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Showing posts with label Victorya Hong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victorya Hong. Show all posts

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Top Ten PR Looks of All Time

Darlings, we've been talking about doing this for what seems like years and the other day, we found ourselves on the way into New York with nothing to do on the train but bicker, so we chose this as the topic to bicker about.

Joking aside, it was ridiculously easy. We don't know about anybody else, but when we think "Top 10 looks," these were all no-brainers. It took us all of ten minutes to come up with a list. Bear in mind that these are the top ten competition looks. We're not including anything shown by any of the designers in Bryant Park. No, we were looking at the stuff that was thrown together in 2 days on 50 bucks.

This is, of course, highly subjective. If you think we missed one or that we chose one that shouldn't be anywhere near the top 10, let's hear it. After all, the whole point to top 10 lists is to spur conversation. What's in your Top 10?

So without further ado, let's start the countdown.

Number 10


Season 2: Episode 7 - "On Thin Ice"
Designed by Chloe Dao
Model: Grace Kelsey

We'll never understand why Sasha Cohen picked Zulema's toothpaste monstrosity over this. Her whiny complaint was "It looks like a Christmas tree." Shyeah! If Christmas trees were FABULOUS! We though this was a beautiful, unique look, perfectly executed. Going light on the sparkle kept it classy.

Number 9


Season 4: Episode 8 - "En Garde!"
Designed by Jillian Lewis and Victorya Hong
Model: Jacqueline Miranne

Season 4 wasn't exactly known for the exuberant personalities of the designers, nor were the teamups anything but embarassingly tense. However, these two happy-go-lucky gals put aside any rivalry and knocked out a stunningly beautiful, striking coat that was all Dr. Zhivago on the top and Petticoat Junction on the bottom. The pink plaid made a perfect counterpoint to the almost sinister black.


Number 8



Season 3: Episode 7 - "Everyday Woman"
Designed by Uli Herzner
Model: Judy G. (Kayne's mother)

While we were in NY, we of course stopped by Laura's and the conversation drifted to this list. When we got to this look, she was adamant. "Definitely. That one has to be on the list." This was a perfect example of a designer melding her aesthetic to the task and the client at hand. It still has Uli's trademark flowy, Miami Beach feel, but it's appropriate for the client and more importantly, incredibly flattering. Whenever we hear competitors whine over the fact that they have to dress a non-size-2 woman, we think of this look, which proved not only that it can be done, but that it can be done fabulously and stylishly.

What? Did you think we were gonna do all ten at once? Silly kittens.



[Photo: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]

Saturday, February 7, 2009

PRK!


Project Runway Korea premiered this week and guess who was a guest judge?


Yes, it's Project RunGay's biggest fan, VictorYA ("Happy") Hong.

*shrug*

People are always asking us to blog the various international flavors of Project Runway, but we've found it's not really worth it. Much as we love to rip a bitch sashaying down the runway in a fugly dress, the availability of these shows to an American audience is extremely limited. We might find an episode of Project Runway Canada (or Australia, or U.K., or Philippines) on YouTube but

a)it's a lousy way to watch the show,
b)it's a lousy format from which to blog about a show, and
c)copyright violations usually yank the clips off the internet within a week, which renders any posts linking to the clips somewhat pointless.

We're fine with that but we really wish the peeps at PRCanada would get their shit together and realize there's a U.S. market for the show. If they would just make it available online for non-Canadians, we'd blog the shit out of it. Come on, it's Iman. There's no point in even trying to get the online pics of the show because the pictures they post are postage-stamp-sized.

In the meantime, here's Happy, shilling for PRK:




[Photos: dramabeans.com - Video: YouTube/Hellcowcup]

Thursday, March 6, 2008

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]

Big Daddy Gunn Shoots His Mouth Off


...and we love him for it.

Darlings, while you're breathlessly waiting for our first hand account of last night's festivities (which is coming soon - promise!), check out this jaw-dropping, dish-filled interview Tim gave to our dear friend Mo Ryan of the Chicago Tribune here.

A sampling:

On the finalists:

MR: I’m with you there. But looking at all the collections in the finale, they were all very strong. I agreed with giving Christian the win, but I thought Jillian’s work was very strong as well.
TG: “For me it was between Christian and Jillian. I thought it could have gone either way. I love Rami, I love his work, I just thought his textile choices were questionable. And I thought his color story was dour.”

On Season 4:

MR: People also said there wasn’t as much drama.
TG: “You know why? Because they’re so committed to their work, they have such passion for it -- that’s where they put their energy and their time and attention. It wasn’t about who’s dissing whom. They didn’t engage in that. And also they all recognize in each other the same kinds of qualities and characteristics, in terms of that passion for their work. They have this respect for each other.”

On the future of the PR designers:

MR: Do you think the show will get them to the next stage of their careers?
TG: “I’m confident that it will. It’s given them this visibility. And people like them, and they like their work. And they see how serious they are. So I can only think that people will want to come on board and help them. “It happened for [past contestants] Kara Saun, Emmett McCarthy, Daniel Vosovic, Laura Bennett – it happened for a lot of them. People have stepped up and said, ‘I want to assist you.’ Emmett’s got a line of handbags coming out on QVC."

On the new season:

MR: It must be hard to think up challenges, four or five seasons in.
TG: “I’m with you. I’ve even suggested for Season 5 that we bring back the best challenges of the past four seasons. I’d love to go back to Gristede’s, the grocery store, [from Season 1]. And you know no one’s going to buy corn."

On VictorYA:

MR: Wasn’t he [Jack] in the hospital for a week?
TG: “Yes, a week on an IV drip. And frankly, we needed to exit him through a story line. He was there about a day too long. Victorya in particular was so hysterical with me and with the producers, [saying] ‘What are you doing to him? He should stay.’ It’s like, ‘You know something, he should be in the hospital right now. Stop it, and stop being so selfish.’”

MR: I don’t really understand why she was so upset. Can you explain that to me?
TG: “She was sourpuss, a crabby apple as I keep saying, throughout almost all the show, other than Days 1, 2 and 3. She became this sour pill. Rich Bye, one of the executive producers, and I had two off camera interventions with her.

[...]

“On one occasion – they edited this out, I knew they would – we were at Mood [Fabrics], and I’m handing out money. They each have $250 dollars. She collects the envelopes from all the designers and hands them back to me. She said, ‘I want you to count it.’ I just stared at her. ‘You want me to do what?’

[...]

“But that’s what it was like dealing with her. She actually said about Jack’s departure that we had engineered him leaving because he wasn’t a pretty face anymore."

UPDATE: The gloves are OFF, bitches. BPR has an exclusive response from VictorYA herself and it's WELL worth reading.


[Photo: Countess/WireImage]

Monday, February 25, 2008

VictorYA: To bitch or not to bitch




"VictorYA, you were very upset about Jack leaving, weren't you?"


"Mmmm."


"She's kind of a bitch, isn't she, Tim?"


"HAHAHAHA! She sure is, Heidi!"


"Yeah? At least I'm not dressed like Wilma Flintstone."


Y'know, we kinda think VictorYA's gotten a bum rap in the editing. They struggled mightily to portray her as a bitch on the reunion show but to us, it looked more like she wasn't going to play the game. Looking at the clip of Jack announcing his leaving, she certainly looked pissed off, but that doesn't make any sense. Jack referred to her as a friend in interviews and he was one of the few designers to attend her Bryant Park show.

If we had to guess, we think she was pissed about some off-camera shenanigans that we never got to see. Perhaps she felt Jack was being forced off the show. Whatever it was, she had no intention of clearing the air, so unfortunately, she wound up looking pretty bad.

First rule in reality television: Play the game, kittens. Play the game.


[Screencaps: Project RunGay]



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Monday, February 4, 2008

PR Bitches at Fashion Week

Those camera whores are all over the place!

First up, here's Heidi at an after party for the Cinema Society and W Magazine's special screening of "Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton."

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me.


Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!

Just remember, gals: HEIDI KLUM IS A JUDGE ON PROJECT RUNWAY. This woman is partially responsible for choosing the "next great fashion designer."

Next up: Elisa and Victorya at Elisa's show.

They look adorable. And it's nice to see the contestants supporting each other so much.

As for Elisa's show...

Oh, kittens. We have opinions.

Stay tuned and we'll share them with you.

[Photos: WireImage/GettyImages]

Na-Be by Victorya Hong

VictorYA showed her Na-Be collection on Friday and of course, we have opinions. It's very much an '80s-inspired collection and for those of us who lived through the '80s and cringe at the thought - get over it. Trends recycle in fashion and right now, this is the trend.

To her credit, she's looking at the more classically inspired looks of the '80s - the menswear-inspired looks, the cropped jackets, the leggings, the wide belts, and pegged pants. It's done in mostly toned down colors of creams and blacks and rich greys, but with some pure '80s splashes of neon and purple. In short, she took the best parts of the '80s and did them up in a modern, wearable style.

































To be honest, we like the collection. A lot of the online and critical reception seems decidedly mixed. It can't by any stretch of the imagination be referred to as "innovative," but so what? That's not the be all and end all of fashion. It's one criteria to apply, but it's not a universal standard. Yes, the looks are very toned down and no, there's never any "wow" moment in the collection, but that's pretty much her personality as we saw it on the show. We can see why she didn't make it to the end of the competition, though. Project Runway is set up in such a way as to reward the dramatic and over-the-top. It's a reality show and that's what it does. In the real world of fashion, this is just a well done, simple, chic collection. Good for her for sticking to her own aesthetic.


Here's the video of her runway show:


[Photos: WireImage/GettyImages - Video: Myitthings.com]