So Lo says to T this morning, "T," he says, "We still have another dress to do!"
"Are you sure, Lo?" says T. "I can't even remember. Who's left?"
"Althea!" said Lo in his excitable Lo way. "We forgot to do ALTHEA!!!"
"Oh," said T. "THAT one."
Look, nothing against the girl. She's done her share of solid work all season and she certainly got the judges' attention. We're not arguing that she doesn't deserve to be in Bryant Park. We're still stinging over the bizarre judging that rewarded a dress the judges called a "mess fest" and sent home the designer the judges said made a "beautiful" dress.

Which, if we can take a second to return to Gordana, seems to have been misunderstood by some of our readers when they saw our ranting on her "Auf Wiedersehen" post. It's not that WE think Gordana should have gone to Bryant Park; it's that THE JUDGES completely overruled their own assessments to justify not sending her. It's not about whether WE thought her dress was beautiful; it's about the fact that THEY did. And the flipside of that, what made it doubly frustrating, was that the judges clearly hated Althea's look.

Anyway, architectural inspiration, blah, blah, blah. Not a bad idea, but hard to pull off the technical details.

Like the judges, we'll give her a lot of credit for the effort. Unlike the judges, we didn't let that blind us to the obvious problems.

The actual design of the skirt is great. The choice to use that particular fabric? Not great. The fact that the design of the skirt was so obviously time consuming that it left her just barely enough time to stamp out a formless tank top with no design interest to it at all? HUGE mistake.

And the fact that the skirt itself isn't even completed to what Nina would normally consider her satisfaction? FATAL mistake.

Or it would have been if the judging didn't have the sweet smell of crack hanging all over it.

That is an unfinished mess topped of by a tank top so barely made it's practically imaginary. She should have changed course early on when it became obvious she wasn't going to do the design justice in the time allotted. That's what other designers have done when the chips were down.

But for whatever reason, all of this was overlooked. Actually, that's not true. It was all addressed and critiqued by the judges, who then promptly forgot about it when it came time to send people home. We still don't get it.

Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:




[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]



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W Magazine December 2009
Photographed by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott
Styled by Alex White

Some tidbits:

“The frustrating part is that the type of roles I’d be interested in are not really coming to me. I hate to say it’s a function of my age—but yes, I think in some ways it is. The majority of [female] roles are geared between 25 and 35.”

“I’m certainly not the first person to be in a relationship with a younger man, but somehow I was plucked out as a bit of a poster girl. I don’t know why that is. But I just kind of step back sometimes and say, ‘There is some reason, and what is it that I have to share in a positive way?’”

“[About being called a cougar] I’d prefer to be called a puma. I'm going to get T-shirts that say puma power.’”

“[Posting on Twitter] You post something and get your finger on the pulse. You know what people are interested in. I can’t impress enough the difference in how people are perceiving me. They’re getting to see who I am.”

You can read the entire article here.

Now. About those pictures.

Is it us or are they a little disturbing? She looks like she's starving. It's not just the alarmingly skinny arms, tiny waist, and child-sized legs, it's the wide-eyed look. She LITERALLY looks like she's starving.

You know, we don't deny that there is sexism in the entertainment industry and rarely does the industry have any place for women over 40. But we look at these pictures and think "You know, you might be up for more roles if you didn't look like, oh, say... a CRAZY STARVING PERSON?" It's the same thing with Nicole Kidman. There's a certain class of Hollywood women who have dieted and surgically altered themselves to the point where they really don't look like people. Not healthy people, anyway. There's a reason that the leading actresses in the over-45 category are women like Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren. Because they smartly realized a long time ago that the ingenue parts were gone forever and there was no use going after something they were never going to get again.

Of course, the fact that Demi never could act to save her life probably has something to do with her lack of roles, but still. We just want to grab people like this, shake them, and say, "Despite what your insular little industry has told you, it's okay to look like a human being." Seriously. We look at her and all we can do, despite her fame and fortune, is feel a little sorry for her. Imagine what she sees when she looks in the mirror. Imagine the kind of stress and self-image that causes you to go to the extremes required to look like that.

We realize there's no small amount of photoshopping involved here, so who knows what her real body looks like, but we're talking less about her waist size and more about her face, which looks pinched and sharp and undernourished.

No, there aren't a lot of roles for actresses over forty. That's true and that's not cool. But there are even less roles for actresses trying desperately to look 20 years younger than their age. "Desperation" is a terrible quality for a movie star to project.

[Photos: Wmagazine.com/Style.com]


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It seems it's our destiny to always say this when it comes to her but, "Only Iman..." On anyone else, it would look decidedly muppetesque, but her superior genes and fierce style don't allow that to happen. We like it more on her than on the model.



And we gotta say, Rihanna BROUGHT IT. We're not loving the Tippi Hedren hair, but the dress is a stunner.



[Photos: WireImage/Getty Images/Style.com/Coutorture.com]


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So the villain of the piece chose as her inspiration the painting Mischief and Repose, by John William Godward. Not pointing it out for any reason other than it goes with this screencap.

Because, did you know? Irina is the VILLAIN. Such is the extent of her villainy that when it's combined with the sheer blandness of the rest of this season, it turns out she's not much of a villain. She's apparently the best they could rustle up.

She's just a smack-talking girl who thinks she can smack talk because the judges like her. Fine. Okay. We think the judges have surrendered themselves to the sweet embrace of crack, but it's not like they didn't give her reason to think that her shit does not, in fact, stink.

Just one question.

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?

What is this "Fiddler on the Roof of Studio 54" bullshit?

UGLY. OLD FASHIONED. STYLE-LESS.

Seriously, we think the worst you could say about most of Irina's stuff is that it's good basic yeoman's work when it comes to dress-making. We thought she could at least always fall back on the "sense of style" defense of her work. But this? It looks old.

And WHAT IS GOING ON with Kalyn's drag queen makeup and Leontyne Price styling?

We'll give her some tiny credit for the back. It's at least a little interesting (in a Stevie Nicks kind of way). But those shoes?

And that headband! And that frigging half-assed sash she puts on everything?

It's all so tired looking. She sure was talking a good game to the cameras because any other designer sending this out on the runway would have at least had the presence of mind to say, "I think I'm really screwed here." At least Tim talked her out of draping the dead animals all over her.

Then again, the judges only gave her the mildest rebuke, it seemed to us. Not that they didn't criticize it extensively, but we'd bet a donut that if certain other designers had ever sent this out on the runway, they would have been barbecued for it.

Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:



[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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We got a phone call at 11:02 last night from someone who wanted to eagerly discuss the incredible episode we both just saw. "Did you think it would turn out this way?" she asked. "Not exactly," we said. "But it's like they gave every one of our favorite characters their best-case scenario."

Last night's episode wasn't just a culmination of the entire season; it was a culmination of the entire series to this point. Leave it to the creators of this show. Two weeks before the season finale they gave us an episode as shocking as any season finale and now for the actual season finale, they give us an episode that feels like a coda to the whole series. Every action taken by every character made complete and total sense for that character based on their experiences. Every story felt like it had naturally flowed to this place. They could have just titled the episode "Of Course." It was an incredibly satisfying payoff wherein each character got to have a character-defining scene and various relationships were re-defined and re-affirmed while others were ended.

When things are ending, it gives license to truth and much truth was spoken this episode. The series could be easily dismissed as endless scenes of subtext piled upon subtext, but last night's episode was all text, all the time.

"Young men love risk because they can't imagine the consequences."

"And you old men love building golden tombs and sealing the rest of us in with you."

"I wanna see what you look like with your tail between your legs."

"You sold your birthright so you could marry that trollop!"

"You're not good at relationships because you don't value them."

"I don't want to make a career out of being there so you can kick me when you fail."

Suddenly, everything's out on the table and nobody is holding back. And even though the events could have played out in a doom-laden catastrophic manner, it all felt like a breath of fresh air. At the end, every character was exactly where they were supposed to be.

As the title of the episode indicated, the show was literally composed of scenes of people shutting the door and having a seat and yet great drama was wrung out of these remarkably repetitive scenes over and over again. They've spent the last three seasons setting these characters up (and in some cases, knocking them down) to get to this point. This episode was all about playing all the riffs on the relationships they've spent three years constructing to get to this moment. Like Peggy's "Really?" to the news that Pete brought Clearasil on as a client. Two syllables that address the history of the two characters and also implied a highly functioning partnership on the part of the Campbells. In fact, to our intense delight, Trudy looks to have become a fairly prominent character in the new status quo, but we'll get to that in a minute.

You're going to have to forgive a little bit of fragmentation in this post. We're just gonna spew and hope it wraps itself up in the end somehow.

The episode opens with Don waking up coughing in Gene's/Baby Gene's/I Don't Love You Anymore's room. Contrast that with the Don of just 3 episodes ago in a tuxedo accepting an award. We said back then that it felt like Don was heading toward a downfall and he certainly rarely looked as beaten down as he does here.

Betty, on the other hand, is moving forward, jaw set. "Maybe you should see a doctor. A good one," says Don to the news that Betty's consulted a divorce lawyer, desperately trying to regain control in the old Don Draper manner. "Because I'd have to be sick to want out of this?" she shoots back. It's not gonna work anymore, Don.

To be honest, we just wanted to see the Draper marriage end. We really hope there isn't a planned reconciliation for these two characters in season 4. It's done and we'll repeat what we said about them during season 2: "The Draper family seems irrevocably broken and we can't help thinking that everyone involved would be better off if they just all went their separate ways." And we said that BEFORE she threw him out of the house the first time. It's been three full seasons of misery in Ossining. A good marriage might have survived the year that they had, but they clearly never had a good marriage.

In other news, Connie calls Don in for another meeting and drops a bomb on him, which gives him license to speak the truth and call Connie out on his games and bullshit. "You called me son. I get it, Connie." But Connie unwittingly throws down a gauntlet to Don: Are you the type of man who whines about his fate or does something about it? Don chooses option B because taking charge of his career is the only thing he has left in the face of his disintegrating home life.

Just like in last season's finale, when every character had to come face to face with the end of something (although last year's Cuban Missile Crisis-inspired "end of civilization" was a little bit more dire), the status quo got upended and all bets were off. As Don appealed first to Bert and then with Bert to Roger, he had the zeal of a man with a mission and the desperation to go around with hat in hand (literally) to convince others to climb on board.

Roger, like Pete and Peggy and Betty this episode, wants his pound of flesh from Don and before he can even think of throwing in with him, he had to get a few things off his chest, not the least of which was his brutally honest assessment that Don doesn't value relationships in any form. A hobo down to his soul. It's interesting to note that for all Don's attempt at privacy, the people around him have known him long enough and been at the mercy of his demons enough that they all tend to know him pretty well, much to his chagrin. This episode was in many ways a chance for many of the characters to tell Don exactly what they think of him.

We loved the scene where the four future partners of Sterling Cooper Draper Price sit down in Don's office and discover to their delight that they can actually get out of this untenable situation. It only made us wish we could have seen more of the business drama this season because they really shine when they focus on it. "Well, gentlemen. I suppose you're fired." Lane is awesome. Have we said that enough? We're really looking forward to seeing more of him next season and wondering how his bitchy wife is going to take to her permanent residence in New York.

Two things of note here:

The first: The lack of technology, the fact that you could only set this story in this particular time period, when a message to London won't even be read for 3 days, is what allows the entire caper to be successfully pulled off. We appreciate that from the writers because the show works best when they really make good use of that specific brief period of time to set stories in motion. That short window when the business world was operating globally but didn't have the technology that would come along in a short while to facilitate it.

It's also notable that Don gives an emphatic "No" to the idea of Connie as a client for the newly formed firm. While it's true that Connie had ended things and Don gave him a little mouth on the way out, Don could conceivably have pitched him on the merits of SCD&P. That he chose not to is evidence of his need for control in this moment. He had the energy of a newly formed evangelical. He had found his purpose and he didn't have time for idiosyncratic clients who like to play head games.

So Don and Roger are off to see Pouting Pete. Don finally said to Pete everything Pete needed to hear from him, and the beauty of it was that all of it was absolutely true. A complete validation for the character.

Can we just take a moment here to once again declare our love for Trudy Campbell, setting out the chip and dip and wearing a kicky little dress for company? Her perky little, "I'm going to change the sheets," was treat enough, but her tense, eavesdropping-inspired "Peter, may I speak to you for a moment?" had us rolling. Best line of the night. Once again, we see the total teamwork in the Campbell marriage as Pete tells her to get the rolodex out from under the bed, where he threw it (a great throwaway line illustrating Pete's childishness) and pose as his secretary in order to set up a meeting with a client. At the end of the episode, we see Trudy breezing into the new "office" with lunch for everyone and we realize, she is in a new position to become the alpha wife in this scenario. Don, Roger, Lane and Bert do not have willing partners to play the hostess and the arm candy as a firm like this would definitely require. Her willingness to be a partner to her husband could be a great asset not only to the Campbells, but to the newly formed company.

Roger and Don still don't love each other, but they're back to sitting in a bar together, something we haven't seen them do all season. They each seem to have realized the other's worth and they've reached enough of a detente that it can survive Roger blurting out Betty's rumored infidelity to him. Our mouths dropped when he said the name of Henry Francis to Don. A great scene and a plot twist we didn't see coming.

Again, revelations and endings lead to spoken truths. After calling her a "spoiled main line brat," Don says to Betty, "You never forgave me." "Forgave what?" she spits out. "That I've never been enough?" And if these truths weren't enough, when Don calls her the very worst name Don Draper could ever call someone, "whore," they've reached the point of no return. The marriage effectively ends at that moment. And didn't we all want it to? We don't hate either character or blame either character for the demise of the marriage; we just want it to be over. They're more miserable than they've ever been (and that's really saying something) and it's time to just rip off the band-aid and get it over with. So they do.

"Is it because I lost your cufflinks?" asks Bobby at the news. It's a heartbreaking line that reveals beautifully what goes on in the head of a child when divorce becomes real to them. "You made him stay in Gene's room and it's scary in there!" accused Sally. Children processing adult events in child-like terms. It was a tear-your-heart out scene, beautifully written and perfectly acted by all four of them. But even this didn't change our minds about the divorce. As painful as it was for the kids, they'd only have a lifetime of tense and uncomfortable scenes ahead of them if they tried to keep the family together.

The ending of the primary relationship in Don's life has him running around trying to shore up all the secondary relationships and none were better than the scenes where he tries to keep Peggy from leaving him. But she's no more likely to fall for the old Don Draper moves than Betty is. "Beg me?" she says when it's her turn to collect her pound of flesh, "You didn't even ask me."

Later, in her adorably messy new apartment (in the DVD bonus commentaries for season 2, Matthew Weiner gleefully mentions the fact that Peggy is a bit of a slob as one of his favorite character bits several times) Don laid it all out to her. We watched this scene three times and each time we thought, "Why does Don look so good here?" It wasn't just the beautiful lighting. On the third viewing we finally figured it out. It's because Don is looking up at Peggy, who's in a superior position. A pleading Don with his hat literally in his hands, the sun streaming through the windows and lighting his face up like a joyous convert, is a completely human and vulnerable Don. A far cry from the swaggering Don who shoved his hands up the skirts of women to get them to do his bidding. And then something else occurred to us. This scene is a romance. There isn't a chance in hell of Peggy and Don ever having a literal romantic relationship (or of even wanting one) but this scene is nevertheless a declaration of love, a grand gesture in the face of a breakup. "I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you." It's literally one of the most romantic things Don has ever said. That's as firm a declaration of love and need as Don has ever uttered. And Peggy, because how could she not? Completely accepted it. She is finally where she needed to be: her worth is known and valued.

After that, it's just a matter of setting events into motion. With the addition of one last-minute, yet nonetheless major player.When Roger stood up and said he was making a phone call we knew our Joannie was on her way back. "Joan. What a good idea," says Don appreciatively, and we could NOT agree more. From that point on, we just sat back with huge grins on our faces and watched it all unfold.

"Peggy, can you get me some coffee?"
"No."

Okay, no. THAT was the best line of the night. Of the SERIES. The old ways are OVER. We said this about Don after Betty found out the truth about him, but now it applies to all of them: they could literally go anywhere they want to with these new core characters. The possibilities for what season 4 could even be about are so wide open that we're not even going to attempt to make predictions.

Joan. We just can't say how happy we are regarding Joan's role in this turn of events. "Furnished?" she asks Don, at his request for a new apartment, followed by the most incredibly discreet "I'm sorry," as she folds the paper and files it away in her robot brain. DCS&P didn't feel like a real possibility until she came on board and we can't wait to see where this takes her.

With a newfound control exerted over his life and his immediate goals met and immediate future wide open, Don ends what needs to end. "I'm not gonna fight you," he says to Betty and for a moment she looks a little hurt to hear that he won't. But it's really over. "You will always be their father." That's as final as final gets and Don knows it.

So Betty is off to Reno with Henry and little Gene while Carla sits in the den in Ossining with poor Sally and Bobby. It would be easy to vilify Betty for running off with another man and leaving her two children weeks before Christmas but that's as much an admonishment against the draconian divorce laws of the times as it is a strike against her. We guess she could have waited until after the holidays but why? Why leave the family in limbo? For good or for ill, she's fallen for someone else and wants to get her family out of an untenable situation. Is she going to find happiness with Henry? Who knows? Sure, there are some warning signs there, but say what you will about him, the guy follows through. She's got a better chance with Henry than she ever did with Don.

And Don is living in the city- where he belongs? After all, Don always was attracted to either the cosmopolitan (Rachel and Bobbie) or the bohemian (Midge and Suzanne). His mistake was taking the educated, world traveling, Italian-speaking model he fell in love with and trying to turn her into a suburban housewife. We suspect Don's immediate focus is his career at the moment and another relationship is not on his agenda right now but you never can tell with this show and a divorced Don doesn't necessarily mean he's suddenly conquered his impulse control issues when it comes to women. Although really, anything is possible right now with these characters and that suddenly makes the show feel more energized. For once, all of these characters are out in front of change instead of unprepared for it or worse, passive to it, like they usually are. The future really is wide open to them.


[Pictures courtesy of amctv.com]


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While it's true that she's Charlize Theron and therefore, genetically destined to look good in almost anything, she does not look good in this flip-flops and diapers ensemble.

The dress just looks so flimsy. Like a hard rain would melt it. And don't even get us started on that skirt. We realize that the genetically blessed are different from the rest of us, but who would want a skirt that looks like the morning after on the The Poseidon? And while good sense forces us to marginally approve of the flat sandals, they're a little informal looking despite the bling involved.

We don't know. It's all just a little too "forced casual" for us. OUT.

[Photos: WireImage/Getty Images/Style.com]


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Dr. Whitfield does solid work once again. In a season that, by destiny or design, wound up with a parade of blandness on the runway, she's nonetheless been a notably solid performer.


We really only have one criticism of this dress, which we'll get to in a minute. It's pretty, no doubt about it.

It fits her well and we even like the twisted straps, which is weird for us because we rarely like twisted fabric.

Our problem with it is that, though it's fitted well, it's not particularly sewn well.

Pucker City.

Plus, it only barely touches on the piece that supposedly inspired it.

Okay, that's two criticisms.

We get why the judges praised it. It really is a classically pretty design. It's just that it's not particularly wedded to its supposed inspiration, and once again we're looking at technical issues that in past seasons would have had Nina foaming at the mouth.

Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:



[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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I’m so upset you couldn’t make it to lunch! I was so looking forward to meet you. You are my favorite people. Thank you for everything. You two are amazing. Every time my husband is reading your blog to me, because I don’t have time to read it, you know, I’m always touched by the things you guys and your readers write about me. You guys have an amazing following; your readers are so into Project Runway. It’s fantastic.

Well, thank you so much. They all love YOU. Did you watch the last episode? Was it hard?
Of course it was hard even though I knew what the outcome would be and I knew when I was doing that challenge what the outcome would be. You know what? What I’m proud of is that I walked away not being ashamed of anything that I had done; I’m proud of who I am as a human being and I never gave them a chance to represent me anything else other than what I am. I am proud of the fact that I was able to reach so many people, which was my goal in the first place. If I had shown on Project Runway when I was growing up, it would have made such a difference in my life; it would have given me the wings to fly. I have received emails from kids all over the world saying just that to me. It’s the biggest gift that Project Runway has given to me.

Speaking of growing up, it was very touching to hear you talk about your humble upbringing on the show.
My parents are survivor children from WWII and their motto is, "If you have land, that means you can survive." I don’t know how God or the universe, whatever you want to call it, misplaced me to be born in a village where people only care about corn and potatoes. I’m the skinniest kid ever dreaming about the bigger world; dreaming about fashion. Not to mention that I didn’t have any resources, nothing. I’m grabbing the scissors and just cutting anything I can possibly cut. As I said in the last episode, I was using onion peels to dye whatever it is that I had like my dad’s old shirts. I was using berries and beets and all kinds of stuff.

To be able to make it to Project Runway in the first place, I always had to remind myself where I came from and that somehow I made it to that stage. It doesn’t matter, all the criticism, I made it. And my mom was burning my clothes when I would make something because it was so out of the norm. I really feel like I had created my role in my childhood and it was in my dreams. In my mind, I knew there was a bigger world out there and I wanted to taste that so I ran away from it.

It is an achievement to make it on the show and to make it this far, no doubt about it.
Absolutely! It’s also human nature, you know, you become kind of greedy when you make it so far. First you’re like “Oh my God, if I make top six how challenging it is,” then you get to top six and you’re like “Hmm.”

I don’t know, even if they didn’t put me in the top three, which I understand, whatever, I kind of saw who the favorites were in the beginning. In the middle of the show, I already knew that there was no way they were going to give me that opportunity, but I still kept on going, and what helped me was that in that last challenge, I completely disregarded the judges and I said, “OK, I’m going to create something for me and my family and friends." I kept thinking about the cathedral and what that represents to a lot of people. It's a place of hope, some kind of salvation. It really gave me such a great opportunity to create my vision. The angel, that was what I wanted to create.

The funny thing is that they never showed me making the dress. You don’t just buy fabric like that. I bought flat organza, I was working on connecting the colors and layering them over to make them look like the same colors of the painting, to use brush strokes in a way. I textured the fabric, heating it up and drying it. I used a spray bottle with water to mold it so that the strokes would look equal. They never showed any of that. And the outfit that I was wearing, I actually made it that same day. I made the dress and the outfit I was wearing.

Many or our readers feel that Heidi had a problem with you, that she never really warmed up to you. Do you agree with them?
I kind of felt the same way and I’m not trying to make excuses by any means. I don’t know if it was the fact that I’m European and she was making sure that the viewers didn’t think that she was showing any favoritism or maybe she didn’t like the fact that I was older. I don’t know. When I did my paper challenge and the costume challenge and they put me on the bottom and they didn’t really know what they were criticizing me about and that was kind of weird to me. I love to watch So You Think You Can Dance and when I see the judges criticizing the contestants with such respect, so constructively. So kind. It put me to tears. Why can we not have the same respect?

I’m not making excuses. I admit when I’m doing something wrong. I remember for the Cristina Aguilera challenge I was very sick. The reason why I broke down is because I was already starting to feel that I wasn’t feeling well, my nose was bleeding, I was getting a fever, you know, when your system goes down, then I’m crying for my family. You have to understand, and you two know that, they are filming every day. You watch it once a week, but for us it’s every day and thank God I had immunity and that I was still able to create anything to send down the runway. Anything.

I was really lucky that I won the previous challenge and that I was safe. When Heidi said that Irina was safe and that she had done a good job and then when she came to me and all that criticism that she gave me, I was like, “OK, as long as I can just get off the stage go lay down, that’s all that I care.” But then when I watched the episode at home and saw the closeup of Heidi’s face, it was almost like of hate, disgust or something. It really affected me and shook me to a point that I couldn’t sleep that night. OK, I didn’t create a great dress, so what? It’s not the first time in Project Runway’s history that somebody has created something bad. It was really a tough pill to swallow.

How was it watching the episodes at home and seeing the other designers talk about each other in the confessionals? Was it tough to hear or did you just brush it off?
You know, in the beginning, designers were coming up to me in the workroom and saying, "That's stunning," and then I'm in the bottom three a couple of times and then maybe they think, "Oh, the judges don't like her," and they don't want to look bad, so... I just brushed it off. I have proven to myself that I have survived for the past ten years, I’m actually living a pretty good life off of my designs and off what I’m doing. Maybe the others think that I am not talented but the rest of America thinks differently otherwise people wouldn’t be buying my clothes.

You have two stores, right?
Yes, I have one in Charleston, South Carolina and I moved actually, when we filmed the show I never left California, I opened a store in San Diego.

How are the stores doing?
They’re doing fine. The one in San Diego, I’m trying to get to something bigger. I would love to have an opportunity to maybe do some sort of after-school program, like something called Design with Gordana. I’m very much connected to young people and I feel that a lot of times if you don’t get straight A’s or if you not good at math and science, you’re kind of labeled as not very intelligent. There are so many kids out there who are so creative. I can knit, I can crochet, I can make jewelry, I can design…if I could have some kind of program with gifted children…I know, because when I was thirteen years old and I designed this unbelievable outfit and I wore it out and I got so much attention, it gave me an identity, it put me on the map. If I could do something like this for somebody else it would be a big deal.

Even though most of your pieces were intricate and full of details, some people, including the judges, thought you were too safe on the show. The judges kept waiting to see more from you.
It’s kind of a tricky situation because you saw what happened to Ra’mon. They want something bigger, they want this and that, but as soon as you do it, you’re giving them the opportunity to kick you out. As I keep saying, it’s very sad that you’re kind of designing out of fear. I feel that if I didn’t have all this on top of my head and being criticized all the time, yes, maybe I would come out of my box a little more.

For example, when I made that jacket for the previous challenge, I really liked it, I don’t care what anybody says. Ideally, I would have designed it with tight pants or leggings with high boots or something. But if you design leggings, you're going to be chastised. You can’t design leggings; you know you’re going home. They all hated leggings. And the Macy’s wall, give me a break, they don’t really have much accessories to offer you. Then you start over-thinking, I can’t do this and I can't do that and the time is ticking, you get yourself tangled up in the situation.

In the real world, the circumstances would be different.
Of course, I feel that I’m a very creative person in the real word. Also, when people see me on the street now, the first thing they say is “Oh, my God you look so much better in person.” [Laughs] It’s the truth, it’s easier to bounce back when you’re nineteen or twenty years old after sleepless nights, but when you’re forty-five you need a little bit more time to get back to your usual self. It was really hard for me physically to keep up. In my private life, I have a great sense of style, people love my clothes. I’m completely confident in my style, in what I personally wear and design. When you’re on the show people work differently and under different circumstances.

Do you think you achieved what you wanted with this competition?
To some extent, yes. I wish I had gotten the opportunity to show at Bryant Park. In the history of Project Runway I am the only designer who has finished in fourth place and didn’t get the opportunity to show. Even if they didn’t show it on TV, people would still have gotten an idea of who I am as a designer. It’s much easier to design when you have somebody giving you nine thousand dollars and saying, “Knock yourself out,” you know. For any struggling designer, nine thousand dollars is a lot of money.

I kind of feel like maybe I was robbed out of it. I wish they had given me the chance even if I didn’t make to top three, but give me the chance to showcase something. I would have created some beautiful designs had they given me the chance. I know that Christopher wanted it too. I felt that they kind of cheapened out on me, you know? It's like, for God's sake, what's nine thousand dollars? I don't know, I felt a little bit robbed. I’m not trying to put the top three down by any means, but I really don’t think they’re any better than me. I’ll tell you one thing, any one of them the minute they would be criticized, they would fall apart, I was dealing with that practically from the first episode.

The good news is that you are going to be featured in VOGUE Knitting. That’s awesome.
I know, and that’s thanks to you guys. It was such a great surprise. It’s going to be, I believe, the spring issue. As soon as it comes out, I’ll let you guys know.

Knits are very important to me; it was kind of like my gateway to fashion. I remember ripping apart some old sweaters that my mom had and making a new one. I remember she was so impressed with the fact that I knitted a sweater, although she didn’t like my style, you know, because it was the '70s, with the big sleeves and the pocket on the front [laughs].

You do incorporate a lot of knitting in you work.
Yes, I love knits. It’s something about comfort. When you have something that’s so soft, it puts your mind at ease. I knit so much it’s like meditation to me. I’m very spiritual; very connected to nature and sometimes when you look back in life and the things that you wanted so much that didn’t happen, turns out that something even better will happen. I’m a big optimist and who knows? Maybe the whole experience will work in my favor.

It was so nice to see you on the show. We wish you all the best.
Thank you so much, guys, for all your support and your honest words. All your critiques, good and bad; it’s all welcome. And a big thank you to all the people blogging about this show, who are taking their time to voice their opinion. And if you ever come my way, please let me know. I’d love to give you a big “mama hug.” [Laughs] Good luck to you and everything you do.


[Photos: myLifetime.com]


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[Photos: WireImage/Style.com]


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Poor guy. He really is very likeable and it was endearing how appreciative he was to still be there this late in the game, but let's face it: the writing was on the wall a long time ago.

We give him credit for choosing an inspiration way off the beaten path, but it kind of reinforced the idea in our heads that he doesn't have great instincts and he's amazingly unself-aware as a designer.

He's at his best when he's doing romantic, conventionally beautiful clothing. He's not, so far as we can tell, a conceptual designer. He was standing in front of one of the world's finest art collections. He could have picked almost any artwork in that museum and it would have been a good fit for his aesthetic. Instead, he picked the most challenging and least-like-himself inspiration he could find. Not that we're arguing he should have played it safe, but he really should have played to his strengths.


The top is very cute but he's done the exact same top several times this season. It was just more of the same. The corset waist just looked incongruous to us. It didn't really add any thing to the look.

And we have to say, while the execution wasn't bad exactly, it wasn't "set the world on fire" good either. Anyone who's ever watched the show knows that the final challenge is basically an audition for Bryant Park and it's the one moment where all the stops really needed to be pulled out.

Even if all the elements came together and worked perfectly, it's still not a terribly ambitious design.

Nor is it a particularly pretty dress. That skirt fabric, besides being too heavy, was just plain ugly.

In season 2, Andrae famously made a dress inspired by dirty gutter water. What made that dress so memorable is that he took something ugly and turned it into something beautiful. The fountain wasn't exactly ugly, but it did pose roughly the same challenge. This needed to be a uniquely beautiful dress and it just wasn't. It was kind of sad and stiff and depressing.

We really do think he's a sweetheart and we hope he's learned a lot from this experience. There's definitely a lot of potential there, but in our opinion, he either needs to go to school or he needs to intern for a design house to learn some of the basics. It was cute in the beginning when he admitted he didn't know what smocking is, but after weeks of demonstrating that he doesn't know how to edit or interpret, he's proven to us that he needs guidance in order to move on.

Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique:


Exit Interview:




[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Blah blah blah. Final challenge, blah blah, inspiration, blah, Getty Museum, blah, blah, blah.

Blah, blah, only five left, blah, blah.

Blah, Monet, blah.


*sob*

It's hard not to write "FUCK YOU, BUNIM/MURRAY!!!!!"

Oh, wait. We just did.

Seriously, when the show pulls out crack-smokery like this, it's always difficult the next morning to come up with a cogent, reasoned response. And why should we, you ask? Well, because "FUCK YOU!!!!" responses are not exactly hard to find on the internet and we try to be a little better than that.

Better than a "FUCK YOU!!!" response. Which is why we rarely ever write it.

"FUCK YOU!!!" That is.

To Bunim/Murray. So it would read like this:

"FUCK YOU, BUNIM/MURRAY!!!!"

As you can see, we're better than that.

Christ, what are we supposed to say here? We saw the final collections back in February. Once the designers established their aesthetics, it wasn't hard to figure out who was in the final three. For us, it was all about waiting to see how they got to that point.

So when this beautiful dress came out and blew all the other dresses out of the water, and then when all the judges admitted that it was a beautiful dress and the only one that truly looked inspired by the inspiration, we thought, "Were we wrong? Is Gordana in the final three?" Because even jaded, cynical long-time PR commenters like us couldn't figure out how she could be auf'd if the judges loved her dress.

We STILL can't figure it out. And while we don't want to take any of the deserved blame away from the judges - especially Nina with her "I don't know who she is" crap. NEWSFLASH, CHICA: YOU DON'T KNOW WHO SHE IS BECAUSE YOU WERE FLYING ALL OVER THE WORLD WHEN YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN SITTING IN THAT JUDGES SEAT - the fact of the matter is, this has producer manipulation written all over it.

After all, they found themselves in this predicament before. In season 3, they couldn't decide who to send home after judges' pet Michael made a crappy dress and judge's punching bag Uli made a beautiful dress, so they sent all 4 of them to Bryant Park. In season 4, they couldn't make up their minds so they sent all 5 designers to Bryant Park.

We realize that the lawsuit was hanging over this production the whole time and no one involved in the show was really on their game, but why couldn't they do as the Magical Elves did and just give the woman her damn due? She clearly NAILED the challenge. Send her to Bryant Park, for Christ's sake. Would it have killed them to have someone not young and perky in the finale?

As for the dress, well, it's not that we love it all that much, but we love the thought behind it and we really love the technical skill she brought to it.

But frankly, those judges should be ashamed of themselves. They certainly looked it. That was the most sheepish judging session we've ever seen. Why not just have the producers standing behind them and whispering everything in their ears on camera? It wouldn't have been any less obvious.

Extended Judging:


Tim Gunn's Workroom Critique


Exit Interview:




[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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What a fabulously retro little bar! It looks like a villain hideout from the '60s Batman show. Darlings, the bar is once again open. Line up for your cocktails. But first, a big congratulations to NANCY who is the lucky winner of last week's T Lounge contest and gets a Schott Brothers leather jacket courtesy of Joe Faris. Nancy was one of 159 people who got the correct answer and it was her name that got picked out of our little velvet bag.

Unfortunately, that was the last of our prizes for this season, so instead of posting contest entries, it looks like we're all going to have to talk to each other. Tell us about yourselves, kittens. We have a large and thriving community here but all we ever do is talk about other people. Now's the time to learn a little bit about each other. Who are you, where are you, what do you do, what are you doing right now, what are you eating right now, anything at all. Here's your soapbox, climb on.

Oh, and another thing: What's your PR viewing ritual? Ours is a pizza, a bottle of wine, a notepad and a laptop (to monitor T Lounge of course). Any guests are expected to shut it until commercial breaks and any time one of them cracks a good joke, they're informed "We're using that for the blog." It's the one time our cats don't bother us because it's the one time they know they're not going to get any attention from us. They tend to leave the room and sulk somewhere in the house. Or fight each other.

And just to bring it back to PR, a shoutout and congratulations to the designers who have made it this far:

And to whet your appetites once again, here's the episode 12 preview:




[Video: myLifetime.com - Photos:WireImage/ PlanetFabulon.com]



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V Magazine #62
Editorial: Natalie Or Nothing
Styled by Clare Richardson
Photographed by Mario Testino

We've always been a little annoyed by Natalie Portman. For someone so undeniably beautiful, she's, well, boring as hell. The girl's just got no charisma whatsoever. Either she was really pissed off about something the day these pictures were taken or Mario Testino somehow managed to tap into a side of her rarely (if ever) seen, but we think these are some of the best pictures we've ever seen of her. She's looked prettier in other pictures, and we can't say we love the clothes, but she's commanding the camera in a way we've never seen her do. If we were flipping through this magazine, we'd stop and look at this editorial. And if we were her style consultants, we'd tell her to look into heavy eye makeup more often.








[Images: TheFashionSpot/VMagazine.com]


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...and we can find nothing objectionable with it. Which probably seems like a weird thing to say, but that was our reaction: "Inoffensive." Pretty, basic, wearable clothes. Nothing earth-shattering or unique, but that's probably for the best when you're starting out and trying to make a name for yourself. There's not a piece here we dislike enough to mention, but on the other hand, there's little here that stands out enough to mention. It's all very feminine and pretty and goddess-y.

[Photos: Coutorture.com/Getty Images/Vogue.com.au]


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Y'know, we really love this dress. It's simple and striking and the color is beautiful. Unfortunately for Drew, it's a big ol' O to the UT. Why? Well for one, it looks like it's the wrong size. It's not particularly well-fitted to her body (and has she lost weight? That side shot of her makes her look so skinny). The length is AWFUL. That is a length that is flattering on absolutely no one. Why alter it? It looks great on the model. And finally, the shoes aren't the best choice for this dress and the stick pin is distracting and unnecessary. It's a shame. Had it been fitted correctly and styled correctly, she could have really looked stunning here. As it is, it looks like she and her stylist spend the day smoking blunts and threw the outfit together ten minutes before the limo came to pick her up.

[Photos: WireImage/Style.com]


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