TFS: Confusion!

We're puzzled, kittens! Puzzled!

Let's discuss why we are puzzled, mkay? First, we must discuss Reco's dress.

It's not a great dress by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not the offense to the senses that the judges made it out to be.

Is it a shock that Reco didn't know anything about Halston? A little. While it's a shame he couldn't reference his work in any meaningful way, what really set the judges off was Reco's constant assertion that he had no idea who Halston was.

Sure, there's a bit of a snobbery aspect to the judges' collective outrage, but they weren't completely without a point. Part of being a designer is knowing at least a bit of the history of design. While Halston doesn't necessarily rank up there with Chanel or Saint Laurent, he's still pretty high up in the pantheon.

And what made it so frustrating was that, because Halston worked in such a minimalist fashion with classic shapes and draping, he would have been the easiest designer to imitate.

Of course, where Reco went wrong was in the addition of a corset, which, to anyone who knows even a little bit about Halston, was seen immediately for the bad idea it was.

The dress is unfortunately a bit too "village wench at the ren faire" and that's about the last thing you want to do when doing a Halston retread.

And despite the snobbery and the overreaction on the part of the judges, the fact is, they had a point. He had no idea who Halston was and produced a dress that failed on every level of the challenge.

BUT. We're still a bit confused. Let's look at the next dress to see why. Follow us.

See, to our eyes, Anna "interpreted" Chanel about as much as Reco interpreted Halston. About the only thing that says "Chanel" about this garment is the dropped waist and the color scheme. Everything else was a pure Anna addition.

So why, when Anna reinterprets Chanel by adding a lot of Anna-isms, is that a-okay with the judges, but Reco interprets Halston by adding some Reco-isms and ...quelle horreur!

Look, we can admit that Anna made a better, more stylish garment than Reco's, and we can admit that the fact that she knew how to reference Chanel played in her favor.

But she did THIS to it. And we don't care what you say, that is NOT a signature Chanel jacket.

Worse, it almost ruins the outfit. She would have been much better off sending the dress out without the jacket.

Bottom line: Reco made a long, drapey, red dress with an asymmetrical neckline, all of which are Halston trademarks. He ruined it by adding a corset. Anna made a black and white cocktail dress with a dropped waist, a Chanel trademark, that she almost ruined with some very UN-Chanel pleating and a big incongruous pink jacket. One of these looks got praised and one of these looks got so trashed that the designer burst into tears. There was as much Halston in Reco's dress as there was Chanel in Anna's. So why the huge difference in judging criteria, judges? Could it be that your decisions are oftentimes arbitrary and that you all have a tendency to make a big deal out of esoteric bullshit (i.e., b-girl)?

Perish the thought.

[Photos: BravoTV.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

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