Rome, If You Want To

Darlings, in discussing Rami's work this week, let us turn to two titans of Project Runway, The Duchess herself, Miss Michael Kors, and Saint Tim of the Gunn.

Michael's thoughts can be found here:

"In terms of Rami, once again, you might have a very nice career and a nice business being very specialized. But, is that going to make you a designer of real breadth if you’re so specific with your look, no matter how well you do it? Any designer who’s around for more than a minute will have the tendency of people knowing their point of view anyway. You’re going to have to deal with that regardless, so if you’re only going to be like, “Oh, I only make drape dresses,” it’s not going to allow you to withstand, it’s not going to allow you to have different kinds of clients of different ages, different bodies, different cities. I’m not curious about like, oh, if he made shoes, what kind of shoes would they be? Would they be draped? Would he only make draped handbags? Would his perfume be draped? Would everything be draped? No matter how great you are at a certain thing, I think you need to find an aesthetic rather than a category. If you find a category you might be a very successful niche designer, but if you find a look you have the possibility of building a world. I’m a little disappointed that although it’s consistently chic, the wow factor is lacking in his work."

And Tim's here:

"For a fashion designer, the greatest compliment in the world is to have people look at your work and say: Ah, that's Rami Kashou," says Gunn. "So it's a bit of a conundrum for me when the judges get tired of seeing it. Rami struggled with that. His work is quieter. He doesn't ever want to create a float in a parade."

DISAGREEMENT!! It's a Dames & Divas Deathmatch, poodles!

As for us, well...

We don't love it.

Part of the problem we have with Rami's work is that we just don't respond well to what we consider excessive draping. It's just not our thing. Even so, we can recognize when it's done well and Rami certainly does it well.

On the other hand, we really kind of hate this design. First off, the color's kind of gross, and the proportions make her look really hippy and we don't like the skin-baring aspects of it.

Marble statue of Aphrodite by Kallimachos

Rami kind of had a point when the judges called him on producing yet another grecian-draped gown and he reminded them that they took him to the freaking Greek and Roman courtyard of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We're as tired of seeing these Star Trek dresses as anyone, but they really waved a red flag at him there, whether they intended to or not.

And hey, at least her tits matched, right? That's something.

We don't HATE it, but we just don't love it. It's such a lameoid, over-repeated thing to say, but there really is no "wow" factor here.

The judges, on the other hand...they HATED it.

"I - I could KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS for showing me this - this thing!"

"Holy shit. Defcon One, guys. This looks like it may be the big one."

"Cariño mío, you are like a little bird to me. An annoying little bird pecking away at my nerves."

"And when annoying little thick-necked birds in tight shirts build the same nest over and over and over again AFTER I keep telling them, 'Stop building the same nest and do something else!' well..."

"Then that little bird needs to die, you see."

"Yes. Die.

Don't waste my time again."


[Photos: Insecula.com - Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Screencaps: Project RunGay]


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The Collar That Almost Ate Our Marriage

Oh, Kittens.

We do NOT agree on this dress.

The short version:
Lorenzo: PRO-dress
Tom: Decidedly NOT pro-dress

Tom is waiting to receive your catcalls and offerings of ripe fruit at high velocity.

Longer version: well, it's a little more complicated than that. We do agree on some things.

For instance, we both agree that the collar's too damn much.

On the other hand, we disagree on the judges' reaction to it. It is similar to the collar he made for the avant garde challenge, we'll grant them that. But Lorenzo thinks the judges over-reacted to that as if Chris has been pulling these exuberant asymmetrical collars out every week. Like, say Christian with his puffy sleeves and Rami with his draping. His point is, THOSE two designers are for more deserving of that criticism than Chris and Tom definitely agrees with that.

But.

It's a pretty distinctive, over-the-top look. We're not talking about a design element that can be interpreted for a range of clothing (like draping or styles of sleeves), we're talking about a big, Virgin-Queen-sized collar obscuring poor Marcia's right peripheral vision once again.

It's a bit of a red flag to the judges to pull such a distinct look out once again. She looks like her airbag deployed.

Marie Françoise de La Cropte de St. Abre, Marquise d'Argence by Jean Marc Nattier

And in a strange way, it didn't seem to call back to the original painting much. He went for exactly the same colors and fabrics and then went off and made something that doesn't really feel so much like an inspiration as a declaration of "Here's a dress I can make in those same colors."

Lorenzo does love the colors and thinks it's an interesting take on the original dress, but Tom's not totally with him on every point. It IS a beautiful and striking dress, but...

...is it us or does it look a little sloppy and wrinkly? Like, the execution is fine, but there's something a little off with the presentation?

Armchair psychoanalysts that we are, it just looked like Chris was over the whole thing this week. He just seemed tired and fed up, so he pulled a strong, striking design out of his trickbag and put it together. It didn't feel like inspiration, it felt like a survival technique. Which, hey, you do what you gotta do if you're exhausted and still want to stay in the game.

There's a reason Signor Cavalli loved it more than the others. Unlike the sitting judges, who've been there with Chris since day one and are certain to have preconceptions at this point, he took the dress on its own merits and declared it a work of art.

And it was, in its own way a stunning and dramatic dress, but it just didn't feel like Chris put 100% into it and we think that's what the sitting judges were responding to.


[Photos: Metmuseum.org - Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Screencaps: Project RunGay]


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Jillian: Hardcore Fashion Bitch

Jillian wants to get to Bryant Park so badly...

...that she will use her model as an IRONING BOARD to get there. That is some hardcore, no-wire-hangers shit.

We have to admit...

...we kinda loved this.

But Jillian, for the love of God, enough with those shoes.

Detail from the Story of the Argonauts by Unknown Master

She did a pretty good job of interpreting a piece without copying it outright and it is, of course, unsurprising that she gravitated toward an equestrian/military figure, since she certainly loves to apply touches of that look to her work.

Yeah, the skirt hem was a little screwed up and the length of it was a bit too short for that jacket, but the overall look is sleek and smart when you first set eyes on it.

Gold and black is always a great combination and the jacket is just GORGEOUS. She can do these military or equestrian-inspired pieces and somehow not make them look gimmicky or costumey.

And we agree with Signor Cavalli here.

One thing we hadn't put together before now (but we'll definitely expand on when we look at each finalist's entire body of work for the season side-by-side), Jillian's work always has some unique detail to top it off. That it's usually so subtle is a credit to her.

Then there's the dress. Y'know, it didn't quite work in the end, but we have to give her props for first, going there, and second, almost nailing a look that's REALLY tough to get right: gold lame.

We think it was an inspired choice for the dress and the lining of the jacket, but she didn't have the time to execute it properly and it was too wrinkled and formless by the end. Her Bryant Park collection had a pleated gold lame dress that came off looking FAR better than this.

The execution problems with the dress kept it from getting the win this week, but the overall design was so smart and stylish, how could the judges not wave her on to Fashion Week?

And it's a good thing they did.

...because that bitch had a knife strapped to her thigh and she wasn't afraid to use it to get what she wants.

HOT.

[Photos: Metmuseum.org - Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Screencaps: Project RunGay]


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Sweet Peacock

Because we liked Sweet P, we're definitely sorry to see her go...

...but we can't honestly say we disagree with the judges on this one.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. Lorenzo says he loves the dress ("Sue me!"), but even he agrees there were some serious problems with it.

Peacocks by Melchior d'Hondecoeter

Her choice of inspiration left us feeling much the same as when Daniel Vosovic decided to be inspired by a flower and the judges treated him like Michelangelo over it: "Oh. A peacock. Because THAT'S never been done."

But then she chose some interesting and beautiful fabrics and seemed to be taking it to a more interesting, less literal level and we were intrigued.

Then she did that.

To be fair once again, Lorenzo kinda liked it but Tom thought she looked like the Queen Mother out for walkies. You had to go there, didn't you Sweet P? You HAD to put FEATHERS on her.

Aw, we're teasing. We don't hate the feathers that much (yes we do), it's just that the dress didn't quite come together as it should have.

We like the color blocking - and the color choices, for that matter - but we just didn't like the lines it created.

Even worse, we didn't like the color blocking paired with that print. It overwhelms it completely.

And then...

...there's the pockets. We've stated our dislike for pockets in dresses before, but come on. Those are some lousy proportions. She could fit her gym gear in those saddlebags. She could put a baby in each one and get her grocery shopping done.

To top it off in our best Nina voice "There iS Something to be deSired in the execution." Choosing to do such a simple look left her no wiggle room in that area and it just came off looking unpolished and even a little sloppy.

We share what appears to be the majority online opinion that there seemed to be some mighty arbitrary judging going on last night, but we can't honestly argue that she didn't deserve to be auf'd.

Her work subsequent to this has shown that she's a talented designer, but this dress was just a huge stack of no. Sorry, P.

Watch her exit video here:



[Photos: metmuseum.org/bravotv.com - Videos: bravotv.com - Screencaps: Project RunGay]


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