Ciao, Ladies!

Friday, March 16, 2007 by





Sometimes those judges can be a bunch of drama queens.


Don't get us wrong. For the most part, we agreed with their assessment that this was too severe, too retro (neither of which was helped by the styling) and just not the Banana Republic look. Add to that, some issues of poor execution and a stupid window display and we can't really dispute the outcome.


Although we did kind of like the blouse.


We just think the judges overreacted a bit to this one, as if it was some horrid crime against fashion. This is a fairly classic look that goes in and out of style constantly, with practically the only change being the hemline. We didn't get or agree with the Duchess's crack that this looked like a stewardess. Keep your eyes peeled. We can practically guarantee that at some point in the next 5 years, Michael Kors will send something that looks remarkably like this down the runway.


We'll miss Diana. We know she gets on the nerves of some people, but we always thought she was adorable and we thought she produced surprisingly interesting designs. Marla, well she never produced anything that we could find a way to compliment, but it's to her credit that she knew all through this challenge that the design wasn't working, even if she didn't really demonstrate enough self-confidence to actually speak up about it.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


Post a Comment

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

well.
just think of the pair...they are ought to leave. it's not going to be santino team, he is too dramatic too leave. not goint to be chloe team and daniel team, they are wildcards.
...
but i'd rather let
zulema be out with marla.

i miss diana as well, at least some of her designs are interesting.

kinda think they can change the color or something. it's plain but...banana republic is plain as well.
this outfit isn't not THAT bad.

lesley the sweet model seems to be very close to diana. also good for saving diana back sometimes.

Anonymous said...

I hate that Diana was ousted this episode and feel the partnership with Marla was fatal. (As after the previous week's Chloe copy, the judges must certainly have had Marla in their sights.)

Diana was consistently interesting, and consistently under-rated. This season of PR seemed part. heavy on male ego, and I think Diana's work sometimes got lost in the cock-fighting.

- CF

Anonymous said...

I think the Nick and Santino design was much worse and their window was horrid. Not BR at all. It was, as I recall, better executed, though. Since it would have meant getting rid of Nick AND Santino, I can't complain about the outcome. Diane had some really interesting ideas and I was sad to see her go. I think Marla was relieved to be put out of her misery.

Anonymous said...

I like the shorter sleeves and the buttons down the side of the skirt. I like that you could unbutton them for night.

But I don't like the material. Who wants to look so disheveled, as if one had a wringer of a day, for an evening event?

Anonymous said...

PS -- The window was pretty bad, too. No wonder she was wrinkled -- all that paper on the floor. Must have been a hard day!

Gigi said...

And you know he will! Just three days ago, I saw a Michael Kors blouse with an attached pool-float necklace. I had to laugh out loud, remembering how he critized Uli's remnant/scrap necklace last season.

Anonymous said...

Marla didn't say anything because she didn't have anything to say. An idea gal she was not. Nor could she sew. If Diana had been paired with anyone else, she would probably have managed to squeak by. Her idea was way more BR than Santino's. I liked her geeky charm and her innovative approach.

Anonymous said...

They should have at least gotten credit for having a design that was the most realistic for work attire. It definitely didn't transfer into something a person could wear out at night, but give credit where it's due, which isn't something I could say for some of the other designs.

Anonymous said...

I don't know I think the perimeters of the challenge were a little silly. If you are going some place nice after work you usually want to go home and take a shower first and change clothes altogether. If you go out right after work it's early and more casual. The fabrics that they had to use- linen and charmeuse are just wrong for wearing day to night, they wrinkle all to hell and would look bad no matter what after all day at the office.
Having to design a window display with so few materials and in the time they were given would be petrifying.

eric3000 said...

While I agree with you that the outfit is not bad and would look totally fine at the office (if it weren't so wrinkled), I also completely agree with Michael that she looks like a stewardess. The problem is not that it's bad, just that it boring.

And I don't see at all how this transitions to evening. I think Diana's original idea was much more interesting but Tim talked her out of it.

Anonymous said...

Not crazy about the wrinkles, but with a good ironing I'd wear this outfit before I wore Daniel and Andrae's.

*sniff* Goodbye, Diana! Love ya, sister!

Anonymous said...

Diana really was an original. Shame that she had to go so soon.

And I'd like to give the departing Marla some props in the toned upper-arm department. Seriously. For a 97-year-old woman, or whatever she was, her upper arms were in fabulous shape. She probably wasn't using them to lift and read pattern books, but whatever she was using them for -- it worked.

Anonymous said...

Sewingsiren said: If you go out right after work it's early and more casual.

Not necessarily. When I go out after work, it's generally dinner and the theatre or a concert, definitely not casual, and there's no time to head home first to change. So I appreciate clothes that can make the transition.

Anonymous said...

I didn't think it was THAT bad. Santino and Nick's was far worse.

Anonymous said...

I felt so bad for Diana. I also agree with Eric3000. Diana's original idea was much more interesting. Oh, well...

Anonymous said...

I liked the jacket, but I think a shorter skirt would have helped the look. the hairstyle made it look stewardess-y, too.

Anonymous said...

Diana/Marla's outfit was a bit too Nina Foch a la "Executive Suite" mixed with Portia de Rossi in "Ally McBeal".

Clearly there were some individual parts that were pleasant, like the blouse, and the skirt length was actually kinda sexy in a naughty kitty English teacher with a riding crop sorta way.

Whoever ended up with Marla in this challange was more doomed than an Irishman in third class on the Titanic.

Anonymous said...

Eh, Santino & Nick's outfit was still worse than this. They also had that awful wretched butcher's wrapping paper window display.

Poor Diana. Marla was a drag. But Santino should have been auf'ed. Yet again.

Anonymous said...

I was sad to see Diana go because I felt she had a unique point of view. I would have loved to see more of her work, because I feel like she is capable of so much more than this outfit! I really loved the Barbie outfit she did.

Marla, not so much. Her designs were fug.

Anonymous said...

I have no quarrel with this week's aufing. This was definitely not Diana's best. The model may not look like a stewardess, but she does look like a cliche. 1960's TV/movie version of a serious working woman. All business. Until James Bond (or the leading man of your choice) gets her alone in a room. The glasses come off (I realize the model isn't actually wearing glasses, but she may as well be), the hair comes down, and Miss Uptight becomes a sex kitten.

Sewhat? said...

Well, the scarf is pretty lame, but I agree about the blouse. I think the biggest problem with this outfit was the poor fabric selection. The right fabric wouldn't have ended up looking like Grey used kleenex.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't have they steamed those garments before presenting them to the judges? My gosh, it looks like they took them out of a bottle.

Anonymous said...

The window-dressing part of this challenge was one of the dumbest things ever. I hate when they're judged on things that have nothing to do with the clothes!

Sigh. I didn't have a problem with this design really (the fabric aside), and didn't think it deserved that much criticism. Poor Diana. It really was the kiss of death having her work with Marla.

-Em

Anonymous said...

It's not a bad look (like Nick and Santino's) but it is a little boring and old-fashioned.

Anonymous said...

" Anonymous said...

The window-dressing part of this challenge was one of the dumbest things ever. I hate when they're judged on things that have nothing to do with the clothes!"


I agree. They said "Banana Republic customers" were going to judge the outfits. They were just people passing by.

Anonymous said...

I love the retro aesthetic this represents so I was upset that Diana was aufed. Maybe it shouldn't have won but not the worst thing to come down the runway that week, either.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the anonymous just above me that the retro look of this is really great. And I like the severity, which seems to me academic-chic (not a contradiction in terms for me) and not at all stewardess-like. Don't think it should have won, but don't think it should have been dismissed either.

Anonymous said...

I love Diana. I think she's very talented and original.

Anonymous said...

I hated this fabric, but thought the design overall looked like something you'd find at Banana Republic. I buy a lot of clothes there -- I think I've seen an outfit like this at the store recently, though in a less crumpled fabric.

Their window display was horrible, and the judges had been wanting to get rid of Marla for weeks. She had skated by thanks to other contestants doing something truly stupid in other challenges.

I'm just sorry she took Diana down with her. Diana's original design was much more interesting.

Fnarf said...

She didn't "get on the nerves of some people"; she got on the nerves of SANTINO. That's a good thing, not a bad thing. She's adorable, talented and interesting and I hope she is kind enough to throw a buck Santino's way when she steps over his zonked out body on her way to her office when she has a career and he's homeless.