PR Finale Collections: Fabio, Gunnar, Melissa

uhh what season is this show for? Melissa’s girls are clearly in a time machine.

A few of Fabio’s are nice, but most don’t wow.  Gunnar = as T Lo said, too literal with his “tribal” influence/theme.  Not commercial, in my opinion.  Melissa – the top one of this trio, the vermillion gown and the pants and jacket looks are sharp.

Look’s like Gunnar and Dmitri’s shows are a bit overlapped. Who is responsible for the black and white diamond prints with fringe?

Melissa?  Is that a (p)leather bathing suit?  OH, honey, NO.

Some of Fabio’s things are quite pretty, but are ruined by the hideously ugly clod-hopper-platform-whatever-those-are-calleds.  Not shoes.  Not boots.  

I like Fabio’s. Gunnar’s unfortunately feel like awkward cultural appropriations – I feel like he was trying to hard to be like Anya (fabulous and ethnic!), which is clearly a mistake when he seems so very white. Not that a white designer can’t make a collection inspired by other cultures (Donna Karan made a wonderful Haitian inspired collection) but Gunnar’s collection gives me more of an  ”inspired by Lion King costumes” vibe than a more solidly grounded inspiration. I imagine him explaining himself to Tim with a dramatic sweep of hand, saying, “I was inspired by AFRICA.”

I like the theme of Fabio’s collection — what I think is dreamy elegance — but the individual pieces don’t do much for me.
Very surprised at Gunnar’s collection. I am in lust with the spiral-front dress, but the rest of the pieces seem kind of… directly appropriated? Curious to see what his thought process was behind this.
Aw, I miss Melissa’s dark, strategically layered hipster faerie aesthetic (really!). Her collection is chic, but perhaps not as original as we know she can be.

From what I’m seeing so far…it looks like Fabio and Elena are definitely in the top 3. The third is up in the air.

Gunnar lost his damn mind. Fabio’s is nice, but just not my style, so I can’t really comment. Love the JC style shoes, though. Melissa bored me.

Definitely Melissa and Christopher have the strongest collections so far. 

i actually kinda like Melissa’s looks. Fabio’s looks so sad and washed out

When I opened this post, the page jumped down a bit and I knew instantly that I was looking at Fabio’s collection without having to see his name… then I got to Gunnar’s and I realized that if his name hadn’t been there at the top I would never have guessed he made those outfits, and they’re kinda horrible! The makeup seems offensive somehow.

Fabio. The all whitish color choices are a shame. Some of the designs are good, he needed more color. Gunnar. I am really shocked at Gunnar’s. some of the designs are very good (I like the spiral front dress) but man overall I’m not sure where his sense of style went. This collection seems so not Gunnar. I liked the models and great to see him using non-white models but the collection just seems odd to me.

Melissa’s here was the best I thought. A clearly cohesive style, liked the fabrics and how she fit the styles together.

Melissa’s designs always look exactly like 2010 Rick Owens. His is a highly distinctive look (and now very much played-out) and to so strongly reference/mimic it? They just don’t feel like now. 

Everything here is soooooo Fing ugly!!!!

Gotta say, Gunnar’s is really interesting and almost all stuff I would be attracted to in a store.  I’m not sure how “on-trend” tribal is, though.

 Fabio’s 3rd look is lovely

I do like the look of Melissa’s line, even if I’m not a giant collar person. Especially the cool, clean dresses ( I’m seeing abit of
CalvinKlein).  I love some of Fabio’s tunics and pant sets, and that gorgeous white dress with the tucks. His looks like a beautiful
spring/summer collection. Hers looks more year-round.
I don’t know where Gunnar’s design aesthetic went; he lost some good ideas for something that looks like a giant craft project.
None of these flatter even the models; with the exception of gown 7, which was unique, intricate and pretty.

Fabio – Too monotone, with no definitive wow pieces.
Gunnar – Too kitsch. This African princess thing is coming out of left field for Gunnar, and he took this theme way to literally in everything from clothes to styling to models (and probably music, too, if I could hear it). Does this really represent him as a designer?
Melissa – Surprisingly boring. When given the chance to show at Bryant Park, why spend it on showing basic items we have seen countless times before with no design interest? There were some good pieces, though. The ones with design interest, that is.

I think this post is clear of any winners. Melissa is the only one I would consider as having any chance at all, but not that much.

Cultural appropriation has been done so much better and more visually interesting than in Gunnar’s collection.

Melissa, Claude Montana called. He wants his impossibly high necklines back. 

One word comes to mind when viewing Fabio’s collection: schmatta. Just one schmatta after another.

Gunnar! Wowza. A couple surprising pieces and some incredibly disastrous pieces. Melissa is looking like more and more of a one-way-monkey. Collars can’t do all the work, all the time.

Fabio – with the exception of maybe two of his pieces, the rest look like pajamas.  Gunnar – Surprisingly, I liked most of his collection.  Melissa – Yeah, boring.  

I guess I’m in the minority for liking Gunnar’s. Melissa’s is good, but weirdly overworked and underdesigned at the same time — like, it’s a PR finale collection and you sent a plain white dress and a plain black dress down the runway? And tortured the hell out of some of that leather.

I love Fabio’s collection.

I have to say, my first instincts about Gunner’s collection was “Huh?”  But going back over it, it’s actually pretty cool.  Not what I would have expected, but cool.

Fabio’s is someplace between uber cool and boring.  I like the concept and could see myself wearing some of it, but it also looks like a gauzier version of a Soma catalogue.

Melissa does interesting shapes, but seeing this many of her signature designs in one place, it gets repetitive.

Disappointed in Melissa’s, which makes me sad.  I adore her. Fabio’s – no real opinion, but I don’t really have any opinion of Fabio in general.

Out of these three?  Gunnar’s is the only one that’s doing it for me.  He seems to be the only one who really stepped out of his comfort zone – I love the whole tribal theme!

I don’t use this term lightly, but I find Gunnar’s collection and styling downright offensive. I hate to get all Anthropology 101 on a silly reality show, but cultural appropriation is a THING, dude, and it sucks.

I like to look at Fabio’s.  Lovely, soothing colors.  And lacks of colors.

Then one of the cats jumps on the keyboard and I’m reminded with gauzy perfect smooth fabrics aren’t a part of my world (claws, people, the cats come with them.)

Too many of Melissa’s look like Calvin Klein Vogue patterns from thirty years ago.

Again with the ‘dayum’.  These are some of the best collections the show has featured in years.  Gunnar’s looks like it’s trying too hard, though.

Good grief.  Maybe it’s fatigue from watching season after season, but there is so little innovation in all of the collections.  Here and there is a striking garment but no one collection stands out.  Someone mentioned the repetitiveness of having the designers show Spring collections and that is true.  I’d like to see Fall collections instead of Spring for a change.  Meh is my general comment.

Fabio: A refreshing collection, deconstructive in places, somewhat awry, containing few but salient and inspired geometric embellishments, and emanating such peacefulness. It’s almost transcending.

Gun: Bravo! This collection is a wonderful mosaic of many things: interwoven things, ruffles, trims, textures, tones, experiments in configurations and proportion. There’s something hard and primary about these pieces, something earthy, honest, and commemorative. It’s as if he’s exploring a phase of cultural experience and trying to transmute it into something permanent and pervasive.

Melissa: Bland, bland, bland. She lacks technical prowess and inventiveness.

FYI:  today’s Daily Mail has a photo spread of Heidi and Jennifer Hudson and it’s correctly labeled spoiler as down in the text, it says who the three finalists are. 
I won’t put a link because if you want to be spoiled,  you’ll find it.  Otherwise, you won’t.

I kind of love Fabio’s collection, even though I don’t exactly understandhow any of it relates to the body. It’s like all those girls just accidentally stumbled into god’s laundry basket. The neck pieces are great. What the hell are they made of? Baffling collection, yet strangely satisfying.

Gunnar: Terrible, embarrassing cultural appropriation in the name of fashion. Too much. They look like extras from The Lion King. Too bad, because there are a few interesting things mixed in with the dross.

Trips over mouse thrown in last posting. Almost breaks other wrist. Starts mumbling incoherently to herself.

Im getting a bit of Bert Keeter from Fabio’s collection, especially in his 5th 7th and 10th looks

There was one dress of Gunner’s that I really liked, mainly because it did not really look African or anything.  The 7th in line with the woven neckline is really pretty!  What do you all think?

Is it me, or is everyone costuming a Logan’s Run-esque sci-fi movie? Particularly Fabio.

What happened to Gunnar?  I just can’t believe it.

I sort of like Fabio’s. Melissa’s collection is disappointing. And Gunnar Goes Tribal is too wtf for me to even deal with.

At least Gunnar showed us something new and different from his work both prior to and on the show.  Good for him for trying.  

Fabio’s is ah-MAZING. Love the color pallette. It looks dreamy and ethereal and INTERESTING enough to be editorial, but with some toned down styling it could easily be seen on an a cool art-school chick walking down the street. And we finally get to see Fabio’s dumpster-baggy personal style incorporated into his clothes! And in a good way! One or two of them might be a teense overdesigned though.

Poor, bitchy, sweet, bitchy Gunnar. Train wreck. Insulting, out of left field, and costumey. Can’t blame him for thinking loud prints and ethnic themes would be a good idea though. (Oh Anya.) All that’s missing is his sex tape.

Melissa… I feel like we’ve seen it all. There are some real winners here (the bathing suit/coverup is dramatic and stunning, as is the white high-collar coat), but they’re outnumbered by the ‘mehs’. That orange dress is a variant on her winning look. The two white dresses are eh. The THREE black dresses — ALL meh, and repetitive too.

Favorites are Elena and Fabio. I feel like the 3rd finalist is Christopher because he’s the season’s pet. Ugh.

i really like deathrage’s sixth & seventh royal africa conquers the south dresses. i think theyre great. were i doing better myself i couldve named them better, alas. but theyre good. theyre interesting & much less derivative than a lot of the work on this program. an odd mix of styles that actually doesnt look ridiculous, at least not in these photos, but which instead works.

in the last ten minutes, however, i’ve forgotten just about all the other work on this page. thinking about it again, i remember that the rest of GD’s ranges from fair to okay & that i’ve seen melissa’s work something like half a zillion times before, done just as well or better. sad, that. one more sad thing. & i liked the first item of fabio’s but the rest, eh. i bet that, taken piece by piece, there are some nicely wearable pieces there. i like him as person a whole lotta much more than i like his work. otoh, colorwise all of it, here, reminds me way too much of the worst final collection i think i’ve ever seen on the show [other than anya's which was terrible for different reasons]–the barbie collection made by some skittery fool w/ a mohican & a nickname of what? shark? stump? i always forget. the guy who–rather obviously–spent all of his PR final money not on fabric but on tweek & faked his receipts. just a conjecture but an educated one & something, oy vey, he really should not have done–for more reasons than he yet knows. then again, i thought he was doing better now? anyway, his show was way worse than fabio’s. but the colors, the colors, were the same–& not good in either instance. i think the stump guy also used pink.

edited to add:
1/ nobody on earth needs a [p]leather bathing suit [probably nobody on any of the known planets does either], &
2/ the outfit above GD’s two nice dresses? why? why? if you can make something good why do you make something clear w/ only mal-fitting boob pockets? & a spider web? boob pockets & a neck web? why? why?

Gunnar…what the hell?
That first jacket in Melissa’s collection is FABULOUS.
Fabio’s collection is surprisingly…pale.

If all three of these are’t decoys there is something seriously wrong with this season.

Fabio’s is resort wear. Gunnar’s stying is so ethnic it distracts from the interesting pieces in his collection. Melissa has a couple of good pieces but the rest is basic and blah.

Another thing, Gunnar’s styling is silly but at least it looks cooler to me than those yellow lips.

did anyone else get a men in skirts vibe from Gunnar’s collection? nothing to show off a woman’s body – and if you crop off the heads, how many of the pictures can you tell if it’s a girl or a guy??

I really like Fabio’s collection. Although his designs on the show don’t impress me. Melissa’s seems a little different given her esthetic. Gunnar’s collection is odd.