Mood:
hug meTopic: Project Runway Canada II
Today's episode is "Something Old, Something New", in which the designers take a wedding dress and transform it. It's the real woman challenge, the models are all divorced women looking for a fresh new look as they start their new life. Or so the previews on Global TV's website tells me.
Fashion design school don't teach how to design for or how to fit real body shapes. Patterns are tested on dress form, draping is done on forms and fashion runway models tend be about 5-10 with measurements of 32 22 34. real women have hips, boobs, butts and tummies. You can buy plus sized dress forms, but unit recently forms in sizes 20 and up still had flat asses, B cup breasts and flat stomachs. They were however; WIDE. Instead of the girth being applied evenly, the form merely widened. the side view silhouette remained flat and skinny, with little difference from size 6 to size 26.
One season of Project Runway US had a real woman challenge in which the models had all lost weight and wanted their fat clothes restyled to fit their new life and body. One got a wedding dress with lots of fabric, beads crystals and lace. He kept moaning that "i don't deeewww polyester satin" and made a horrible old lady POS dress. He didn't do anything after that as he was eliminated. Michael Kors hit the nail on the head, why didn't he give her a sparkling white anniversary dress using the flowers, the sequined re-embroidered alencon lace the organza...there's so much happy he could have wrung out of the dress and he only could come up with sad.
The show begins with Iman, looking wonderful in jeans and a cinnamon red hand painted ruffle blouse. Don't ever use the words too old around Iman. She's over 50 after all. Rather than bring out the models, she sends them away to a party. If it's in Ottawa, that means three things, Conservative, Liberal Or New Democratic Party. You need to cross the river into Hull Quebec for the real parties.
It's PARTAY! time. Brian greets the designers and asks them to select a box. Inside each is a wedding dress, he tells them the challenge is a celebration of individuality and a change in direction from old to new. Their models are everyday women all divorced and the designers have their old wedding dresses. The dresses have beads, satin, some don't have a lot of fabric, some do, and one lucky contestant gets yards and yards of silk sari fabric.
They then cut the "divorce cake" with a mutilated groom perched atop, and then designers and models get down to business with consultations and sketching.
Jeff's model wants shorts, preferably black. From a white wedding dress? I think not! Her dress is small with little fabric, he might get a leg and half. There is little detail to the dress, it seems to be very plain and basic.
Sunny's client wants a dress for a child's graduation, two pieces, and there's maybe enough fabric. There's some lace and cut work detail on the source dress.
Baylor gets the Sari and she wants a beautiful feminine dress
Adejoke gets a woman with a list of five hundred things that she wants/needs on her dress. There is a written list, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were pictures.
Jason gets a good customer and an excellent dress.
Jessica gets a Gunne Sax farm dress with lace, eyelets, puffs, more ruffles and puffs and in the wedding picture the dress is too elaborate and not flattering to the bride.
The others are just glanced over, Kim seems to identify with her client. Kim Talks far too much. The party ends with the clients throwing bouquets of extra fabric and notions to the designers, the way that a bride throws a bouquet. "Here's some rayon challis and weft insertion knit fusible! The person who catches it is the next to be divorced!"
Commercials: and hubby Dave says nothing except: "I'm not surprised Kim is divorced." I am too enthralled by a preview for The Jonas Brothers movie in 3D...who the heck are these mop top urchins anyways? I can imagine a zillion 12 year old girls willing to tell me while screaming all the while. No thank you, as a comic book geek all of my movie attention is focused on watching The Watchmen.
We're back and the designers waste no time in cutting into the fabric and cutting into each other. Brian comes in to start everyone on the right foot. He wants sexy, feminine, and he wants the designers to give the models excitement in their looks and something fresh and original.
The models enter for a quick fitting and consultation. Jeff's model still wants shorts and he tells her she can buy shorts anywhere, this is a dress competition. She pouts and gives in, but she's not happy.
Kim is having real issues and she knows she's in trouble. Does she focus her attention and talent on solving her problems? What do you think?
The consultations finish with Genevieve telling her client that she's a master cutter and a master draper and a master everything. She's doing the bulging eye thing again, so we know she's very intense in her work. Kim continues to bitch and snips away at everyone. For some mysterious reason Jeff is now giggling like Tatiana from American Idol. He's bearing the brunt of Kim's verbal assaults and the more he giggles the angrier she becomes.
I would love to work with the sari. They often have elaborate brocaded and embellished borders, repeat patterns and a wedding sari is the literal whole nine yards. I would make a soft wrap dress with petal or cap sleeves, perhaps bit of gathering at the waist for skirt and bodice, have the waist raised to the rib cage, closely fit that part, which would allow a full skirt to float away from the lower half. The skirt would end just a bit below the knees. I would then make a drapey long open-front tunic to go over. She would get her lovely pretty dress
If there has been one flaw in this season, it has been the lack of a good villain. We now have ourselves a bona fide bad guy in Kim. She's paying so much attention to everyone else's designs and not enough attention to hers. tatiana...I mean JEFF continues to giggle. Kim snarks away at Jeff, to his face and in the interview room. Jessica has lost all her "gangsta" which is good. I imagine the producers might have advised her to tone it down, last summer the news was filled with stories of Toronto gangstas shooting each other and innocent bystanders. Gangs are a serious problem, it's not just a fad or a lifestyle. Nor is it fun, fashionable or harmless in any way, not when so many kids are being killed and wounded.
Enough of that. It's now the next morning and we get to see our best friends in the whole world, the ones who never let a designer down no matter what: the sewing machines. The 20U's are all humming away, and Sunny is busy at the CG590. I also see a Singer Inspiration 2932 in the mix. That's a good variety of machines! I would still use the 20U as it's fast and reliable. BTW-Singer now has some easy to do free sewing projects, since denim skirts are making a huge comeback, you might want to check out the pants to skirt makeover: http://www.singerco.com/projects/index.html?project_id=527&detail=1
Brian arrives with the clients and they have until noon to finish everything up and get everyone looking pretty. Who gets the client who doesn't wear make up or do anything to her hair? Let the chaos reign supreme! Kim hates her dress, but hates Jeff's more, which makes him giggle more. Jeff's model really wanted shorts, pout, but he points out that there wasn't enough material to make shorts, and she should trust him, he's the designer. Jason add a special touch to his evening coat, it's quit adorable, her son's name is embroidered in the lining next to her heart. Kim is worried that her dress is awful and ugly and she'll be eliminated and it's all Jeff and Jason's fault.
Commercials agian...and THE BIG SHOW! We meet our judges, Rita is posed the same way she has been in every show in both seasons. At least she's wearing a colour that does wonders for her, she looks warm and glowing. Last week's blue satin did nothing for her. The guest judge is a wedding gown designer Justina MacCaffery.
The show begins. Adejoke shows a wonderful classic A-line shift with contrast fabric details. It fits her client and it looks wonderful. Sunny makes a two piece dress with a nice back peplum and incorporates some of the dresses cutwork into the top. Looks amazing, and I think sunny can do no wrong at this point. Genevieve sends a dress down the runway that will leave her safe for another day. Baylor shows his lack of experience in fitting a woman who isn't a size two. He dress is far too tight in the hips and butt causing it to ride up to far at the back hem. It's too tight and has stress lines everywhere. Jessica at first glance looks good, but I'm not sure. It's not sophisticated, but neither was the source material. Jeff is nice and not bad. His client was the most difficult of all, she didn't like to wear makeup and she didn't want her hair fussed with, but she looks good and the dress suits her. Kim's dress is horrifying. If she would have spent more time on her work and less time ripping into Jeff, she might have been more successful. Jason's coat is marvellous and hides the fact his client can't do a runway walk to save her life and she looks nervous enough to puke.
The designers face the judges and Jeff and Genevieve both receive middling scores, meaning they can both leave the runways. Kim almost FREAKS! in the green room Jeff giggles some more. The models are brought out and the designers are critiqued one by one. ~rubbing my hands together~~anticipating Kim's blowout/meltdown~~this should be good~~
Jessica: judges like the aqua but say it should be knee length or longer. I agree, it would make the proportions work. The judges like it and don't like it. I know how they feel. the more i see it, the more ambivalent I feel.
Adejoke:They like it, calling it happy and they all say she hit the mark. Candidate for the win.
Baylor: They don't like it, it doesn't fit, there's too much going on, he had a sari's worth of fabric what happened? They all can see that the problem begins and ends with the poor fit. They say it's too busy.
Sunny: they liked his, perfect for a graduation, it's afternoon formal and he used the parts of the dress wisely. A candidate for the win.
Kim: kim, kim kim, what do we do about Kim? Iman sits stone faced through her very lengthy explanation, her alligator tears which quickly turn to whining and back to tears. Shawn hates it. Rita hates it. Guest judge hates it. Iman stares her down in the way a stern mom stares down a three year old caught doing something naughty. I can imagine Iman's children don't dare act up when mom gives them that look.
Jason: The judges all love his coat and Iman, still in mommy mode, gets all moist eyed over the embroidered name. So does Rita and guest judge, which tells me all are mommies. The more i see the coat, the more like it to.
Kim redux: She decides the best way to defend her design is to rip apart Jeff, who isn't there to defend himself. Hubby Dave adds his two cents: "SHUT UP KIM" and then calls her a coward. Iman disagrees in angry clipped words and sends them all off to the green room, where Kim immediately lays into Jeff who continues to giggle. She won't stop, Jeff doesn't say anything and lets her continue as we segue to the judges.
The judges disagree on Jessica. I disagree with myself over her dress. They love Jason, calling it sweet. They love Adejoke and say she nailed it. The guest judge says some garble about happy confident seams a couple times. I think I know what she means. Sunny can do no wrong. They hate Baylor and think he overdid it on the ruffles. They hate Kim's attitude and her dress. They call the designers and we have one more commercial.
This week's news break is tainted meat and a car accident. Maple Leaf uses wheat filler in their all-beef wieners, so they are poison to me even without listeria. And we are back for the final judging. The winner has immunity. Sunny wins again, three in a row, and he's worried that everyone is now going to hate him. Second place is Jason, third place goes to Adejoke and Jessica is told to leave the runway, meaning she didn't bad enough to face elimination, but she wasn't very good. Once again she is betrayed by her lack of sophistication. Final verdict: Kim lives to fight another day and Baylor didn't measure up. Or down, or wide enough, or long enough in the back hem length.
Brian says good-bye to Baylor, calling him classy in defeat. Was that a not-so-subtle dig at Kim? Ya think? SO Baylor leaves with his head held high, and I ma sad to see him leave. I don't think we saw the true range of his talents through these challenges, and i wouldn't be surprised if we hear from him again somewhere. Bye Baylor, we all will miss you! Here are my sketches that i did while watching the show:
Preview for next week: It's the big Winners challenge and the winner will have their outfit sold in the Winners stores. It appears to be a team chellenge...but they now have an odd number of designer?!? how can this be? We will have to tune in next week, same fashionable time, same fashionable channel, not so fashionable blog.
