Tuesday, April 24, 2007 by
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Damn, girl. What happened to you this week?
It's not just that Chloe derailed this week, it's that she was supremely, obliviously confident in the face of a really ugly, poorly made dress - and that's not really like her.
Tim was dead-on in his concerns about giving Grace "a big fat ass," something that's near-impossible to do, yet Chloe pulled it off.
Chloe has a thing for unusually placed seams, but this just isn't working for us. First off, the puckery is off the scale. Secondly, her vagina looks like it's frowning - and no one likes a sad vagina.
Chalk it up to exhaustion, we guess. Every penultimate challenge for all 3 seasons yielded tired, mediocre results. Here's hoping they can figure out a way to circumvent it in Season 4.
Santino, on the other hand, was ENERGIZED! Solid Gold! Filling up my life with music!
He was just happy to be there after last week's scraping-by and pumped up by the intense competitiveness of it all. Plus, he seemed to be trying to take some of the judges' criticism to heart.
Which isn't to say that he effectively managed to tone himself down, but he treated it like a dress that was going on a woman who wanted to look good and that's a start.
When he had it on the dress form, before he started throwing paillettes at it, we were shocked at how classically beautiful and well-executed the basic dress was. Of course, trim is like crack to Santino and once he gets it in his hands, he can't seem to let go of it.
A shame, really. One quarter of the paillettes, placed more artfully, would have turned this into a stunner of a dress. At the very least, Santino deserves credit for bringing his A game at a time when the rest of the little hothouse flowers were placing their wrists dramatically against the foreheads and daintily falling to the floor in front of their dress forms.
[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]
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33 comments:
I think the problem with the last challenge lies in the fact that all season they are being asked to fit their signature style into a specific challenge's criteria. I think this gets the designers to questioning their aesthetics to a point. Basically they get so good at bullshitting the judges that they actually start believeing their own justifications.
Then when they are cut loose to show their style in its pure form, they still have that mindset of trying to predict the judge's standards and criteria going into the challenge, and I think that derails them from really delivering what they would in a perfect scenario.
I'm pretty sure that's the reason for Mychael's making an evening gown rather than sportswear on the final challenge in season 3.
I think some of them get so humg up on wanting a perfectly executed garment to avoid the wrath of Nina, that they sacrifice on the design side as well.
That's the only reason for the boring dresses that I can come up with. The only problem is that almost all of them had execution problems along with boring dresses. How depressing is that?
Santino gave Heather a big fat ass AND sloppy, saggy boobies!
I couldn't help but wonder what Chloe's dress would have looked like on someone with a bigger bootie, like JLo or Beyonce...on the right body type it might not have looked so ill-fitted & made for someone taller with a rounder butt.
Santino's dress made me think of an Esther Williams swimsuit morphed into a full length frock. Ticky-tacky.
I hated Santino's. Like you said, it looked beautiful before the trim. It he had left it off entirely, he probably would have won. As it is, Michael Kors was kind to call it a Renaissance Faire dress. It looked more like a Gypsy Rose Lee costume.
You're absolutely right - no one likes a sad vagina.
Asymmetry of boobage is hard to pull off without making something look like deformity. A dress that manages it is the Christian Dior newsprint dress Carrie Bradshaw is wearing at the end of the Season Three SATC episode "What Goes Around Comes Around" (the one where Carries tries to apologize to Natasha). SJP looks great (and her asymmetry is actually produced by different shoulders that alter how we see her breasts), but the asymmetry here makes Santino's model seem like Perky and Droopy are at war.
I thought the same about Santino's gown. It was gorgeous until he drowned it is paillettes!
Chloe's was, fundamentally, a good design, if only it had been better made and worn by someone whom it fit.
Chloe's dress would have been beautiful if she had used a fabric with more body, like satin, unstead of charmeuse. I like the styling seam under the butt and it could have looked super sexy with in a different fabric.
Side: Is Chloe wearing a version of the dress she made for the muslin challenge?
I like Santino's dress too. I even think it should have been a contender for the win. The only thing I dislike is the strip of sequins under the models right breast, other than that it's beautiful. Very Sirena ;).
I think in these final challenges, like the runway collections, some of the designers cave under the pressure of having too much freedom. Without the restrictions of some weird challenge, they end up making really boring dresses.
Chloe really did make grace look like she was wearing Depends. But the dress might have looked good on someone who could fill it out a bit better, like Iman.
And I agree that Santino's basic gold dress was really pretty before he vomited paillettes all over it. Too bad he couldn't have left it like that but I guess it would have been too boring. I'm trying to picture it with fewer paillettes and I just don't think that would help.
I so totally agree with you about Santino's dress. It was GORGEOUS before the paillettes hit it. Once he started with them, and especially when you got the back view of "this is my ass, this is my ass surrounded by paillettes", I cringed. And I think my DH's reaction was, 'who ordered up the belly dancer?'
But kudos to Santino for making it this far.
"...no one likes a sad vagina."
Hee! And yet, so true. Gawd, what a mess that dress was. Grace looked simultaneously pointy in front and saggy in back, not an easy combination to achieve. I guess in that respect, it was an accomplishment? Sort of?
And Santino! The paillettes! So. Many. Paillettes.
I liked Santino's until it started looking very costume-y. I have a feeling that Chloe's would probably look a lot better on another model.
Santino's is just astonishing. A perfect example of how less could have been so much more. What a lovely neckline; too bad you can hardly see it. What in God's name possessed him to go all spangalang on a might've been elegant design?
I hate Chloe's dress, but I have to give her credit for designing with Iman in mind (it appears): that icy silver color would be very flattering on her (unfortunately, it totally washed out Grace), and the design itself looks to be more suited for a curvier woman.
I have a question. Santino's model looks like she's wearing a belly ring - there's a tiny bump right on the beautiful flat front of the dress. I'd be pissed as a designer if I'd made a beautiful flat seamed dress only to have it marred by that. Do designers have the right to ask their models to remove something like that? Small point, but that was what worked so well on his dress.
Linda Merrill said...
Do designers have the right to ask their models to remove something like that?
Yes, but the model might say 'no' and then it's up to the designer to decide if he still wants to use her or not.
...is it an outie?
"Tim was dead-on in his concerns about giving Grace "a big fat ass," "
Speaking as someone who is actually the owner of a 'big fat ass', I'd say it's worse that the dress acentuates her skeletal frame (Yikes! You can see her hipbones through the dress!).
It is a dowdy mess though. And it makes her ass look more saggy than fat.
But while Santinos looks kinda good while moving, from the back it has Shatengi-type construction issues.
I recall that with THIS challenge, I really wished there was a parallel PR competition: That they had at least some of the previously eliminated contestants sequestered in another workroom, working under similar conditions, so we could see what they would have come up with had they stayed. I would have especially liked to see what Nick would have come up with.
--Gotham Tomato
Gotham Tomato,
You are so right about Grace's hips. All I could think of when I saw her in this dress was "girl eat a burger or two - you could cut somebody with those hipbones!!"
I did think Santino's use of paillettes really shaped the butt of his dress. Granted, too many in general on the dress, but I do like how he drew the eye in on the butt where the paillette potential on the hips was "child bearing hips" even on a twig-woman.
Jules (also a member of the big fat ass club)
I think when they get this close to the final three, the designers get way too scared of taking any risks, hence the boring. Chloe was at least showing something that's her signature--unusual curved seams--but this was probably the wrong fabric for it. And I thought the ribbon looked kind of dowdy.
At least this time Santino didn't seem to be deliberately trying to push the judge's buttons--he just couldn't leave well enough alone.
I actually love Chloe's design. I think it may have won, if the execution was better. Satino, well, he just need a little more restraint.
I was, up until the the basic dresses hit their forms, hoping that Nina would come up with some justification for aufing Santino. But when each of the other designers made such boring dresses, and Santino made that high energy diva dress, I knew he was staying. Unlike the other three, he went with his strength for this challenge, and his strength just happens to be appearing not boring.
For Pete's sake Santino, enough already !!!
When I see this dress I hear Cher singing "Gypsies, tramps and thieves...". But on her worst day, Cher would not be caught DEAD in this dress.
i actually liked chloes dress now that ive seen the pictures. i just wish that it wasnt so krinkly
I'm sick of Heather's face. There. I said it.
You are EVIL: No one likes a sad vagina! Not even Chloe. Maybe she could have put the style lines in a smiley up turn and minimize the damage.
Santino and the belly dancer look like they are both from Bangladesh. Where did you get such a blackmail screen capture? Both Heather and Santino look like they are on designer death row!
If this TV program were about creativity and skill, perhaps they would give them 10 minutes to make the dresses that are suppose to look like a million dollars!
I agree with Michael Kors, Santino's dress looked like "an explosion in a sequin factory" and "Belly Dancers Gone Wild."
Santino's dress reminds me of something that a show girl would wear in Las Vegas.
I love how Grace's nipples are saying hello to everyone! She is fabulous!
I really did not like Chloe's dress. That weird seaming was just too distracting to me. I also thought the neckline and back of the dress could have been lighter and more feminine. Don't get me wrong though, I really liked her stuff overall. She's definitely a designer, and not just a "pattern-maker"!
JohnP :)
I loved when Iman said that Chloe's dress was a Carolina Herrera rip-off.
She's tough! I thought she was a good judge and knew exactly what she wanted or what looked good on her.
She looked like a freaking fish...all scaley. EW EW EW. Thumbs down.
"and no one likes a sad vagina"
I read that and the MGM musical hats immediately came to mind. Big, showy hats and ladies' po-po's are now completely intertwined in my mind. I never had my head near the latter and I might never again put my head near the former.
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