Monday, April 16, 2007 by
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First, a little personal story about this episode. The night it aired, Lorenzo stomped off and vowed never to watch the show again. We were BOTH pissed off at what seemed to us a blatantly unfair auf'ing. We harrumphed our way through the rest of the season, but when season 3 rolled around we were still pissed and only watched the first episode out of morbid curiosity, deciding before it started that the show was "so over." Well, thank god for Laura Bennett or we'd never have started blogging and the world would not have known the fabulosity that is us.
Anyway.
Poor Nick. He'd taken such a beating at this point; from the judges, from losing his model, and from (according to internet rumors) the show pulling the rug out from under him in the inspiration challenge and forcing him to scrap his original design, giving him only a couple of hours to make a new dress. We'd always thought that he'd just crumbled under a level of pressure that he couldn't handle but if that's true, then he was just a victim of reality show politics.
Which isn't to say this design was worthless. Remaking Danny V. into a Eurotrash/Thin White Duke character actually has a lot going for it as a concept. It's a look Danny can pull off easily.
Unfortunately, we're not so sure it's a look Nick can pull off easily. That's pretty far outside his comfort zone, aesthetically speaking. He'd have been better off designing him club clothes. Worst of all was the fabric choice. That dainty color and the weight of the fabric gave him that oh-so-NOT-what-they-going-for stylish lesbian look. A stylish lesbian with a bad tailor. That is one puckery bitch.
No closure on the jacket, no pockets and no belt. Damn, Nick. Just give him a purse and a tube of lipstick and send him on his way.
Still, as bad as this was, it still wasn't deserving of an auf'ing considering what it was up against - which we will get to later, so save your angry comments for that post, bitches.
[Sreecncaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]
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33 comments:
I was devastated when Nick was auf'd. I agree that this outfit sucked, but so not fair.
"K.D. Vosovich" -- love it!
"from (according to internet rumors) the show pulling the rug out from under him in the inspiration challenge and forcing him to scrap his original design, giving him only a couple of hours to make a new dress."
What's that about, Boys?
Can someone fill me in? What was the story behind Nick and the inspiration dress?
I cried my eyes out! I LOVE UNCLE NICK!!
From Television Without Pity:
"In the episode with the model trade-off, Verreos shocked viewers by openly expressing his desire to quit Project Runway.
The designers were tasked to take photos of things that inspired their collections, so Verreos snapped away at a fountain sculpture outside the New York library.
After returning to the work room and spending the next five hours cutting and draping based on his pictures, he was told by a show executive that he wasn't allowed to use them because he didn't get clearance.
Verreos was forced to choose another source of inspiration (blue and white Grecian-looking fabric) and start from scratch, with no extra time given.
He said: 'When that happened on the same day, it was like a second stab. It was like, 'Okay, anything else? Does somebody want to come over and punch me? Here's my stomach!'."
I still pout over this aufing.
I think if Nick had chosen a darker color and made the exact same design otherwise, he would have been fine, and Santino's ugly holey jumpsuit would have been blown off the runway. The concept for the Daniel V makeover was lovely, it was just the execution that was off (auf?). In a darker color, would the judges have noticed the puckery seams and lack of pockets? Perhaps not. Poor Nick. Me loves ya.
This episode actually made me really mad about Daniel winning the week before. I had thought that Kara should have had it. But the win gave Daniel immunity. In this show, he was told point blank that if he had not had immunity he would have gone and not Nick.
Was anyone else reminded of this design after seeing the office a few weeks ago? Michael "accidentally cross dresses" and wears what turns out to be a woman's suit he got out of a bin at a discount store.
The suit could have been much better, and as much as I hate to admit it, Santino was completely right in his assessment of Nick's makeover look for Daniel V. Danny V. would have worn the look much better if the suit was better executed. As much as i liekd Nick, he should have been more careful in executing this look, especially since he claimed that his ability to make menswear was his ace in the hole.
Santino jumpsuit for Kara was quite another story....don't get me started on that drama...Kara was just as much to blame for NOT SPEAKING HER MIND as Santino was for his awful construction.
JohnP
Now that was majorly bad! The editing of these shows is really vicious. Whenever someone sends a spectacular piece of crap down the runway (out of the kitchen, wherever), they're also spouting overly confident bs during the actual challenge: "Oh, I'm so talented, I'll win this hands down"; "So-and-so is going home, she can't hack it..." IMO it's almost become the portent of doom, except when it's ass**** like Santino or Jeff, who do that during every single challenge.
Anyway, Nick's outfit sure was 'badly-executed' but two other outfits were worse: K-d Daniel's bitchy dominatrix dress AND Santino's piece of retro, absolute crap! At least Nick's suit didn't fall off his model. If Daniel won way too many challenges where other designers were stronger, Santino was babied way too much on the runway: 'This is crap but you're a genius designer.'
He wasn't that great a designer, or that great TV either. This p***es me off big time. Frankly, I think it's time to change the judges on PR4. Heidi and Tim should stay, but the Duchess and Princess Nina have had their day. Bring in some younger, less staid judges! And IMO, I think Kayne's aesthetic was bashed way too often in PR3. He didn't deserve it. Nor did Laura deserve to be told off like a granny seamstress every other week.
That's a load off my chest.
Thanks for the quote about Nick having to change dresses for his inspiration design. I recall that conversation he had with daniel where there was clearly something else happening that was making him want to leave the show
Yes this was not a great outfit in terms of execution. The fabric choice was all wrong. It's not even the color but the fabric itself. If he had chosen something similar in texture and weight as chloe's then it would have looked better.
The idea was a good one. Daniel never looked better.
Sadly this was the worst time to have immunity since daniel's outfit was executed much worse than his. I like how Heidi took daniel to task and said he would be auf'd for that travesty that performed on chloe.
Frank
stella sez: I think if Nick had chosen a darker color and made the exact same design otherwise, he would have been fine, and Santino's ugly holey jumpsuit would have been blown off the runway.
I think there was also an issue with the texture of the fabric. It looks so soft and shapeless, and the puckering was very notiacble. It almost appeared to be melting off of Daniel.
"Thank god for Laura Bennett" for a number of reasons, with you guys being one of the top!
I definitely want to ditto that "Thank God for Laura Bennett."
I agree that this one wasn't bad enough, relative to the competition, to be auf'd. The fabric choice was terrible, but the overall look and concept was great for Daniel. I think Nick made two major mistakes: (1) the fabric wasn't workable for that kind of tailored suit; and (2) he decided he needed to spend the time to line everything and that's probably why he decided to forego other time-consuming things (like pockets & buttons) --why the f*** does a pair of pants made just for PR need the lining? Those mistakes led to a less-than-great result, but it wasn't as bad as Santino's mess. And what a lousy time (except from Daniel's perspective) to decide to give someone immunity.
I think I was the only one over on BPR that season that absolutely agreed with this aufing! Everyone thought I was crazy but I, like the guest judge, actually thought Santino's jumpsuit was cute. I thought everything about Nick's suit was horrible and he completely deserved to be aufed. Of course, it wasn't as bad as Daniel's hooker outfit for Chloe but, unfortunately, he was safe.
I don't care if Kara's sleeve fell off; she looked really hot, while Daniel looked ridiculous. I don't see how the judges had any other choice.
I think Nick stayed on as long as he did because of personality just as much as Santino. Nick seemed like someone who should've/could've hit it out of the park a lot more often, and I've no doubt he's capable. but his fishtail hooker esthetic didn't do him any favors. I think he was about even with Santino on hits & misses, while personality-wise he was the anti-Santi. So. . . there ya go.
it's the show's (well the judges') schizophrenia that just enrages me with this one. Is it about the design or the ability to sew that's important? I agree the puckers are awful, but it's not held together with seamstress glue! He picked the wrong fabric, then he had to make it work! Daniel actually kind'a pulls this off, no?
I'll save my long bottled up anger til you get there guys!
Yes, where would we be without your fabulosity (especially on a day like this).
And I guess I'll have to save comments about this bullsh*t auf'ing as they're all angry!
And this is the first I'm hearing about this fountain thing & I don't get that at all: They had how long? An hour? And they were supposed to get clearance too?
And as for that; if you watch the inspiration episode, you see Santino showing Andre a picture of a woman giving him the finger, and Andre is asking him about it, and Santino is giving him the impression that he photographed the woman. NOT!
Anyone who walks around NYC has seen that picture. There are many 'picture mafia' vendors selling that photo on their stands all over town. I believe the photographer's name is Aki Davis. Santino obviously got right up close to the photo hanging on someone's stand, and just photographed the photograph. Did he get clearance for that before they showed it? I'd bet not.
Sigh. And I had promised I would save my angry comments...
--Gotham Tomato
I felt so bad for Nick. One of the saddest "aufing."
I'm sorry, but when Nick left, I was like "See ya later, alligator."
At the time I wasn't aware of his difficulties during the Inspiration challenge, but he began to grate on me the minute I saw that Nicky Hilton dress. Beautiful, but I knew I was in for a season of fishtails and fabulous.
I like a little bit more of a creative aesthetic.
Oh, they could have auffed Santino as well. A double elimination, coupled with Heidi snatching DV's immunity, laughing evilly, and dragging him off the runway would have REALLY been my night.
The men truly failed in this challenge.
This auffing was a crime! I am going to comment on this from the point of view of a person who can actually sew a tailored suit. The only mistake Nick made was over-reaching.
First of all, Nick attempted the most difficult project you can envision....more difficult than an evening gown or even the, so-called, "couture gown" in the last season. A tailored man's suit out of cashmere (or wool gabardine?) in the time allotted??? Impossible! Michael Kors knew this and commented accordingly. I forget the exact comment.
If you look at how the suit fits, you will see the fit is actually very good, indeed, very Euro. The armholes are high, the sleeves slim, the trousers have flow when he moves. The crotch and the hems are in the right place...ahem. It took skill to draft that suit from scratch....and drafting, which is a corollary to design, involves more skills than sewing.
It is agreed that Nick went wrong on the sewing. But why? I seem to recall that the fabric was cashmere, but looking at the suit and the puckered seams, I have my doubts. Most cashmeres have a fair amount of give and would not pucker so badly; you could steam the puckers out of cashmere, which is a soft fabric.
Perhaps this is some other fabric:
1)Like a wool gabardine, which takes the utmost skill to sew and press...you know how cleaners mess up gabardine and shine it up? That's because they don't press it properly. Wool gab is a "hard"(meaning not much give) fabric and does not allow for mistakes in either sewing or pressing. It would take years of sewing experience to sew a gabardine suit.
2)A synthetic or blend. Again these tend to pucker and must be sewed with a chainstitch,or be pulled like crazy as they go through the machine.
3)Or Nick cut the suit off-grain, perhaps to save on expensive or not enough yardage. This means that, instead of cutting all the pieces so the width of the fabric goes around the body, he cut some pieces on the crossgrain, so that the hems were on the selvedge, for example. You would do this to save fabric, but when sewed together one piece would have give on the length and the other on the width and they would not match up, thus the puckers. Frankly, this is a true beginner mistake and a major no-no. I can't imagine a person in the last year of fashion school doing this.
My guess is the suit was some kind of gabardine and just plain hard to sew in a limited time. Gabardine is a weave, it can be produced in many different fibers, some easier to sew than others. So you could have wool, cotton, poly or a various blends woven into gabardine. But cashmere of any weave puckering that much? Doesn't make sense, even with poor workmanship.
And putting welt pockets into a gab suit or any suit in the time framework allotted? No way! These take time to execute.
Now we've all seen men's suits a million times, so this project may not seem that innovative or exciting. But it was a far bigger effort than any of the other designers. I thought Daniel looked vastly improved and much less scruffy. He could go anywhere, save for the puckers! It was supposed to be a makeover. To me Daniel was improved in a tailored suit.
Which is worse,a few puckers or sleeve that comes off? Does anyone know how much easier it is to fit and sew knits, compared to a tailored wool suit? A beginner could draft a knit, never a tailored suit.
So Kudos to Nick for a Euro design, expert drafting, skilled cutting and improving the appearance of Daniel. His only crime was attempting too big a project. That he was auffed for a few puckered seams when others got away with glued seams, unintentionally detachable sleeves and unfinished raw edges, seems more than unfair and part of a larger agenda to me. The same standards should have been applied to all the contestants. The criticisms were just unfair!!
Bottom line, it was a makeover show and Daniel looked better. Can you say that for all of the entries?
Pamela,
You are correct when you say that making a good tailored suit in such a short amount of time is impossible.
Perhaps Nick should not have chosen to take on an impossible project and instead made something he could have done well.
Yes, he gets points for trying but at the end of the day they have to make something that looks good and the judges didn't think it looked good. Nothing looks worse than a bad suit.
anonymous 1:25 said:
Was anyone else reminded of this design after seeing the office a few weeks ago? Michael "accidentally cross dresses" and wears what turns out to be a woman's suit he got out of a bin at a discount store.
Yes!!! I just said this on Eric3000's blog!!! That show is actually very funny when it comes to office attire.
Eric3000 said:
I don't care if Kara's sleeve fell off; she looked really hot
I gotta disagree with you there Eric. Kara has a great figure but Santino put her great figure in a turd suit (hence no need for sleeves).
Why Kara approved the drawing I don't know but drawings can be idealized and Santino probably wouldn't have listened to her anyway.
"K.D. Vosovich" -- hilarious.
There is nothing sadder on a man than a sansabelt pant.
One puckery bitch! hahahahah
Nick's aufing broke my heart. I think it hurt me even more than Austin's elimination in Season 1. I adored Nick and was POSITIVELY CERTAIN WITHOUT A DOUBT that he would be in the top three. Alas.
I'm not saying he didn't deserve it -- that suit had all sortsa problems going on -- but I wanted to see Nick in Bryant Park, damn it. Well, I'm pleased that he's doing so well now, anyway.
I seem to recall that the only reason Santino was saved over Nick this week was because the guest judge liked Santino's jumpsuit, but no one liked Nick's suit.
Yeah, after Trixie mentioned that I was totally wondering if the writers for The Office saw this episode of PR! I'm sorry to say that when I saw The Office I thought his suit was ugly but I didn't realize that it was a woman's suit.
A turd suit, Trixie? Ha ha! At least he didn't try to polish it!
And girlincity, you bring up one last (I hope) point I was going to make: One of the judges actually liked Santino's jump suit. I'm not very good at math but I think that adds up to exactly one more than the number of judges who liked the suit Nick made.
I hated to see Nick go but Kara's ass was a poem in that jumpsuit!
Sucky, crappy, bullshit elimination in this round. I'm very partial to Nick and I'm sure when we see T&L's screencaps of the monstrosity to come, there will be near unanimity that Nick should still be there.
The one good thing to come of it is this fantastic blog....I cannot even imagine what life would be like now without it! You guys do such a great job and are consistently a high point in my day :)
Such a bullshit aufing!
"Well, thank god for Laura Bennett or we'd never have started blogging and the world would not have known the fabulosity that is us."
LOL. I love you two!
Poor Nick, at least the outfit that he modelded got first place. Did Nick say he wanted to quit on camera? That would have been suicide, if he did.
I agree with Pamela's assessment of the suit. Men's wear is really tedious and if you leave out the time consuming details it looks like womens's wear. Daniel is cute as a woman too,though isn't he?
What I thought when the show first aired, and what I still think after looking at the pictures, is that the suit is actually very nice.
Okay, so it puckers more than your grandmother sucking a lemon. It wasn't very well sewn, granted. But the cut of it seems very modern and close to the body, a good fit for someone as slim as Daniel.
I don't understand the hatred for the colour of the suit, either. Nick's wearing two shades of pink: why can't Daniel wear a dusty lilac? Are we still at the point that there are colours men may never, ever wear?
Even the lack of pockets and a belt didn't bother me. I couldn't wear the thing (I'd have to lose about half my body weight), but I think if Hedi Slimane had marketed this suit, people would be lining up to spend a couple grand on it.
Good GOD, people.What a kickass crew of commentators you are. Seriously.
Well, it should be no surprise that the PRG's would attract such a talented posse to their cause.
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