PRG at the TRESemmé Finale Party

Bitches, we are EXHAUSTED. And just a tiny bit hung over. We had a blast last night. In fact, for whatever reason, this was one jammin' finale party compared to the other reality show wrapups we'd been to (although those Shear Genius bitches run a close second). Apparently, Season 4 was the drinker's season. Although that doesn't explain the tipsy designers from Seasons 1, 2 and 3. Even Tim himself was feeling mighty mellow by the end of the night.

Let's start at the very beginning because someone once told us it's a very good place to start.

We arrived at the Tribeca Grand a little after eight with unofficial PRGayBoy #3, Emmett McCarthy and Official PRGay Photographer, the commenter you all know as "Gorgeous Things." Seriously. We told TRESemmé we needed to bring our own photographer and bitches, we are so money that they agreed to send us another ticket. We have ARRIVED, darlings!

In fact, we couldn't help but be a little sentimental and nostalgic about the whole thing. This was (believe it or not) only our second PR finale party. It's funny, it was the finale party for Season 3 that really started the ball rolling for us. That was the night that we met Laura and Peter for the first time and that was the night that Tim uttered the immortal (to us, anyway) words "You're in the inner circle now!"

Well, not to brag or anything (okay, just a little) but last night, what we assumed had been a simple polite compliment on Tim's part eighteen months ago felt like it had really come true. We really ARE in the inner circle! Or maybe just slightly outside it. Our reputation had preceded us and thanks to the shameless whoring on our parts, everyone there seemed to know who we were. Oh, don't get us wrong. It certainly wasn't OUR night by any stretch of the imagination. No, the night clearly belonged to Rami, Jillian and Christian.

Still, when Andy Cohen, the Senior VP of Production and Programming for Bravo comes up to you and says "You guys are fucking HILARIOUS!" can you blame us for being a little proud? Or when Tim broke away from the endless parade of interview and paparazzi requests just to give us both a big hug and kiss and then immediately, in as soto a voce as one can manage in a room full of screaming photographers took us aside and said "Did you see that Gawker piece on me? Totally untrue! I was never there! I can tell you I was home that night. ALONE." Tim darling, consider us your official debunkers of hanging-out-in-gay-bars-frequented-by-escorts rumors.

Anyway, we're tired and this post is all over the place, isn't it? As we said, this party was bigger and louder than previous ones. The amount of press there was kind of amazing. We couldn't get NEAR any of the S4 designers for quite awhile because all of the ones in attendance: the final 3, plus Sweet P, Chris (who seemed really overwhelmed by the whole thing), Ricky, Jack, Carmen, Kevin, and VictorYA were behind the velvet ropes (and the big scary bouncers) answering interview requests and posing for pictures. So we decided to start drinking instead.

In our mingling travels, as we tried to flag down the occasional spring roll or Cosmo, we ran into Nora Caliguri from S1 who looked absolutely adorable (still a shock to see her with long blonde hair) in a kickin' gold metallic cocktail dress that's part of her upcoming line. "Upcoming line?! You HAVE to let us feature it on the blog!" She's so cute because she just tilted her head and said "Really? You guys would do that?" We also met her equally as cute sister who was wearing an equally as cute dress from Nora's line. We complimented Nora so much on her Miu Miu boots that we actually took a picture of them.

We also ran into Kayne, who... um, had a somewhat understated response to our presence but who nonetheless graciously posed for some pictures. Christian's model Lisa was there in a Christian Siriano original and it was (of course) fierce. She was sweet and posed for a couple photos with us, as did Ted Allen of Queer Eye and Top Chef fame. Confession time: Tom
has a total crush on him and he barely did anything to hide it. Miss Jay McCarroll was also making the rounds but one thing we learned from seeing him in action at Bryant Park is, the press STILL loves him and they clamored after him as if he was the winner of Season 4.

In our travels we met Faran from the Fashionista blog and literally bowed down before her. It became a mutual admiration society as we all told each other how fabulous they are and how much each blog was loved by the others. She is adorable and very kind and if you bitches aren't checking her blog out on a daily basis, you're crazy.

We went around harassing all the models for pictures but let's face it, they're models. They LOVE to pose for pictures. To a gal, every single one of them was sweet and gracious. We spoke to Lauren for a bit and wondered where Jillian was since she was nowhere to be seen. Lauren told us that the two of them had been in a car accident that day (!) but they were both fine. Which proved to be true when Jillian showed up not long after looking absolutely gorgeous. She really is a very pretty girl and had on a beautiful dress that made us wonder if she was cold.

At one point, Ricky came over to us and asked for a piece of gum. Now, we had heard through the grapevine (okay, from Laura) that Ricky thought we were mean and being the forward bitches that we are, we called him on it. "We're not mean! It's all said with love!" He laughed and said that he loves what we do and doesn't care what people say about him because he knows it's all just entertainment. Now bitches, THAT is the correct attitude to have.

With the mingling out of the way and the magic hour of ten p.m. approaching, we headed into the theater to watch the show. Unfortunately, we spent so much time mingling that there were no seats left and we had to stand in the aisle. We didn't mind, we were just thrilled once again to watch the finale with the very designers who appeared in it. Tim, on the other hand, was nonplussed. "You don't have seats? But you're the Project RunGay Boys!" We love you, Tim.

Everyone settled in, Tim gave a brief speech about how thrilled he was with the way the season played out and how proud he was of the designers. The lights dimmed and we were once again reminded of just why we spend so damn much of our time blogging about this show: because we love it. The excitement in the room was palpable and Christian was clearly the star of the night because practically every line he uttered (and let's face it, he got some good ones last night) was met with raucous cheering and clapping, mostly from the section Jack was sitting in.

Yes, we noticed our 2-second cameo and we felt like we had magically been sucked into our televisions screens. We poked each other excitedly at the sight of our big heads onscreen and grinned from ear to ear. Of course, no one else noticed.

During the commercial breaks, the sound was cut out and the room buzzed with chatter. Every time the breaks ended, multiple shushings hissed from around the room. It was just so much fun and the feeling in the room was positively electric.

Each collection was met with applause, as if we were all sitting in the tents watching it live. This crowd was PUMPED. When it came time for the judging, the press was allowed into the room and they all pointed their cameras at the finalists in the front row. People reacted with shock when Jillian was let go so abruptly but everyone gave her a round of applause. Of course, the room EXPLODED when Christian won. In fact, we didn't hear the last 5 minutes of the show at all.

After that, things wrapped up pretty quickly. They handed Princess a check so obnoxiously large that it looked like he was having trouble holding it. We made our way down front and introduced ourselves to Jillian, who of course, already knew who we were. She is sweet and funny and when we told her that we were rooting for her and thought her collection should have won, she seemed genuinely touched by that. She told us she's working on eliminating her monotone and we laughed and told her not to change a thing. She introduced us to her business partner, who told us that she was launching a line and gave us his business card. You can bet that we'll be checking back on that for all the details.

We also met Carmen who, we have to say, is absolutely beautiful in person. She was, after all, a model. She complimented Gorgeous Things on her hair and we immediately turned around and complimented her on hers, which was done up in a big bouffant-y bun. Jack came up and called us bitches in that I'm-joking-but-not-really way and we just laughed him off and told him he loves the attention.

After that, we headed out to the lobby where quite a few people were visibly, deliciously drunk. We said our goodnights to Jay and Nora, Kevin and Ricky and anyone else who crossed our paths. Tim was once again swamped by cameras as was (unsurprisingly) Christian, so we never got a chance to get near either one of them to send them our well wishes. Instead, we headed out to the tables where the swag bags were and snatched far more than our alloted amount.

Hey, we never said we had class.

Click here for more>>

[Photos: WireImage/Ann Steeves-ProjectRunGay]

Sew Not Over: Steven and Ricky

Steven:
"My life seems to be full of contradictions these days, so I wanted to convey that through the "Sew Not Over" line. I wanted to make cute, fun cocktail dresses that were full of their own contradictions. Instead of bright colors, I used black. And instead of using typical evening fabrics, I used black wool cashmere I bought in Paris over Thanksgiving. I liked the idea of the juxtaposition of these elements with a silhouette that's so familiar -- just reinterpreted in different materials."

Peggy Sue Got Married meets Mad Men. While these are very pretty dresses, they look like period costumes to us, especially the first two. There's no updating or reinterpreting; they're just pretty much exact replicas of dresses our grandmothers wore. The third not so much. Not coincidentally, that one's our favorite.

Ricky:
"My look for the online challenge … it's all kinda sorta built around this lace. I want the girl just to slip in naked and it's perfect."

Well first off, the hats. No. We suspect he thought he was being cute, but...no. The Minnie Mouse gloves don't help. The first and third dresses are okay, but they're right on the border of TackyTown. That second dress isn't on the border; it's standing in the middle of TackyTown Square twirling a baton and setting off fireworks.

Click here to watch the video, kittens!

[Photos: Bravotv.com]

Ricky Ticky Tacky

Take a good look, kittens:

That right there is what we like to call "a low point."

Tim, you're a whore.

We still love you, though.

Yes darlings, THIS is what fashion's all about, isn't it? Tranny hookers in spandex sitting on each other's faces. The fabulosity just oozes through the screen, doesn't it?

Enh. To be fair, the designers did ultimately seem to embrace the fun of it and some of them really did turn out some fierce designs, but poodles, we long for the days when the tackiest thing on the show was Nancy O'Dell. She's the Queen of England in comparison to these bitches.

And certainly, having the Heatherette bitches as judges was entirely appropriate for this challenge, so we guess we have to give them credit for that too.

As for this...

As the Duchess said, as a swimsuit, it's not bad. Not particularly original, but not bad.

And it WAS executed fairly well. The problem is, this isn't supposed to be a swimsuit.

To be honest, we're kind of surprised that he didn't do better in this challenge. We would have assumed that his lingerie background would have given him something of a leg up because of his experience fitting a woman's body and making her look sexy. All he really needed to do was turn the dials up to 11.

Doing a little armchair psychoanalyzing, we think that he was probably in that state that a lot of the designers get in at this point in the competition: physical and emotional exhaustion (although to be fair, he was emotionally exhausted by about day 2). It's at that point that they just pull mediocre stuff out of their trick bag and hope it keeps them in to the end.

There's really nothing all that wrong with this look. In fact, we'd go so far as to say that there were two looks on that runway that were decidedly worse. The problem is, those two looks stayed within the boundaries of the challenge and made over-the-top stagewear. Ricky just kind of went off on his own and made a bathing suit for some reason.

And what the HELL was that ugly thing? To be honest, that little spandex tablecloth probably did more to contribute to his auf'ing than the bathing suit did.

Oh, and it's probably a little ridiculous to complain about the styling in a challenge like this, but what's with the 1986 hair on that girl?

We have to give him credit, though. He didn't cry. Kind of a disappointment. When it seemed clear that he was going to go, we all leaned forward on the couch yelling "This is it! Here come the waterworks!" Unfortunately, his tear ducts were exhausted at that point and they just gave up.

Adios, Ricky! Thank you for providing some much-needed entertainment this season!

Watch his exit video here:




[Photo: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Screencaps: Project Rungay]


Post a Comment

Put the crack pipe down, judges!

"Congratulations...Ricky. You're the winner."

"Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo! It's like a roller coaster! I'm...I'm a WINNER! It feels like - like...WINNING!"

"I can't believe that fucker won instead of me."

"I can't believe these old judges gave it to that fucker instead of me."

"I can't believe I'm going home and that fucker just won."

"The Botox has frozen my face in this position."

"God, I love watching these fuckers cry. I could sit here all day."

Seriously?

This clearance-rack-at-Bebe tackorama took the prize last night? The judges all swooned over it and from where we were sitting, there were at least two FAR worthier candidates for the win.

Sure the reworking of the button fly was kind of cute, but that's about the only thing we liked.

For all his bragging about how no one there could fit denim as well as he could, it sure is kinda tight and puckery. Although to be fair, looking closely at it like this, we can see he constructed the hell out of that fabric.

It's just ... ew. It's tacky and too short and sits too low on her boobs and we hate the ruffle on the skirt. Everything about it says "stripper's night off."

So he styled her like Amy Winehouse. Big deal. What did that have to do with anything? Are we really supposed to hold that toothless crackhead up as a style icon now? Darlings, count us OUT on that one.

We were shocked out of our seats when Tim proclaimed it "stunning!" We should have had more faith in him. He addressed this in his Tim's Take:

"I don’t know who was more surprised by his win -- Ricky or me. I cannot tell a lie: I was profoundly concerned about his look. I thought it was too basic and too poorly finished. On the show, you hear me say, “It’s stunning,” and it’s true that I did say it, as in, “Fix all of this and make certain that it’s stunning.” The editors were stuck with a conundrum, because so little of what I said to Ricky (and I said a lot) could be used."

Now, it's possible that Tim's just covering his ass, but we tend to believe him on this because the aesthetic is so far away from what he usually likes.

"Basic." That about covers it. Basic with a side of tacky. Then again, what do we know? According to the Levi's site, this dress has already sold out, proving once again that the goal isn't to reward the best designer this season, but to reward the most retailable designs.

Yeah, we're cranky. Sue us.


[Photo: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Screencaps: Project RunGay]


Post a Comment

Runway Toons!

Once again, Alex brings his inimitable talent to the table as we ask the designers

So, what do you REALLY think of your partner?
(click, bitches!)

And no, we had no idea he was going to toon us at the end, but don't we look adorable?

The Bridesmaid Curse Strikes Again!

See? We point out that a talented designer isn't getting any love from the judges and what happens? What ALWAYS HAPPENS?


Darlings, we must learn to use our special powers for good.

But kittens, perhaps you can answer something for us because we're a little confused.

If Kit was the team leader and for the most part Ricky was a decent team mate without any drama and they used her design and went with her fabric choices...

Why is everyone so pissed off at Ricky because she went home?

Because honeys, this:

Is a frigging disaster.

On the one hand, this seems to be the only design this week that isn't totally derivative of some other designer's work. On the other hand, who the fuck considers aprons and hoop skirts avant garde?

And WHAT is with those FABRICS? It's like Little House on the Prairie suffered a high speed head-on collision with Gone With the Wind and this is the bloody and possibly brain damaged result.

Seriously, those are some of the worst fabric choices we've ever seen. They look like old bed linens. Where did all the money go on this one?

Supposedly, she was going for a "bird's nest, girl-in-a-garden" concept, but we can't see any evidence of it here.

The only thing that's even slightly interesting about it is that detail on the back of the skirt but it's kind of strange to conceptualize a hoop skirt as a "walking away" dress.

It's so weird. We're not sure if Kit or Ricky really has an understanding of what avant garde actually means, but this ain't it. It fails on every level. It didn't reflect her stated concept; it wasn't avant garde or forward-thinking in any way; the choice of bland, underwhelming fabrics worked against whatever visual drama a hoop skirt provides; and to top it all off, it wasn't particularly well executed.

As for the ready to wear...

Remember in Season 2 when they had the Barbie challenge and at the last minute Tim told them that they had to make an outfit for the Barbie as well and most of the designers just said "Fuck it" and stapled fabric scraps to their dolls and the results were so heinous that the judges never even mentioned them?

Yeah.

It's kinda like that.

The angry mob with torches and pitchforks on the internet seems to think that Ricky should have gone home this week but that really sounds like they're seeking payment for past offenses. He did nothing to warrant being auf'd. Personally, we feel that Kit is the better designer of the two of them, but that's how the game is played. You make one wrong move (and don't provide enough drama for the producers) and it's auf wiedersehen, baby. This was her concept and it just didn't work.

Or as Alberta sez...

"It's chip. It's chip in a chip way."

Thank you, Alberta! That was very dip.


Kit's exit videos:




[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Videos: Bravotv.com - Screencaps: Project RunGay]


Post a Comment