Raminology

Golden Boy steps up to the plate:

Well, let's start with the obvious: draping. To our eyes, he can be accused of returning to that well five times out of eleven. That's a lot, but still not as much as we would have thought. He also returned to that twisted fabric trick we dislike so much five times and turned out skirts with pleating or ruffles four times. It seems clear to us that these are the three design elements that pretty much define him as a designer. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but out of the three finalists, he's the one most locked into his comfort zone and does the worst when he's forced out of it by the competition. Witness the menswear, avant garde and wrestling looks to see how he morphs from a talented designer to a near-disastrous one when faced with a hurdle. Although to be fair, the Hershey's challenge was outside his milieu and he managed to knock that one out of the park.

He seems to have an aversion to prints and when he uses color, it tends to be very muted and understated. He also doesn't appear to have any time for trim or embellishments. He loves fabric and he loves to make fabric do tricks for him on the dress form. And to his credit, he's very, very good at those tricks.

Rami's whole stated design philosophy is to make women look and feel beautiful. That is, of course, a wonderful philosophy for a designer to have. Thing is, it's kind of...pedestrian. We'd wager that almost all womenswear designers have that as one of, if not the, main goals of their work. To say so is to state the obvious.

When he's on his game, he can definitely accomplish his main goal by turning out beautiful (if slightly boring) dresses that compliment the female form and make her look beautiful in a classic sense. Our main criticism (and one which is fortified by seeing all these looks side by side) is that his aesthetic looks, well...old to us. Not just old in the old-fashioned sense but old in the "My imaginary client is over 50" sense. Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does have the distinct whiff of "niche" all over it. Christian is exactly the opposite and tends to design almost solely for the under 30 crowd. It remains to be seen which one the judges will respond more favorably to, but it bears repeating that fashion is always about the new thing or the next thing. We're not so sure that Rami can compete on that level.

[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com]

Christianology

It's Christian's turn under the microscope, bitches!


Well darlings, we may have to come up with another nickname for Christian because clearly "Princess Puffysleeves" isn't accurate.

Oh sure, there's a surfeit of puffiness (as well as pleating and ruffles) here, but much like Laura Bennett and the bogus "plunging neckline" criticism of the judges, it's not a design element he used nearly as much as is assumed. If anything, he could have just as easily been dubbed "Sir Skinnypants" because he returns to that just as much.

What can we glean from this? Well, despite the fact that it's not as narrow as previously assumed, he DOES show a fairly narrow range here. As we said, girl really likes his ruffles and pleating. He also likes pairing highly structured, voluminous pieces with body-conscious pieces like tube dresses, pencil skirts and yes, skinny pants. He turns to black WAY too much and when he does use color, it's always neutral in tone (browns and creams), with the exception of the SJP challenge dress.

Despite these criticisms, we think he's obviously an extraordinarily talented designer with a ton of potential. Nearly everything he showed during the competition was almost perfectly executed and had some little twist or design element that raised it above the others. Win or lose, the boy has the chops for a tremendous career ahead of him. He just needs to get his current design fixations out of his system.

[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com]

Jillianology

Well poodles, now comes the time when we look at the finalists' output for the competition so far to see if we can draw any conclusions about them. Completists that we are, we'll also be looking at the decoy designers, but for now, let's focus on the candidates for the win. First up: Jillian.



At first glance, it's tough to find a through line here. Jillian doesn't work in a narrow aesthetic. Of the 3 finalists, we think she has the widest range, although she clearly excels at sportswear. Her work is always meticulous (with the exception of the denim coat) and almost always perfectly fitted (weight loss and prom dresses, we're casting knowing glances in your direction). She has a fondness for full skirts and pants and a real affinity for jackets and coats. So much so, that she could make a career solely out of the latter.

She obviously doesn't reach for the prints all that often except to add small visual points of interest to certain looks, like the pink tartan ruffle on the avant garde coat or the eye-catching print in the menswear challenge. She prefers to add her own detailing to bump up visual interest, rather than relying on patterns or even textures to do the work. In fact, we think it's her eye for detail that makes her work. Whether it's the equestrian and military touches she returns to again and again, or the poofy almost bubble skirt on the tangerine dress or the gold piping on the art inspiration jacket or the almost-but-not-quite detail in the bust on the prom dress, Jillian takes an almost architectural approach to building her looks.

She also has a certain...we guess "wit" would be the word, in her designs, as in the jockette look of the Diva challenge or the rodeo Twizzler dress, or the racing stripes on the weight loss dress, or even the aforementioned pink tartan. She almost always has something going on in each look that makes us go "Hunh. That's an interesting take."

She has the Nina-required "point of view" and even demonstrates a certain level of innovation, but like her personality on the show, it's quiet and requires a second look, which sets her apart from her more put-it-all-out-there competitors.

[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com]