10 January 2008

Prom!

well, Project Runway does it again - gag me with a spoooooon!

so: the Prom Challenge! Like Chris, who I adore, I did not attend my prom (junior, yes, senior: no!). I'm not so into Prom Fashion or 17 year old girls, but I think this was a reasonable challenge. Having the girls choose their designer was a nice touch, as was the relative diversity of body types.

This episode was all-Christian, all the time. I go back and forth on him - he needs to be smacked down a bit, but there's also something totally appealing about his unbelievable arrogance at such a young age. The kid is only four years older than the prom-goers, for god's sake! I did feel bad for him, because his model seemed not only opinionated but pushy - I could imagine her literally ripping the dress apart if she didn't like it. What she asked for was appalling bad taste, which didn't give Christian a lot of room to work. The final piece was seriously problematic in construction (wtf happened in the BACK?) but I felt for the guy.

Kevin's elimination was - sort of a surprise. We didn't see much of him or his dress during the show, except the Unfinished Deadly Hemline. I didn't have a problem with the dress, but i didn't really like it either.

Now for the real angst:
VICTORYA? AS WINNER?
were the judges perhaps blinded by the electric blue of her dress? Her model looks TERRIBLE in this photo (stand up straight, for christ's sake!) but the slouchy dumpy-around the shoulders look is heightened by the top of the ugliest dress on the runway. That high waist is quintessential victorYa, who imagines the perfect girl as an ironing board - and that high waist and puffed skirt probably ONLY looks good on an actual ironing board. I hate the halter/collar thing - I thought it looked unfinished and shoddy on the dress form, and then when she pulled out her plastic pirate-treasure "gemstones" I was horrified. I thought: Jesus, this dress will LOSE big time.

and no. the judges LOVED it. How this dress is the winner is beyond me. Darling Tim Gunn, professor and genius, wrote in his bravo blog of this dress: "the jewel emblazoned panel on the front of the halter made the dress look more appropriate for a hostess at a vegas cocktail lounge than a teenager attending a suburban prom."

Speaking of which: the judges are profoundly out of touch with reality. As a person who works daily with college undergrads, sophisticated, red-carpet, plunging necklines are EXACTLY what these girls want (and are wearing) for their proms. They don't want high necks and ruffles and pinafores and ankle-length hems. These girls go for real, hard-core glam, which VictorYa's dress was NOT. And the judges criticised a number of the dresses for being too sophisticated - honeys, that is what your basic 17 year old girl WANTS. were they expecting pigtails and hershey kisses dresses for this prom-goers????

So: Sweet P's gown was freaking gorgeous. She made wise decisions, and I think the dress is glamorous without looking tarty or strange. The color was nice, the cut was nice, the fit was good. I think the girl could have done with a little more in the bosom department to really pull this off, but I could totally picture her (or any girl) wearing that dress to her prom and loving it. It had a nice sort of old-hollywood look to it that I appreciated. Myself, I would have found some killer vintage jewelry (diamonds! i mean cubic zirconia!), an awesome vintage handbag and some glam-as-hell shoes and rocked the shit out of this dress. It was fantastic, world's better (and honestly, more likely to appeal to the target audience) than Victorya's sack of ugliness.



The Crime of the Evening goes to the judges for dismissing Chris's exquisite,,gorgeous garment. Tim Gunn referred to it as "superb" on his blog, so I know I'm not just being biased in favor of my dear darling Chris. He absolute nailed it with the color of this dress - not every girl can wear this shade of green, but this one CAN, and it looked fun, youthful AND sophisticated all at once. The cut of this was incredibly flattering to the model (who has such a great pose in this photo!). I love the flowy bit in the front (and in the back - I wish I could find a back-view photograph). THIS is a prom dress: kicky, sassy (that shade of green) but totally sexy, sophisticated as hell (in cut/silhouette) and gorgeous on this girl's figure and with her complexion. I HOPE she gets to take this gown to her prom, and that everyone oozes with envy. Chris or Sweet P should have been the winner - this is just such a glorious, glorious gown. I could picture either Chris's or Sweet P's dress on a red carpet - and that's the kind of dress girls want for their prom. NOT some heinous bunched sack with pseudo jewels glued on.

The photos below are not laid out well, and blogger won't let me make it pretty, but I wanted to see all three dresses near each other. I think when you look at all three next to each other, you can see how heinous VictorYa's is. Her dress is just unflattering, unattractive and tacky. And maybe would appeal to a young teenager, but by 17 or 18 - these girls want sexy and glamorous, not eye-searing blue and fake jewels.



3 comments:

Library Diva said...

I found you on teh Blogger!

Marius said...

Couldn't agree more, cb. Happy New Year, by the way. :)

Anyway, like you and Tim Gunn, I did not like Victorya's dress at all. But, for some reason, as I watched Victorya's model walk down the runway, I just knew that she was going to win. And I knew that Nina Garcia was going to love it--just because it was age-appropriate (they are so out of touch with young people! But I guess that's another issue). Some of the other designers made lovely dresses (like Chris and Sweet P), but they were predictable. And the judges hate that.

Anonymous said...

I saw that episode, too.

BTW, you owe me an email!

...and I thought the SAME thing. I thought the dress was hideous. It smooshed her boobs, accentuated her knock-knees and slouch. Ugh.

I, too, loved the 2 dresses you did. And thought Christian got the proper comment - you know, for all his bravado, he really SHOULD have stood up to her more.