The Rundown
For all of us who were expecting The Fashion Show to be like Project Runway but less good, well, last night’s premiere pretty much lived up to expectations. There’s no adorable Heidi and Tim antics, no butt-clenching terror instilled by Nina, no quote-worthy non sequiturs by Michael.
Despite the inevitable unfavorable comparisons to PR, I say we give it a shot. Talent-wise, the contestants seem somewhat lackluster compared to the usual round up, but even with PR it generally take a few episodes to start getting into the personalities and designs. So far, the standouts seem to be James-Paul and Angel for talent, Johnny R. for looking like a sumo wrestler but having the voice of a teenage goth girl working at the Cinnabon, and Merlin for sheer bitchiness (scroll to the bottom of the post to read my experience with Merlin in the flesh).
The one departure of TFS that I do like is a focus on what appeals to buyers. The elimination challenge now features an audience comprised of buyers and designers who give their feedback on the designs to the judges. Not only does this detail draw attention to the link between fashion and commerce, but creating wearable and sellable pieces is what is going to truly ensure these designers’ foothold in the fashion industry (note some of the past winners of PR who created beautiful if unattainable pieces who are now floundering to make a living).
Like Top Chef, the show is comprised of an initial mini-challenge and the de rigueur elimination challenge. This episode, the contestants made a little black dress out of a t-shirt in the mini challenge, and the top three designers (Merlin, Keith, and Johnny) were named team captains of three design groups for the elimination challenge.
Each team had to pick a must-have piece that would be created and used in each team member’s outfit, with each look having a different circumstance (i.e. business, cocktail hour, etc). Of course, team challenges historically mean disaster, and this was no exception. Let’s get to it!
The Runway
The Harem Pant Group
Or, as BravoTV.com likes to say, “Harlem” pants (sometimes spell check leads you astray, I guess). As Isaac pointed out a number of times, harem pants are hardly a must-have piece. They tend to fall on the costume-y side of things, they have no wardrobe longevity, and they’re pretty much unflattering on most body types. As a buyer I would avoid them like the plague.
Markus paired his harem pants with an understated ivory top. It’s not a huge wow piece, but then again, what can you do when you’re matching to harem pants? It is most definitely not formal. It does have a J. Lindeberg thing going on, with the somewhat asexual cut paired with interesting seaming details.
What could possibly be more terrifying than harem pants? Harem pants paired with a cropped top! Thanks, Johnny R.!
Like Markus’, Haven’s top was largely underwhelming but inoffensive. However, her days are most likely numbered due to her lack of sewing ability. While most designers don’t construct their own pieces on a daily basis, these kind of shows don’t involve an outsourcing of labor.
Laura did a decent job of at least covering up the harem pants somewhat, but she had issues with construction, and the scarf head detail is a bit too Burning Man for my taste.
This, by the way, is the “professional” look. Because nothing says appropriate office attire like showing up looking like Princess Jasmine. Reco did put together the most wearable look for this group, however - his origami jacket and fitted top would look super cute if only paired with jeans or a pencil skirt.
The Bolero Jacket Group
Bolero jackets were definitely the most logical must-have choice made by a group. They’re versatile, they’re classic, and they can be paired with just about anything. To his group’s dismay, Merlin decided about mid-way through the construction process that the boleros were looking too blah and dramatically altered his, forcing the rest of the group to follow suit.
Daniella’s “casual” look, with its fitted matching black pants and long-sleeved top, was actually on the dressier side. Good but by no means great.
I loved the idea of the polkadot tie top and detailed skirt in Angel’s professional outfit, but she was somewhat dogged by construction issues, and the belt was rather unnecessary.
Merlin’s playful cocktail hour outfit landed him in the top two. As an ensemble it worked very well, but as one of the other designers pointed out, the skirt is a bit circus-like on its own.
I love tall-necked blouses for formal attire, but Lydia’s use of a shiny peach fabric for hers made it a bit vomitous.
James-Paul won the challenge with his lovely structured dress. The other designers rolled their eyes at his explanation of using rectangles and squares to create his piece, but I found his Diana Eng-like “I use math to make fashion” angle to be adorable.
The Tube Skirt Group
As bad of an idea as harem pants were, even worse were the tube skirts made of an impossibly tight wool blend. The idea was borne as a compromise between Kristin, who wanted to do a dress, and Keith, who wanted to do a skirt, with the idea that the dress could be folded over in some cases to create a skirt. Guess what happens when you double up on a virtually stretch-less fabric? The buyers in the audience looked on in horror as the poor models were made to look like fatties in the insanely unflattering and tight pieces. Perfect for real women’s bodies, right?
Keith’s dinner date outfit, with the one-shouldered floral top and skinny contrast belt, would have been fairly cute and appropriate…if only the skirt weren’t so tight.
What line of work do you suppose Anna’s “professional” outfit is for? I do like her little red jacket, though.
Kristin’s casual outfit was unsurprisingly in the bottom two. Eventually, the fact that there were some stirrings of good ideas behind it all (like putting a decorative layer over the tube skirt), even if they were poorly executed, saved her.
Andrew’s cocktail hour ensemble was perhaps overly simple, but would have been rather chic…if only the skirt weren’t so tight.
Finally, Jonny D. was booted off the show for creating a “night club look” that was just straight up slutty. His skirt was literally so tight that it made his model walk pigeon-toed. I generally love the color combination of grey and ecru, but there was just no saving this one.
Tidbits
Kelly wore a GORGEOUS one-shouldered ecru Jacques Fath dress for elimination. It’s not online, but I will post some substitutes later. You can, however, buy James-Paul’s winning ensemble here.
And now, my Merlin anecdote. As we started watching the premiere last night, my husband was the one who first recognized Merlin. “You KNOW who that is, RIGHT?” he asked me. I waited for another close-up and, yes – yes I did recognize Merlin.
About a year and a half-ish ago I brought my boutique to this nightmare sample sale at Fort Mason in San Francisco. It was overpriced for vendors to show at, and due to inclement weather and bad management on the part of the organizers, really poorly attended by shoppers. My boutique probably did the most sales at the show and it still wasn’t remotely worth the misery. The worst part is that all these little designers drove up from Los Angeles and San Diego to attend, and they probably didn’t even recoup their gas money.
The booth immediately to the right of ours was occupied by the designs of a man we now know as Merlin. Based on what I saw at the sample sale, it would seem that not much of what you see on The Fashion Show, dress or personality-wise, is exaggerated for the sake of television. He was wearing these shiny women’s cut trousers, a top with a built-in over-the-shoulder shawl detail (similar to something he’s wearing in one of the Bravo promo shots), and a turban, but like, one that a glamorous woman of a certain maturity would wear in the 1940s. It was a very Norma Desmond kind of look.
We didn’t talk to Merlin at all, but we were pestered by the guy who was accompanying him, who seemed to be a business partner/friend/love interest/some combination of the three. He was fairly bitchy and would thumb through our stuff and make catty remarks about things being marked down, which…selling your marked down items is pretty much the point of attending a sample sale. Despite a lack of discernible interest from us, he bragged about how Merlin’s creations had a huge following in L.A. amongst wealthy ladies looking for custom pieces. I finally had to semi-shoo him away because he came back a few times and was trying to make one-sided snarky conversation over the heads of customers that we were helping out.
I’m not sure if they did any significant sales at the show, but they did have this over-the-top yellow dress on display that got a lot of attention. There were some nice details to it, and it seemed to be relatively well-made, but it was very Carmen Miranda – costume-y with ruffles everywhere, sequined trim, you name it. Kelly, my friend who was helping me out along with my husband at the show, couldn’t resist getting a closer look at the dress and its price tag. She came back with her mouth agape. Memory fails me a bit, but the dress was “on sale” at something like $3000, marked down from $6000. A few women tried it on and took pictures with it, but alas, no takers.
Safe to assume that there’s a lot more drama to come this season.
All photos: BravoTV.com
