The Poetist

Heidi & Co. over at Project Runway have really set the bar high for challenges this season. This week the challenge was to design menswear – and not just for any man, for a football player!

At first I felt bad for the client, Tiki Barber, because I didn’t think any of the designers would know what to do. This is a womenswear contest, after all. I of course felt bad for the designers, like this challenge was the equivalent of a hit below the belt. Later, watching the designers I was amazed at how many were struggling. Well, that’s not true. I wasn’t amazed; I felt vindicated that this was an unfair challenge. Relative to any/every other PR episode that I’ve seen, everybody was a hot mess for this one! Not only did Carmen not make a shirt (and get sent home for it), 2 of the top 3 designs weren’t even finished! Kevin pinned his vest closed and Jack glued on his buttons. I understand the judges and producers’ desire to keep designers on their toes, but this went overboard.

At first I thought Kit should have won over Jack because her outfit* looked more interesting to me, but thinking more about it I agree that Jack rightfully won the challenge. Tiki did say his style was more conservative and that he liked details so for him Jack’s outfit was better; although I would definitely like to dress some of the men that I know in Christian’s outfit. It was super creative but still looked good. I was sad to see Carmen go but I wasn’t surprised. While fabric, fit and color choices are crucial to an outfit’s success, craftsmanship and even more so completion, are the number one requirements to not getting Auf’d.

*These aren’t links to each individual outfit. You have to scroll through the looks and check the designer’s name at the bottom to see what belongs to who.

It’s only the 2nd episode and people are already getting emotional. Who are the softies? Ricky, Chris and Carmen.

Ricky was really shaken up about being in the bottom two after the first round of judging and speaking to the camera about his desire to do better, broke into tears.

Chris got weepy upon the entrance of the week’s fashion icon, later explaining that she and her famous show are the reason he moved to New York city.

Carmen, bless her heart, broke down at the moment of truth. When asked by Heidi if another contestant should be kicked off instead of her, her face wrinkled up and tears streamed down.

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This week’s guest judge was the fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker; the challenge was to design an outfit for her retail line, Bitten. The crux of the challenge was that the two-piece outfits had to retail for no more than $40, necessitating that designers spend no more than $15 on materials. I really appreciated that the designers had to make clothes that could retail in a reasonable range. This speaks to what I think are the two biggest problems in fashion today – prices can be prohibitively expensive, and even when women have money for it clothes are often unflattering to women of larger sizes or less-than-perfect proportions. So fashion is often inaccessible to everyday people – in terms of price and fit – yet designers do little to nothing about it and then complain when people who can’t afford $500 for a pretty top spend $35 for the closest approximation that $35 can buy. Project Runway can be a great platform to address these issues. Case in point, last season the designers had to design for each other’s mothers, which resulted in many a plus-size outfit… and most of the designers failed miserably. And watching interviews from past PR winners it seems as though while the seed money to start a new clothing line is great, these designers still have great difficulty launching a line. I think it’s because their market is already saturated. There are hundreds, thousands of talented designers selling at high-end price points. There are not hundreds of talented designers selling at reasonable price points. But I digress. I really appreciate that the designers had to make clothes that could retail affordably, and when SJP discussed their sketches she made sure that women of all sizes would be able to wear it. As she said, “fashion should not be a luxury and quality should not be a privilege.” Spoken like a true icon.

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Making his rounds of the work room Tim Gunn advised Christian that his outfit looked too 80s, and Christian said he thought it was perfect… I couldn’t believe that somebody would flat out reject Tim’s advice this early in the competition. As Michael Kors said during the judging, “he did exactly what he wanted.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t what anybody else wanted. I find it interesting that both Tim Gunn and the judging panel thought that Christian (and partner Carmen)’s creation was too retro. Christian is only 21, and so was probably mostly dressed in onesies and matching baby outfits in the 80s. That’s not his fault, of course but that just means that he had a different reference point in his head, as SJP pointed out. They both saw his sketch but were liking it for completely different reasons. As all of the judges and at least half of the contestants are at least a decade older than him I wonder if he will start taking more advice or keep sticking to his youthful guns.

The elimination was between Christian, who had a bad design, and Marion who had a bad designer and bad construction – a serious double whammy in the world of the runway. In the end Marion got Auf’d; a decision that didn’t surprise me, and apparently it didn’t surprise him either. Victoria won the challenge, and while I liked her (and Keith’s) outfit I would actually prefer to wear the dress created by Elisa with Sweet P. It was more colorful, more interesting than the drab but well styled tent dress from Victoria and Keith; I understand why she won but I think the judges could have done more to reward creativity and risk-taking.

Tonight was the season opener of Project Runway, Season 4. As is expected they put together a cast of visually interesting contestants, complete with at least two (2!) asymmetrical haircuts.

Interesting moments: in the opening montage of video introductions Kevin felt the need to state that he is straight. Is this a first for PR? …in the beginning the contestants had to race to the fabric. Ricky said that he ran “like a Mexican immigrant running to the border.” …once she chose her fabric Elisa wanted to “imbue it with a natural element” and she used “grass stain as a method.” Basically she took really expensive fabric and rubbed it in the grass. Whatever floats her boat. I actually would have liked to see it as a finished product, but I imagine that she probably just ruined the material. …When the 1am deadline was approaching an unidentified male voice (not Kevin) called out “don’t go into the fear box, people! Don’t go into the fear box!”

Simone was the first to go (watch the exit video). The judges had two complaints – the design and construction of her outfit. I agreed with the latter. She presented a nice idea but she wasn’t able to construct it well – and that is often a deal-breaker on PR. In last year’s season opener the first contestant to be sent home had the same issue; she just couldn’t sew fast enough or well enough. That’s a legitimate issue on this show. There’s no space or time to learn how to be a better seamstress. As for her design, I didn’t see a problem with it. Yes, it was simple, but it was also clean and minimalist. It was far less dramatic than most of the other designs, but you could say the same thing of a Jil Sander or Narcisso Rodriguez collection showing against a Marc Jacobs or John Galliano. The color combination on her dress was nice, although I do have to admit – the printed bolero did the rest of the outfit a disservice.

So far my top people are:
VICTORYA - she graduated from the University of Chicago (represent!) and created a beautiful, albeit very restrictive, dress. She is also from Seoul, one of my favorite cities.
CARMEN - she is from Charlotte, NC, and one of the people with asymmetrical hair.
STEVEN - I liked what he created, and not only is he from Chicago, right before Project Runway he worked at the Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park!
CHRIS - he created an absolutely gorgeous dark purple dress with a printed collar that tied at the back of the neck. He’s from San Francisco, which is cool, but not as meaningful as if he were from say, San Jose.

I’ll be doing this every week, same that time same that channel. ^_^ Until next time, here are some PR links to keep you busy:
the Project Runway homepage (on Bravo)
Blogging Project Runway
Fafarazzi.com, the PR fantasy game

I just watched the final episode of Project Runway and I feel so inspired. I really liked Laura Bennet’s line, and a few pieces from Uli inspired me as well. Both of the women, Jeffrey and Michael had very distinct points of view. People tend to think of Jeffrey as the most innovative and in many respects he is, but every designer exhibited some innovative characteristics. The prints that Uli tends to use have an inventive spirit. I think Michael did very well infusing his fresh, urban aesthetic with the requirements of the challenges and his clothes always look cool; but the line he showed looks like merchandise that is already on the market, there is nothing inherently new.

When I first saw Laura’s line aired in the episode I thought ‘what great clothes, it’s too bad her aesthetic is for older women, I would love to wear her clothes designed for a twenty year old.’ But when I looked through the photos on Bravo’s website, I realized that she actually did design for younger people, and I think she is arguably one of the most innovative designers from the 3^rd season. I really respect that she had a theme in mind for her show. Although I would love to see her take on casual/sportswear, she does great things for dressy. Within the sphere of evening and cocktail dresses she mixed fun and classy and produced the kinds of clothes that you buy first and then find a place to wear them. While some of her pieces were very much for older women, a number of outfits were in fact, very young. As the judges mentioned, her clothes are ones that you buy and keep for life. A number of things she presented could be aged forwards or backwards with different accessories. Jewelry, bag, shoes, scarves; a number of things can transform an outfit. You can visit http://www.bravotv.com/Fashion_Forward/photos/laura/index.shtml?slideshow=pr3_laura&pic=1#picAnchor to see Laura’s show.

I loved a number of her outfits, but #9 (in the slideshow) was my absolute favorite. It is certainly a young outfit. The use of shorts for the cocktail hour is very now, and the gold cropped jacket with a gold chiffon bow and sash is beautiful. It is the classic, put-together look that Laura does so well, but in a very fresh way.

My second favorite was #3. This is a fabulous little black dress. A halter dress with an empire waist updates a classic look. The upright feathers at the empire waist are fun and flirty and the fringe at the hem adds more playfulness to the look.

#13 is a gorgeous piece that can be transitioned for many years. The black lace is timeless, but the deep-V is daring. The overall silhouette is exquisite and flattering without emphasizing one particular element so much that the piece gets stuck in a particular trend or decade. This is certainly a piece which is always beautiful, but whose age and mood can be influenced with accessories.

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The winner of Project Runway, Jeffrey Sebelia, said in his exit interview that he would like to use his prize money to start a secondary line that would be available to a mass market. While I am generally not a fan of Jeffrey, I applaud his idea. Project Runway is great at unearthing design talent, but inspired designer clothes can be very difficult for regular people to come by. There are an incredible number of talented and inspired designers out there and I would certainly like to see more of them taking steps to mass produce, and to see more large retailers courting independent designers. Jeffrey’s idea is a good first step, and I hope more people in the industry agree and follow suit.