Wednesday, April 11, 2007 by
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Thank god we're in agreement on the next episode kittens, because - you guessed it - we do NOT agree on this dress.
Lorenzo loves it and Tom thinks she looks like a salad-in-a-bag.
Oh, alright. That's a little harsh. It IS pretty.
It's just that the design is so simple. She made a basic muslin dress and then glued leaves all over it. Granted, they ALL did that, but Chloe's actually LOOKS like she did that.
We both agree that the little skullcap was a brilliant piece of styling, though.
Sure, it makes for a pretty and simple dress, but the way the judges fell all over it declaring "It looks like a REAL dress!" Well, yeah. It IS a "real" dress. And no, looking at the screencaps, it doesn't look almost like fabric. It looks exactly like what it is: fabric with leaves glued on it.
However, Lorenzo thinks that was part of her plan. Keep the dress simple and let the leaves do all the talking. In that sense, mission accomplished - and as we said, it is a pretty little thing. It's just that there were more interesting entries this week and Tom found it annoying that the judges fawned all over such a simple design - especially since the leaf placement went from calculated to haphazard as she was running out of time and you can actually see that as you look at the dress.
One of us always has to be the bitch.
[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]
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48 comments:
Blog cherry!
I loved this dress at the time. Now, of course, all I can think is "salad in a bag." I hate you guys.
Hated hated hated the hat. WTF?
Anne
I missed this episode originally, so this was my first glimpse of Chloe's lettuce dress. I'm with Lorenzo! (And... I loved loved loved the chic little cap.)
No wonder Chloe ultimately won. (It's always refreshing, too, when a female beats out gay men in any visual arts challenge. Mazel Tov!)
I did think that Chloe took the easy way out on this one. Yes, it obviously took a lot of manual work, but there wasn't much design to it.
LOVE this dress.
Love it. It was my second favorite.
As for being a simple dress and taking the easy way out, I really don't see much difference between Chloe's design and Laura B cranking out one of her basic dresses and then spending the rest of the time sewing on beads and baubbles.
The finished product, especially at first glance, looks great.
- Barnaby
"I did think that Chloe took the easy way out on this one... there wasn't much design to it."
Brian: Granted, the basic pattern is as old as the hills. But, since the challenge demanded the use of a nontraditional material, I applaud Chloes restraint-- she sensibly let the weird material be the dresses' bold statement. (Her choice of a small, two-toned leaf was spot-on, too.)
When all is said and done, her design decisions resulted in the most beautiful garment-- isn't that what it's about?
"salad in a bag"- - haha!!
Maybe because of the simplicity of this design people didn't fully appreciate the sophistication of the concept: the sort of reverse trompe l'oiel effect.
Chloe's looks simple and chic, whereas all the others looked complicated and costumey (and in some cases beautiful).
The judging on this one could have gone many ways.
Can someone please go into why out of all the challenges in S2, this one was the one they decided to give immunity to the winner?
I loved this outfit. I thought Grace looked amazing.
I love the dress. The bottom rows of leaves look like tiny rows of ruffles and the randomness of the upperlayers looks like a print (to me). The cloche looks like Mia Farrow in "The Great Gatsby" I think it would have been better with a flapper style skirt. I like both pieces separately, rather than together.
Chloe also chose the best model.
Had Rachael modeled this get-up (particularly the skullcap), the effect might have veered dangerously close to that of an Anne Geddes greeting card.
AAActually...I love this dress...very wearable, cute, lovely, simple but pretty garden party dress!!
Grace looks like an....elf? that's how you guys call it?
Today, I love Tom.
I didn't like it all that much and I thought she was nutso to attempt. Also, it makes me question the editing of the show. Time and again, a designer is up the creek without a paddle, we're told he/she has five, ten or fifteen minutes, and they send a fully dressed model on the runway.
What gives?
Anonymous said...
Today, I love Tom.
That was funny. And I love YOU, anonymous : - )
Lorenzo
This may or may not be the best dress, but you can't deny that it's the most cohesive look - the dress, the cap, and Grace's Gatsbyesque air all come together to make something "emotional" as MKors might say. I'd take this over Danny V's grocery-store dyed orchids and ridiculous nimbus of ferns anyday.
Once again, I agree with Lorenzo. (This is becoming a habit.) What I loved about this dress was that Chloe was using the natural shape and color of the leaves to create the shape of the dress (especially the ruffle effect at the bottom), rather that most others who tried to bend and twist their leaves to fit the dress they wanted to make.
Kinda like how Michael used to say he would let the fabric 'speak to him.' Make sense?
That's why I prefer this dress over Kara's. Kara made a great bustier but the skirt was just moss glued onto muslin.
To me the hat looked like a granny bathing cap. All it needed was three orange flowers glued to it to complete the 1970's Miami retirement community pool effect.
And whether or not I agree with them, I always love BOTH Lorenzo & Tom.
I can't believe people like this dress. It is so uninspired. While everyone made a muslin dress and glued leaves on it, this is the only one that really looks like that. The other dresses at least let the leaves add some sort of additional shape to it. This dress would've been exactly the same with or without the leaves. I think she should've gone home for this dress.
I am sticking with Lorenzo. He is always right...sorry Tom.
Oh, no; the silly cap is the only part I DIDN'T like! Ha ha!
I'm with Sewing Siren: I know it was done because she ran out of time, but I actually liked how the leaves transitioned from neat rows at the hem up to random placement on the bodice. I thought that looked good.
And I thought all the garments looked like the designers had glued stuff onto muslin. Some used bigger leaves, which seems like an easier way out than smaller leaves. I agree that the design was not very inspired but I think Chloe was smart in choosing materials and I thought the result was good.
I think the leaves' patterns show a sort of "deh-grah-day" of texture. Sorta pretty...
The hat makes her look like she got slimed at the Nickelodeon Awards.
I think it would have worked if the skirt was skin tight. That would have meant less to glue and the time to do it.
BrianB
Unlike the best of the other dresses, Chloe's dress would have been almost the same without the leaves. They added color but so would have crepe paper glued to the basic dress.
The model looks as if she trotted through NYC Botanical garden during a horrific wind storm. The leaves just sort of stuck to her.
If anyone is counting, I agree with Tom.
salad in a bag...hehehehe
On other comment. This one was such a ridiculous contest and I find myself laughing that all of us are weighing in on such an important topic : Did she or didn't she glue the leaves in a correct pattern? But then I am just a sucker for drama.
Yay! Finally, someone I love loved the hat!
You need a hat for a garden party, no?
-- desertwind
I think Chloe should have won.
"Lorenzo loves it and Tom thinks she looks like a salad-in-a-bag."
I've never seen a salad with a bathing cap.
I actually like the dress but the hat looks a little too One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest for my taste.
And I have to tell you guys that, thanks to you, my conversational skills have taken a downturn over the past week. Why? Because during every conversation I have, all I'm thinking about is, ''How can I jump into this using the phrase 'gay as a tree full of canaries'?"
Damn you.
--Gotham Tomato
And I have to tell you guys that, thanks to you, my conversational skills have taken a downturn over the past week. Why? Because during every conversation I have, all I'm thinking about is, ''How can I jump into this using the phrase 'gay as a tree full of canaries'?"
Word, Gotham.
I've used it with my kids but it just isn't the same. Although I had to take "take it easy Mary, your slip is showing" out of retirement this past weekend, so it looks like that one's still in the rotation.
"Gay as a tree full of canaries" just seems to need more of a *lead-in*, you know? It's not like you can just drop it in there.
Anne
This dress would have been painfully boring if she HAD had the time to maintain the pattern. As it was the uniformity of the pattern at the bottom and then the randomness above creates a tension that makes the dress more than an interminable parade of leaves.
This dress was my favorite for this challenge. Chloe did an outstanding job. She remembered to flatter the female form. That is missing from several of the other garden garments.
I love it. If she'd done it upside down, and started with the precision placement at the bodice instead of the hem, it would be the most gorgeous thing of all time. It actually looks worse on the model than it does spread out on the table, where it is just stunning. Those are gorgeous leaves!
OMG - i totally forgot about that skullcap thing... blugh! so hideous. the dress isnt too bad. the bodice is alright. but i really dont like the bottom of it. not near as cute as i remember it.
Love the dress, but hate the skullcap. The cap might work better on a different model but I don't think it works for Grace.
Since the challenge called for unusual materials, I don't think it needed an unusual design too--that's when it gets costumey. I like the fact that she decided to use a simple design and to make the leaves work with it. And the girl sure did work her little butt off.
I liked the salad dress, but thought the cap was unattractive on Grace.
I have yet to be able to incorporate the "tree full of canaries" bit and its KILLING me! But I live in Oklahoma, so there aren't many "gay" points of reference around here to make it plausible..........DAMN IT ALL!!!!!
"Since the challenge called for unusual materials, I don't think it needed an unusual design too--that's when it gets costumey."
I agree. I think, given the materials, that this challenge really screamed for restraint in design. If you made a crazy deconstructed design out of a wild print, chances are the end result would be insanity. You need something strong and foundational to anchor the whimsy of the materials. Or something.
I like salad in a bag. Of course, I'm a lazy bitch, so take it FWIW. :-)
I also like Chloe's dress, which, if anything, looks more like scored cucumber rinds cut into ovals. Sorry Tom, I'm with Lorenzo on this one, but overall I'm probably about 50/50 with your tastes so that doesn't mean much.
Had Chloe not picked the RIGHT leaves, her dress could have been a total disaster, but the contrast in the leaf color lent the total effect to look like a mod print dress.
With her ambitious plan, she couldn't afford to go all out on a pattern; her statement was one of color. My only criticism, if you can call it that, is that she could have fashioned together some sort of dark trim through the declotee and continue that darker color for the shoulder straps and back for a little more oomph. But she was gluing as I recall "like a madwoman" so even if she had the material, it's unfortunate she couldn't quite finish it as I would have liked.
Still, lovely.
I do like this dress and I think that the cap added something extra. The dress would have been lacking a little something without it.
I hate the way the leaves go from orderly to randomly placed from the bottom up. It looks unfinished and rushed and not deliberate to me...not that it wasn't haha.
Gonna have to go with the few people that disliked this dress. Too simple for me. The 'garden' bits had no part in the actual dress's construction; they were just decoration. I think that's what bothered me the most.
Very nice. Not exciting, but nice. I do like the hat, though.
Slightly off-topic, I wouldn't want anyone to miss the New York Times story about Tim!
OMG! I am mentioned in that article. Hint- I am not a burly Russian! LOL.
Jesus! Is that really the New York Times? The opening paragraphs read like a (gay) Harlequin Romance!
It kind of reminds me of those PETA ads with women dressed with lettuce leaves now that I see the screen shots...
"Slightly off-topic, I wouldn't want anyone to miss the New York Times story about Tim!"
Every time I read an article/interview with Tim, I fall more in love with the guy. (And that writer's reference to Mark Thackery is right on!)
But boy am I disappointed now that I didn't buy the apartment at London Terrace that I was looking at! I woulda loved riding the elevator with Tim.
--Gotham Tomato
OMFG, Tim Gunn lives in my apartment building.
I think I just died and went to heaven. I will attempt NOT to jump the man when I see him.
Like the skull cap? Really? I thought that was ugly.
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