Ripping the Collections: Wendy, Part Two

This is where her collection seemed to go off the rails. While we had some quibbles with some of the earlier stuff, for the most part, it was cohesive. An autumnal collection of pretty if uninspired clothes. Then this comes down the runway. First off, it's unusually sloppy-looking for Wendy. Second, we suspect she was trying to be Jay here. Edgier, asymmetrical, with the illusion of deconstruction. It just doesn't work. Pretty colors, though.

Wendy, Carolina Herrera called. She wants to talk to you. She sounded pissed.

This is very pretty. Uninspired, but pretty.

Y'know, if she hadn't gone all HELLO NIPPLES! we would have really loved this outfit. That skirt is beautiful and the top is nice too although we're not crazy about the poof.

Mmmm. We want to like this. On paper, this should be a pretty dress, but it's just not working for us. Is it the color? The bodice certainly looks a little puckery. We think it's the feathers. They just seem to stick out like a shelf.

That sound you hear is a collection derailing. Where did this come from? It doesn't look like it belongs in this collection at all. And it feels all wrong for Wendy. We admit, the top is somewhat interesting, although it looks more than a little uncomfortable. It's the skirt that ruins it.

At any rate, we really don't hate the collection. Admittedly, there was more for us to hate than in the other two, but for the most part, these were perfectly serviceable, wearable clothes for women. On that level she's fine. As a designer, not so much. The best pieces in the collection were uninspired and the worst pieces were instances of Wendy trying to be something she's not. We repeat what we said earlier: catalogue clothes. Nothing wrong with that. She could do very well in that milieu. It's just that in a search for the next great American fashion designer, clothes like this are going to get a nice nod and smile from the judges and that's about it.

It's a shame. Wendy's scheming didn't really get her to Bryant Park. All it managed to do was taint her reputation. Looking over this stuff, she really could have done very well for herself. She makes sellable clothes. Unfortunately, we suspect her reputation ruined any chances of anyone wanting to do business with her.


[Photos: FirstView]


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Ripping the Collections: Wendy, Part One

Well, Wendy got her shot and good for her, we say. We can all scream and yell and stamp our feet about how she didn't "deserve" to be there, but at the end of the day, the judges decided that she should and at the end of the day, all the strategizing in the world wasn't going to do her a bit of good anyway because none of that matters in a runway show.

Let's just say right off the bat that everything she made was very well executed. Her model selection and styling choices were uninspired (quel surprise) but really, the most awful thing about her show was the music. What a load of pretentious twaddle that was.

Let's start the show.

How the hell did these designers afford so much fur on such a small budget?

It's weird that she was freaking out over the Duchess's suggestion that they start off with a "wow" piece and she chose this. This is "wow?" Unh-unh. This is dull. Catalogue clothes.

And that neckline is annoying.

There's just not much to say here. More catalogue clothes. We've seen that coat in the knockoff shops on Canal Street -- in 1996.

This is very pretty. Beautiful fabric and color, although that jacket doesn't look as well-fitted as it should and that neckline trim seems to stop before it's supposed to. Those shoes? Awful choice.

This is another pretty dress that you could pick up in any mall in America. That bust looks a little funky though. Gotta say, we can't stand her but Olga looks hot here.

Awww. Some poor little lost model wandered onto the runway. How else to explain this? It doesn't look like it belongs in the same collection at all. Ugh. GOD, this is ugly and dated. Easily ten years out of style.

Yow. That is FUG. Are we really looking at orange quilted satin? We're dreaming this, right? We're trying to avoid asking the question "What woman would wear this?" but we just have to ask "What woman would look GOOD in this?" Even taking into consideration the idea of the consumer editing to their satisfaction, it doesn't work. How do you edit an orange quilted satin suit?


[Photos: FirstView]

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Homeward Bound

Alright, let's cleanse the palate, shall we? We'll be ripping the collections and delving further into the drama in the days to come but for today, it's a kindler, gentler PRGay.

One of the best ideas Project Runway ever came up with was following the final three home to get to know them better and having Tim as the guide just makes it all too perfect. See, Tim's appeal works on so many levels. On the one hand, he's such a sweet, genteel, open guy that it's a pleasure just watching him interact with people. On the other hand, he's so ... of a certain place, we guess is how we'd put it, that there's a certain devious glee in seeing him plunked down in alien settings and watching his unflappability try to assert itself. If you look closely, you can see the little gyroscopes spinning as he tries to get his bearings. "Yes! Concrete septic tanks! That's why you're a fashion designer, Jay!" Too cute for words.

On the other, other hand, Tim is so good at connecting with creative people and drawing out their thoughts and getting them to defend their work that the whole thing is illuminating in addition to being entertaining and a little schmaltzy.

We love seeing the designers' backgrounds and day-to-day life. It fills in the blanks, not only on their personalities but on their aesthetics as well. Of course these things are edited to tell a story and we can't ever really lose sight of that, but it's not hard to draw a straight line from Jay's rural background to his knits and quilting-inspired collection, or from Kara Saun's Hollywood career to her ultra-glam, movie-inspired collection, or from Wendy's old-money, horsey set world to her somewhat traditional, mature collection.

Of the three, Jay's was probably the most interesting. It was a bit of a surprise to see how organized and focussed he seemed to be, especially in a setting that, at least on the surface, wouldn't lend one to think it was a place to cultivate an explosive creativity.

Wendy was interesting in that she seemed to be desperate for Tim to recognize her in some way. Desperate for his input; desperate for his approval, not just on her collection, but on her life. It was a little icky how she trotted her daughter out to perform in front of the cameras but we're going to be uncharacteristically generous and leave that one alone.

Kara Saun: all professional. Here's my collection, Tim. Here's where I buy my fabric, Tim. What do you think, Tim? What should I be doing next, Tim? Not that she wasn't sweet. She clearly loves Tim but she also clearly values his opinions highly.

More than anything else, though, the reason we love the "home movies" is because this segment is the closest the show ever really comes to depicting the process of fashion design. No designer gets locked in a room with a dozen other designers and told to make a dress in 12 hours. That's not fashion; that's reality TV. Getting to watch the designers, alone and without any drama, designing clothes and discussing their work with a stylish, debonair, kind and knowledgeable teacher? That's just fabulous as far as we're concerned.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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ShoeGate

The best part about catching a reality show in its first season is that the participants haven't quite figured out how to present themselves, resulting in drama that's more raw with less producer manipulation. And honeys, the drama this week was definitely raw. It was actually a little uncomfortable to watch because no one was coming out of this looking particularly good. We can talk about the big blowup in the hotel room between Kara Saun and Dirty Girl later. For now, let's talk about what Project Runway fans have termed ShoeGate.

Kara Saun had to have known she was in the wrong here. And if she didn't know, then she was so caught up in her own supremacy that she couldn't even imagine she'd be questioned about it in any way. Neither prospect speaks particularly well of her.

As for Jay, we realize that he was there to compete and not get caught up in any drama and we have to say that might have been a wise decision, but like it or not, he found himself caught up in something that affected all three of them and adopted possibly the most passive-aggressive stance we've ever seen anyone take on a reality show. Bitching to the cameras and rolling his eyes behind Kara Saun's back but offering only half-assed objections to her face.

Strangely enough, it was Wendy's response that proved the most compelling. We're going to indulge in a little armchair psychology here so you might want to fix yourself a cup of coffee before we get started.

We think it's fairly clear that we are pretty much the last people to defend Wendy. And if we haven't made it clear, let us just state that we have always felt that Kara Saun had good reason to be hurt by Wendy's manipulations and had somewhat good reason to be angry that she wound up in the final three.

But.

There comes a point where, if you really consider yourself a professional (and we think it's more than clear that KS not only considers herself one, but considers herself the only one out of the 3 of them) then you need to bloody well act like one.

Kara Saun's Junior High "I'm done with you" responses to Wendy's quite reasonable objections were a little painful to watch. When you watch two people fight, one of whom you think is a crazy bitch and the other of whom you think is talented and deserving, it's a little tough to watch the talented, deserving one come off as an asshole and the crazy one come off as correct.

She was flatout wrong. She'd been caught giving herself a clear advantage over her competitors in violation of the rules and when she was called on it, she got snotty and dismissive of the whole thing. We really like Kara Saun, but it was her entitlement that really turned us off here. This notion she had that because she was good and because she's a professional, the rules didn't have to apply quite so much to her.

As for Wendy, well...we felt a little sorry for her. We think she went around with a fairly good game face on most of the time (when she wasn't crying, that is) but reading between the lines we see a women who was not only in over her head; who not only knew she was in over her head, but somehow, inexplicably, desired some form of seal of approval from her competitors, whom she clearly considered her betters.

Her tearful accusations of Kara Saun were absolutely correct but what was so striking was her blatant need to have Kara Saun agree with her. If she had just agreed with Wendy's contention that she was "strategizing," Wendy would have felt completely vindicated in her prior behavior. It was really quite an intense little exchange. From Wendy's point of view, more was riding on this little dispute than anything else, including Bryant Park.

In the long run, we don't think Wendy really cared about the shoes. She just desperately needed Kara Saun to admit that she wasn't perfect and that she was, in fact, guilty of the very things of which she accused Wendy. For a brief moment there, we think that's all Wendy wanted. "Take the Grand Prize, just admit to my face that you do it too."

As for the "solution" dreamed up by the producers, the less said about that, the better. It was no solution at all. They didn't really care about solving the issue so much as maximizing its drama.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Let's review, shall we?

Before the drama and the screaming of the finale rivets us to our seats, we thought we'd take a second and look at each member of the final three's output for the competition.

First up: Wendy.

Looking at it as a whole, there's not much here that we could call bad. Sure, the first one is awful and there are aspects of almost every piece that we don't like, but for the most part, her stuff is workman-like. Her failing as a designer is that nothing really stands out as particularly good nor does anything jump out at you as a pure Wendy Pepper design. It's all kinda bleh.

Kara Saun:

This looks more like a collection. KS likes her ruffles, plunging necklines and layered hems. Much more developed sense of color, too. She seems to know when to use color to help the design along (1,2,3,8) and when to let the design do all the talking (4,5,6,7). There's also a nice range of simple classic looks alongside more complicated, structured looks. In short, Kara Saun knows what the hell she's doing.

Jay:

His work makes the strongest statement out of the three of them. At first glance, it looks less cohesive than Kara Saun's but really, that's only because he's so creative. There's still a bit of a through-line for his work. He's clearly a fan of buckles, belts and straps (as well as frillery and frippery, done Jay-style), but even though he uses more whites and blacks than the other designers, he's also got a fantastic sense of color and tends toward deconstruction with his work, although he's more than capable of turning out highly tailored pieces.

Your thoughts?

High School Confidential

"Wendy has cooties! Meet me behind the bleachers after 8th period!"


That about sums up the level of conflict this week.

The drama of FabricGate. You know what? We love Kara Saun but she really needed to get over herself here. Nancy O'Dell walks in wearing an orange top and two of the designers decide to go with an orange dress. End of story. Wendy didn't steal your idea, girl. You both took the easiest route but you decided that you were being original and Wendy wasn't.

Did Wendy deliberately "steal" her fabric? We don't know. It's never shown on camera. But when two people walk into a fabric store and head straight to the orange section, chances are they're both going to be looking at some of the same bolts.

Clearly, we're not fans of Wendy, but for once, we were on her side. The workroom resembled nothing more than a high school cafeteria, with all the kewl kids deciding to ignore dirty girl to see if they could make her cry.

"Wendy steals and she's a bitch. Pass it on."

"Jay, Kara Saun said Wendy feels an itch. Pass it on."

"Wendy peels the rich? What does that mean? Who am I supposed to pass it on to? My dress form?"

"I'm standing right here, you morons."

As we said earlier, Kara Saun's anger with Wendy (which was justified, although not for any fabric-stealing) turned her into the head of the cheerleading squad and threw her off her game. It's nice to be self-confident, but she allowed it to trip her up this week.

We can't help thinking that the whole "helping Jay out" bit was less about helping Jay out and more about saying to Wendy "See? I help my FRIENDS, which you are NOT ONE. If you weren't such a BAD PERSON maybe I would be helping you too but I'm NOT."

"Because then I would have to talk to her and I WON'T because she's awful and she's fat and no one likes her."

Look, it's not like we've suddenly discovered a soft spot for Wendy. She earned her reputation. It's just that the remaining designers strutted around so entitled, so nose-in-the-air that we automatically took her side on this one. Especially since for the most part she conducted herself well in the midst of all that adolescent drama.

Sure, we were appalled that she made it into the final 3, but we have to admit, that backroom tension was hilarious.

"I cannot help it. I really enjoy seeing people squirm who have made my life difficult. Sorry! I was eating it up. I could stay there forever."

That's the part about Wendy that we kindasorta admire. Her defiance. Sure, she's untalented, backstabbing, manipulative, and emotionally unstable, but ...

Okay, we can't come up with an ending to that sentence.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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