Last year I read an article containing quotes from Tim Gunn about this season’s Project Runway. One quote in particular caught my attention. Take it away Tim…
"There was one case in particular where I said to the producers [...] 'It's really too bad that so-and-so's design is so terrible, because the audience will know right away. The minute they see this, they're going to know that he's going home. And I'm just sorry that something else isn't almost as bad, almost as challenged. Everything else looks really good!... He wins the challenge. He wins! It's inconceivable. So I went backstage to tell the designer who was out that he or she had to go home, and I turned to him and I said, 'And you know, I'm stunned and shocked that you won this challenge' and he said, 'Well, no one's more surprised than I am.'"
Since I read that I’ve anxiously been awaiting an episode which fits that description. I’m wondering if this week’s episode was in fact the one. I suppose the fact that he mostly uses the pronoun “him” precludes this episode…but he throws in a quick “he or she” at the end to keep us guessing.
I suppose it’s obvious but I’ll explicitly state that I hated this week’s winning design. I hate it because I hate sacks. I don’t like baby doll dresses and I especially don’t like sacks. The winner was as sack. Perhaps sacks are popular because they are the great equalizer. No matter what you’re figure a sack will make you look like crap. Hurray for the lowest common denominator.
But this week’s winner is worse than that. In addition to the oh-so-unflattering sack shape the dress..er..bag is also a bright saturated blue color. There is only one destination that this outfit can possible be suitable for. It’s clear that this young lady is in fact going to prom as one of the Fruit of the Loom fruits. Perhaps that was a crucial piece of information that accidently got edited out of the show. Their prom is a costume party and the ladies were supposed to go dressed as some sort of advertising icon…. Oh wait. I’m thinking of last year’s Boo.
Of course maybe this isn’t this episode that Tim was talking about. Perhaps we’re all in for a wild ride this season. If the designers can be criticized for making something too sophisticated I guess anything is possible. Maybe someone will get criticized for constructing an outfit too well…..and maybe someone will punch someone in their nasally gob. 
4 comments:
This episode definitely sparked some of the most debate among our crowd. Everyone hated the winning one while it was in production, but we agreed it looked good on the runway. The girl pretty much walked the hell out of it, while the others seemed frumpy and awkward.
Plus, it seemed the top commodity of the day was "youthful," and no one else really had that. That just seemed to be the judges' litmus test du jour, although I think it's silly to say young women don't want to look glamorous at prom.
I thought it was a fun episode, but I do think that dress'll look funky next to all the other challenge winners from the season.
I didn't hate the winning dress, but I don't like Victorya (what's up with how she spells her name?). She keeps on making sack dresses over and over. That must be one of the easiest styles to make, but Victorya never gets criticized for it for some reason. Last week was different, though it was the hideous ruffle thing, so it's not like it was better.
I don’t really care for any of the designers style this time around…so I’ve come to value each of them based on how entertaining their comments are. To that end I like Christian and Chris and miss Steven.
I think Christian would have fared much better if he didn’t try to disembowel his model as soon as he opened his mouth. He should have stuck to the standard Project Runway playbook of insisting that this dress was his vision for the model and if the judges couldn’t appreciate it they must be myopic codgers who are losing touch with fashion. That tactic has worked well in the past for defending whatever crap they march across the runway (Santino’s German underwear).
The "he or she" refers to the losing designer, not the winner. I don't think this was the episode. Victoria's dress, while being a sack was definitely in line with current trends both in cut and color for the market age group.
And when I say "market age group" I mean what the fashion industry has dictated the current trend to be and not what the consumers of that age would select independently if the Nina Garcias of the world weren't telling them what to wear. The judging panel represents the clothing consumer about as much as the rest of the fashion industry does.
As a consumer, I thought that Christian should have been out for making something that neither he nor his client loved regardless of what the judges thought. You pointed out to me at lunch that the judges loved it and he would have been just fine if he hadn't opened his mouth about it, and I think you're right. I also think that it is unfortunately true that it is more in the interests of the panel members (from a career perspective) to keep in a designer who meets their aesthetic at the cost of his own vision and his clients desires than one who makes himself and his client happy but fails to comply with their current edicts on taste. They're using "poor construction" as a rational, but the loser's garment wasn't any worse for construction than the un-hemmed red dress; it wasn't in line with current trends. But the girl loved it.
That is, I feel like I understand the basis for selection of both the winner and loser. I just think that it sucks as the end consumer to have it so clearly illustrated that my own (that is, the client) taste is so meaningless a factor in what the market will have available.
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