Thursday, November 16, 2006 by
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Quickie recap: The designers must create holiday party dresses that would appeal to Banana Republic's customers, with the winning design to be featured and sold at select Banana Republic stores. You can read Tim's Take on this episode here.
And it's Crazy Lady for the win! Credit where credit's due, Wendy pulled a winning design out of her ass this time.
It's pretty and well-executed and definitely designed with the client in mind. Our only real quibble is that it's retro to the point of costumey. It looks like something Tippi Hedren would have worn in The Birds.
We don't exactly lovelovelove the little capelet. It's just a little too precious for us and some sort of contrasting color or trim would probably have sold this dress for us a little more. That column of dark blue needs something to break it up. And the little matchy-match purse was too much. Little girls get purses that match their dresses exactly. Grown women shouldn't.
Still, despite her personality flaws and inability to dress herself or apply makeup, Wendy did deserve to win this. It's to her credit that she really tailored her design to the client at hand without fussing over it too much. It wasn't our favorite dress on the runway this week, but it was definitely among the top three.
Okay we were good. Now...
OHMIGOD WOMAN, frikkin style your hair for God's sake! You look like you're all dressed up for class picture day in the 4th grade! "Mommy let me wear her rollers last night!"
[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]
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38 comments:
Didn't Kara Saun do her hair this past week?
I thought Jay was robbedrobbedrobbed this week. It's not that I don't like Wendy's dress. It's just that I've seen the dress before, and the cape is very costumey.
I think Jay didn't win this challenge because of a manufacturing point of view. Jay's would cost more to produce, and would require more of an investment on Banana Republic's part, and was a bigger chance to take than Wendy's.
But I would rather own a distinctive garment like Jay's than a plain-jane garment like Wendy's. But I'm not an avid Banana Republic customer like Starr. *snicker*
I thought this wasn't very good, for exactly the same reasons you point out -- not enough contrast to give it some visual appeal plus stuffy looking. Jay's and Austin's dresses certainly were more well-executed, but IMO this one took the win by default solely because it would be easier to replicate and mass market at a low price point.
Even after a makeover where Kara Saun had to apply a blowtorch, this woman manages to look homeless.
As for the dress, how come I keep thinking of batgirl?
This dress did nothing for me. I LOVEDLOVEDLOVED Jay's dress.
Austin's was too "I'm going to an afternoon tea party -- I just need a pair of white gloves." I'd buy it for that, yes, but the challenge was to design for a holiday party.
And poor Starr. *sigh* I did break a tear for her.
As for Wendy and her own choice of styling, how come many of these designers can design kick-ass clothes but they can't dress themselves?
granite janet said
As for Wendy and her own choice of styling, how come many of these designers can design kick-ass clothes but they can't dress themselves?
Easy... Wendy can't do either...
Yawn. Boring dress, easy and cheap to manufacture, big profit for BR - that's why she won. Don't you know that cape would constantly fall to the back, choking you with it's little buckle?
I love the way Jay can incorporate quilting and patchwork into his designs without making it look like Little House on the Prairie.
To me, the black dress was just boring, boring, boring and completely unoriginal in concept, which, by the way, describes its designer as well.
I agree that BR wanted something cheap to manufacture. They had the option of Alexandra's dress, which NinaGarcia talked them out of.
Interesting tho, that the week that Wendy decided to keep her mind on her work and not on the other contestants, she manages to execute well and she wins.
I think kara saun did the best she could.
" macasism said...
Interesting tho, that the week that Wendy decided to keep her mind on her work and not on the other contestants, she manages to execute well and she wins. "
I thought so too, but I still don;t like the dress. Way too "vintage" looking, I think.
I did also notice that she made a point of saying that her strategy was blinding her from the importance of her own work and that this week she was just going to concentrate on her own work and trying to put out something amazing, and what do you know? She actually managed to finish a dress.
Novel idea, huh?
I thought that Jay probably should've been the winner, with his fantastic dress. It's almost unbelievable that he made that in less than two days.
Umm, I really like Navy blue on brunettes...and her french twist was lovely.
As calculating a person as Wendy is, do you really think that she was all that oblivious to how she appeared? I think it was just another way to try to draw attention to herself. She seems to get worse looking as we go, and I think that she is inspired by how Jay presents himself and the attention that gets him. Yes, jealousy is a green-eyed monster.
Right, but in this challenge (unlike some of the others) they were told going in that they were making a dress for BR to put in their stores. That *alone* lets you know that it's going to need to be mass-produced at a low price point. That should have been the top thing on every designer's mind - designing to the needs of the client.
Not every challenge is a "look at me, I'm so inspired" kind of challenge.
Anne
I know you will get to this but:
Jay was SO robbed.
"I think Jay didn't win this challenge because of a manufacturing point of view. Jay's would cost more to produce, and would require more of an investment on Banana Republic's part, and was a bigger chance to take than Wendy's."
I wonder if the editing on the dvd version is the exact same as was shown on Bravo. I could have sworn that cost/time aspect of Jay's design was brought up by the BR judge when Bravo aired this episode. Also, I remember Jay telling the judges his design inspiration on the runway. But, on the dvd version, it just shows the judges discussing Jay's inspiration during their private caucus.
I must be crazy or in desperate need of some ginko biloba!
Austin should have done his dress in the midnight blue. It would have been retro and modern instead of entirely belonging in the 50's.
I can see why they chose this dress for BR. It's pretty much like the same old cookie-cutter dresses you see hanging in their stores.
"OHMIGOD WOMAN, frikkin style your hair for God's sake! You look like you're all dressed up for class picture day in the 4th grade! "Mommy let me wear her rollers last night!"
LOL. She really does. I thought Kara Saun had helped her with her make-up and stuff. She still look bad.
I love this dress. I actually bought it as soon as it was available. It looks good on me : - )
See, I like the dress. I'm just not crazy about the little capelet thing.
I was surprised the judges didn't like Austin's dress; I thought it was HOTT. Really nice, really flattering. It's PRECISELY the kind of dress my wife wants to buy but isn't available because of judges like these. Maybe because the ruffles in back would be a problem with women with actual asses instead of board-flat models.
I agree that Jay's was spectacular but too expensive to make. I can't believe how it came together; it looked like inept construction paper halfway through. The man's got some skills.
Wendy's win is a good result, though. The dress is excellent. Credit where credit is due. I'm shocked.
" macasism said...
Interesting tho, that the week that Wendy decided to keep her mind on her work and not on the other contestants, she manages to execute well and she wins. "
That is due to editing more than anything else. In the 1st episode there was focus on how sweet and humble Austin was, where Daniel was arrogant and annoying.
Fittingly, Wendy was human for her win, and Starr was suddenly confident about herself as a designer (until judging began).
I thought Kara should have won this one.
--Gotham Tomato
Wendy Pepper lives under a bridge and chases gruff billy goats.
asianlady, you are not crazy. The dvd is definitely different--I remember Jay explaining the Chrysler bldg thing, too. I'm watching S2 right now and it's also different. Hell, they even put a different cut on for the re-runs in S3.
I thought Kara should have won this one.
I rather thought all the designers stepped up to the plate except for poor Starr who just didn't get it. (She really had some weird preconceived notions about Banana Republic.)
Alexandra, Kara, and Austen designed gowns that would look flattering on a variety of women.
Yeah, Austen's is over the top romantic, and more garden-party-friend-of-the-bride than anything. His and Jay's were outstanding though. Affordable? Naw.
I would have chosen Alexandra's and Kara's over La Pepper's. But what the hell do I know?
maybe there's different DVD versions out? I just watched this and it DOES have Jay discussing the Chrysler building as his inspiration. The judges also nip at the issue of his dress being awfully complicated... like for mass production
Wendy Pepper is PSYCHOTIC! Bitch's emotions turn on an absolute dime!
Totally Tippi Hedren! So that's what was bugging me about it. Where were you guys two years ago?
The only thing Wendy made(without giving anything away)that I liked. I could see myself wearing this sans capelet.
" Anonymous said...
I thought Kara should have won this one.
--Gotham Tomato "
Really? See, I didn't like the color and I thought the design was ok.
oh it's sad, isn't it? wendy, wendy, wendy. look in the mirror, girl.
and that dress? definitely better sans jacket.
Damn!! That Tippi Hendren comment was great and dead on. I almost spilled my latte in laughter!
I actually tried this dress on at the local BR store. After the initial online furor died down, there were a couple locally that languished on the rack for months. The big problem was that the dress was released less than 2 weeks before Christmas and, if you needed a party dress, you probably already had purchased it.
Anyhow, the dress was flattering and I was thrilled that it wasn't black. However, the capelet was a royal PITA. I couldn't get it to set right at all.
Even though I didn't like the designer, Wendy's dress was quite lovely and simple. The capelet, however, ...didn't care for it. The capelet was like something Florence Nightingale might have worn. The dress alone I did not think was costumey at all (nor did I think Austin's clothing was too costumey). There were so many beautiful garments in this week. It would have been difficult to choose.
This dress was so boring I wanted to slap someone.
I didn't like this dress when the episode first aired, but since you mentioned it looked like something Tippi Hedren would've worn in the Birds, I absolutely ADORE it. Cape and all.
I actually thought she was going to be on the bottom when I first watched this. I don't know if I'd still agree with that, but I would put this dress, at the very least, behind Jay's, Austin's, Kara's and Kevin's. This is 5th place at best.
Oh, right, I forgot -- Nora's was lovely, too. Wendy's in 6th place, approximately tied with Alexandra, with Vanessa, Rob and Starr behind her. With so many excellent dresses this episode, it is beyond me how Wendy won.
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