Saturday, September 19, 2009

PR S6 Ep5 Pt. III: Paper-Pants on Fire!

The models come in that night for fittings, and we get to see more of where the designers are headed.  Nicolas was inspired by the 90's-punk thing and is doing a dress that sort of reminds me of the American Flag deconstructed, with an interpretation of spikes along the shoulder straps.  Shirin's model shrieks as the cold papier mâché bodice is fitted.  Shirin's also done a Leanne-esque origami skirt that looks a lot like those paper  table centerpieces, you know, the ones shaped like bells. Irina's come up with a rather brilliant crumpled-paper technique to create almost a faux-fur collar for her trench coat.  Oooh, Althea's changed her design completely and has used a repeating photo print to create a pattern on her strapless dress.  Gordana's dress is looking great.

Oh, Cueball.  He's such a fucking downer, isn't he?  Once again, his model is in the position of stroking his ego and reassuring him that he's doing okay and blah blah blah it must be exhausting to work with him.  As if that's not enough, he decides to spin a whopper: rather than admit that Tim hated his dress so he started over, he makes up an accident with the iron, saying that water spilled out all over his dress so he had to throw it away.  Oooh, is this The Biggest Lie in Runway History?  I don't know if it's the biggest, but it's certainly the most bald-faced, given that THE CAMERAS WERE RIGHT THERE, CUEBALL.  Does this guy seriously think he can get away with making up something like that?  Are the cameras slowly sucking out his brain cells while they record his actions?  Jeezus.  Chris and Shirin interview about Cueball's lack of passion and follow-through, and to illustrate that, we see that Our Little Downer has basically given up on his new dress as soon as it's just finished, and sits down and does a crossword puzzle.  Whaaaa?

Pumpkin time!  Midnight, and the designers head home.  Cueball insists upon his stupid lie about the steamer issue.  The other guys look at each other like "is this guy for real?"  We did the same thing here at Chez Boogie.

Happily, the next day arrives quickly and it's time to get ready for the runway!  After encouraging the designers to bring emergency-repair kits (with lots of tape), we head off to the show.

Still no Kors and Nina, which gives me that sads.  They both had scheduling conflicts which caused them to miss a few episodes, and their presence is sorely missed.  This week, their spots are filled by Tommy Hilfiger, and again, Marie Claire's Senior Editor Zoe Glassner.  The guest judge is Eva Longoria.  Let's start the show!

Logan shows us an Asian-inspired strapless tube dress that has an asymmetrical ruffle at the top, with a corresponding ruffle at the bottom.  The dye-job he did produced a very cool-looking bamboo-like look.  I like!

Again, Nicolas talked a big game but his dress isn't that great.  It's not terribly flattering and definitely not punk.

Whoa!  Christopher wanted to make a show-stopper, and he did.  A rigid, charcoal-colored bustier tops a huge, fluffy, feathery newspaper-colored skirt.  The length is a little off on the skirt, but the effect is just what he wanted to create.

UA's two-piece look is really lovely; there's a lot of pleating and some asymmetry, and it looks very wearable.  He used different, but complimentary, color schemes for each piece.

Epperson's look made us go "Wow" here at Chez Boogie.  It looks like an exaggerated kimono, with huge half-sleeves.  The back, unfortunately, doesn't look so good, and the skirt is an odd length, but from the front I freaking love it.

Here comes Cueball's second attempt, and oh dear, it's pretty lame.  He layered squares of paper with images on them to create a sort of Pop Art look, which is a cool concept, but he didn't even try to add any extra touches to the top or hemline - both consist of sticking-out triangles with a sort of spike at the top of the bodice.  There's a pretty dreadful "belt" and he's accessorized the dress with awful red shoes.  To his credit, he doesn't like the dress, but is delusional enough to think his orginial dress would've gotten a better response.  Which calls forth the question, why didn't he just stick with his original vision, then?

Gordana's dress looks great!  There's nothing particularly innovative about the design, but the construction is excellent - you wouldn't know it was paper.  There's a bit of unevenness in the hem of the bodice, but the coloring is good and it's a flattering look.

I really want to like Carol's dress, because she obviously put  a ton of work into it, but my gut reaction is just, ick.  It's all tiered and origami-ruffly and horribly orange and crumpled.  It's a Worst-Dressed-List gown, unfortunately.

Shirin's dress is another that I want to like more than I do.  It's too raw-looking, too obviously made of paper; while the skirt looks really cool, it's such a Leanne look that I can't help feeling like it's somehow a ripoff.  It's also ridiculously impractical; you couldn't possibly sit down in it.  The strapless bodice is cute, though we can blatantly see the stuffing in it.

Here comes Irina's trench coat.  She's done sleeves with the faux-fur collar and cuffs and I *love* it!  She's used a Sharpie to put faux stitching on the belt and pockets.  What I don't love, is everything below the belt.  It's too plain, a bit uneven, and looks like she spent all this time making the top perfect and then just said "fuck it" to the bottom (which is probably something like what actually happened).  So I love it but am also disappointed, and don't really know what to think.

Wow, Althea's dress came out fabulous, too.  Like Gordana's, it doesn't have anything terribly innovative in regards to the design itself, but the patterning is amazing.  Althea layered and positioned a repeating pattern  on her strapless gown in a kind of nautilus shell spiral that's very interesting and flattering.

Okay, what in the hell happened to Louise's Headline Dress?  The well-shaped bodice and cute, flippy skirt are topped by what looks like sticks of dynamite above the chest. Actually it also reminds me of those orange roofs on stucco houses, you know those curved pieces? Whyyy?  It would have been really sweet without the rolled-up weirdness.

Cueball, Nicolas, Christopher, Althea, Gordana, and Irina have the high and low scores; everyone else clears the runway.  Judging time!

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