Carol Hannah Bridal Collection

Here comes the bride.

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Carol Hannah Bridesmaid Collection

Won't embarrass you 20 years later when you look at the pictures.

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Ripping the Collections: Carol-Hannah - Part 2

The turkey has settled and Black Friday is a mere memory, so it's time to get back to dress ripping.

The proportions are off, unless she was trying to make the model look 10 months pregnant. We do like that frippery on the bodice, though. She just needed to make it a bit more fitted.

We don't know if it was Christopher's influence as her 13th-look helper, but she managed to bring the editorial eye to this look. It's got all of CH's trademarks but for once, she hasn't gone overboard on any of them. Beautifully done.

DULL. When the only thing of interest is the big Carrie Bradshaw circa 2002 fabric flower, then you need to step back and ask yourself if there's a place for this look in your Bryant Park collection.

We realize that there's a place in fashion for those high-waisted shorts and we've even trained our eye to see how they could work under the right circumstances. These are not the right circumstances. The proportions are really weird here and there's nothing at all flattering or pretty about this Little Blue Riding Hood look.

We like the idea behind this look. We just don't like the outcome. Again, it's a matter of proportion and knowing when to edit. Half of that effect, starting about a foot lower, would have made a huge difference.

We're not fans of that trademarked exposed and deconstructed seams thing that she does, but even if we were, we'd recognize that - yes, we're going to say it again - a little editing would have gone a long way here.

The girl clearly has a strong point of view and a range of techniques and tricks in her arsenal, but at the risk of repeating ourselves (too late), she needs to develop an eye that lets her know where the line is for going too far. She also needs to step away from the design every once in a while and consider the woman underneath who she envisions wearing it. As it is, there's a lot of concept and technique here, but no real understanding of a potential client base.

Additional pics:

[firstVIEW.com]


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Ripping the Collections: Carol-Hannah - Part 1

Paging Dr. Whitfield.

Carol Hannah deserves major props for her collection, not because it was flawless (it wasn't), but because it stood out as having a unique and strong point of view in a finale that was top-heavy with the combined aesthetic of IrinAlthea. The girl likes her frippery and there's nothing at all wrong with that. The thing with frippery is, you gotta know when to stop.

Let's start the show.

It's a great opening dress. Love the use of color and the interesting draping. We're not entirely sold on the silhouette on the lower half, though. It's a tough one to pull off. Still, it's eye-catching and beautiful in its own way.

Of course, everyone's going to remember this dress because it was so obviously ripped off and put on the back of Carrie Underwood for the AMAs. CH had this to say to us about that:

"My first thought was "SHORTS??!!" I don't know what to say about this. I'm generally one to give the benefit of the doubt, but there's an awful lot of shady vibes coming from this given the timing, etc. It's one thing to be copied (potentially)...but a whole other... issue when copied poorly. I would absolutely LOVE to talk to her stylist."

Wow, do we ever hate the styling here. It's so distracting that it kind of ruins the look. We like the skirt but there's something off about the proportions. That top simply doesn't go with it, to our eyes.

COLOR! YAY! Not the most sophisticated hue, but we'll take it. Unfortunately, this top illustrates what we mean about knowing when to stop.Way too many twists there, making it look heavy and a little unflattering.

Kind of pretty, but a majorly unflattering silhouette. Could have used some form of embellishment because it's borderline boring.

Another illustration of her need to edit. Each of the design elements on this dress are interesting, but there are too many for one dress. We like what she did with the skirt; she just shouldn't have done so much of it. And the straps and neckline treatment look like she couldn't make up her mind about what she wanted the dress to be. Still, it's very eye-catching.

No complaints here. We LOVED this dress. Totally gorgeous. Love the way the sort of floral treatment continues up into the strap and really love the faded quality of the fabric. We would have loved to have seen this in a color, though.

When we first saw this we thought, "Really? You're gonna go there?" It's simply not an original look in any way and worse, it's totally incongruous to the rest of her collection. It's like she wandered in from a different show.

[Photos: firstVIEW.com - Video: YouTube/myLifetime]


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Carol Hannology

Hit it, CH!

If you're new, this is the part of each season where we look at the output of each finalist to see if we can divine themes or weaknesses. First up is Alex's favorite designer, Carol Hannah Whitfield.

There's a point we want to make when we wrap these ologies up, but we want to touch on it here because it's relevant to Carol Hannah's work. It's this: she has a somewhat weak vision as a designer. Can you sum up her aesthetic in a couple of words? We can't. That's not to say that there aren't themes and motifs here. First, let's talk about what she doesn't do: pants, sleeves and prints. Oh sure, there's one of each in her entries, but for the most part, she went to the "sleeveless dress" well a couple of times too many. In terms of color, she appears to be drawn to blues, golds and blacks, for the most part. In terms of design elements, she clearly likes to manipulate fabric through twisting, draping, and pleating. There aren't any looks that we could classify as "clean" or "simple" except for #7, and that one stands out like a sore thumb next to all her other looks.

If we had to sum up her flaws, we'd say that she tends to overwork her looks and she occasionally (not always, but occasionally) demonstrates an inability to consider the body wearing the clothes. She'll put these sashes or exposed seams or layered hems in odd and unflattering places. It's like she's so caught up in her techniques that she's losing sight of the woman wearing her pieces.

If we had to sum up her strengths, we'd say one word: unexpected. She does very feminine clothes, but they almost always have a twist to them (oftentimes literally). If she learns how to develop that skill and marry it to wearability, she could really make something of herself.

[Images: myLifetime.com]

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