project runway: finale, part one

The first part of Project Runway's season 5 finale was on tonight, but it wasn't too interesting -- the first part rarely is because it's only a sneak peek at Bryant Park. Plus, I don't think there were any surprises, but I think everyone wanted Jerrell to make it to the top three finalists. Images leaked online during Fashion Week, so everyone got a glimpse at the finale when there were still five finalists left, and these images come from the Bryant Park runway. I've only put up my favorites.

From Kenley's Collection: As rude as she may be, I don't think she's a bad person. And, let's be honest, she could have been a lot worse. It wasn't like she was a diva. Her jewel tones are gorgeous, but I really dislike the childish/floral prints she used for some of her dresses. Still, her silhouettes are lovely, and these bottom two dresses are beautiful. The first teal dress come from the bridesmaid challenge from the tonight's "final surprise" finale. The second dress has an amazingly detailed neck ruffle.



From Kato's Collection: Or is it Korto? They keep switching between the spellings and pronunciation of her name. At any rate, I didn't care for the palette of her collection but I do really love this dress. It has a great shape and beautiful colors -- I can't get enough of mustard yellow right now.


From Leanne's Collection: She's the favorite to win, and it's easy to see why. Her collection was inspired by an afternoon by a lake, and the wave motif is apparent in all of her designs. Similarly, the color palette maintains a translucent white-blue presence throughout. The first dress is beautiful because of the shifting pattern of the waves. It represents the impermanence of water and of life, in a way, because it's multi-directional. Even the binary colors play off of this duality. The second outfit is downright gorgeous -- perhaps my favorite outfit. The skirt is mind-blowingly beautiful (how can someone conceive of such architecture in a dress??), and the cupped tube top is the perfect shirt to highlight the skirt. And the third outfit was Leanne's wedding dress, which is nothing short of heavenly. And who wouldn't want to feel light as air on their wedding day?

project runway: welcome to the jungle

In order of my favorite to least favorite (l-r)
This week's guest was Brooke Shields, and her challenge was for the designers to create a look for her character from Lipstick Jungle (one of the worst TV show titles) that encapsulates a day-to-night look. The day-to-night challenges tend to bore me because the solutions are always uninspired -- take off a jacket and voila, a night look! But I guess a model can't move the scarf from around her neck to around her head while she's on the catwalk... At the beginning, the designers each showed sketches to Shields, who then chose six designs to come into full fruition. Interestingly, Shields chose Keith's design (the worst one) over Leanne's (the best one, which Shields said she would even want in her personal closet).

And then the designers were put into teams.
(Designer, Assistant)

Kato, Joe: (top, far right) Shields told Kato that she liked the color palette (red, green, orange), but then Kato only chose orange after going to the fabric store. I love the jacket because it's bohemia-inspired, which is how Shields described her character, but I hated the flesh-tone tube dress underneath. It wasn't flattering and it hugged too tightly. Unless the dress is black and can hide imperfections, I can't imagine a working woman wearing that dress.
Kelli, Daniel: (bottom, middle) Her final design looked nothing like her sketch. The sketch was a full-on leopard print dress, and the end result only included a leopard print bodice that was extremely ill-fitting. Sadly, Kelli went home, and I think everyone's in disagreement on this. Daniel should've gone home. As Kelli noted, she had already won one challenge and she'd never been in the bottom. Daniel, however, was in the bottom two last week. Plus, the camera showed his poor construction and him repeating "I do high class designs" (and then not creating high class designs) isn't helping.
Blayne, Leanne: (bottom, left) I liked the bermuda shorts well enough, but they were too tight. In order to make it more adult and business appropriate, he should've done looser shorts. Hated, hated the cerulean button up (that was originally tucked in, unbuttoned), but the top underneath was nice enough. It just looked like three separates randomly thrown together by a toddler.


Jerell, Stella: (above)) Who knew this team would work so well together? They created the fan-favorite dress, and it was far superior to the winner's design. Again, his final design looked nothing like his sketch (which involved a camel-colored skirt), but his final design still had great colors, a fantastic hemline (it flowed on the runway), and the mustard leather belt was amazing. The only thing I didn't like was the top. It didn't seem to match the rest of the outfit.
Keith, Kenley: (bottom, right) Worst sketch. Worst team. Worst result. I hated everything about this outfit, from the waistline (right under the breasts?) to the horrific ruffles (looked like they were made of construction paper) to the god-awful print for the top. And his idea for the day-to-night transition? Pulling a string that makes the the sleeves fall. Wow. So ugly. I wouldn't touch this "winning" design with a ten foot pole.
Terri, Joe: (top, far left) My favorite design. It was the most appropriate for the challenge, and Terri wasn't even in the top two teams. The top has a wonderful and sexy neckline that was suitable for work and a nightclub, the paisley print was sophisticated, and yet it was bohemian in essence. She was the only person who made full-length pants, and in a masculinized workforce, that was a smart decision.

Best line of the episode comes from... Jarell, who called his teammate "Stella Barbarella." Not as good as Stella Trashbags (simply because it has "trash" in the name), but still really funny.

And next week, it looks like Blayne gets the ultimate Tim Gunn-down: "It looks like a pterodactyl from a gay Jurassic Park." I'm less excited about next week's drag queen challenge because I don't like over-the-top designs, but eh.

project runway: rings of glory

Winner: Korto
On last night's episode of Project Runway, the designers had to create outfits for the summer Olympics opening ceremony. Points to Bravo for planning out the season to coincide with the Olympics. Bravo, Bravo! Now that we have fewer competitors, we're able to spend more time on individual personalities. Terri is definitely growing on me (she knew who Apolo Anton Ohno is, whereas Blayen just looked annoyed by the guest judge), and I still strongly dislike Stella Trashbags and Blayne Won'tShutUp. Also, why are the other designers complaining that Kenley laughs so much? Wouldn't they rather have a laugher than a crier? People will just complain about anything...

So let me complain about Blayne. I really, really dislike him. I don't typically want people to fail, but I really don't think he deserves to have this opportunity, and his ignorance really grates on my nerves.

Reasons to 'Auf' Blayne
1. He thinks that during the season, he will get paler and weaker. He gets his strength from tanning? As a pale red head, I am incredibly offended by his tanorexia. It's like a warped form of racism. He defends tanning every other day by comparing it to people who go to the gym every day. Blayne, dear, tanning gives you cancer. Working out is healthy.
2. He didn't get the Sgt. Pepper reference, and he thought The Beatles were from the 30s. To add insult to injury, he said he enjoyed Across the Universe but "other people were singing it." Then he adds that he likes his variations of The Beatles to be more progressive. Blayne, dear, The Beatles invented progressive.
3. On his design, he said he was taking the challenge more literally. Blayne, dear, nothing in your design says athletic, Olympics, or America. He opted for pink instead of red. I don't think "literal" means what he thinks it means.
4. Oh, and he's not a good designer.

Designs I enjoyed: Suede (bottom, second from the right), Leanne, Keith, and Terri (bottom, far right).

Designs I disliked: Daniel (top, second from the left), Jarell (top, middle), Stella (bottom, third from the right), BLAYNE (top, far left). They were too 1940s, and I hated that a lot of the models had 1940s hair to match. That makes absolutely no sense. Most female athletes don't put their hair in little curls.

Designs that were good but had nothing to do with the Olympics: Kelli (top, far right), Kenley (bottom, far left), and Jennifer (top, third from the left). Sadly, Jennifer was kicked off, although it should have been Daniel because his design looked horrible whereas Jennifer's design was merely inappropriate for the challenge.


My personal favorite runner up is Keith's design, even though I don't care for him or what comes out of his mouth. I really like the top half; the vest is sporty and the scarves are like a modern update on ascots (sort of). I don't think too many female athletes would be comfortable with that skirt (the material seemed irritable), but if he had paired that vest with some pants or some bermuda shorts, it would've looked fantastic. And I agree with Korto -- Olympic teams in white tend to stand out. And you don't want your country to be too red, white, and blue, so having white as the main color with red and white as the accent colors was a smart decision.



My absolute favorite design (seriously, how did this not win?) belongs to Leanne. It's sporty, it's comfortable, and the collar is freaking adorable. It's wearable and it's practical, but Leanne was still able to punch it up with some fashionable designs. It would look good with straight hair, short hair, hair in a ponytail, hair in a bun. It would look good on lean athletes or muscular athletes. It would look good with tennis shoes or sandals or flats. It's not as creative or innovative as some of the other designs, but for the challenge and for what they were supposed to create, this design really fits the bill. And did I mention it's practical?

tv roundup

Project Runway, Episode 2. Wow, these designers are really boring. For this environmentally-friendly challenge, the models were asked to pick up the fabric, and I really don't understand why a) the models got materials that were either an unflattering color or an impossible fabric or b) why multiple models got the same horrible brown satin fabric. Look at the picture; there are three caramel brown satin cocktail dresses. They all look similar, and they all look horrible. Wouldn't models understand what colors and fabrics look good on them? The winner of this challenge was Suede (bottom, middle), and no one who talks in third person or have the name Suede should ever win. Anything. Not even radio call-in contests. My favorites were Jennifer's (top, far right), whose dress flowed so beautifully on the runway, and Kenley's (second row, second from the right), whose silhouette and collar were so beautiful on this model. One last note: WTF? The judges liked Stella Trashbags's trashy dress (bottom, second from the left).


Because so many people have raved about season one of Mad Men, I decided to give it a chance and watched the season two premiere. I'm obviously at a disadvantage because I haven't seen any previous episodes, and I originally thought Mr. Draper was having an affair (with someone who, turns out, is his wife) and I still have no clue who knocked up Peggy. Although I love the costumes and set decor and overall look of the show, I don't know how long I can stick with a program where women are only sexual objects. All of the men have a "mister" before their names, but women are referred to by their first names. The women are all secretaries and mousey or whiney (where are the political protestors?), and the men all smoke and appear misogynistic (minus Mr. Draper, who is apparently the star character). But is Mr. Draper really a lovable character if everyone else lacks attractive qualities? But it did seem like Mr. Draper is battling some demons, so perhaps there was an affair or scandal, but it happened in the first season. I love period pieces, but some of the acting was awkward and the script didn't really impress me. The women just really annoyed me (oh, arrogant feminism), and I don't know how often I'll want to watch this. Plus, I don't know why it's called Mad Men.


My crush on Simon Pegg is growing. He was on The Soup the other night promoting the DVD release of Spaced (which is now taking up three spots on my Netflix list), and even though he was on for just a few moments, I got really excited. A little too excited. (Some imdb.com trivia for you: he auditioned for Rowan Atkinson's Rufus role in Love Actually, and the godfather of Chris Martin's Apple. Bizarre.) Just wanted to share. I heart Simon Pegg.

episode: project runway, ep. 1

The first episode of reality shows are always hard to judge because you're basically judging people on stereotypes and intentional editing. The editors only have so much time they can allot to each designer and, in that small amount of time, they develop and create characters for the designer. There's always the rocker character ("Stella Trashbags" is this season's), and there's always a juxtaposing sensitive character. In past seasons, this binary has mostly been between males, so it's interesting to see these two conflicting personalities in women. And because the designers have not been able to showcase their individuality, I can only judge this episode on the designs for the supermarket challenge (above, click on it to enlarge) and the sound bites. And as a friend told me, "I haven't picked out who I like yet. Hatorade first, love second."


It's pretty much unanimous that everyone hates CitrusTan. ("I'm obsessed with tanning. If anyone wants to talk about tanning...") He even named his design (bottom row, fourth from the right) -- "Girlicious" no less. He'll be gone soon enough. And half of the other designers used table clothes and fabric for their outfits, which is cheating. So anyone who lacked the inspiration doesn't get a second glance from me. Also, Carrie Bradshaw (who is actually a male but wore a ridiculously large flower in his breast pocket) was creative with the plastic cups, and I appreciated that he melted the plastic in order to sculpt it, but that cocktail dress silhouette (bottom row, fourth from the left) was completely boring and it didn't fit his model in the bust. I know there are some people who wanted him to win, but he was not nearly as bold or innovate as Kelli Martin (no cute nickname because I actually like her), who made a dress out of coffee filters and vacuum cleaner bags (see very top). I'm glad she won. But Norman Bates was kicked off, and I think everyone viewer could foresee that because Bravo is guilty of blatant foreshadowing. Norman Bates, who created a raincoat/serial killer outfit (bottom, third from the right) out of a shower curtain, mentioned how embarrassing it would be to be auf'd in the first episode and not have the opportunity to develop a style on the show. And everyone knows what that means -- he's out!

And after watching previews for the upcoming season, I think everyone is excited for the challenge where Tim Gunn says, "This looks like a pterodactyl from a gay Jurassic Park." Oh, Tim.

These images were provided by Blogging Project Runway.