High School Confidential

"Wendy has cooties! Meet me behind the bleachers after 8th period!"


That about sums up the level of conflict this week.

The drama of FabricGate. You know what? We love Kara Saun but she really needed to get over herself here. Nancy O'Dell walks in wearing an orange top and two of the designers decide to go with an orange dress. End of story. Wendy didn't steal your idea, girl. You both took the easiest route but you decided that you were being original and Wendy wasn't.

Did Wendy deliberately "steal" her fabric? We don't know. It's never shown on camera. But when two people walk into a fabric store and head straight to the orange section, chances are they're both going to be looking at some of the same bolts.

Clearly, we're not fans of Wendy, but for once, we were on her side. The workroom resembled nothing more than a high school cafeteria, with all the kewl kids deciding to ignore dirty girl to see if they could make her cry.

"Wendy steals and she's a bitch. Pass it on."

"Jay, Kara Saun said Wendy feels an itch. Pass it on."

"Wendy peels the rich? What does that mean? Who am I supposed to pass it on to? My dress form?"

"I'm standing right here, you morons."

As we said earlier, Kara Saun's anger with Wendy (which was justified, although not for any fabric-stealing) turned her into the head of the cheerleading squad and threw her off her game. It's nice to be self-confident, but she allowed it to trip her up this week.

We can't help thinking that the whole "helping Jay out" bit was less about helping Jay out and more about saying to Wendy "See? I help my FRIENDS, which you are NOT ONE. If you weren't such a BAD PERSON maybe I would be helping you too but I'm NOT."

"Because then I would have to talk to her and I WON'T because she's awful and she's fat and no one likes her."

Look, it's not like we've suddenly discovered a soft spot for Wendy. She earned her reputation. It's just that the remaining designers strutted around so entitled, so nose-in-the-air that we automatically took her side on this one. Especially since for the most part she conducted herself well in the midst of all that adolescent drama.

Sure, we were appalled that she made it into the final 3, but we have to admit, that backroom tension was hilarious.

"I cannot help it. I really enjoy seeing people squirm who have made my life difficult. Sorry! I was eating it up. I could stay there forever."

That's the part about Wendy that we kindasorta admire. Her defiance. Sure, she's untalented, backstabbing, manipulative, and emotionally unstable, but ...

Okay, we can't come up with an ending to that sentence.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Off Her Game

Were the stylists getting high off hairspray cans this week?

We're of mixed opinions on this one. On the one hand the colors and fabrics are gorgeous.

It also fits her beautifully but that's no surprise because Kara Saun's just that good and besides, she's been working with Jenny for weeks now.

On the other hand ...oy. We hate pretty much everything below the waist on this.

We don't share the same opinion on handkerchief hems. Tom almost universally hates them and Lorenzo can put up with them on the right dress*. We are, however, in complete agreement that this hem looks terrible.

*Yes, that's an incredibly gay sentence. Guilty!

We'll get to the megapants in a second, but with or without them, this just looks awful. There's deconstructed and then there's unfinished. This looks like the latter, although we doubt it really is unfinished. This is apparently exactly what Kara Saun wanted to do. That's what makes this garment so puzzling.

Those pants are a great big WTF. Look at the beautiful line the dress creates as it hugs her curves, then...ditch-digging pants. Huge, beaded orange leather pants. Nothing says "red carpet" like that, right?

Even the beading looks awful (although that's probably Robbio's fault).

Prior to appearing on Project Runway, Kara Saun had already made red carpet dresses for Eve and Queen Latifah. She should have known better than any of them what works best for that. We just can't look at this outfit and not think it was going to end up on some "worst dressed" list if it actually had gone down a red carpet.

Kara Saun, honey...what happened to you this week? Never once in any challenge did you appear to lose your way or drop the ball. You always sailed right through, confident in your abilities and rightfully so.

Interesting to note that Kara Saun is wearing a flowy dress over pants. Never noticed that before.

Anyway, Tim was pretty adamant about losing the pants and it seemed like Kara Saun found the idea ridiculous. Of all the designers in Season 1 - all of them - she was always the one most able to assess her work and make edits (although Jay's good at that too). This week, that all went out the window and it's pretty clear why. Because she was obsessed with throwing Wendy out a window, that's why. We'll get into the dramarama in another post, but it seemed obvious to us that her feelings for Wendy really threw her off her game. Her supreme self-confidence, which served her so well up to now, was really what did her in this time. She couldn't see what she was doing, apparently.

Reading over this, we sound like we hated this or something and we didn't. Like we said, without the pants it would have been beautiful, even if we don't like handkerchief hems. It's just that it was so surprising to see her so off and not even realize it.

Oh! And another thing! WTF is up with Nancy O'Dell informing the designers on the runway that she doesn't like beading or sequins? Hello? Wouldn't it have been better to say that when they FRIKKIN ASKED YOU WHAT YOU LIKED AND DISLIKED IN A RED CARPET DRESS?! Worst judge ever.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Pink Lady

Out of everything that came down the runway this episode, this was our favorite, even if it wasn't without problems.

This is what people from Texas look like on Planet Gay.

Before we get into the dress - not literally, kittens - can we just say that we hated Julia's styling here? Jay honey, GLAM! You were trying to sell this to a major tv personality. Why is Julia made up like she's on the dessert committee of the Junior League? She looks bleh and we know she's capable of looking stunning.

Okay, with that out of the way ... two things Jay was doing a lot at this point (and which culminated in his Bryant Park collection) were the deconstructed layering of fabrics and the tone-on-tone, graduated colors thing. These just happen to be two things we really love and Jay does them well.

This may not be to everyone's tastes but we think it's gorgeous the way the colors all complement one another while bleeding into one another to make a whole that's a lot more than the sum of its parts. It's a unique effect and as we said, it was something Jay was really fixed on at the time.

We're not sew-ers (sewers?), but we would think that one would have to be quite talented to make a skirt layering so many delicate fabrics and still have it come out a well-tailored skirt. We know there are quite a few bitches-with-needles in our readership. Ladies, what say you?

As for the top, it would be easy to blame Kara Saun for this not working, but to be honest that was just an entertaining coincidence. While it's true that Nancy didn't like the color of the top, we're pretty sure she would have absolutely hated the original top, which was a much softer pink.

Jay just loves those buckle straps and he used them quite a bit all season, but they didn't work on this top. If it had been strapless, with a straight bustline and possibly not so long in the waist, it could have worked quite well. It's a shame really, because Nancy O'Dell would have looked fabulous in that.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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*snf* Auf Wiedersehen, Princess Austin

Before we get into it, let us just pay pictorial homage to the fabulous, otherworldly creature we lost this week:

"I would just love to sort of set an example to any dreamer, maybe not the most popular kid in school or just anyone who's different but who has a dream to always stick to that dream."

"No matter how many times people tell you to walk a certain way or to talk a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way, design a certain way... You can't listen to that. You have to be true to yourself. No matter what."

Brava, Princess SissyFag. Bra. Va.

Having said that...

This dress was unfortunately not very good.

You can't let the fabric dictate the design totally, beautiful though it may be. Otherwise, the fabric is doing all the work. It appears that he was so in love with the way it drapes (and it drapes beautifully) that it wound up looking like nothing more than something pinned to a dress form.

In our memory, we may have elevated this dress to heights it never reached, because looking at it again, we're noticing for the first time that there's not much "there" there.

Knowing what we know about Martinique's body, look at how thick her torso looks in this dress. Taking a light, flowy, airy fabric and twisting and layering it to such an extent that it looks heavy and bulky just isn't a good idea. Let's not even get into how sloppy it looks.

It's funny. Looking at S1 with a more critical eye than we have in the past, Austin's output for the competition wasn't nearly as good as we remembered. Hand him something that fits within his design philosophy, and he produces some great work (Banana Republic, Sarah Hudson, the bathing suit, even the cornhusk dress), but give him something that challenges him and he crumbles (the 2055 challenge, the postal uniform challenge).

As easy as it is to blame it all on Nancy O'Dell, the fact of the matter is, all of the designers dropped the ball this week. If there had been more competitive work from Jay or Kara Saun, or less competitive work from Wendy, things would have turned out differently. Yes, it might have seemed more "fair" for Austin to be in the final 3, but they would have had to auf someone for no other reason than to keep Austin in and that would have been even less fair than the outcome we got. Yes, Wendy's dress was pretty unremarkable and tacky, but it was more wearable and more in line with the client's dictates than this dress - than ANY of the other dresses, in fact.

Austin is a good designer. His post-show career is among one of the best of all PR alums. It's just that he's not a very good reality show contestant. More than anything, it was his highly distinct personal style that kept him afloat in front of the judges for so long.

"Hey, Austin, will you design my dress for the Oscars?"

"I'd love to, Nancy.

Just as soon as hell freezes over and your implants crack and fall off, you tacky bitch."

Don't we all climb up on a table to take off our shoes?

"I don't think anyone of you are hearing the last of Austin Scarlett yet."

And he was right. Good luck to you, you gorgeous creature. We miss you already.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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S1/E9: Congratulations Wendy.

Quickie recap: The remaining designers must design a red carpet dress for Nancy O'Dell to wear to the Grammys. Bitchery and backstabbing ensue. You can read Tim's Take here.

Ahhhh...the rage came back last night watching this, didn't it?

This is what muppet hookers look like from the back.

There's something weird about that bust. Somehow it manages to make Melissa's boobs look small while simultaneously giving her the oh-so-classy cup-runneth-over look.

To be fair, we don't hate the dress. From the waist up, it's fine. That skirt is...we don't know WHAT that skirt is. No, what annoys us is she did the same thing she did last week: looked at what the client was wearing and simply made a variation on that.

That is almost EXACTLY what the top of the dress wound up looking like, right down to the color. Considering that in the previous challenge, she thought changing the pocket positions on a postal uniform was "redesigning" it and considering that in the Banana Republic challenge, she managed to win it by basically lifting from the Banana Republic catalogue and shifting some elements around, we're forced to conclude that Wendy's biggest problem as a designer is...she's not a designer. She's a very talented dressmaker.

Tim, we're really starting to hate that you have the ability to look good when you're not posing at all. In fact, you look much better when you're not posing. Us? Christ, we have to do the whole Paris Hilton 3/4-turn-with-a-head-tilt before we can even think of letting anyone take a pic.

But enough of that, how about her little meltdown upon receiving a compliment from Tim?

It started off almost charming for a moment. Our split-second first thought was "Oh, she's REALLY been putting herself through the wringer, poor thing."

Then it got weird. The slowly dawning horror on Tim's face upon viewing this tortured display was comedy gold. It's only for a second, but that's because Tim has preternatural control over his facial muscles.

"Don't show it on your face, Timmy. Just back away from the cameras and you can go have good laugh in your office. Calm. Composed. They'll turn the camera off in a second. DON'T LAUGH AT HER. She could be dangerous."

Anyway, here's what that tacky, no-taste bitch looked like when she wore the outfit to the Grammys. What pisses us off, she did some major "tweaking" to this dress. If you're going to go that far, why not pick one of the nicer dresses and tweak them? She admitted that there were elements of the other three designs that she really liked. Tweak the top on Jay's dress or don't wear the pants on Kara Saun's. Both would have looked better - and WAY more importantly: age appropriate on her. She's got a great figure but the bottom line is, she's not a kid. She comes off looking like a mother at a Bar Mitzvah trying WAY too hard.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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Episode 9 - Preview

Wait, is Robert back?

It's down to the Final Four, kittens. Watch the preview here.


[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]