Get your tomatoes and warm up your pitching arms, girls!
Heavy and depressing and uninteresting bordering on ugly. It completely obliterates whatever figure that model has. Another point - and for us, this is the biggest complaint we have about Chris' collection - it just doesn't look modern at all.
Similar to the first silk screened dress in that it's a very simple design where the print is doing all the work of garnering interest.
People keep asking "How can you say this collection is dark when Christian's was almost all black?" Take an objective look at this. It's not that it's black; it's that it's heavy and dour and depressing-looking. Christian's collection, whatever flaws people may think it had, was exuberant and over the top and even joyful. Looks like this are the exact opposite of that.
We give him a lot of credit for the materials he used. The safety pin skirt and the hair trim really made a statement. Unfortunately, looks like this, no matter how much people might not want to hear it, are the very definition of costumey. It's too severe and the silhouette is old. Very old.
This is interesting and we kind of like it. The bodice is very pretty. We hate the skirt, though. Again, not because we're grossed out by the hair but because it's just flat ugly. She looks like a muppet from the waist down.
It's hard to tell from the pictures, but poor Marcia could barely walk in this. She had to lean so far back to keep the wrap in place that we feared she was just going to topple backwards on the runway. And again, this look was very heavy and added about 30 pounds to her figure.
In the end, we have to go with the term the judges may have over-applied to him: costumey. In this instance, they were exactly right. In many cases, these clothes simply didn't make the wearers look better; they made them look heavier and older. All the interest was generated in the materials he used. When your strong points are safety pins and human hair, then yes, you're making costumes.
With its Catholic iconography and references to blood and body parts, this was a surprisingly goth collection, which means that it's extremely limited in terms of its appeal and in the end, pretty dated. We reiterate: there simply wasn't anything new or fresh-looking here. It was a lot of old-looking styles and silhouettes made more interesting by his choice of materials.
This isn't to say that we don't think Chris is talented. We do. He's enormously talented. He has a gift for making astonishingly dramatic looks utilizing a wide range of techniques and materials. It's just that this collection really hammered home the point that he should remain a costume designer and not a fashion designer. He has the potential to be a world class costumer but sadly, in our opinion, doesn't have the potential to be a world class designer.
It's SissyBear's turn and oh, kittens. Are we ever in TROUBLE.
Now, why are we in trouble? Well, we fear you're going to come after us with torches and pitchforks. See, a great many of you swooned over this collection and some of you even went so far as to opine that his could have won the whole ballgame, but we...didn't like it at all.
He says his was a Sweeney Todd-inspired, goth collection and we're not sold on that as being the best inspiration to start from. He employed rich fabrics in deep colors, but the overall effect was too heavy and too dark. On the other hand, he styled his models beautifully, took real risks with his materials, and each piece was flawlessly constructed.
Let's start the show.
A beautiful, dramatic dress. It's not reinventing the wheel but it's definitely a look that will get you noticed. Not to point out the obvious or anything, but it's the silkscreen image that makes this look. Without it, this is just a simple gown with a halter neckline.
This is okay. Not great, but okay. That Mildred Pierce silhouette is more than a little dated, though. We kindasorta like the detail on the skirt, but the fabric's so heavy, it might just be too much for one look.
And let's get this over with: we hate the hair trim. Not because it's hair but because of the way he used it. Peeking out of sleeves and running across the yoke of a jacket, it just gave each girl a slightly werewolf look to her and what woman wants that?
We just don't like all the heavy velvets he used in the collection. They dragged everything down, in our opinion. Overembellishing so many of the looks served to make them even heavier. Frankly, there's nothing we like about this look. It looks like a velvet bathrobe and pajama set.
This on the other hand, is very pretty. Beautiful color. And we love the detail on the back.
Again, it's looking like a very dated Mildred Pierce/'90s powersuit silhouette to us. Beautifully accessorized, but all that heavy velvet looks old and dreary.
This is one of the few looks that seemed fresh and youthful to us. We love the way he used the lace and we really love the way he accessorized, but we can't get past that bizarre hem. It's distracting and terribly unflattering.
Ignoring the ugly plaid (which is nigh-impossible for us), that top doesn't seem to go with it at all, and the silhouette just ain't all that. The pants are weirdly balloony. Had they been a full straight-leg trouser or a skinny pant, we could have gotten behind this look more, but as it is...nope.
And the gloves just don't work with this look.
Lorenzo really liked this look, but Tom was only halfway there. It's...interesting. A nice shape and color, but that's about it. We kept waiting for her to unzip and show us what's underneath but apparently that's the entire look.
OhmiGOD. This is AWFUL. The hat, gloves and black hose coupled with that color call to mind a bad eighties bridesmaid look. The length and silhouette are unattractive and for god's sake, why would she send this girl down the runway in this dress sans bra?
Back on track. A very pretty dress in a very pretty color. We like the detail on the neckline. If it didn't have those weird saddlebags that Sweet P insists on, it would be perfect.
An almost-but-not-quite. A nice design and a beautiful fabric, but that bust seems way off to us. It camouflages her chest rather than highlighting or enhancing it. And again, the gloves do nothing for the outfit.
Leah's a good model but even she couldn't make this work. Again, it's those horrid saddlebags. We don't get that at all. No woman in the world would want that effect. Even without them, the design is fairly plain and uninspired. A strange look to end the show on.
In the end, the collection had some serious problems but her high points were enough to surprise us. Sometimes Sweet P makes pretty clothes that woman would want to wear and sometimes she heads off the rails into ugly town. Like her work during the competition, this collection was highly erratic and left us wondering just who she is as a designer, which is exactly the opposite result one would want from a collection.
Poodles, now comes the time when we give the decoys the RunGay treatment. Stepping up to the plate, that inked little darling from L.A., Miss Sweet P.
Sweet P's kind of hard to pin down. Her work during the competition was (at best) erratic and when she walked out on that runway to tearfully introduce her collection, we didn't know what to expect. Turns out she has a late '70s/early '80s aesthetic with a twinge of the typical L.A. punk vibe thrown in. She has a strong color sense, even though we think some of these colors were misses, and there's a girliness such as you might find in, say, a Betsey Johnson or Cynthia Rowley collection.
As for styling, we have to say it's not her strong point. There was little in the way of accessories to be found anywhere and the hair and makeup were somewhat uninspired.
Let's start the show.
A good opening piece. As we indicated, Sweet P didn't really establish a "brand" while she was in the competition so almost anything could have come out from behind that scrim. This piece gives you a real idea of who she is and what direction this collection's going to take.
Purple and gold make up the "it" color combo this season and it's to her credit that she's not only on trend, but managed to find two shades we hadn't seen on the runway yet. It's not a color combination that many can pull off but it feels unique and a little chic. We like the proportions on this, especially the sleeves, and the button detail is a nice touch. We're never gonna get behind the socks-with-a-skirt look, though.
The dress is cute, even if it typifies Sweet P's predilection for giving women saddlebags. We like the gold trim. That jacket, on the other hand, is a whole 'nother story. She went from using an unusual gold and purple combo to using one that hurts the eyes. That lemon yellow looks awful.
"Kinda free, kinda WOW! Charlie!"
It's got a "Lauren Hutton at Studio 54" vibe that we kind of love. We think that's a great-looking fabric as well as a great use of it. On the other hand, it doesn't look well-fitted and those shoes and hose are totally wrong for it. A simple open-toed sandal would have made this look more chic.
It's at this point that we were sitting in our seats thinking "Wow, this is kind of a nice, cohesive collection with some interesting twists." This dress is chic and different and has some nice details, like the ruffles on the sleeves and the wide sash. It looks a little poorly fitted, though.
Then this look came out and we though "Okay, maybe this isn't as cohesive as we thought." The cape and the dress were nice on their own, but we don't think they work together and we don't think they look right with the three previous looks. The cape is dramatic and beautiful. The dress is only so-so and the length seems a little short.
Gloves, shoes and hat: all wrong.
*sound of a needle scratching a record*
Hunh? This feels like it just came out of nowhere. This is just wrong on every level. First off, the fabric looks like an old camping blanket, the SILHOUETTE, dear GOD is that wrong, and the styling is just plain weird. Those patterned tights and leather gloves just make her look she was playing dressup in a vintage store. Terrible look - and definitely the moment when the collection started going off the rails.
