Girls on the Bottom

Oh, kittens. We're really going to step in it now.

We might as well get this over with, like ripping off a band-aid. Okay, here goes:

We don't think the judges were too hard on Gordana this episode.

*duck*

Are you still there? Are you still yelling at your monitor? Once you're ready to listen, scroll down.

Model: Tara Egan

Here's the thing: we think the judges have been hard on her in previous episodes. We're absolutely in agreement with the seeming majority of our commenters on that point. And while we think the judges had very, shall we say, fluid ideas regarding the criteria for this challenge, we don't think this look works based on any of them.

First, we're going to start with the styling. That hairdo was all kinds of wrong for a flapper look. Way too puffy and big. The thick, heavy eye makeup was a bit too much. Those shoes she put her in are awful. We're sure some flapper at some point wore opera gloves but it's really not the kind of thing one associates with the look. And while we're not entirely sure if the accessories wall contains much in the way of jewelry, the patented flapper look is a lot of long, layered necklaces. Using the left over fringe from the skirt to mimic that really cheapened the look and brought it down to costume shop levels.

Moving on: we'll take the sewers' word for it that this fabric is apparently very difficult to work with. Point for that because the execution on this look is fine; excellent, even.

Except for the glaring uneven-ness of those straps.

And finally, this dress is simply not the right style or silhouette for a flapper look. It's way too fitted. The flapper look was characterized by a relatively loose upper half with a drop waist and a straight skirt. It was meant to make a woman's body look very skinny and angular; all arms and legs.

In the end, it's a decent dress, but no great shakes. And it really didn't work either as a costume for a film or even as an "inspired by" look.

Whew! Done! Still love us? Let's move on to an easier one.

We've been somewhat pleasantly surprised that Louise has shown the ability to work outside her comfort zone and we would have thought that this challenge would be right up her alley, since she specializes in retro clothes that border on costumey. Her first mistake was choosing Film Noir. She clearly didn't have a good concept of what that meant. We would have thought she would run to grab the "period" card out of Tim's hands. She could have done a killer Victorian look, we have no doubt. Before this challenge we also would have thought her capable of a killer flapper look, but as we all saw...

Model: Fatma Dabo

Things didn't quite work out that way. To be fair, it seems that she didn't set out to a flapper-inspired look, but inexplicably wound up with one for a character that should have been inspired by the late '40s and '50s. She could have nailed it with a Mildred Pierce-esque broad shouldered suit or even a Dior New Look-inspired piece.

Instead, she wound up with this. Something that really doesn't belong in any particular era or genre. It has confusion written all over it.

Here's a little quote from her Facebook page:

"Just an FYI about ep. 6: most people don't realize how hard it is. You 2nd guess yourself a lot. As you can see from ep. 6 I had drawn a completely diff. sketch than what my final design ended up as. On our way to Mood, Althea & I were looking at our sketches. I realized we were both doing high-waisted pencil skirts w/ ruffles going down the butt, and blouses tucked in. I was set on this 40's military outfit, but changed it on the way to Mood because I didn't want our outfits looking so similar. I wish I'd stayed w/ my original idea now, because I had a great story for that character & a real direction. Channeling my mind made me lose my train of thought on this challenge."


Even without her backing it up like that, it was easy to guess just from looking at it how much she was second-guessing herself.

It's really not a bad little dress, all things considered.

Take away all the flapper frippery and it's a chic little cocktail dress.

What it is not, unfortunately, is a costume or even a look "inspired by a movie genre." It's just a relatively cute little dress that she tried to tart up in the styling to make it look like more than it is.

Extended Judging:

[Photos: Mike Yarish/myLifetime.com - Videos: myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]



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