It's a Project Runway night and after last week's "heritage" challenge I think the designers are hoping for something easy this week. Unfortunately, it's a challenge sponsored by Bergdorf Goodman department stores and their current "pet resident" designer, Ashley Longshore - a bold personality artist with a pop culture look ala Andy Warhol (although Warhol did it better, in my opinion). I admit that I'm pleased that Ashley Longshore is the first female artist embraced by Bergdorf's as an artist in residence and that she was the featured artist for New York Fashion Week. Ashley Longshore is anything BUT stodgy. (As usual, the photographs are in alphabetical order of the designer.)
 |
| Brittany Allen is a total fangirl of Ashley Longshore and put in a lot of touches to make her garment special and unique for the artist. It was very appreciated. |
Each designer will be working on a joint collaboration with Ashley Longshore, as she provides an individual print for each designer. The first person to choose a Longshore print was last week's winner, Chelsey, and it went down the ranks, each designer choosing the next one, until the final choice, Sergio. Not difficult to understand that placement - he's managed to alienate almost all of the other designers.
 |
| Chelsey Carter's design was OK, but I wasn't really excited by it. To my eyes it seemed a standard dress style and I wasn't impressed by her use of the print. |
After a short design session, they head to Mood with a budget of $175 and 30 minutes to choose additional fabrics and trims for their print challenge. Many designers on Project Runway find it difficult to work with prints, and I suspect this challenge will be no different. It's a two-day challenge, so, let's see what happens.
 |
| Dayoung Kim was having health issues again, she eats like a bird and the stress is getting to her too. I really loved the dress that she came up with for this challenge, though. It was clean lines and the bold side panels really set the print off. |
After Ashley has met individually with each designer, helping them tweak their designs to better meet her aesthetic, she tells the workroom that the bedazzling cart is open and any sparkling things on it are there for the taking. It's a feeding frenzy with glittering do-dads being grabbed and scattered across the floor. After the end of a very full day, the designers move to the workshop patio where they find tacos and alcoholic beverages waiting for them, courtesy of Ashley. Although I might not be fond of her artistic style, she's a generous soul.
 |
| Delvin McCray did a nicely wrapped pant suit, but again it was a bit boring. I would have liked some more solid panels and a different neckline. |
Dayoung had started the day without energy after having fought a cold throughout the previous challenge. Remember, she was also taken to the hospital for the beginning of Episode 2. She's lacking energy and moving very slowly. She's got most of the workroom worried about her, and several of the other designers ask her if she wants the medic. After a quick meet with medical, she forges on.
 |
| It's a good thing Geoffrey Mac decided to belt the front of his oversized tent dress. Without that touch his model would have looked like an Oompah Loomah from Willy Wonka's factory. |
Sergio is trying to make another political statement with his garment. He says that all of his designs must have a political statement at their heart. OK, whatever floats his boat, but I'm not climbing onto the platform at all. He can be a gown designer for 45+ year ole women, or he can be a designer of political statement clothing, but I'm not sure he can be both with success.
 |
| Marquise Foster made his white top from cotton, so no stretch. That didn't serve him well because his darts didn't line up well and the top was a bit of a disaster. He didn't do much with the print either, just let it act like overdone stripes. |
Geoffrey's over-sized coat/dress is burying his model. Christian suggests pulling the front in with belting to make a slimmer silhouette, so he's busy making those changes. (As an aside, I was taken a bit aback by the editing decision to show the nude top of Nancy's model, DD. DD is Trans, but since the show refuses to show the breasts of their female models, why would they think showing the torso of a Trans who was assigned male but responds female would be OK? I think I may have to make a direct comment to the show because this decision was NOT OK. Either show any/all without discrimination, or edit any nude frontal chest shots out entirely.
 |
| Nancy had one of my favorite models, DD, and would have served the fashion better by making the coat more form fitting, or ditching it completely. The pants were well done, but the coat was underwhelming. |
Victoria is having serious problems working with the patterned fabric. She prefers single color fabrics so that her style of wrapping can be the star. She's ending up putting Ashley's fabric on the pants of her outfit, and leaving the top plain white. I have a feeling that Ashley won't be happy with the minimal amount of her fabric that's being used in the finished design.
 |
| Sergio Guadarrama wanted to have the gown with its' elaborate back bow appear as if a butterfly was coming from a cocoon. It didn't work for me, although he's done gowns I've liked less than this effort. |
Runway day dawns and Dayoung is feeling better. Two hours before the Runway, the models arrive for final fittings, hair and makeup. The usual panic and potential disasters are ready for viewing by the judges and we're off to the Runway.
 |
| Victoria Cocieru seems to be getting into a design rut. I liked the criss cross the first few times, but had to agree with whatever judge called it wrapped bandages for this look. Call me unimpressed. |
Sergio was certain he would win the challenge, but he's merely safe, along with Geoffrey and Chelsey. The other six designers are the top and bottom looks for this challenge. I can hardly wait for the judges comments because right now I'm saying Brittany for the win and Marquise for the loss, but I haven't heard a single comment yet, so I'm basing this on no empirical data.
SPOILERS BELOW - DON'T SWIM IN THESE WATERS UNLESS YOU DON'T MIND FINDING OUT THE WINNER AND LOSER!
The top three are Dayoung, Delvin and Brittany and any of them could easily win this week. For the bottom looks, Victoria played things too safe with a "cut out bandage-wrapped" top over a sprinkling of the print on the bottom. Marquise failed to show the print to it's best advantage and he failed with technical skills because his blouse darts were badly placed and sewn. The final design on the bottom was Nancy, who actually made DD look lost in her over-sized jacket. Without the jacket DD looked great and if she had just done a top and the pants, Nancy might have been in the top instead of the bottom.
So, who won and who went home? Brittany is the winner of the challenge and she was totally thrilled because she is a total Ashley Longshore fangirl. Marquise is sent home, just barely edging out Nancy who was within an eyelash of being eliminated. Still, poor design decisions won out over poor construction issues yet again, and it makes sense because the garment construction is supposed to be a given for a competition at this level. It's a shame to lose Marquise who was the only self-taught designer in the workroom, but it's a competition and there's someone who will be sent home every week. Did you guess correctly?
Sorry for the day's delay, but I need the Runway photos before I can post. Maybe next week will be more timely, but it's not horrible to wait an extra 24 hours either. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment