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February 18, 2008

SFist Watches: Your Locals On Reality TV

First up is "Survivor," because nothing much happened in regards to Yau-Man this week. His team won the immunity challenge, and they went off to be their super-favorite selves for most of the episode.

met_prorun.jpgOn to "Project Runway," and the final pre-Fashion Week challenge! Two would be going home! Now, anyone who was paying attention to Fashion Week saw that all five of the remaining designers got to show their lines, which is understandable lest we all be spoiled about the finale. But it also kind of softens the blow of elimination this week, doesn't it? For most of the designers, it sounds like just getting to show a collection at Fashion Week is prize enough, and all five of them got to do that.

Anyhoo, the designers met Tim at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and were told to pick a piece of art as inspiration for an outfit. They were limited to three galleries. The Greek and Roman sculpture courtyard, the European paintings wing, and the Temple of Dendur. Here's a shocker: Rami chose to the Greek and Roman sculpture room! Everyone else steered clear, and pretty much stuck to the European paintings as inspiration. We immediately fell in love with Chris March all over again when he looked in the temple of Dendur and said, "Look! Joan Rivers carved her initials in here when she was a little girl."

Christian's choice was a Spanish painting by Bartolome Estaban Murillo called "Don Andrew de Andrade y La Cal." Sweet P.'s choice was "Peacocks" by Melchior d'Hondecoeter. Jillian chose "Scenes From the Story of the Argonauts," by Unknown Master of the Argonauts, (dontcha just love that naming convention they have for unknown artists?). Chris's painting was "Marie Francoise de la Cropte de St. Abre, Marquis d'Argence" by Jean Marc Nattier (phew!); and Rami chose...wait for it...a statue of Aphrodite. And he made no apologies about it because he is PASSIONATE ABOUT DRAPING, OK?

march_bow.jpgChristian went for a military-esque look, with lots of ruffles, and seemed to make the whole outfit in about 15 minutes. Boy can sew fast, yo. Jillian also went for a kind of military look, pairing a structured jacket over a gold lame mini dress, and she took about 32 weeks ironing pleats into some fabric. Chris went very haute couture, making the modern equivalent of the huge bow seen in his painting, and he also finished rather quickly, and went and took a nap. (Tim was NOT pleased by that. There's no time for napping in fashion!) Sweet P...well, it was a little hard to grasp what Sweet P. was after with her "peacock" inspiration. And Rami made a draped dress because draping is his passion. Did he mention that?

There was some drama with Sweet P.'s model not showing up, and then an attempt to get everyone excited by a "special guest" who just turned out to be a make-up guy from L'Oreal. What EVER. Let's move on to the runway.

The guest judge was Roberto Cavalli, who needed subtitles big time. They all liked Christian's design, appreciating that he thinks about "the show" while also designing practically. But for us, there's something about Christian's outfits that just scream design school. His focus is just too much on the "Wow!" and not enough on the, "Wow, I'd like to wear that."

march_final_dress.jpgRoberto Cavalli called Chris's dress the most artistic, and told him he could see it in a haute couture show in Paris. Others called him out for making something too reminiscent of the dress he had done with Christian during the avant garde challenge. But let us just point out that every one of the designers did something this week that was similar to something they had already done: Rami, with the draping, Jillian with the jacket, Sweet P. with the simple dress, and Christian with the mannish-but-feminine clothing.

Cavalli told Jillian he'd love to have her work for him, he was so impressed with her outfit. They all loved the gold dress under the jacket, and appreciated the influence she took from the painting, without turning it into a costume.

Next was Sweet P. Oh, Sweet P. Her dress was just too simple, and really not that pretty. The colors just weren't doing it for us. Roberto Cavalli stated his belief that there is nothing "more fantasy than peacock tail," and thought she should have done something much more special with that inspiration.

Lastly was Rami. Of course all the judges thought it was way too familiar, while Cavalli just thought it was too simple. But, apparently, draping is something Rami is very passionate about, and he just wasn't going to NOT do draping because the judges wouldn't like it, was he? And, to take his side, just a little, if they wanted to see something different from him they really shouldn't have included the Roman and Greco wing in the choices made available to them at the Met. That's like dangling free champagne in front of Lindsay Lohan. Of COURSE he was going to jump on it. (You can see all the designs here.)

They gave the win to Christian, and, shocking no one, Sweet P. was eliminated. Jillian got through, but when it came down to Chris and Rami, the judges apparently couldn't make a decision, and decided to let them both through, while throwing in some bullshit about them having to present their lines BEFORE fashion week, and then the judges would decide who gets to show. Which of course we all know is pointless since they all actually did show at fashion week. Whatever. This whole episode really ultimately meant nothing, but we still kinda feel bad for Sweet P, so here's a song for her.

Next week is a reunion show, and the finale is the following week. Also note that another season of "America's Next Top Model" premieres this Wednesday at 8 P.M. on the CW, and there's a local girl in the running. We'll be sure to cover that in our next post!

All images from Bravo's "Project Runway" site.


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Comments (2)

Who cares if you want to wear it? It's called Project Runway not Project Hallway. We should have ideas that are reaching for the edge, that's where inspiration lies.

 

No one ever calls Christian out on his constant use of a) puffy sleeves, b) skinny pants and c) horizontal pleating (although he thankfully refrained from that one this time.

My problem with Rami this week is that he chose to drape, but he did it less well than with previous challenges, when it should have been the drapery to end all drapery. And I swear I saw the panty band on his model's hosiery as she went down the runway.

 
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