Country Style Noodles

Oh, right. An episode aired last week, didn't it?

It would be difficult to determine exactly which designer had the toughest job but it's probably a tossup between Kenley having to make Leanne look hip hop and Leanne having to make Korto look country.

We know one thing:

Their failures were about equal.

Oh kittens, this is bad. This is really bad. But y'know? The more we think about it the more we think this might have been the toughest challenge of all of them. Not just because Korto has about as much in common with Shania Twain as we do, but because "country" as a definable look doesn't really exist anymore.

Think about the top female country stars of the last ten years or so and they've all pretty much adopted a generic pop look. Outside of putting her in a cowboy hat or a Minnie Pearl dress, Leanne didn't have many options and the options she did have were painfully cliched.

Still, that doesn't totally excuse this look. First off, that purple is not such an eye-catching color for what the judges apparently decided was a stagewear challenge.

Secondly, the color doesn't really "say" country. Of course, we're not sure what colors do, but then again, we're not contestants for a 100-grand design prize.

Then there was the whole "Mary Ann" look with the knotted waist and the knotted kerchief at the neck. Foregoing the fact that you can't get much more cliched than that, we tend to think one knot per torso should be the limit.

One thing we really don't get is the Wonder Woman belt and the accompanying flash of gold in the yoke of the shirt. We get the yoke part - more of that country kitsch thing - but why gold?

And finally, while there isn't really a definable female country look anymore, we wouldn't necessarily make the leap that a tight floor length skirt was just what was needed here. I mean, if you're going to do the country kitsch thing, you might as well put her in a denim swing skirt or something as easily palatable. The whole silhouette just felt wrong to us.

Sorry, Noodles. This was not one of your better efforts.

[Photo: Barbara Nitke/Bravo - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]