Project Runway?

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Irina - It's good. Not my favorite, as I think the dress fabric looks a little too much like a couch. But overall, in general I think it's a very solid companion piece to her Aspen look. I definintely like the jacket/wrap portion better than the dress though.

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/856698454fe8e0d931897cd336b023bd.jpg

 

Gordana - I actually love this. The judges don't get it at all. The edges and the deconstruction look really nice up close. It's a very new take on an everyday jacket. This is actually the one design, that I think is the most sale-able of the entire bunch. Note how the diagonal side stitching echos the diagonal side stitching of her winning divorcee dress? Subtle, but very classy. The dress underneath is great as well. I can eaily see this wonderful jacket in several colors in stores. Warm brown. Tweeds. Bright blue. Bright Orange. It would be fantastic and wearable for a lot of women of several ages and sizes. Stupid judges on this, as they completely missed the sale.

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/64b2857837db9e65ed940d59cf9eb99f.jpg

 

Christopher - Oi! I "get" the idea, but I'm not a fan of this dress. I do think that in order to make it work better, I think that the colors needed to be more blended. I also think that the tie/pom pom thing on the back, needed to be longer - so it is actually touching and sweeping across the top of the pom pom coming up the back. See that? That little thought and attention to the idea would have raised the points for me on this.

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/eb5bb5cf65cc4fd07fd4c1ce5ce884c4.jpg

[Curt Jerome Wild]

So, the Top Three are:

Irina, Althea, and Carol Hannah.

They give the win to Althea. Irina gives her the stink eye. I actually think that Gordana should have been in the Top here, and hers is easily the most sale-able. I'm still hoping for an underdog winner's edit for Gordana, but I just don't see it happening, so I am sad.

 

Bottom Three are:

Gordana, Logan, and Christopher.

Logan is out, and I'm a little shocked, but I'm not. At least there were original ideas there. At least it could easily be sold in Hot Topics.

Where on God's Green Earth is the market for Christopher's bedspread/pom pom dress?

But, they want him to stay, as they are just confirming my theories from a few weeks ago. He's easy male competition, to insure a female winner.

 

Here's hoping that winner is Gordana or Carol Hannah (not holding my breath).;)

[SeaBunny]

Althea, your outfit is a mess and poorly constructed.

 

Gordana, your dress is beautiful and well represents your inspiration.

 

Gordana, you're out.

 

OK, those weren't the exact words but close enough.

 

Ageism! Ageism! Ageism!

 

And that comment that they don't now Gordana as a designer? Hello? Her outfits were more of a cohesive look than anyone else.

 

DH left the room is disgust and said "never again." I'm leaning that way myself.

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Project Runway Episode Twelve

 

Art Inspiration AKA The Great Train Robbery

 

There are five remaining designers, and they are taken on a field trip for their challenge.

They go to The Getty Center in West Los Angeles, which is a place I love!

If you are into art, landscaping, or architecture - this is a great spot to visit.

 

Look, you can see my house from there;):

 

 

So, they get a few hours to look around (the place is huge), and decide on something that will be their inspiration for their final look.

 

They at least get 2 days to complete, and $300.

Onto the Runway!

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Althea - The inspiration is a portion of the Getty architecture. Really bad construction. I hate it. The bad execution, puckering and tailoring is awful for two days work. The design itself isn't that great, and is also getting extremely reminiscent of all of the previous tops and bottoms that we keep seeing from her. It looks like an oven mitt, so I'm disappointed big time.

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/c8fce762e1b4e7c0fd3ff4405687cab0.jpg

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Carol Hannah - The inspiration is an Eighteenth Century Bed. This is beautiful and well made. She didn't do a literal rendering, which was very smart. She took the drapery and "lines" from the bed, but simplified it into this elegant dress. What I like is that she took the inspiration, and you can see where it began, but then tapered it into a beautiful silhouette with interesting details.

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/af91c26e2252070fad6fd54dabb96001.jpg

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Christopher - The inspiration is a granite fountain. This is not my favorite, but I think that it's better made than Althea's - and more original in the idea. This is more runway couture, and artistic as interpretation. It also moves better than you can see in the picture.

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/ab2f30f94448a4607393e0c269551b5a.jpg

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Gordana - The inspiration is a painting by Monet. I'm putting it here, as it is important to view the painting then the dress.

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/96685292f856254982d62e8765aa4c01.jpg

This is absolutely stunning. The texture of the fabric, evokes the texture of the dotted brush strokes of the painting. The colors softly shine like the colors of the painting, which is specifically representing the early morning light.

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/0bdaa06a0637a6f0b01129db83bd2032.jpg

This is unquestionably the best representation of the challenge, and the artwork/inspiration.

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Irina - The inspiration is a painting of a Greek woman in a diaphanous gown. This is not that gown. It looks like a heavy, dowdy, sack. While the neckline is really pretty - then rest looks like a moldy bread bag. She has also somehow managed to make her tall, stick thin model, look like she's gained about 20 pounds overnight. What woman wants that?

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/3bca744003d75c9227a4fd760bb4f66a.jpg

[Curt Jerome Wild]

So then, they have to explain to the judges why they should go on to the Finals for Fashion Week. Now, this is just stupid at this point. Why?

Because Heidi has been the one and only consistent judge for this entire season! Nina Garcia has been missing more than half the time - so she really has no concept or history of the designers work each week.

Then, there are TWO guest judges - who have nothing to go on, except this one week. Cynthia Rowly is great, but she has no history for this decision. Cindy Crawford is an even less qualified judge for this.

They should have at least had that Zoe Glassner from Marie Claire - who not only has more fashion forward and younger taste than Nina; but who has guest judged a few times this season. She at least then had more "history" with the designers than either Cynthia Rowley or Cindy Crawford!

 

Now the obvious, obvious winner for this challenge is Gordana, with Carol Hannah in second place.

The other three should be placed in order of:

Irina/Christopher tie for 4th place, and Althea at the very bottom with her terribly constructed skirt and top.

 

I am SO excited for the editing for Gordana to pull out the win at the last minute and go to Fashion Week! She's obviously stepped it up over the others in this last week!

But, no! They eliminate Christopher and Gordana. I'm stunned and not stunned. I'm not stunned, because I guess this was the final shocking/unfair elimination that my backstagers were telling me before the season (remember when I told you all that).

I think that there is no doubt that Gordana has been one of the most talented designers this season. She contructs beautifully, yet creates designs with subtle class and sophistication.

 

So Irina (did we have any doubt), Althea (what?) and Carol Hannah (yay! - but, I only get one out of three people I like going to the finals now!) are going to Fashion Week. I call an Irina win for sure now (sigh).

Note how they started editing her imigrant sob story into the show this week? I expect more of the heartstring pulling during the hometown visits.

I guess Gordana's immigrant story would have competed too much?

 

So, in honor of the person who should have been the winner, let's take a look back at Gordana's Runway:

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/467d0fa39fe972de2d52cab95587c443.jpg

 

The bright shining spot in all of this, is that many of the fashion industry insiders are declaring the travesty of the judges not recognizing her talent. So, she will get work out of this. Let's hope she gets a nice job that she never would have had without the show.:D

[hollywood34711]

She has also somehow managed to make her tall, stick thin model, look like she's gained about 20 pounds overnight. What woman wants that?

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/3bca744003d75c9227a4fd760bb4f66a.jpg

love this thread, and you are right on. Dowdy, frumpy, Gma status.

[cruisemom42]

The bright shining spot in all of this, is that many of the fashion industry insiders are declaring the travesty of the judges not recognizing her talent. So, she will get work out of this. Let's hope she gets a nice job that she never would have had without the show.:D

 

I'm sure they cannot fail to see Gordana's talent.

 

This season the show has fallen off sharply. It's gone from being a viable fashion contest with a hint of reality TV to full-blown reality TV with arbitrary judging based not on true merit but on "reality TV" factors.

 

Sorry Project Runway, you used to be one of my faves.

[SeaBunny]

Agree completely, Curt.

 

And glad to hear there is industry buzz dissing this season.

 

Did anyone else feel like the winning outfits were often just nice clothes? Not interesting fashion? PR seemed tamer than Bravo's The Fashion Show -- and salability was supposed to a factor for TFS more than on PR.

 

I'm still calling ageism. Maybe in concert with cuteism (as in Gordana wasn't very cute).

 

Curt, thanks for all your effort. Really appreciate your posting Gordana's outfits again. I like them all except that blue, 2-piece with the V-neck (well, the top is fine). Wasn't that a paired effort?

[Alter Ego]

I like them all except that blue, 2-piece with the V-neck (well, the top is fine). Wasn't that a paired effort?

 

Are you talking about the pants with the braided top she did with Nicholas or the skirt set she did with Irina?

 

Anyways, does anyone know if the top 5 actually went to Fashion Week? I thought they did last year, because I saw photos from each of their shows. But, I really don't know for sure and could be wrong. I would think that, if it were just the top 3 showing, everyone would know far in advance who they were. Anyone know if there are photos from their fashion shows, since it was so long ago?

 

I saw an interview with Gordana on tvguide.com; very interesting how she gave her dress the rippling effect - she put it in a microwave. How pathetic was the judging on her last dress - having to resort to complaining about the zipper!

[SeaBunny]

Alter Ego,

 

I'm pretty sure just three went. Their clothes were shown but their identities were kept secret. At the time I thought that was crummy for them. Now I don't care. I have major sour grape issues because of Gordana.

 

And how about Irina trying to use copyrighted images in her clothes? After her accusing someone of copying her sweater look I thought that was a hoot. Is she so limited she couldn't come up with her own image? Seems so....

[SeaBunny]

Here's a link to the video interview Alter Ego found. AE, thanks for telling about this. It was both heartbreaking and inspiring.

 

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Runway-Gordana-Knew-1011806.aspx

[Curt Jerome Wild]

I'm sure they cannot fail to see Gordana's talent.

Curt, thanks for all your effort. Really appreciate your posting Gordana's outfits again.

You are so welcome!

But, here's something interesting that I noticed, after I posted that...

With a little editing, and changing the order...

Gordana's time on Project Runway created a great Mini-Collection!

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/f1b402e1dc5a85ae47ccc12bbc27fd82.jpg

 

That is a very cohesive, sell-able collection right there - without even a conscious all around effort!

You can't quite do that with anyone else's various different challenge designs this season.

 

One thing (of many) that bothered me on that last show was Nina saying that she didn't even know who Gordana was as a designer.

Well, first of all Nina, you weren't there most of the time - so you probably don't know who anyone is as a designer.

(because you're going to tell me that she knew who Irina and Althea were by those last outfits?)

 

Secondly, looking at this, Gordana is one of the only ones who had a consistent strong sellable design aesthetic.

She designs, simple yet classy and elegant clothing with new subtle twists.

I think that it's the subtle and simple that the supposed "experts" couldn't see...

 

I see it. Turns out that Gordana was one of the strongest designers of the season.

What I like about her designs as well, is that they don't rely on color - so you can easily see these designs in several different colors working for lots of different people.

The first two looks should have been in the Top Three those particular weeks.

The third jacket should have been the winner that week, as the most sale-able item of the entire runway.

And there is absolutely no question that the last dress was the one and only winner of the final challenge.

 

Did you notice that it's the first time in PR history that they didn't name a final challenge winner!

They just said who was going to Fashion Week.

I don't think they could have named a winner (because it had to be Gordana with Carol Hannah in second place) and then made sense to not send them to Fashion Week.

 

Backstage note: Tim Gunn unquestionably thought that Gordana's was the best. He knew that it was so far above Irina's and Althea's; that he wondered how the judges would "justify" what he was afraid they might do (auf Gordana).

He's a Gordana supporter.;)

[Alter Ego]

To partially answer my own question, in 2008, the top 6 had fashion shows (totally forgot about Suede!). The attached videos are really awful - I know I saw something better last year. In case anyone is interested:

 

http://www.nitrolicious.com/blog/2008/09/13/project-runway-5-finalist-fashion-show/

 

I guess it was unusual for 6 to show; I read that the prior season only showed 4. Guess I was just eager to actually see Gordana's and, yes, Christopher's collections.

 

BUT...I found pics from this year's show!! If you're like me and like to read the last chapter of a mystery first - here's one of the links I found. Doesn't say who's is who, but you can pretty much figure it out.

 

http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-ig-nyfw-projectrunway-pg,0,2002251.photogallery

 

Without giving out any spoilers, seems like Althea was channeling Irina from hundreds of miles away! :p

 

Also, I'm not a fan of what they chose to put their inspiration models in (or whatever Heidi called them).

[Laurab23]

So,I'm thinking Irena won?

[SeaBunny]

Alter Ego,

 

Thanks for the links! I'm guessing the center group is Carol Hannah but wasn't sure about the other two. Maybe Irina last? I would probably pick Carol to win but we all know it's going to be Irina.

[DrTee]

The first bunch is Althea's, then Carol Hannah's, then Irina's. You can tell by the style, but also you can tell by their models.

[SeaBunny]

The first bunch is Althea's, then Carol Hannah's, then Irina's. You can tell by the style, but also you can tell by their models.

 

Duh on me. I didn't even think about the models. I tend not to notice them.

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Final Collections!

Altheas:

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/21daaa6d2c00650db561e0cb6998408a.jpg

 

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/b5df49254236a04cd77142facb636cb2.jpg

 

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/cca408d4d2518ba41df66fda77f5f407.jpg

 

I like a few pieces. I love my favorite model winner from America's Next Top Model (Jaslene) in there...

But all around, it's a bit meh...

 

I would really have rather seen Gordana in this slot.

Just for a more exciting collection, I'd even rahter have seen Christopher, Epperson, or Shirin...

Althea gets a bit meh from me. I'm not even giving her a thumbs down, as it doesn't even quite inspire that.

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Carol Hannah's Collection!

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/bec53365442501c0479d77242aff7f3b.jpg

 

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/37784c56dcee73b44731a10329853f68.jpg

 

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/7c135115fff090053ce34152e8418efa.jpg

 

I really like this! A huge step up from Althea's.

It's fun, it's romantic, it's fairy tale-like.

I'd like her to be the winner, but I think that from the judges standpoint - she might be too similar in demographic (young, Caucasian, quiet, female) to Leanne from last season.

So the default win goes to...

Edited November 19, 2009 by Curt Jerome Wild

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Meana Irina:

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/5682c72aaacdfa0b08fa0e7de09dd8f8.jpg

 

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/eb50648ff3ce6afb91ac51a42463dcbb.jpg

 

http://www.froggypic.com/image/08/5729ce626c0a3ddc7e821a8959b106ea.jpg

 

This is a very strong collection. Too much black for me, but there are tons of very strong pieces. In addition to the judges slobbering all over everything she did this season; the knitwear in this collection is really strong. They've never had a winner with knitwear before.

So, she fulfills a whole bunch of demographics for them - knitwear, Eastern European, female to balance out the 6 sinner so far to 3 male and 3 female.

 

So, there's my call on it...

In the next while, I'll talk about all the reasons they made mistakes this season - and as they're already filming Season Seven (back in New York) they've really made efforts to fix the problems.

 

What do you think of the final collections?

What designers would you have liked to see instead?

Any of the outfits something you'd love for a cruise?