All-Star Korto

Darlings! We left the house for a couple hours today! Can you ever forgive us?

Now that we're home from much-needed grocery shopping (and dripping wet), let's get to Korto.

There was a bit of a tussle in the comments section over Korto's behavior during the show. A lot of people felt she came across a little sour and a little entitled and that she wasn't exactly gracious about making second place again.

Of course, even more people opined that she'd been robbed of the win, so we're kinda stuck here. Yeah, she didn't come off well in the end, but we can't really blame her. Her Bryant Park collection was pretty much flawless and we said at the time that under any other circumstances she would have easily won. It was her bad luck to be showing the same time as Leanne, who really put out a once-in-a-lifetime, jaw-droppingly beautiful and innovative collection.

Of course, that kinda forces the point that if you were so disappointed with the outcome last time, why would you put yourself in the same position again? Especially if you're potentially going up against a multitude of winning designers.

Let's take a look, shall we?

Believe it or not, we have a bit of a problem with this dress, which was her red carpet entry.

Don't get us wrong, it's cute as a button. A little overworked maybe, but very cute.

The problem? Except for the color, this looks almost exactly like some of the dresses in her Bryant Park show.

Since the judges fell all over themselves praising Daniel, Sweet P, and Chris for their growth, this was probably a fatal mistake on her part. Let us reiterate: super-cute dress. Just a little too familiar.

We go back and forth on this one. It's a great design. Very chic and sexy and cool. Love the sequins around the neckline.

And the strip of sheer fabric around the edge.

Our main issue is that we think she rendered the rest of it it in the wrong fabric. That tweed just looks too heavy for such a skin-baring outfit. The waist on those pants looks weird too.

And because it's such a heavy fabric, the fit just isn't what it could be, especially in the vest.

Once again: cute idea with some nice touches. Wrong fabric choice.

This was a gorgeous dress, no doubt about it. Great choice of shoes, too.

Again, great use of sequins around the waist and beautiful pleating all around, making good use of the print, which is one of Korto's strong points.

But again, we're sorry to say, it's in many ways a typical Korto dress and very in line with a lot of her previous work.

This, more than the other pieces, was what almost gave her the win. The judges were clearly wildly in love with this dress and for good reason.

In fact, they felt she could have passed it off as her red carpet entry. We mostly agree, but it's kind of stiff and heavy for the red carpet. A fantastic use of unconventional materials, but it didn't completely hide the fact that it was made of unconventional materials.

We do love it, though. Love the construction of the bodice.

And love the beads (which were actually lava rocks) on the skirt. When we saw her gluing them on to fabric we had our doubts but she pulled it off masterfully.

And the absolute best part of the dress in our opinion, was the back. That unusual strap is eye-catching and kind of sexy.

We think the judges fell all over this dress for another reason: it looked like something new from her. There was a slight edge to it that she doesn't normally demonstrate in her work.

Let's let the judges speak for a second:

MK: "These are clothes that are going to look great on women. They're going to want to wear it. I mean, it's that simple."

DVF: "All the clothes look like they would flatter the body, add to the body, and to have a signature."

NG: "Clearly, her restaurant look was the most; blew everybody's restaurant look [away.] I think she has evolved as well as a designer."

All of which we agree with (except we think Uli's restaurant look was just as good, if not better). We feel bad that she's so disappointed with the outcome, but we hope she can take some comfort in such high praise.

We're tired already of the argument about who should have won and who shouldn't have won. Let's just all agree that there was some whack coming out of the judges' mouths, no matter the outcome.

But we stick to our main point: as beautiful as this collection was - and it was really, really beautiful - it was a lot of what we've seen from her before. Every single other designer - Daniel, Sweet P, Chris, Uli, even Santino and Jeffrey - understood implicitly that the judges expected something new and different from them. Granted, the judges didn't love every change, but they went out of their way to praise all of the other top 4 designers for showing some growth. It's a testament to how beautiful this collection was that she almost won at all considering how it's basically the same stuff she's already shown them.


[Photo: David Russell/myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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