The good news: We almost-love everything in the second half of her collection!
Tha bad news: That means this is going to be a really boring post!
Love the lace peeking out from the hem, the unusually placed seams, the keyhole, the color, the proportion. Near-perfect look.
We wish she had spread out some of these more subdued looking pieces instead of slamming us with all that pink and gold all at once.
The only thing we don't respond well to is that shrug, which has a flimsy, fussy quality to it. And is it us or does that thing look... crooked somehow?
We do like this design, but the fit on this thing is all kinds of wonky. It almost looks like she's wearing something a size larger than she is. And we do like the cutout in the back but we think she went a little too far with it.
We do hate her styling choices, though. Every model has the same lop-sided hairstyle.
Despite the previously stated problems we had with this collection, all in all, it was dramatic and memorable and demonstrated a high level of craftsmanship as well as an expert's understanding of how to make fabric look beautiful on a woman's body. Was it for everyone? Clearly not, but in our view it was the unmistakable winner of season 2. Whether you agree with the judges or not, the fact of the matter is, Chloe had the best post-show career of any contestant. She's going places and isn't that what the whole competition's about?Tomorrow: The stunning collection of Kara Janx.
[Photos: FirstView]
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27 comments:
While Season 2 was the most entertaining, the runway shows were disappointing. I am happy Chloe won, and I think your commentary is very accurate. The colors, fabrics and textures were mostly off as well as staging of the runway.
I really happy for Chloe's success. She is an amazing business woman.
I can't WAIT TO SEE Kara's show!!!
Actually in fairness to Chloe, didn't she raise a fit when she saw the styling on the models during preparations. I agree the look was far from ideal but I dont think it was entirely her fault.
I do like the fact she was trying to pick out curvier models to accentuate the lines on her outfits. I always felt her pieces worked better when you saw them on the runway instead of just in a still.
Frank
Actually, Kara's collection was the unmistakable winner of Season 2. If only she hadn't gone and gotten herself eliminated.
i can't wait for kara's. she was so robbed.
So the colors and textures and sometimes the fit were off, the styling was off and the order of the clothes were wrong, (not to mention that those flowy print dresses do not belong in a collection with those shiny black pants-and-tops ensembles) and THIS is the best runway show?
What does that say about season 2's finale in general? I knew I was underwhelmed when I originally watched it, but now I think it even more.
Wow. I've checked the the Bravo website to look at her collection countless times since season 2, but I had absolutely forgetten the strange order she put the dresses in. It's like two different collections. I hate her prints...so much. Like if her prints were ice cream flavors they would be asparagus bubblegum and toothpaste.
I can't discredit her beautiful pieces though. I forgot that's what the back of the shrug on the toothpaste dress 2 looked like. It's probably the first shrug that's ever made me go "Hmm that's really nice." I love Grace (I mean how can you not after her post earlier in the season recap?). I loved her final look for Grace.
So she's the not-loser on the show to me. But a huge winner after it. Her QVC line? Love. What she sells off the rack in her shop and online? Fab.
IMO, the judges intended to eliminate Kara no matter what. No one made a clear winner in the final elimination: Santino's belly dancer dress and Daniel V.'s little blue frock were uninspired. Chloe's VERY badly-designed dress deserved to lose, great material notwithstanding, and Kara's dress WAS beautiful. If an uneven hem was cause for elimination in PR, very few people would ever get to Bryant Park. IMO, they should have done then what they did in PR3: send four designers to Fashion Week.
Love the curvy seams. I think touches like that, though more subtle than edgy, can be considered just as creative and innovative (to the extent any real innovation in fashion is possible) as some of the more obvious and edgier things the judges usually prefer. I think those seams alone justify Chloe's win. I also think the other two collections looked amateurish compared to hers, particularly with all the fit and execution problems.
Some of yesterday's posters have questioned why the judges were OK with Chloe doing all evening wear, when it wasn't OK for Laura. I don't really think this was an issue of judging inconsistency--the judges didn't seem to like that fact much either year. But Chloe did hers in a year when the other two collections were weak. Laura did hers in a year when there were two other strong collections. Also having had Chloe's evening wear collection win in season 2, the judges would have been less receptive to the possibility of another eveningwear collection winning again in season 3. In other words, Laura fell victim to bad timing.
Not to deviate to0 far off chloe's collection but yes kara had the most striking set but it really is questionable if she would have won if she made it to the finals.
Tim himself has often commented that Kara, although talented, constantly second guessed herself to the point of detriment. In his blog he said outright that while her collection was fantastic, she was under no stress to perform and she simply went for it with abandon since she had nothing to lose by it. He claims even Kara herself concedes that had she made the final 3, she would not have been able to produce such a vivid collection. She would have worried herself into a hole.
Frank
Looking at the first dress in this post, it occurs to me that this is more what Chloe was attempting to do in her design for Iman. The bodice is similar, but the color and fit on this one are sooo much better.
Roxy, I'm fairly certain that Kara's collection IS what made the producers decide to send all 4 finalists to OFW in season 3.
I really liked the styling choices Chloe made (including the lopsided hair). It kind of has a 1930's resort feel to it (to me) rather than the 80's prom that a lot of posters are seeing.
1. I like this one. Though if the fabric had been slightly less stiff I think it would have been better. The model is super cute too.
2. I love the pants and the lace shrug. The bustier not so much , but it all works nicely together.
3. I think the fabric is too stiff and I agree that the color is not sophisticated .
4. Now I like the way the bright blue works as an accent on this one.
5. This is just beautiful. I like it better than the show stopper. Grace would have looked great in it.
6. I do like this blue much better than the other. The back is great and it looks fantastic on Grace.
In Tim's Take he calls Chloe's fabric silk/wool twill. Twill usually has a raised diagonal line in the goods, like gabardine or denim. Silk twill usually *isn't* shiny and wool twill certainly isn't. Odd. Is anyone familiar with the fabric she used?
I don't know, I don't know. I guess there was no winner for me among these three. Which isn't to say any of them isn't talented--they are, of course. I thought Chloe hit it out of the park on some of the challenges, but her collection didn't do it for me; I didn't care for the heavy fabrics and hi-concept construction (the seams). Maybe she's designing for her client base (which is what Wendy Pepper did) which is a perfectly legitimate thing to do, but doesn't seem to show a designer's real inspiration or identity. Each of the three finalists had some good pieces, but I didn't see a collection that was winning, because I didn't see vision.
OK, Chloe's collection is growing on me. You're right; I hated the fabrics and colors so much that I had trouble appreciating the designs (I actually liked the prints, though).
I'm just still a little confused about all the comments from the judges that she really knows how to design for a woman's body. To me it looks like she knows how to design for a MODEL'S body but I can't imagine most of her clothes on a real woman. I'm fine with a runway show not being realistic; I'm just saying I'm confused by the comments.
NSO, I'm going to disagree, but I'll admit that I don't perfectly remember the judging process from season 2. But, if my memory serves me correctly, the judges made no comment about Chloe's "theme" being evening wear (which, again, is NOT a theme! hello!) and didn't make a comment about her vision being too narrow.
Did I forget it? Did they really have this problem with Chloe?
Nicely said, boyz. And I agree. Only note I have is that the print halter dress makes you appreciate just how good Uli is at that kind of style, and how facility with a print is really a particular talent in and of itself.
Do you think she got Dr. Boogie from Shear Genius to do the lopsided hair?
Sorry, I still think the collection as a whole is 'meh' bordering on 'pfeh'. Okay, and the strongest of the three finalists, but not great.
2nd half of the collection-- Much better.
But...
Yes, jewel tones, and they're definitely of the moment (particularly that moment when PR aired).
But I agree w/ the PRGAYS, unsophisticated. There was no Oomph. No POP to the colors. Or the cut of the clothes. When I think about Jay's colors or Laura's plus their innovation. That's what "the next great fashion designer" should be about.
The Whole Package.
Chloe deserved that prize hands down, the execution was perfect and it was cohesive, but there is one huge problem. For all her credit as a pattern maker, the pattern on her final dress was a little too close to the edge of simple. The first dress I ever made had nearly the exact same pattern, which I designed. Granted, I had help from Jeury Rodriguez, who can pattern make his ass off, but still, if my first dress can look like her best, then there is a problem. Not doubt that it's a BEAUTIFUL dress, completely impeccable in fact, but Danny V had patterns that were much more complicated than many of her pieces. I mean, Chloe was my favorite, and again, Danny V. was definitely put in that final 3 for his sex appeal more than his talent, but I just felt a little underwhelmed when it is clear she is capable of far more than what she presented.
Also, I agree with "brian"; Kara's collection kicked ass.
I haven't really kept up with what Chloe's done since PR. How does her post-PR career compare to Emmett's? It seems to me he's gotten a lot of exposure, but as I said, I've not kept up with Chloe at all.
After skimming through the other comments, I just thought I'd say a bit.
I agree with the comments about the colors seeming "crayola." In my costume design classes, I had a professor who often stressed using "broken colors," a term that is not used in any art class, ever. She would get ridiculed for it, but she was onto something...we tend to want clothes to have some more depth to them. The colors Chloe used were beautiful, saturated jeweltones, but even with the rich textures she used, they lacked a visual depth we crave by being too singularly hued.
Her patterns, as so many others have said, are not anything most of us would have chosen, and some of the dresses are kind of similar, but the idea behind them are really beautiful. The issues with fitting could definitely come from having models who aren't fit models. There's only so much you can do in a night or two, trying to match the measurements to a new model. Professional designers have the luxury of numbers of people helping them finish everything.
I was a Daniel girl, but I understood the final decision of the judges. Chloe deserved the win with her showing.
donny b: When the judges were questioning Chloe, nearly half of what they showed was Nina and Michael questioning her about why she had only done evening wear. Later, Nina made a negative comment about Chloe's collection being too one-note and not versatile, and a favorable comment about Daniel having a greater range.
i agree that the runway shows were the worst this show has ever seen.
the best top 3 in all project runways would be...
1. jay
2. uli
3. laura
and if you can somehow put kara saun in there, i guess that would work too.
The first time I saw this collection, I hated it. But with every subsequent viewing, I like it more. After a year, I LOVE it. I liked Santino's a LOT the first time I saw it. I liked alot of Daniel's looks the first time, but with them, upon further viewing, I like them a little less each time. It's to the point where I hate most of Daniel's collection and a great deal of Santino's. Daniel and Santino, for the most part, made collections that were more ready-to-wear, where Chloe made collection that was largely fantasy runway pieces that would be edited for a ready-to-wear collection. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I think it looks much more Fashion Week runway than the other two. Theirs look like Macy's spring collection runways. I think that's where Chloe won. Hers looked more designer and less clothesmaker. Add to that her keen business sense, and I think it was the clear winner out of the three.
Wow, that wasn't supposed to be a
novel, sorry.
The colors are all too...what's the word? Well, the word that comes to mind is "unsophisticated." They're so crayola, so basic.
EXACTLY!!! The collection reminds me at times of a JC Pennys catalog. Where they took a true runway look and tried to dumb it down with cheaper materials and colors so it would work for a mid-west mom. (not that that's a bad thing my mom is one but it's not what I would expect to see on a runway at Fashion Week)
Great posts on Chloe's collection, I have a better understanding and appreciation of why she won the season, and seeing it with the emotion removed changes my perspective on it.
Thanks boys!!!
I love Chloe's work throughout the season, but her fabric choices for the OFW runway show were questionable. The shiny fabrics gave everything a "couch-y" feel, and the repetitive fabric patterns didn't do anything for me either. Alas, I am glad she won and is currently the most successful PR alum.
Cheers
JohnP :)
I sound like a broken record...broken record...broken record...uh
Season 2 was Meh. I agree with Gorgeous Thing about Cloe's collection, and thanks for the new word, dahling, will use Pheh to describe my cooking.
Our Chloe was the lesser of three evils and she understands the fashion business. God bless her and may she create many successful collections.
With Kara's show, I saw the collection I liked.
I don't know why everyone is getting so hung up on Chloe not having a theme. It's not like it's mandatory going into Fashion Week.
Sure, Daniel and Santino had concrete themes but it didn't make their collection very cohesive at all.
As for the shiny, "sofa" fabrics, I personally didn't care for them, but they were (when she made the collection) and still are completely on trend. That had to be a major factor in the decision, too. Although, I actually liked the green and pink print. Haha why does everyone hate it so much? The blue and green one print just makes think of a globe or map or something; sprinkling of islands among the ocean.
The bottom line is her collection was the most current, well executed, and cohesive out of the three, which clearly makes her the most deserving of the win.
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