Project Runway: It's All About Me - The Recap! (Semi-NSFW)

Last night was a tough night for TV!  Let's just say that Glee won out over Project Runway (sorry!) and I only caught the last half hour.  Oh, and I was doing my nails.  I think I'm getting the hang of the gradient look!

Please excuse my messy cuticles - I was a little rough on them last night and this morning...

Anyways - last night was the long awaited textile challenge and I was so happy to see Mondo's adorable little face!


I was able to briefly watch the first 10 minutes or so so I know that the moms / boyfriends / best friends / sisters came into the work room.  I was also trying to do the switch back and forth thing - where I saw Sonjia say something about how she didn't want to be thinking about her mom the whole time and at first I was like, "Uh - don't be a bitch about your mom Sonjia" but that seemed to be the order of the evening.  I get it - you're distracted by your mom / friends / boyfriends / sisters / etc but holy crap!  My second thing about Sonjia is that this lipstick isn't working:



I know I'm all about the pale pinks (my mani y'all!) but I don't think it's working for her.  It's too weird on camera.  Maybe it looks better in person?  I hope so.  And since I'm on the Sonjia train, let's start with her.

   

I'm not gonna lie - all I kept thinking was Sonjia was trying to steal Mondo's steeze on the wide pants front for the textile challenge. While I liked that the pattern didn't end up looking like Pac-Man eating her crotch - an MK critique - I felt like it was too close to Mondo's.  And Mondo's fit was so much better AND he is STILL the reigning master of prints and print mixing.  I will say this about Sonjia's pants - they're nice and even though she was worried about the fit, they fit well and they looked good.  Those shoes are killing me though.  I know I've been in love with them since Michael C used a variation of them in the Godspell challenge but dare I say it, I'm kinda sick of them since I've seen them EVERY.  SINGLE.  RUNWAY DAY.

MOVING ON.

I'm glad Ven finally got the talking to he needed about his stupid fucking flowers.

 

I liked how Heidi said she looked like a Hawaiian Airline hostess. YES GIRL. That was so terrible!! And even though I missed Tim Gunn say this in the workroom, he said this was the "Ode to a menstrual cycle" dress.  How do I know he said that?  Oh, you know, during deliberations, Heidi called him out to ask him if he had told Ven not to keep doing his flower technique.  HEIDI.  You know Tim is all over that shit!  He's a mentor.  He knows a thing or two about telling people to think outside their "norm".  Don't you think Tim would have enough sense to tell Ven to not do this shit?!  Yes.  And he has - many times!  Ven has the disease of Gretchen - you win the first challenge and then you get stuck with your giant ego.  I'm not really worried about him anymore so I'm just going to try and move past this.

Fabio was super excited to be a part of this challenge but...I don't know about this look...

 

This looks straight out of the 80's - right down to the hair.  His super cute boyfriend came to visit and I'm not exactly sure if that was a good thing since I wasn't too impressed with the textile and its use.  Sorry Fabio!  But the look is still very Fabio and I totally knew that was his while I was switching between the commercials.

I expected a little more from Elena.  And I really just want her and Dmitry to hook up already!  The way they were bitching about how they were going to go out of their way to avoid each other was so cute.  Come you guys!  You know you're being mean to each other because you really like each other!  Okay - back to the clothes.

 

I saw when she was like "This looks like a grandma coat" between commercials and I think it still looks like a grandma coat.  What is the pattern anyway?  Looks a little phallic to me.  With some boobs.  The pink strips look like bleeding vaginas to me.  Or maybe a raw penis about to be squished between a pair of boobs.  OKAY - this post just got NSFW.  Sorry folks.

I'm going to derail that train and head over to Christopher and his ladybug things.

 

His look wasn't terrible but I definitely wished he had turned it out a bit more. Just a tiny bit. I liked it but, yes it was a bit Prom-ish and all that but it was still cute and at this stage in the game, cute isn't going to cut it anymore.

Can I just say this about Gunnar and his mom?  I love how they're besties but I have mixed emotions about Gunnar's comment to buy his mom a boob job if he had won Project Runway.  Um - WHAT?  Okay, you guys are so cute.

 

Kudos for Gunnar for going out on a limb and taking a more personal approach. While I LOVE the textile itself, I'm not crazy about this look. And neither were the judges. Anya was being super mean (surprise surprise) and I get that it's a little blah but that textile is so fab, even though it came from a dark place.  I wouldn't mind seeing it inverted.  I'd like a tank top or a shirt out of that.  Better yet - I'd LOVE it as-is for a t-shirt but with a red heart on it somewhere.  Typical, I know, but I think it could work as an anti-bullying campaign piece!  I'd LOVE that!  Sorry it got you sent home, Gunnar.  I'm gonna miss you!!

Melissa really stepped it up.  Her pattern was pretty but her dress was lovely.

 

It was such a chic combination with her graphic lines in her clothing and the way she worked those graphic lines of her pattern together.  Ugh - so pretty.  I wouldn't mind seeing this textile for a cropped jacket or something.  Maybe a short skirt or some short shorts with contrast piping?  The possibilities are endless!  Love it!

We have now arrived at the Dmitry Sholokhov Appreciation portion of this post.


bb Dmitry - ADORBS
 
 
Rocking the man-cleave almost better than Joshua? WHAT!! 

  VS   
You be the judge.  I love the both of them so much, it's not fair.


Being super cute in the work room as per usual.

Oh Dmitry.  I cheered when you won last night.  I wiped away my Glee tears and cheered so much for you!  You deserved this win!  The cutouts on the jacket were INSANE!  Wait - what am I talking about?  Here you go:

 

YES! Give me more of that!  I loved how those geometric shapes were "floating" over that really wonderful graphic print.  It worked so well!  AND, you crazy kid you, you made separates!  And you WON!  And they were FABS!  Keep this momentum going, Dmitry.  We all know you can flawlessly execute the perfect dress but I love when you mix it up!

I plan on watching this entire episode shortly (between long exports) or maybe over the weekend.  Hopefully I won't have anything extra to add to my comments.

Next week is the Rockettes Challenge I kept hearing about.  DAMMIT!  Gunnar would've had so much fun with this one!  Oh well.  I can't wait to see what the designers turn out.  That should be interesting...

Weekend fun!

My bestest best friend in the entire universe - Double D - came to Georgia for a wedding and we had the pleasure of taking him to his favourite pizza place: Cameli's. There, he finally met Lauren and Chandler! We've been trying to get Lauren and Double D to meet FOREVER but it never ended up working out...until now! Success!
Double D shared with us his very inspirational wallet made out of recycled newspapers


The old man and I went to Holy Taco on Thursday and freaked out our regular server - he's used to seeing us on Saturday or Sunday around brunch time. LOL


I bought The Neverending Story on Blu Ray! BEST. PURCHASE. EVER.


I saw this gorgeous hibiscus at Whole Foods. I should've bought it but I probably would've killed it since I'm no good with plants...


Saturday was a busy day. I haven't been sleeping right - which is bothering me - so I've been working out in the mornings. My old man accidentally woke me on Saturday and we went for a walk around some construction sites around our area.

These were on top of a hill near some abandoned development sites. We have no idea what they're planning on building but we're hoping they finish out the road construction so that I can have a faster shortcut on my way home from work! (Priorities, people!)




My Mondo Thera-Tee came in!!

Many many thanks to Lauren for telling me when they went on sale! There were only 300 made (on the first run) and I'm glad we both got one! But there's one thing that kind of makes me upset about the shirt.  Actually, there are two things: 1 - The shirt is SUPER HUGE on me! I ordered an XL thinking it would fit okay but I should have gotten a large. No biggie - I plan on consulting with my sister to help me take it in the right way. I don't want to damage it or alter it but I'd love to wear it without it looking all weird, you know? The second thing: my old man joked around, when Lauren posted the design on my FB page, that it looked like Chowder. And now that's ALL I SEE.
 
Chowder image aside, it's a freakin' sweet shirt!  I hate that my signed card (with a very handsome portrait of Mondo himself) is creased.  I'm still going to frame it though.  But the question is: what frame?  Hmmm...it has to be very Mondo-esque.  Sounds like a custom frame job to me!  Sweet!

How was everyone's Easter weekend?

Project Runway All-Stars: The Finale Part 2 - The Recap

Last night's finale was CRAZY!  I felt like it was Heidi and guest judge Jessica Simpson fighting with Michael Kors and Nina Garcia over Mondo and Gretchen - only replace Gretchen with Michael C and you have the fight between Georgina Chapman, Isaac Mizrahi and Mr. Giggles Ken Downing vs Not-Heidi host and Tommy Hillfiger.  Tommy and Not-Heidi were really stating Michael C's case but Georgina, Heidi and Ken had a point about Mondo: he's ahead of the trends, he's more youthful and he has really great ideas.  But we already knew that, didn't we?
On to the runway show!  I'll start with Austin.

I think when he came out and gave his inspiration and description of his collection by saying it was "Hasidic Jew meets Victorian vampire meets Williamsburg hipster dandy friend", I could see how Ken Downing was laughing.  All I kept thinking was that that sounded like what the costumes would be if Interview with a Vampire had been filmed now instead of the 90's.  That shit cray and you know it, Austin.  Either way, he stepped out a fairly nice collection. 


I wasn't too crazy about his model choice for the 4th look because she didn't carry the dress well and I think that ruined the look for me.  As far as the styling goes, that hybrid pageant Victorian curls thing is killing the first look.  Like, murdering it.  It's not doing that look any favours and neither are those pants.  Eww.  Tommy Hilfiger wanted to have babies with look 5.  I think he was more crazy about the "rock 'n' roll" catsuit than Austin was!  And I thought it was smart for Austin to have done the wedding dress (with Anthony's touches of black accessories from the Opera challenge) but I expected a little more.  The petals were nice and the black accents were pretty with the different white textiles but I wanted a little more of the vampire element brought in to this particular look.  But, unfortunately, Austin's aesthetic is older and he caters to the suburban moms with money and it shows big time.  I think his 1st and 5th looks were his attempt to be more youthful but they didn't work with the rest of his pieces.

Michael C took us on a Gretchen-styled adventure.  Yeah, I said it.  Watching his stuff come down the runway AND hearing all the critiques about it made it feel like the Mondo / Gretchen showdown of season 8.  I was a little scared for a minute there.  Thankfully Michael spared us the granny panties and he showed some out-of-his-comfort (draping)-zone pieces.


Not gonna lie - the models in looks 1, 5 and 6 look FIERCE.  I'll even go as far as saying the model in look 5 looks like she could be a tan version of Diane von Furstenberg.  Lovely.  I will also admit that I LOVE the dress in look 6 without that damn vest.  And Lauren and I decided that Michael's best piece was look 2 because of the structure and angles and guess what - that's the one April helped him out on.  No surprise there.  The rest of the collection was too commercial-y I think.  Like he wanted to show them what he could do for the Neiman Marcus collection but that's not exactly what they wanted.  Well, maybe that's what not-Heidi and Tommy H were expecting but I think they forgot how the show actually worked.  Not a terrible collection, though.

On to the night's winner Mondo!  First of all, I love that he finally won and I'm kind of glad that he didn't win season 8 because these prizes are better.  I think Neiman Marcus and Marie Claire will both benefit from having him because his point of view is so young and fresh and modern.  He's a great choice not only because of his playful youthfulness but he's thoughtful about each piece and he really knows how to manipulate patterns to make his own.  Very clever.


While I always love everything Mondo does, I wasn't crazy about look 3 because it very distinctly has Mila's influence.  Ugh.  BUT it didn't hurt the collection, thankfully.  The inkblots were gorgeous and I was so happy to finally see them!  We just kept getting glimpses of them and I think the only full one we saw was the one in look 4 but the dress in look 5 is stunning and I would love to have that.  Ken Downing called the first piece a "wow piece" and then Tommy (I think) kept saying the buttons on look 2 were comically large - which I thought was wrong because I thought the proportions worked with the polka dots, the large buttons and the circular pockets.  It wouldn't have hurt to have made the pockets a little smaller though but at that point, they'd be purely for decoration and they'd have to question his motives on that one.  The rest of the pieces (save for look 3) was very Mondo though.  His point of view came across very well and I think the fact that he made the textiles for looks 4 and 5 with the inkblots might have sealed the deal for him. 

And can I just point out that last night, Lauren pointed it out to me that Angela was giving Georgina bitch face about her wanting Mondo over Michael C and ultimately, it was Angela's forced smile and "eat shit" bitch face look that gave it away before they even started talking to Michael that it was clear that Mondo won.  Re-watch it and you'll see it too.  There was no cutting around that Stinky McStinkface.

I want to congratulate all the contestants on Project Runway All-Stars this season because they were all great sports for coming back and they all did a great job with their newfound points of view.  This season of All-Stars kind of made up for the shitty seasons of Project Runway, I think.  But I feel like maybe season 10 will end up like season 8 and 9 where you get bitches like Anya and Gretchen taking the wins away from more deserving contestants.  We'll see how that goes.

I hope to see you again on the runway for season 10 and I hope it doesn't disappoint!