The Final Lap

THREE more to go?! Let's knock this shit out so we can all head to the bar.

Kelli:

We don't even remember this one.

Kelli says: "I love it. Maybe not 110% relevant to the Olympics but she looks fabulous." Oh, honey. You're making 3 points here and only one of them is accurate.

This isn't even 10% related to the Olympics. And she doesn't look fabulous. She looks like a '50s housewife running errands.

We believe you when you say you love it, though.

If we pretend that it's not supposed to be an outfit for the Olympics, it's not horrible. The skirt's kind of nice and the blouse isn't bad, but we hate both the bow and the fabric.

And it's at least well-made.

To recap: A little boring and a lot unrelated to the challenge. Next!

Keith:

Wow. This is wrong on a lot of levels. Once again, we're going to have to pretend that this wasn't made for the Olympics because it's so clearly not appropriate for it. Bubble skirts for the Olympics. Honestly.

It's interesting to note that he changed his idea/concept completely. Why, we don't know, because that sketch looks a lot more interesting than the end product.

The proportions are all wrong on this.

That scarf is way too huge, the skirt is way too short and the vest is way too long with a collar way too large.

Tone down the collar and the scarf and turn the skirt into a pair of shorts and he could have had something there. Next!

The general consensus seems to be that Stella doesn't belong here because her aesthetic is so narrow. To be fair, we made that point too. Well, we're prepared to backtrack on that. Stella really does deserve her shot. Why? Because she's actually very good at sticking to her guns while at the same time molding her aesthetic to fit the challenge.

Because y'know? This isn't bad at all. No, we can't really see Olympians wearing this. Not really. But it's still a sporty look that looks like Stella.

Before anyone jumps on us, we have to point out that we really hate the exposed belly button.

On the other hand, we really love what she did with the red, white and blue. Sure it's all a little roller derby, but again, that's a case of her marrying her aesthetic with the dictates of the challenge. She was never going to do simple sportswear and we shouldn't expect her to, but she did make something that fits the challenge a hell of a lot better than most of the others.

Stella says: "This outfit had to be sleek and cool. It represents the country in a bad-ass way."

You know what, girl? Mission accomplished.

It's a strong look and an athletic look and with the metallic strips it's even a patriotic look. Do we love it? Not really. Okay, maybe a little. Full length pants and an unexposed navel would have made a huge difference here.

You wanna hear something else shocking? She reminds us of someone. You'll never guess.

Laura Bennett.

We'll wait for the screaming to die down so we can explain. Like Laura, she works in a narrow range and like Laura, she's very good at making that work within each challenge.

But what really makes her seem like Laura's dark twin is that she has that extremely rare quality of being 100% comfortable and 100% herself on camera. She doesn't give a fuck what people think of her and that's not only refreshing, it's really entertaining. We'll say it again: Bravo, give this lady her own show. She's gold.


More detailed pictures:




[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravo - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]
[Additional Pictures: Courtesey of ProjectRunway.com]

Alex Goes to the Olympics

Further introductions unnecessary.

Click to make big, bitches!



[Illustrations: Alex Cox/Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

Blayne and Leanne

"I'm beginning to like get paler and paler, weaker and weaker, and probably by the end of the season I'll be, like, frail."

Try as we might, we just can't hate him.

Oh, don't look at us like that. We didn't say we loved him, did we? Yeah, he's trying too hard and yeah, he's annoyingly young, but as reality show contestants go, he's harmless and he seems to be enjoying himself.

And speaking of annoyingly young...

...we can understand Tim's reaction to his not knowing what "Sgt. Pepper" means, but honestly, how many of you at 23 were all that aware of the music scene that predated your birth by 2 decades?

Still, the argument could be made that a fledgling fashion designer should be a little more aware of the trends of the past and the figures that drove those trends. Certainly, we found it annoying in S3 that Alison didn't know who Farrah Fawcett was and Bradley didn't know anything about Cher.

It's notable that he apparently took Tim's advice because what's on that dress form isn't what walked down that runway.

Unfortunately, this is. Starting from the bottom, those pants are awful. We're not sure what that fabric is but it looks cheap and it's way too clingy and wrinkly.

Working our way up, we guess it's commendable that he didn't want to do a typical red and blue, but going for pink and a metallic teal doesn't strike us as a very wise choice. The design of the stripes was an okay idea, but he didn't do such a hot job of implementing them. They're not consistent in their lines. They look like they were pinned on and left that way.

On the other hand, we kind of like that collar treatment he did, even though we're not fans of the Wilma Flintstone look.

It's not that he's to our tastes, because he's not, and it's not that we think he's all that innovative, because he's not, but he's a lot better than we assumed he'd be going into this.

We don't love the look, but it's sporty and a little different and a lot closer to appropriate for the challenge than most of the other looks.

We both liked Leanne's entry a lot, Tom more so than Lorenzo. We think it looks sporty and patriotic and interesting, which, on paper would make it the perfect entry for the challenge, but it wasn't without its problems.

Tom loved the collar but Lorenzo hated it. We both agree that the proportions of it were a little off, though. Slightly smaller and slightly better executed (what's going on with the blue part?) and it could have been perfect.

Lorenzo doesn't like the off-center buttons either. Tom thinks they add a little visual interest.

We both agree that the massive peplum was a big no. We can understand wanting to add some flair (no pun intended) to an outfit that looks a little "tennis court" but it actually makes it look less sporty than it should and we doubt it would have complimented a lot of those athletes' bodies.

Still, it was a pretty good entry, despite the flaws with it. Leanne's shaping up to be more of a designer than we realized going into it.


More detailed pictures:




[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravo - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]
[Additional Pictures: Courtesy of ProjectRunway.com]