Lorenzo: Love the top, love the skirt, love everything.
Tom: Me too. I agreed with Iman when she pointed out that the model looked just like her. It would have been cool if they'd all been styled that way.
Lorenzo: Yeah, the styling for this collection was the best out of the three. Loved the barrettes in the hair.
Tom: And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I loved the colored tights. Anyway, the dress. Loved the hem, and the strap across the bust.
Lorenzo: This is asymmetrical done right. Jeffrey, take notes.
Tom: It's a clean form of asymmetry.
Tom: Dirty, dirty asymmetry. This one just does not work for me.
Lorenzo: I hate the pockets. They make her look wider. I hate where they're positioned.
Tom: I hate pockets in skirts generally. That jacket looks like she put it on upside down.
Lorenzo: I just don't understand the jacket at all.
Tom: I think this is gorgeous.
Lorenzo: I agree, but that strap across her boobs is just wrong. It's too tight.
Tom: True. It kinda looks like a pink bandage, but I love the "belt" under the bust and the color combo.
Lorenzo: And that's the right way to do pockets.
Tom: If you say so.
Lorenzo: Bitch.
Tom: I just don't get pockets in skirts. What, is she gonna put her car keys in there?
Lorenzo: That's a mess.
Tom: I like the dress.
Lorenzo: I kind of like the dress but I hate the jacket.
Tom: Okay, true. And the line in her stockings looks like she bleeds pink, but there's a cool kind of punk rock architectual vibe going on here.
Tom: I think this is awful.
Lorenzo: Is she pregnant or something?
Tom: Do Canadians carry their young in their hips?
Lorenzo: You're awful.
Tom: No, THAT's awful. Terrible proportions and I hate the overall shininess of it.
Lorenzo: And her Cinnamon bun tits are too small.
Lorenzo: GORGEOUS.
Tom: I agree. Best look in the whole collection.
Lorenzo: She's still working that architectural vibe, but more sophisticated.
Tom: And great color combo. Although I'll say this: it's good that her color story was so cohesive, but there's such a thing as being too cohesive.
Lorenzo: It's basically the same three colors going down the runway.
Lorenzo: I love this.
Tom: I don't love it as much as you do.
Lorenzo: I just don't like the color of the tights. I think it was too much for the look.
Tom: Funny, that was one of the things I do like. Although I agree. To use a Gunnism, that's a lotta look.
Lorenzo: True, but I think she brings it all together nicely.
Tom: It's an "almost, but not quite" for me. I like each piece individually, but all together there's too much color, too much shiny and too much of that criss-crossy ruching.
Lorenzo: I would have loved it if the sleeves matched.
Tom: She's going for that asymmetry. I don't mind it. It's got a fresh look to it. It's just that her left boob looks like it has lips.
Lorenzo: True. Fresh is the right word. She's doing a lot but she's keeping the whole thing simple.
Tom: The Barbie colors are really getting to me though.
Lorenzo: I absolutely hate this. I hate everything about it.
Tom: Aren't we cranky? No, I agree. It's pretty awful. She must've been in a bad mood the day she designed this one.
Lorenzo: It's like a bad mood in dress form.
Tom: It's that fabric. It's so heavy and dour-looking.
Tom: You hated this one, right?
Lorenzo: No, I just don't get that jacket. What's that thing on the right lapel?
Tom: It doesn't bother me that much but man, is that a high waist or what?
Lorenzo: High waists are back.
Tom: I know, but something about this doesn't work for me. Maybe it's the colors that are setting it off. It just seems like it should fit her a little tighter.
To sum up and to address a couple points in yesterday's comments, this collection felt new and young to us. Does that mean "old" is bad? Of course not. But we're talking about fashion, not about clothes. Fashion is about the new thing, the next thing, or about taking old things and rethinking to make them seem new. Fashion always moves forward. Iman said something during the judging that we thought was absolutely brilliant: "At the end of the day, I don't need another dress." You can buy clothes in a million places, but there are only a few places and a relative few people who are truly doing Fashion, capital F. MG's collection had its flaws, but to us, it was pure fashion.
[Photos: slice.ca]
53 comments:
I liked the color story here & didn't mind that it was too cohesive, because I like the colors (for the most part).
As for the general ruchiness of it all: It was hit or miss. When the ruching missed, it looked like someone who'd lost weight and their skin no longer fit. And when the ruching worked, it looked like the brush strokes on an oil painting.
It seemed like the jackets just didn't hang right; like they were oddly weighted. And, after the first model, I was disappointed that they didn't all walk the runway with those MG glasses. But I loved the oddball styling (like the stripes down the legs).
Even though some of the pieces missed, I loved the creativity of it all.
--GothamTomato
Yes, It would have been brilliant if she had styled all of her models to look like herself. Female designers often times accused of "dressing themselves". It would have been kind of a cute and ironic for her to make all the models into Marie Genevieve.
Of the collection I would have to say all of the girls look like they are going to the same color coordinated party.
It's electroclash. It looks like Peaches walked down the runway ten times.
Gotham Tomato said:
"...when the ruching worked, it looked like the brush strokes on an oil painting."
You hit the nail on the head with that. The ruching of the matte fabrics created beautiful texture and detail. I think that's part of why the shiny fabrics turned me off so much. It's like wrapping a Degas in aluminum foil. Ick!
"Lorenzo: And that's the right way to do pockets.
Tom: If you say so.
Lorenzo: Bitch.
Tom: I just don't get pockets in skirts. What, is she gonna put her car keys in there?"
LOL. Pockets in skirts and dresses only work on the runway. Who's going to walk with their hands in the pockets like that on the streets?
THis collection made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. To me, every peice was ugly, awkward and unflattering. And I really hated her color story. I was sad because I was really rooting for MG. I guess I am too mainstream fashion to appriciate it.
"Left boob looks like it has lips." Heh. Heh, heh. Snork.
My goodness, you boys are busy today (thank you!). I guess I'm going to have to keep checking back for big Biddell entry.
Loved MG's music the most, by the way. Loved the attempts at "architexture." It all came off as just a wee bit over her head, but I applaud that she took chances and tried.
Boys, no, especially the third one that you loved... it looks like a maternity panel in the front of the skirt. The whole thing looks to wrappy and bandagey, yuck.
I think the collection was too cohesive with the color story + all the pieces were short dresses...it should have been one or the other. It would have been great to see a bathing suit or a gown. I was also disappointed that not all models wore thick framed glasses because she repetitively mention that she designed for people like her.
I thought the architectural inspiration was not totally her and probably one note BUT it shows that MG can reinvent her style if necessary.
I actually liked the jacket on the last model.
There's something a little passive/aggressive about M.G. (remember the dress she designed for the diva?) and there's something a little passive/aggressive about the collection. So I guess you could say she succeeded in expressing herself, but the overall effect is off-putting.
One of the highlights of the fashion was the music used for the collection, very young and upbeat. I wished The Mission District would put "Get Up and Go" on their MySpace to download. :(
One of the highlights of the fashion show was the music used for the collection, very young and upbeat. I wished The Mission District would put "Get Up and Go" on their MySpace to download. :(
Tom: I hate pockets in skirts generally.
See, Tom, this is how I would know you were a guy, even if I didn't know it already. Women need pockets, and too many designers don't give them to us.
I felt disappointed in this collection because I'd really liked MG's work throughout the competition. I wanted her to dress, say, the smart and fun arty or academic woman, which is what it looked like she was doing up until the final collection, which in its dress-centeredness seemed not like her. Oh, well.
I liked this for the same reason I liked Lucien's. Visually interesting to look at. Again, I thought the collection was very much her work. There were definitely some hits and misses.
MG's little collection is 10 times more interesting than anything we've seen so far on PR4.
I loved MG's collection, well except for the shiny purple pear dress. She needed to step back and self edit a bit for her collection too. I would look fantastic in her dress with the tittie lips. I would want that bit of an appendix taken out. I loved the non-structure of the majority of her jackets too. Well, except for the one that hung like a deflated balloon across her shoulders.
Just a little self editing, and not being too shy to put her image on every model would have helped a lot. I hope she stays in fashion, she's young, she's fresh and she definitely is fashion forward and one to watch!
MG is actually pretty good at making dresses. Jackets, not so much, but I was surprised at how many nice dresses she turned out. Except for the one which obviously didn't belong (the downside to a really cohesive color story - it made that dress stand out and thus look even uglier).
Actually, my entire problem with this collection revolves around that one dress - why does she keep making things that give models deformed hips? That silhouette is so her, and so ugly. Gah.
i think mg's collection was definitely the most thought-provoking of the three, because she was trying to do so many new things with so few pieces.
to me, that's why the collection failed to be cohesive. she's still experimenting with new techniques; she has too many ideas in her head.
it's not necessarily a bad thing, but i'm really excited to see what her next collection will look like.
marie-genevieve should have won, she rocked it
i hope she does great, she's truly talented
biddell is one heck of a douchebag on the other hand...
"See, Tom, this is how I would know you were a guy, even if I didn't know it already. Women need pockets, and too many designers don't give them to us."
in a dress? i don't think so.
-moira-
lima bean said...
"MG's little collection is 10 times more interesting than anything we've seen so far on PR4."
$8000 dollars (canadian!!) and 3 months versus 1 to 2 days and $75 bucks tends to do that. Completely unfair comparison when one season is not even halfway over.
So many people pre-hated season 4 before it came out that they haven't even given it's competitors a chance. It's amazing.
I absolutely adore dresses with pockets. In fact, half the time, I buy dresses simply because they HAVE pockets.
And I wanted MG for the win. She was my favorite.
Moira -
Definitely in a dress, and in a skirt, and in a jacket, and in trousers. When I'm at work, I need someplace to put my pens and ID and my card case, and I am not dragging my purse all over hell-and-gone. I want pockets! I go around saying things like, "I really like this, but it doesn't have pockets" or "This outfit would be perfect, if it only had pockets."
I was totally on Team MG, so this collection was a huge disappointment for me. I understand what she was going for, variance in 10 dresses, but I feel the collection would have been more interesting had she ventured out of short-dress mode, shown some texture in the coats, ANYTHING. What she ended up with looked like a "I'm the most avant garde of all" fashion school final exam runway collection.
There were some hits, and the styling was sometimes cute, but there were too many misses, BIG misses, to consider her collection a contender for the top prize.
And that made me sad.
The one with the strap across the bust is giving that skinny model vagina arms. Ugh. What would that look like on a real woman?
I liked the styling on the first model the best, I did think it was totally cool that the model looked so much like MG.
Anne
There's something a little passive/aggressive about M.G. (remember the dress she designed for the diva?) and there's something a little passive/aggressive about the collection.
Dave, I would be interested to know what you mean by saying there was something passive-aggressive about the collection. And how that ties in to the dress she designed for the diva.
I think that's a very interesting comment.
Anne
I thought MG was very arrogant in a nerdy kind of way until she got eliminated... and got the chance to come back by default (Michael got chosen, but she went all teary and refused to come back, and MG was next).
I liked this much better than Lucian's collection. It was younger for one, and far more fashion-forward. But there was a lot wrong with it (that second look was awful, some bizarre little girl dressing up in her kooky aunt's clothes) and frankly, I thought her model looked much too old for that type of clothing.
When push comes to shove, Biddell, annoying thought he was (he kind of channelled Jay at times), really designed the best collection of the three.
I liked the styling and the colors. It felt really unique and new. I loved her personal style and I have a similar body type to her. It was inspiring to see what she was wearing everyday and gave me ideas for my own warobe, like the black ballet top with the scarves. But this collection was more modern and less artsy than what you would expect from MG.
I liked this collection, but the color story was too cohesive for my taste. honestly I don't think any of these 3 designers had a bad collection. They were all great in their own way. Truly the best PR finale ever, including PR US 1-3.
I thought her collection was innovative and fashion-forward. A bit all over the place, but quite interesting.
MG deviated from the aesthetic she'd shown on the show and I still wonder why. She did have a few interesting looks though. I too loved the dress on her model Dre and thought she should have closed the show with it.
I hate pink so I can't be objective about the color palette but the tights were especially distracting. Her jackets and pockets looked sloppy rather than innovative. I didn't think a jodphur dress was possible but that's what she seems to have achieved with that shiny light purple number. And the screen cap of the third dress with the controversial strap just seems so "I'm ready for my mammogram, Mr. DeMille."
Still, I thought MG finished a respectable second, and I'd love to see what she does when she isn't inspired by a particular theme.
I just don't get pockets in skirts. What, is she gonna put her car keys in there?
Pockets are to give people who don't smoke something to do with their hands. They should fall under the category of "comfortable" along with yoga pants and pajama bottoms.
Carol Burnett had *all* of her Bob Mackie outfits designed with pockets in them. Sometimes a nice pocket is not only cool, but it's very comforting.
If pockets are good enough for St. Coco, they're good enough for me.
You guys nailed it. I couldn't believe that she was dismissed before Lucian's granny-hooker line. Sure it's ambitious and doesn't entirely work, but when those architectural looks did hit, they were dynamite. I couldn't help but compare her line to Jeffrey Sebelia's, to his disadvantage. He's just doing variations on rocker looks. She's doing something new.
While I got what MG was doing, I didn't totally dig the collection. And I hated the colors. But it definitely showed a point of view. I look forward to seeing what she does in the future.
I wear dresses and skirts almost exclusively, and I am all about the pockets. Be they discrete side seam pockets or honking huge patch pockets in a contrast fabric. Pockets are a make or break (selling point) for me. And I do use them to store my car keys. I still love you anyway, Tom.
...who won the Emmett coat and the Milian bag?... I must know...
I really love this back & forth format for your comments. It seems like I usually agree with Tom.
Except for the pocket thing. I love pockets.
MG!! Love her!!! I was ready for her collection to knock me over and I was really wanting her to win! Maybe my expectations were too high - to me, it fell flat. I was so disappointed. Some pieces were Fasion - but others, I just didn't get.
I agree, if all the models came out with the big glasses -- ooo how fab that would have been!! I thought it at the time when the first model came out and was wearing the glasses - I thought they all would be and just loved the idea. (flashback to Jay with the headphones.)
Anyway, I love MG! Still love MG! Can't wait to see more from her.
MWA to MG!!! (and to T&L and usual)
that's T&L AS usual.
Count me in as one who likes pockets (though not the big, droopy pockets I saw here). I prefer something more descrete and funtional.
Every street-smart woman knows you never put your keys in your handbag; if someone swipes it, they've got both your keys and your address. I always carry my keys in a pocket.
--GothamTomato
Check out this TERRIFIC collection of PRC Toronto Fashion Week photographs --
http://www.raymondchow.ca/photoset_lfw07-project-runway-canada-2007.html
or
http://preview.tinyurl.com/235b26
158 photos of the PRC show, including a 4th collection that must have been Stephen Wong's. Worth a visit!
I sort of surprised myself at the fierceness of my comment about MG being passive/aggressive. I actually like her, and like about half of her looks. Still, I can't help but reflect: does that wide-hipped look of hers that everyone dislikes just happen to evoke the look the Iman wore at fashion week—the one that Lucian designed? Or am I reading too much?
The giant hips look has shown up a lot in recent fashion shows, MG didn't come up with that on her own. It's grotesque and unwearable, but kind of on trend.
I am girl on the fence about pockets. I believe the Duchess once commented that when you make things with pockets, women inevitably have them sewn down or removed. While I think that's a generalization, it highlights the fact that many pockets, especially in pants or skirts, change the whole silhouette of a look, and not in a flattering way. I also hate too many pockets at the breast on jackets. But jeans without pockets? That would just be wrong.
I'm not really feeling look #6 (the one you guys like the best).
The pleating and stretching of the fabric reminds me of those anatomy charts showing just the muscles underneath the skin. This is especially the case with this look, because of the color.
i love the modern-ness of mg's collection. but, like lucien, she needed someone to help her edit her vision. overall, i think her collection was hit or miss.
i actually really liked the colors she chose. and i like the way she used the bright pink as a highlight, just here or there. and her styling with the barrettes & the eye makeup were perfect. but, like you, i wish she had used the glasses on all of the models.
for the most part, her jackets were wrong. they subtracted from the garments, instead of adding to them. i would love to see the clothes without them. the third look with the pink strap across the boobs was pretty sexy, as was the asymmetrical gray dress with the pink strips. would have really liked to see the gray dress under the shiny jacket - the bottom half of it looked great. and i wish she had a better hem for the signature piece. the ruching was wonderful, but it just came to a screeching halt at the hem.
i liked mg's work, but i agree with the judges. she got too caught up in her inspiration and made a one-off collection, instead of making a collection that reflected her aesthetic. had she just made mg's clothes, she could have walked off with the prize, easily.
I find it funny that on this blog, MG's collection has been dubbed, "too cohesive." It isn't that I disagree: in fact, that is more or less what I thought when I first saw it. However, I was really taken aback when the judges deemed it disjointed and lacking in cohesiveness. Both the colors and her use of lines and architectural forms held the collection together. So she had both girlish silhouettes and vampy silhouettes coming down the runway. Does that alone make the continuity break down?
I still disagree that Lucian's collection was overly derivative.
Also, I noticed another poster asking about the Biddell-having-a-crush-on-Lucian rumor. Yes, it was on this blog. I'm the one who started it. It was just something that suddenly struck me when watching episode 10, I think. And, I have to stand by it. Maybe it was the "I want you to kick my ass" comment.
Although I like a few of the dresses (the first one is probably my favorite), I don't like the shiny parts and I really don't like all the tight straps-- -a lot of it ends up looking like she's partway through wrapping up a mummy. And I agree with the poster above who commented that the one dress looks like exposed muscle-not a good color choice for that dress.
Crow Winters you are so right--people were hating PR4 before it even started. Even the first 3 seasons never really got interesting until the 5th or 6th show. I'm sure it takes Tim at least that long to start to get to know the designers--and 5 or 6 shows is only two weeks or so into the competition.
CP from NY
M-G really needs to break away from her bourgeois family and surround herself with "bad kids".
It really bothers me when the models breasts look odd shaped. Do the models never wear bras? That is an honest question because no matter how beautiful the dress I would never buy it if it made the twins look deformed. There is a breast deformity called tuberous breasts and sometimes the designers give the models that look.
Loved her collection, perfection. I wish I could buy every single piece, especially the jeweled coat.
I think she took the 'architecture' inspiration too far. Too many variations of concrete grey. And pink (like... insulation batting?).
It was just too much idea and too few colors.
I also didn't like that everything was a short dress. How many dresses did she wear during the show? Not enough for me to even remember. I mean, why, on heaven's earth, would a female designer who explicitly says she designs for women like herself, only make dresses (and, I dunno... skirts that look like full dresses) when she's demonstated herself that she doesn't wear them all that often?
She had three months to do a pair of pants. Her aesthetic could have, and should have, encompassed that - at least in a rusted girder color.
It's like she found herself in a slabby concrete rut and decided she liked it there and then just worked the 12 pieces to death.
I also found the pink lines imitating stocking seams was so glaring it overshadowed the clothes.
I think she suffered from what Ike Turner highlighted - "women, you be thinkin' too much."
Which is a shame because while I enjoyed her personality, I never really got her personal style during the show and really don't like it if that's what it generally is as demonstrated by the collection.
Ah, well. She'll do well, anyway, in Quebec. The sphere of 'celebrity' is so much smaller and more intense that she'll be fine being becoming a big fish in a small fish bowl.
The palette was not to my taste because I look pretty barfy in lavender but there are some beautiful dresses in there. I would have liked to see trousers or a long dress in there somewhere so if that counts as a comment for "too cohesive" then count me there.
All in all, though, very successful and great prospects for a career in fashion, yay for her!
And a Happy New Year to all!
Biddell himself wrote in his blog (slice.ca) that the trouble between him and Lucian "might" have been caused by sexual tension. Whether he was serious or, as usual, making fun of Lucian, is anybody's guess.
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