Leannology

Darlings, now comes one of our favorite parts of every season: the "ology" posts. This is when we look at the entire output of each remaining designer to see if we can find some common themes and make some predictions about their runway show. Of course, we've already seen her runway show but don't worry, we won't spoil anything. First up: Leanne.



Children, the word for today is "noodle." Although to be fair, she only got noodle-y with looks 2,3, and 8. A more accurate term would be "pleat." Judy loves her some pleats and sometimes it works (5, 6, 11) and sometimes it really doesn't (1 - dear God, we forgot about that one).

Going by this, we have to say she tends toward, and is most comfortable working in, classic, feminine sillhouettes with pleating or ruffles as embellishments (2,3,6,7,11). When she's forced outside her comfort zone, whether by materials, client, or aesthetic (1,2,5,8,9,10) she falters and the work is largely uneven. The pleating on the drag dress was fun and interesting but the dress itself was too severe, the "green" dress (2) was just a disaster, as was the country look (10). The makeover dress (9) was dull and suffered from too many client restrictions. The one exception to this was the "Saturn" dress (6). That was a rare instance where she was forced out of the box and still managed to knock it out of the park. Strangely, it was also an instance where she produced a highly unusual silhouette.

She clearly doesn't like prints and she tends toward blacks, reds and blues as her color choices. She's capable of cute, sporty looks (4), but her obvious love is for dresses and gowns. Along with the aforementioned Saturn dress, her best looks by far were the "nightlife" dress (3) and the DVF dress (7).

What does this all mean? Well, it can mean whatever you want it to, really. For us, it means she works best in a somewhat narrow range. Her best work is classic and simple with just enough of a twist to make it interesting. She has something of a weakness in the color area and we would like to see her dabble in prints to push herself a little. If we had to sum her up, her intellectual approach produces some truly beautiful pieces but there's a potential for painting herself into a corner and her work can sometimes be a little too ponderous, bordering on depressing if she's not careful.

And the girl just loves her noodles.

[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravo]