Of course, this is only Episode 3. |
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| Sergio Guadarrama - He took wrapping paper and a woven basket. He mounted bells into the interior of the basket so that she jingled as she walked, and actually tailored a fitted corset from wrapping paper. I was very impressed with his skills on this challenge. |
By\ the end of Day Two, there is still so much work remaining for most of the designers. It's quite evident that most of them will never look at Christmas the same way again. A feeling of dread and a ticking clock have overtaken eight tiny reindeer and Jolly Old St Nick. Panic is hitting. The hours fly by and before you know it, the models and designers are backstage for their ten-minute last look before walking the Runway. What will we see? I think some of the designers will be lucky if their designs hold together for the Runway. That walk down and back may end up with torn paper and dropped cranberries, and or course, piles of glitter, glitter and more glitter.
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| Shavi Lewis - he took a flower and velveteen ribbon garland, wove a fitted bodice, and allowed our curvy model to show off her shape in a deep Christmas red cocktail dress. I didn't think it would work, but it actually looked good on the model. |
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| Tyler Neasloney - He had a longer skirt, but needed to make some adjustments in fit and ended up sacrificing length. This was one step from being pornographic. There's nothing wrong with short, but there is something called too short. |
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| Victoria Cocieru - She surprised me with this playful and well structured gown embellished with cranberries. Her model looked confident and comfortable walking the runway in a split skirt made from pillow and corset from paper. |
Everything held together on the Runway, and most of the dresses looked better than I expected, but there were certainly some good and some not so good. I am picturing each designer's gown above in alphabetical order once again, just to make things easy, simple and fair. What do you think of the designs you've seen? Here are the winners and losers.
SPOILER ALERT BELOW
My guesses - Sergio for the win and Alan for the loss. Now ... what do the judges say ...
On the top were Sergio Guarrama, Shavi Lewis and Victoria Cocieru.
At the bottom were dresses by Tyler Neaslony, Alan Gonzales and Brittany Allen.
The winner was Sergio and Alan is going home. I had it pegged! Yippee. Now we're down to a cool dozen for the next challenge. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow.
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