top chef? what's top chef?

Well, Top Chef tonight was TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY overpowered by the preview episode of Tim Gunn's Guide to Style. I'm joining the Tim Gunn/Project Runway bandwagon a little late in the game, but I'm not doing it by halves: I LOVE Tim Gunn. everything about him is just flawless. He's gorgeous, he's articulate, he's intelligent, he is impeccable, he's kind, he's confident without being arrogant - in short, he is perfection in man form.

Tonight's show had a tarty woman in her early 40s being un-tarted. The premise of the show is delightfully simple: help fashion victims to help themselves. Identify the worst in their wardrobes, and show how they can get a "similar" effect (ie, sexy) but in a much more stylish and appropriate way. My favorite bit was - well, aside from the Tart's Wardrobe, and gorgeous veronica webb's well-timed "it looks slutty" remark - my favorite part was the computer model.

It's got some high-tech name, but basically it's a paper doll of YOU (or the Tart, in this case)>. Tim says: "we used 25 different measurements to create this model of your body." (WHAT are those 25 measurements? I shudder to think). The point of this exercise is not style, but form and silhouette, and it's brilliantly helpful. The computer program throws different garments on the paperdoll, and then the Tart decides if they work in terms of shape, form, silhouette. It isn't about fashion - they are really just iconic representations of a shape of clothing - but about FORM. so the boxy long jacket on the Tart was a huge no-no, but the wrap dress, or higher-waisted pants, were A-OK. and you can see it clearly because it isn't YOU, it's just a paperdoll with 25 of your measurements.

I totally want a paperdoll of myself to play with. I had neat ones as a kid where there clothes stuck on magnetically.

anyway, it was inspiring but i thought the trenchcoat dress was ugly. I actually thought it was just a trenchcoat until the very end, when it turned out to be just a dress. I also didn't like the big ole Coach purse the Tart received for playing paperdolls with Tim Gunn, but that is because I like smaller bags (though not the tiny evening handbags the Tart previously used).

In the end, the Tart was de-tartified, her husband and daughter were no longer embarrassed, and they got rid of her tired-looking hair. She still had that awful tacky New Jersey accent, but Tim Gunn didn't hook her up with HIS elocutionist (I wish he would; I wish every man in America could speak like Tim Gunn).

the best thing about this show, besides the peacock blue wall in Tim's office, and glamourous Tim himself, is that it is actually helpful to women who don't all look like Veronica Webb. The Tart had a pretty good figure, but she was by no means flawless or even close to it. She looked like a real woman, with a real woman's body.

Oh, and on Top Chef, Howie finally got eliminated, and Hung built a smurf village out of whipped cream and crushed FrootLoops.