I wanted to post an APSA recap earlier this week (I’m stuck on the Beatles Countdown–songs 75-2 are making me mad and I don’t want to update until I get the thing straight), but I’m really not sure that the world needs to read about the dinner and museum adventures of me and my close friends. Instead, I’m leaning on PR. I had to watch the third episode online, since I missed it while I was in Toronto, and that’s why this post is so late (I’m back to hating Lifetime’s site).
I have to start out by saying that I really didn’t ‘feel’ this challenge, because the California/surfer aesthetic is about as far away from my own as possible. I also agree with some of the other recappers for this episode who were confused by the avant-garde aspect of the challenge. But anyway…
Christopher and Logan: These looks are kind of East Coast, aren’t they? I think the surfer look is OK from the waist up–hats are hard to make, and I admire the fact that they made a passable one (though I’m not sure how ‘functional’ that hat would be). The top looks easy enough, but the pants–well, the pants remind me of some of the utterly impracticable clothes that came out for the Olympic challenge. Also, as an equestrienne, I can’t help but be reminded of full seat dressage breeches when I look at the combination of the fit and the gold on the pants. I can’t imagine that breeches would be beach friendly. I’m not sure what’s so avant-garde about their a-g look, but I like the blending of the colors–I’ve always liked cream, grey and black together. However, I’m not sure what I think about the tulle skirt. I don’t like the gold ruffle over the tulle at all, but it did create a connection with the surfer outfit. It’s really hard for me to comment on the construction since I watched the episode online and the magnifying feature isn’t really helping me. However, I get the sense that the work around the neck of the dress and the zipper might not be as clean as it could be.
Johnny and Irina: Irina remains one of my favorites, and I mostly enjoyed her collaboration with Johnny. In fact, the surfer outfit from this team was one of the few things I would wear (admittedly, I don’t know what this says for the outfit in terms of the challenge). It was casual without being too flip, and the outfit’s earthy/natural palette helped it as well. Again, I prefer this outfit from the waist up–I like the way the shirt is layered over the tank–even if I’m not a huge fan of longer shirts in general. The idea of the skirt is nice, and I’m sure the pockets were probably a good choice, given the casual/functional vibe, but I think they look a little messy, and it looks like there could be other construction issues with the skirt as well. I like the twisted bodice of the avant-garde look (that reflected the macrame on the surfer look), but I don’t think it’s balanced; the explosion of the fabric at the shoulder would probably be carried off better if the dress itself were longer. I also have some concerns about the fit and I think that the brown color choice was not ideal; the entire outfit looks way too heavy for a knee-length dress.
Louise and Althea: This pair left me strangely cold. Lots of people really loved the avant-garde look, but I wasn’t terribly moved by it. The surfer outfit featured a good color choice–I liked the boldness of the raspberry dress and I think that the classic black and white stripe is never a bad move. However, it looks like there are some serious issues with the fit of this garment around the bust; the pleating under the cups looks lopsided and uneven. I’ve also never been a fan of that type of hem. My reaction to the avant-garde dress is somewhat similar to my reaction to Johnny’s dress from the first episode and can be summarized as “I hate 80s fashion.” It does look well-constructed and I like the colors (I will note that there is less of an obvious connection between this dress and the a-g look than in the first two teams I’ve looked at), but dear God, people, this dress has a MULLET SKIRT! Short in front and long in the back doesn’t work for hair and I don’t think it really works for skirts either. On a more charitable reading, the mullet skirt becomes an unfortunate bird’s tail. I just don’t see the appeal, I’m afraid.
Nicolas and Gordana: Honestly, I’m shocked that they were selected as one of the worst teams. Sure, Nicolas’s outfit pushed things a bit, but I don’t think it was completely tacky, and it was the only avant-garde look that garnered more than a yawn from me. Once again this is another team that got the surfer look right from the waist up; I don’t think anyone would deny Gordana her rightful due for that intricate top. However, I feel that the judges were right to question the pants. They do look a bit sloppy, but I’m not sure how to best fix them in the spirit of the challenge. When I see them I want to fix them so that they evoke the outfit Ingrid Bergman is wearing at the beginning of Notorious–but that’s not a surfer look. Perhaps they could have been converted into a fun skirt? As for the avant garde look, I think that the lace evokes the fine texture of the macrame in the surfer look’s top, and, furthermore, the outfits are well connected by color palette. I think the silhouette calls a white capped wave to mind without being too obvious. I definitely did not hate this as much as everyone else in the world seemed to.
Mitchell and Ra’mon-Lawrence: While I respect Ra’mon-Lawrence for picking up the slack from his useless partner, I don’t get the love for the avant-garde dress he created. Speaking of Mitchell, I’m still embarrassed about my comments from my Premiere episode commentary; I could change my Beatles Countdown and declare “Flying’ the greatest Beatles song of all time and it still wouldn’t be the most embarrassing thing written on this blog. I can’t believe he admitted–ON TV–that he wanted to be carried by another designer. Good riddance to all that! Again, while I’m not as enthralled by the results as many others, I give Ra’mon-Lawrence credit for conceptual consistency in both designs. The surfer dress clearly picks up on the natural aspect of the California/surfer aesthetic by incorporating the colors of sand and water. It does look like there’s some unevenness in how the dress fits up top, but it’s gorgeous from the waist on down. The avant-garde look is the other side of the aesthetic coin–the entirely manufactured component of the surfer look. I’m not going to lie–I wish that Mitchell had actually done some work so that Ra’mon-Lawrence would have had the time to play with and edit his original wetsuit concept for the avant-garde look, because I think that if he had had the time to make a less literal interpretation of the wetsuit, he could have come up with something really interesting. I still think that the skirt of this dress looks like it was randomly stapled at haphazard angles, but I clearly Don’t Get this look. I will say that dyeing the neoprene was probably a good move.
Shirin and Carol Hannah: I think that this combination does not rise up to at least one of its individual parts. Shirin gave us another very pretty, nicely executed look this week and if she keeps this up, she’ll probably be in this thing for the long haul. However, I have the same question about her as I had about Jillian, at least for a time: can she do more than pretty? I don’t think this outfit is particularly original. The color choices are good and I think this is a tasteful print, but the beaded halter reminds me of those stone necklaces that were big a few years ago and I think it dates the outfit a little bit. I think that Carol Hannah’s ‘water’ avant-garde dress was not particularly successful. First off, I think that Carol Hannah made the mistake that Ra’mon-Lawrence almost made: she created a literal interpretation. Second, I think that this dress suffers from a poor fabric and color choice–it’s heavy, like Johnny’s dress was. However, I think that this silhouette is more balanced than Johnny’s because she went with a floor length skirt. Still, I don’t like the extra fabric at the neck–it looks floppy and I don’t know what its purpose is up there.
Qristyl and Epperson: I’ve been nicer to Qristyl during weeks 1-2 than most people, but I can’t find much nice to say about her work this week. The dress, which was obviously strongly influenced by Epperson, was certainly respectable. Like the judges said, it was clean up top, but I really didn’t like either the print (I think I’m just not so much for moss green) or the shape of the skirt. Still, it was a far sight better than the avant-garde look. What did necks and collarbones ever do to this set of designers anyway? Lots of designers in this group love heaping fabric up there, but they don’t do it with precision and it ends up looking sloppy. The bathing suit might have been an interesting base piece in brown-bronze (if it fit a bit better), but all the stuff that was added around it sharply detracted from the overall effect.
Tomorrow I’ll be taking a break from the FIRST NFL GAME OF THE YEAR OH THANK YOU GOD to watch PR with my Wabash colleagues. Hopefully the episode will be entertaining (and the game will not be close)!
