Under the Gunn: Team Mondo (Episode 3)

OK, quick-style, Team Mondo. The weakest team, but had the winner in it. Let's see the tapes. 

 

 

 Asha

 



I love the back of this dress. I love like the front of it. But it does kinda look like a gown that had the front chopped off of it with scissors. I would like it a lot more as a gown or, preferably, as a cocktail dress. Also lose the weird peplum down into the seaming detail, straighten the hem and make it a short dress in a more expensive, less papery fabric, and you've got something. But as is, it's a middle entry. Also, I am concerned that her aesthetic might just be this sporty, body-baring dress that we've seen before. I guess we'll find out.

 

Camila

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really didn't think this was the worst entry, or the least promising. I could see it being in the low scores, although it wasn't in my worst three looks, I hated Nicolas's design more than this. The front is as simple as simple gets, but it's kind of chic. It's a nice silhouette. The back isn't perfectly constructed, but it's the germ of an interesting idea. And I can see her woman, even if I'm not sure it's a red carpet dress so much as a cocktail party dress. But compare it with Michelle and...Rebecca? Stephanie, who were also in the bottom, and it could be a challenge winning look. I don't get why it got Camila sent home, I really don't.

 

Michelle

 

 

 



 

It's a pretty colour. Other than that, all wrong. I've seen the gem-like pleating technique before, and done way better. The back of the top is kind of pretty, but other than that, it's just an ugly, overconstructed mess. And don't get me started on the "diamond in the muff" (it's British slang for lady area, OK? Diamond in the rough? Oh whatever, forget I said anything, she's got a shiny vagina, better?) The whole silhouette is unflattering and I'm a little frightened to ask why she has an ass-flap. It was bottom-two all right, but not quite as bad as Stephanie's so she deserved to stay, although a double elimination wouldn't have been the end of the world. She really needs to step it up in the next challenge. Wait.....she won it, you say? Okay, good.

Sam
 

This was a very good candidate for the win. At the time I said I preferred Shan's, but I have no objections whatsoever to this winning. Strange, because I don't really understand the fashion world's love for jumpsuits, but the thing is, if the right girl came down the red carpet in this, I'd put it on the best-dressed list. And that was my interpretation of what success in this challenge was.  Mix of fabrics is excellent, and the silhouette's modern and flattering. Also styled very well. OK, he's the winner of this challenge. Nice job.

Under the Gunn: Team Nick

So, Team Nick, the most ignored team, with 3 being in the middle and 1 in the bottom. There were some good looks coming from Team Nick, but the problem was.....well, we'll get there. One thing I'll say is, there might be a theme to these critiques.

Isabelle

To me, this was the epitome of a high middle look. Chic, expensive-looking, and with some very nice details, like the cowl neck and the back of the top. I don't like the slit in the skirt, I think I'd rather have a lower side-slit than a high gaping back slit, although it gives the dress nice movement. And the colour, honestly you'd have to have this girl's colouring to wear it. On this particular model's skintone, it sings. But imagine it on a lighter-skinned girl, or even a girl with Beyoncé's colouring. It would be a disaster. And it's kind of mature looking, so it's a weird blend of old and young that's just slightly jarring. It's a pretty dress, and actually a pretty good dress, but it isn't risky enough and nor is it perfect enough to be considered for the win as-is. Also, if you told me Nick had designed and made this himself, I'd believe you.

 

Natalia

It's a very pretty gown, in fact probably among the easiest of all the looks this week to get on a celebrity on a red carpet. Good movement, really nice construction, a decent and red-carpet-appropriate amount of sex appeal and a perfect balance of classic and modern. The gold details are really helping. But if you told me Nick had designed and made this himself, I'd believe you.
 

Oscar

Nice gown. Beautiful colour. But it's too old-fashioned. Between the skirt silhouette, the train and the halter neck it just doesn't feel modern. The hair isn't helping either. The straps in the back are nice, but that's just about the only interesting detail. And the top is either badly cut or pulling to one side. Either way, it's not perfectly constructed. And if you told me this was a Nick reject, I'd believe you.

Stephanie

DISASTER! For the hideous colour and fabric choices, I would have sent her home. Then for choosing this silhouette, I would have sent her home. For overconstructing the hell out of a fabric that really doesn't stand up that well to these techniques, I would have sent her home. And finally, for styling the model for prom, I would have sent her home one more time. This was easily the worst design, and the one that I would have eliminated. There are two words that really spring to mind here. One is dated. The other is prom. Everything about it is saying she's 50 pretending to be 15. There's really nothing here worth saving, and she really has to step it up in the next episode.

As for me saying 3 of them could be Nick's gowns, I'll give him a chance. He is an evening gown designer, so in an evening gown challenge I guess it's kinda to be expected. But I have no sense of who any of these people are as designers, and I got at least a vibe from most of the others. There was a feeling in the episode that Nick was a bit of a heavy-handed mentor, and that could well be the case.

Under the Gunn: Team Anya

OK, I'm back, and were not in New York any more, Toto. We're in LA, and it's TOTALLY NOT what happened when Project Runway saw the success of The Voice. And The Face. And in Britain we have The Taste too. No, it's actually a breath of fresh air, and I've loved the first three episodes. Talent level is good, format needed this shakeup and d'you know, Anya is making a good mentor. Who'da thought? Nick and Mondo were always gonna be popular choices, but it remains to be seen how the mentoring will actually work. They had the first real head-to-head runway in the last episode, and the highest-scoring team, with 2 designers in the top 3 and the other two safe, was team Anya. I'd have to agree. So let's go.

Blake

This leaves me with more questions than answers. Mainly: why do I like this so much? There's something very sweet and ethereal about it, but he was very smart about it, because it's not too sickly. The unfinished edges certainly help, although I wish he'd finished some, because with all the edges raw it doesn't necessarily look deliberate. I love the top, love the silhouette and like the fabric, although girlme would never wear it. The straps in the back are nice, and I like that they give it a little touch of asymmetry which throws the whole look slightly off-balance. A good entry, and a deserved high score.

 Brady

 

OK, it's ambitious and interesting. I think the fabric is what's throwing me, because when I look past the ugly fabric I quite like both pieces. Thing is, I kinda wonder how much he's being inspired by Anya, because a lot of this is very her. That said, the more I look at it, the more I like it. Very relaxed but kinda chic. The bareness works, especially in the back, and I'm starting to like the fabric. But on impact, it's not nearly as good, and red carpet is a lot about impact. A look that grows on you the more you look at it may well end up on the worst-dressed list. And no-one wants that. It's not worthy of the top, but it's not bad.

Nicholas

 

This could have possibly been on the bottom. It's quite sloppy, the silhouette is crazy-unflattering, there's no real construction skill on show here and the dress just isn't that interesting. It's been done, and done better. Also, it's ugly and styled horribly. We done? Good.

 

Shan 

 

(Sorry, still figuring out the kinks in the software, the pictures refused to co-operate.)

 In terms of looking at it once vs. really studying it, this is the exact opposite of Brady's design, also made up of wild-printed separates, but very different. A lot about this really appealed to me on impact. LOVE the print, it's gorgeous. Love the mix of fabrics, it really ups the chicness factor. And the pants are cut beautifully. Construction-wise, it's a mixed bag. The matching of the print is an incredible feat, but then for some reason, he didn't manage to make the black lapels match, which should be the easy part. The tuxedo stripe on her left leg seems to be pulling, which is a bit unfortunate too. Also the jacket is a bit too boxy. I wish it had been sleeker, and it doesn't hang perfectly in the back. At first I was sure it was the winner, but I'm happy to see it in the top. It's a huge risk that mostly paid off for him, and I think he's the one to watch.

 

 Next up, team Nick.

PRAS: The Dog Ate It

OK, one of the real problems with me doing this as opposed to pros is that this isn't my job. I'm actually studying Performing Arts in college, and when that gets tough (which it does) it's really hard to find time to do Project Runway, especially when the episode is, frankly, mediocre. With that in mind you get one quick post about all of them together, in  order of my score.

Christopher- Probably deserved to win. It was my favourite design I think, although the idea of the structure in the plastic is something I've seen before. In fact it looks almost exactly like a poorer version of Leah da Gloria from Project Runway Australia season 4's winning unconventional materials design. The scissors were really cool, but I hated the rainbow neckpiece, and frankly bullying as an inspiration point is cliched and clearly a desparate attempt to get sympathy. It was a good fairly good effort, and the right winner, but it makes me kinda sad that this won in all-stars.
Elena-Another very good effort. In fact, a better dress than Christopher's in my opinion. But the various commenters who've said she's too repetitive have a point. Certainly I disagree completely that she should have been sent home, partly because it's not SO much  as to be a huge issue. Personally I feel like if you put all four of her looks thus far down a runway together they'd be a pretty good mini-collection, and not too repetitive. But I did bump her down to second because some of it I have seen before and I'm concerned that this may be all she has to offer.
Viktor- It's OK. It looks like school supplies, and it's a bit muppet-y. I also hate the pins that look like the dress is pinned to her. Still, it's a cute dress, and 3rd is where I put it.
Irina- I didn't respond to this, because the colours, textures and silhouette are all kinda the opposite of my taste. But I saw it as what it was, a good design, but not very modern or fresh. It had pretty ingenious use of materials, and this was the only one that I thought really didn't look like it came from a school. But at some point she should have stepped back and realised it was like a little girl's princess fantasy dress. One of the better entries for sheer thoughtfulness and good construction.
Korto- I'm not mad, just disappointed. The skirt is great. The design of the top is retty good, but let down by awful execution. I really hate the clips, although I kinda get what she was going for. It's just OK, just about safe
Jeffrey-I actually don't hate this. Jeffrey seems to have me "on side" because I didn't hate his avante-garde bug design either. Well, not from the front. In that case and again here, I appreciate that he tried to do something interesting, and it kinda worked. I think if her ass hadn't been out, it could have been safe, and I wouldn't have sent him home even with that...unfortunate detail.
Seth-Aaron- He could have gone home for this. It just looks like a joke. It's out-there, but not in a cool avant-garde way, in a "people would point and laugh" way. I hate everything about this really, but especially the kickball on her head, which looks like...a kickball on her head. Buck up, S-AHD.
Mychael- He could have gone home for this. It fell apart, and so did he. The only semi-good idea is the rope bustier, which I've seen before, done better, and didn't like it much then. The shades of purple he used were pretty, but the red ruined it. This is a crappy, flimsy paper dress that he could have left for, with no complaint from me.

PRAS: Cocktails left untouched

 Mychael

Well, it's not too tight. Obviously, it is ridiculously short. The hemline's too high, and while the wrap skirt's nice it kinda points up at her crotch. Combined with the plunging neckline it's all a little too much flesh, which means once again Mychael has gone hootchie-mama. Actually that's not fair. I said last week that Mychael plays with the bounds of sexy, and this has just about the right amount of sexy without her looking trashy. That said, there's a lot here that I love. The colour is gorgeous, and works perfectly with his model's skintone. The construction's good, and the shoulders are very flattering on the model. The back is simple, really nothing there, but it's kinda beautiful for it. Mostly, though, I love the flowers, which are cleverly done and beautiful. It's a fantastic little dress for a sexy cocktail dress challenge, but I have one problem. The colour, the flowers and the shine of the fabric, combined with the bare skin, make me think a bit of "exquisite but slutty bridesmaid's dress," like Mychael might sell 4 of these for an expensive couture wedding party. Although it feels like this girl's going to a wedding, she won't be leaving it alone. If you know what I mean.

Seth-Aaron 

OK, this is gonna show just how little of a clue I actually have about fashion to anyone who hasn't already guessed, but I rather liked Seth-Aaron's work again. It's very very 80s, but unlike Jeffrey's geriatric 80s nightmare, I can happily see calling this an updated modern take on the 80s. It's a strong look, and a girl going to a party in this would make an impact. The neckline and cutouts in the front and back look great, and I like that the back is all-black. The colour combo is very Seth-Aaron and I also like it. I don't love the cut of the skirt, the flare's a bit weird, and it's also too short, like as in short enough that she couldn't bend over without exposing everything. But on the whole it's a young, fun and flattering look, styled in a way that makes it cooler. I think I can just about agree that it wasn't quite in the top, but S-ADHD had one of my highest scores.

Irina

 

I don't quite know what to....how do I......This is fucking weird. But d'you know, I pretty much love it. This should have been vying with Elena for the win. Black-Heart Russian has real skills. It took me quite a long time to realise that it was made of feathers. Well, covered in feathers. I don't love that the detail in the back isn't feathered (did she run out of time or...?) and the cuffs are awful. A sleek strip of the patent leather would have been perfect, but hanging loose it looks weird in a bad way. Still, I love the top, the juxtaposition of patent leather, sheer and feathers, all used perfectly and overall it's a sharp, sleek, sexy, unique dress, which is perfect for Irina. It's pretty stunning, and I'm sorry to see this go uncommented upon. Still, for me, fantastic job, and in my opinion Irina is clearly the one chasing Elena the closest. Seth-Aaron and, surprisingly, Christopher are racing for bronze (Christopher is just a little in front,) Korto and Mychael are doing OK in 5th and 6th respectively and Jeffrey and Viktor are right at the back. It's not at all how I expected the season to go, but I'm kinda pleased by it. Except for Viktor, who I thought and still kinda think might win the series but who for me needs to do a LOT better to chase the leaders. Full rankings and scores for all episodes will be posted along with comments for tonight's show, an unconventional materials which looks pretty tricky, especially since they KNOW the judges will absolutely slaughter anyone who uses fabric.

PRAS: Praise the lord, some fashion!

Having said that my bottom 3 from the final 6 were Viktor, Christopher and Jeffrey, and having covered that Melissa's work was OK but quite expected, you probably know that these were my top 2 for the challenge. At least before we include the middle entries, which were pretty good. So, lets go.

Elena 

Prepare for shock and awe, as I say something you who've read my last two posts about Elena never thought they'd hear from me. Elena should totally have been the winner this week. This just accomplishes everything you'd want it to (more or less.) Perfectly wearable fashionable cocktail dress, check. Sexy without being slutty, huge check. New and interesting, check. BEAUTIFULLY constructed, check. Looks like Elena without being totally what is expected of her, check. The seaming is beautiful and done perfectly. It's quite simple-looking, but that's only because it's done in white. It is very much constructed and designed. The judges took issue with it for being referential of Balenciaga, but I really don't think it's so obviously a rip-off that they ought to have marked her down for it. She had a cocktail called Sardinia, and chose to be inspired by Italy and Italian fashion. I'm not sure taking the fashion of Italy as an inspiration was the best idea (which by the way is the ONLY issue I have with the design of the dress) but it's done so well. This looks like a dress from the Elena Slivnyak collection at Milan Fashion Week, and that's fine. The neoprene is an ingenious fabric choice, especially because its main use is in wetsuits and Sardinia is a popular destination for divers, and it fits like a glove. There's one other thing I don't love, and that's the wristband. The dress just doesn't need it. But I don't think it needed anything once the purse and shoes were on, and the cuff probably detracts less than most other choices she had. Couldn't she have made a clutch or something? Oh, and the hair. The make up is great but I'd love to see sleeker, cleaner hair. The judges may have said it was too sporty then but I want to see the back of the dress, even though it looks very simple. Either way, it's a third truly amazing look in a row, and the judges were right, she needs to stop talking her work down because it's good. In fact, this was near perfect. Since they didn't give her the win when I really feel she clearly deserved it, I'm sorry to say that I don't think Elena is the winner the producers have in mind, even though if you ended the series now she'd pretty much HAVE to be the winner. Yet another spectacular look, and I'm gonna let her keep her name as a reward, rather than giving her a cruel nickname based on maybe her heritage or her general insanity(Tom and Lorenzo called her "Insane in the Ukraine," which I love.) Another great job, Elena.

 

Korto

The fact that the judges gave completely contrasting critiques ("Lose the belt/this would suck without the belt") is, to me, yet more evidence of the amount of bullshit that is sometimes dumped on the runway to justify what can at times be seemingly arbitrary decisions. And the decision to rank this dress 7th, just above Jeffrey and Melissa is pretty arbitrary. The back is kinda ugly, I really hate the square of fabric with the straight lines coming off of it, and truth be told, I just don't think patent leather works with this printed fabric, but change that for a matte black fabric and it's pretty great. Love the hem, love the print but the patent leather is such a big mistake that it would possibly be a low scorer. And to be honest there's not a huge amount going on without the patent leather, so it kinda does fail. This is the first time I've started typing a critique from memory, rather than having the look in front of me. Won't be doing that again, because in my head this was a lot stronger than it is in reality. Korto's been doing edgy for the last two challenges, and I've yet to see if that's a deliberate evolution or just what the challenges called for, but this feels like an attempt to infuse the Korto I was crying out for last week with some edge, and it doesn't work. I don't know if it's possible even, but it's not managed here. Do better, Korto. I believe in you.

PRAS: Nearly invisible and practically unwearable

 Christopher

There's the Christopher I've been waiting to disappoint me. Along with various other things that haven't reared their ugly heads yet, one of Pissy Chrissy's signatures from his own series was fabrics that were far too pale for the task, and for the model. This is such a fabric. Now, having seen the episode it was quite a pretty dress, although I still don't think it was interesting or challenging enough for a high score. The fact he took upholstery fabric and made it look like it did is an achievement, but when the top 3 and bottom 3 were called back, I would have guessed that the bottom 3 would be this, along with Viktor's and...well, I'll get there. Because apart from having been a little too easy, maybe "just a pretty dress," I also had a number of problems with it. First, the fabric is just too pale. It photographs HORRIBLY (which is something at least one of the judges ought to have known surely) and the reason that I had to see the episode to know that the dress was pretty is that, in photographs *does best Phoebe Buffay impression* "I can't see it, I can't SEE it!" Huh, my best Phoebe Buffay impression isn't that good. Who'da thought? See for yourself, in the front and back views, you can vaguely see that there is a dress, but it's only really in the third view that you even get a glimpse of what it might look like, and even then I have issues with the dress I can see. I hate that the lining sticks out beyond the lace in the side view. I also feel that it's just too literal a '20s inspiration, that they went to a cocktail bar and he instantly thought "speakeasy." That was last season. The crystals are the most modern thing about it, and they're kinda cheapening it. To me, this was probably safe, possibly bottom 3 although nowhere near going home, but almost definitely not top 3. Sorry, Christopher. I've liked your work a lot thus far, and had you been in the top for either of your first looks I'd be quite happy, but this was only OK. Back to dark colours, I think.

Jeffrey

I.....Well I guess it's.....No, this is just bad on every level. It's a dress that could only have been bought in the 80s, and even then it would have been dirt cheap. It looks incredibly tacky. Come on, floral-print hot pink velvet halter with a crystal neckpiece, hanging crystals and a bare back, paired with a feathered handbag. How cheap and 80s is that? In all fairness I liked the bag on its own but it's so wrong adding feathers, and gold chain to the list of elements that don't work together. I also love the colour and print but on velvet, not gonna happen. Ever. Obviously this joined my bottom 3, along with Christopher and Viktor. It possibly should have got him sent home, and I can't help but feel that that would have been delicious, to see the arrogant former winner sent home this early while someone who didn't even make fashion week the first time was getting complimented on great work challenge after challenge. Ultimately, there are three winners, two of them putting out good-to-great work, and they can't all win. It's almost as unlikely that they'll all make the final three. At some point, they're all gonna fall by the wayside so that a winner can be crowned. If the producers have already decided who it is, which is a strong possibility, it's unlikely to be one of the past winners. If not, it's pretty clear Elena has put out the best work, and if that continues rewarding her would be the best way to go. Either way, Jeffrey is going home at some point, and when he producess a look as bad as this in challenge 3, there's no reason to save him. Melissa's time had come, and I can't object, but Jeffrey is now equally under the pressure, and he's gonna need to buck up big-time. Good luck to him.