PR: The Unremembered

Melissa’s model looks like a chic Death Eater.

Prepare the torches and pitchforks:

The more I see from Gunnar, the more I appreciate him as a designer and a person. 

Oh, he’s no Ven. He’s no Dmitri. He hasn’t got that touch for exquisite elegance or overwhelming finesse; he’s not some kind of raw talent. But he’s made something genuinely interesting and good, this week and – more surprisingly – he’s demonstrated that when not mugging for the cameras (“I’m throwing a fit! La la!”) he’s actually a reasonable human being. 

Then again, he might’ve just been overshowered by that epic breakdown the other day. Who’s was it? I can’t remember. Something like “Andrea’s gone – Kooan’s leaving – IT’S ALL FALLING APART! – sob”.  Good gracious. That was at least six episodes too soon.

Melissa’s: Ring Wraith.
Nathan’s: we do need more capes in life.
Elena’s: Tim was right to point out that it’s too similar to her previous creations.

I have to say that I liked Alicia’s and Gunnar’s designs the best out of this group. Gunnar’s dress looked pretty standard, but it had some interest in the skirt and I liked that he didn’t default to black. Alicia’s looked really interesting and I loved the elbow patches on the shirt; also loved the collar, which was different. I’m not crazy about those pants, but they’re okay. 

Melissa’s is too long and would get caught in a roller chair at work. Also, all those layers just don’t work if you have to deal with kids–my toddler would be wiping his nose on all that fabric. 

Elena makes angry clothes.

Nathan (I can never remember who he is)–glad he didn’t do black, but perhaps Harvest Gold was not the way to go. That outfit reminded me of the appliances in my first apartment.

And Ven–who wears a one-shouldered dress to work? 

All I could think when Ven’s dress came out was, “The booooob.  What did you do to that poor woman’s boob?”

Seriously.  Breasts should not be lopsided.  And that’s all I see, is a sad breast on the model’s right side and an incognito breast on the left.  (Is it happy?  Is it sad?  Is it there at all?  Only the wrinkles can tell us…)

That coat in Elena’s design just looks stiff and uncomfortable.

I really hate Nathan’s.  In that first frontal shot, it makes his model look thick or like she has a “pooch.”  When I saw that it was a skirt in the side shot, I liked it even less.  Something about the way the shirt is tucked into it makes my eye twitch.

Ven seems to have missed the mark on the challenge parameters more than most of the designers.  A woman would be going from where to where exactly in this dress?

i forgot about all of these. god help me this monday morning.

I thought Alicia’s pants could have been okay but even properly made & fitted I hated that top. Agree with your comments about everyone else.

Up until this episode, every time the camera would flip to Nathan I would ask myself, “Who is that guy? Oh yeah, he’s one of the designers”. He has never said/done anything memorable until his hissy fit about everyone leaving. I think he is going to be mediocre and in the middle of the judging pool until it really comes down to the final few. 
And Ven seriously needs to get over himself. Can he make more than that one silhouette we’ve seen over and over? Degrees and awards do not give you street cred, my friend.

Alicia: I love her aesthetic, but she doesn’t seem particularly versed in fitting things in a more feminine manner – a skill she will need to develop quickly to remain in the competition (it would also probably help her to expand her clientele base in general). Unless, of course, the fit on the pants is some sort of intentional genderfuck – I really don’t think it is, but I would so love (love) if it were. This is arguably too casual, given the vague parameters of the challenge, but from my perspective it fits the brief better than most of the top three – hence, clearly, I failed at grasping what “woman on the go” means, which, apparently, is “sexy evening dress”.

Elena: Elena is obviously competing with Olivier of last season for a lucrative contract designing uniforms for the Tal’Shiar. It’s strange, certainly, and she is overly wedded to a very narrow aesthetic, but I am impressed with her skill set and her ability to execute looks in that narrow aesthetic. Her apparent skills are significant, because I think she has demonstrated at least that she makes what she makes because she wants to and not because she can’t make anything else. If only she would broaden her perspective.

Melissa: Melissa’s model for this challenge is Melewyn, an 8th level Half-Elf Rogue, dressed in her Cloak of Elvenkind. I actually really like it. I can’t really imagine anyone wearing that anywhere, except LARPing, but I find it fascinating, well-made, and it has point-of-view in spades. It seems like an odd choice for the challenge, if the challenge had actually made any sense (which I shall continue to point out, it did not).

Nathan: There’s a designer on this season named Nathan.

Ven: Ven is like Elena. That might seem strange (and to some, insulting), but they have quite a few similarities. Both have tremendous technical skill and both have an obsession with a narrow aesthetic. If they’re ever on a team together, I shall dub them Romulus and Roses. That being said, I am decidedly not a fan of this piece – his obsession, as they so often do, is providing diminishing returns.

AS much as I dislike Ven, I thought his frock was ambitious and well-executed. The curving zip-line was something I’ve not seen before – and the bunched fabric did echo his aesthetic. I am surprised he wasn’t in the top three.

Elena’s general idea was good: a jacket over separates has a million possibilities. but she is married to that whole Fencers in Space idea, and in this case, the fit of the jacket was so broad across the shoulders that the model looked like Joan Crawford (no relation) on steroids.

Alicia’s design just seemed meh. Yes, I know they were supposed to reflect their own aesthetic, but grey cropped pants and a shirt seemed like a real cop-out. And the pants weren’t well fitted at all! The more the model walked, the more twisted and messy the pants looked. (And the “gay porn star” comment was hilarious!)  I liked what she did with the shirt, though. Wish she had gone with a better fabric for the pants – something with a bit more elegance that these Docker-grey crops.

Clinique Deux had a decent idea, but there is something amiss with his color-sense. And making the skirt (which I actually liked conceptually) in those panels of what appeared to be felt was cracked-out. The result was bulky and poorly finished. And the jersey or crepe top looked cheap.

VenBot’s woman has some kind of back story, I guess, but I’m damned if I can figure it out. “On the go”? From where to where? I seem to recall Tim raising an eyebrow over the big curved zipper, but there it was, and although it was technically interesting, the way the fabric was pleated and manipulated was too much. Not impressive either was the back seaming, where screen caps revealed lumps and puckers. Ven definitely has a whole lot of talent, but this continual origami/pleated style is going to get him into trouble. By now, we know he can cut and sew; we know he can do these over-worked designs. Time to show us a little more, Ven.

Melissa’s layered look was actually kind of fabulous. A bit too much fabric on the drapey top, which was perilously close to Bea Arthur territory, but in general, I think I liked this whole concept. It has a really earthy, rocker vibe that I think a lot of women would wear. I would have liked to see more of the top and pants without the draped overcoat.

Nathan, I give this a mustard meh. And agree with T and Lo that out of that whole accessories wall, you picked THOSE items? Please! (Not loving the fried hair on the model, either – deep condition, my dear, and maybe a tone-down with some caramel low-lights? Just sayin’.)

Nothing in this group was truly, truly hiddy – but everything was truly, truly unremarkable. The curse of the one-day challenge strikes again! (And let’s take time out for Atlas escapes, resignations, tears and the notion that “Fashion is not for sissies”.)

No kidding the nremembered.  I forgot all about them! 
Anyway–I think all the entries were all over the place because the challenge was so vague.  Woman On the Go could mean work wear-to-evening, mom with kids running around town, exec woman with a  million meetings.  An outfit that can be versitle and could be worn in many situations is not what most of the designers brought this week 

Alicia’s outfir was plain…uninspiring.  Just as she herself dresses.  Can you be “on the go” with shorts and cotton blouse?  THis would be a wrinkled mess by the end of the day.   
Melissa’s would work perfectly for a mom-on-the-go.  Comfy and stylish, though the hoody vest seemed a but much.  But then, I think vests, unless you’re a fisherman or a photographer and must carry mounds of equipment around, are a useless piece of clothing most of the time. 
Gunnar’s was just a boring dress.  I saw a bit of interest in his sketch, but the final product didn’t live up to it. 
Nathan’s was, again, a boring dress made awful by a silly long vest and a dreadful color. 
Elena’s was very appropriate for the challenge.  Basic pieces with a bit of an edge.  Too bad the jacket, which was a great design, was so big on the model as to make her look plain silly. 
Ven’s was (again) a cocktail dress.  Not versitle, not pretty, not nothing but depressingly ugly.  He’s damn lucky to have had immunity. 

Elena’s is repetitive but it also had some elements I really liked. The tortured shirt was not one of them. Nor were the sunglasses as styling. But I like a big jacket and a skinny pant and that jacket was kinda’ cool. Unfortunately, I fear she is not able to edit herself.

Ven as Rami – good call! That is a mess of a dress and not appropriate for work or daytime anything even if it weren’t all crooked.

Nathan’s is sad. Just sad. A cape? What is she Super Lady-Who-Lunches? oy.

And Gunnar. You had me with your sketch and your narrative. I was your target audience. But you lost me when you made this craft project and wed it to a fugly, mismatched shirt.

Have you ever seen photos of a woman with severe scoliosis? Ven must have because he borrowed the way the spine looks for the front of his dress.

If Gunnar ends up in the finals I won’t be totally disgusted. 

Romulan jacket! Yes! No wonder I hated it! (Give me the Romulans of the original series any day)

I keep looking at the top of Gunnar’s outfit and seeing the top of the evening gown that was designed for Anya.  The one  that Nina and Heidi called “cheap” and “cheesy”.

OMFG Romulan jacket!!  It IS a Romulan jacket straight outta TNG!  You guys are really sucked in, aren’t you?  Those bulky Romulan coats had to seriously limit hand-to-hand combat skills.

I’m from Queens so I got really excited that Ven was from Kew Gardens and I joked that I’d probably bump into him one day. Sure enough, the other day, the first time I set foot in Kew Gardens in months, he was right there next to me coming out of the subway station.

I also spotted Casanova a few months ago sitting on the floor in the lobby of my fiance’s apartment in Jackson Heights. (We tweeted him to make sure.) Talk about coincidences!

I agree with everything TLo said in this post.  Every. Last. Word.

Ven’s dress was horribly unattractive

I’ve been away, but I had to revisit this to add:

Alicia’s = Wendy Pepper Postal Uniform.

There. I feel better.