Well, at least this episode had Dita Von Teese. That’s something!
Previously: We were forced to pretend Heidi had good taste, and the editors went completely apeshit with special effects.
The Challenge: In teams of two, the designers had one day to create an unconventional wedding dress, and a companion look for the same woman to wear to her wedding reception. The only thing more unreasonable than expecting the designers to create a red-carpet-ready gown in a single day (like they did in the last episode) is expecting them to create a WEDDING gown in a single day. No wonder everything on the runway was a mess – the producers once again refused to give the designers even a fraction of the time necessary to complete this challenge in a remotely fashionable way. Does anyone else remember a time when one-day challenges were at least somewhat of a rarity? Enough that Heidi had to say “and designers… this is a ONE-DAY challenge,” and everyone would moan and groan and panic? At some point, one-day challenges became the rule rather than the exception, and I just can’t stand it.
Guest Judges: Fabulous burlesque performer and fashion icon Dita Von Teese, who was refreshingly candid and cool, and fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni.
Alexander & Samantha
ALEXANDER KNOX
Bottom 4
Photos: Lifetime
It looks better in pictures than it did on the runway. The darker-than-red skirt and the yellower-than-white embellishments make this dress look old. Not old-fashioned old, but literally decomposing in someone’s attic old. It’s a bit on the depressing side, and it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but again, let’s blame the producers for their absurd time constraints instead of the designers. It’s just so much more fun.
SAMANTHA PLASENCIA
Bottom 4
Photos: Lifetime
Not remotely interesting, but at least it’s not black! This felt more like a cheap knock-off of a designer dress than anything else.
Team Amanda & Korina
AMANDA VALENTINE
Photos: Lifetime
Was the manufactured drama between Amanda and Korina completely exhausting, or what? Off-screen, Korina allegedly called Amanda a phony, and then they had an awkwardly-edited conversation that was supposedly about that, but really seemed to be about something else entirely. Who gives a shit? Both of these women are boring, and Amanda’s “I can’t believe everyone thinks I’m a phony!” felt, well, phony. But hey, the dress is actually cute. It’s more teenage pop star than nontraditional rock wedding, but at least it’s chic and wearable. God knows not everyone else achieved that.
KORINA EMMERICH
Photos: Lifetime
I’ve had more than enough of Jessa’s mean girl attitude, but honestly, I don’t hate this. Yes, the pants are too tight, because Amanda apparently didn’t think to get this model’s measurements before sewing these pants for Korina. But I think it fit the challenge moderately well, and it was at least kind of interesting. Almost. A little bit.
Team Emily & Fäde
EMILY PAYNE
Top 4
Photos: Lifetime
Emily and Fäde were only sort of in the top – Heidi seemed to enjoy their looks, but no one else did. I absolutely adore Dita for calling this look out for what it is – a cliché parody of a goth wedding. She actually seemed personally offended by this dress, and I found that kind of hilarious and endearing. This woman wed Marilyn Manson – if anyone has a right to be offended by silly, witchy knock-offs of goth-couture, it’s Dita Von Teese. I personally didn’t hate this look, but I can see why Dita did.
FÄDE ZU GRAU
Top 4
Photos: Lifetime
The judges liked Fäde’s look marginally more than Emily’s, but it still didn’t get quite as much love as I think it deserved. Again, it might not be special enough for a wedding, but it’s a killer cocktail dress, with lace and hand-painting and asymmetry and that general city-girl cool vibe that all Fäde’s looks seem to contain.
Team Kini & Sean
KINI ZAMORA
Top 4
Photos: Lifetime
Kini’s ego is going to get the better of him soon, right? He went from sweet and adorable, to a little too braggy about how quickly he sews, to stubbornly insisting to the camera that he was ROBBED because he didn’t win this challenge. Yes, he can sew at a speed that boggles the mind. But I don’t think he’s one of the better designers of the group, and I think he really lacks originality. If the judges had given the contestants two days instead of one, Kini’s speed would have mattered less, and I don’t think the design of his garment would have lived up to the rest. This dress would have snagged the win from me simply by default, but only because nothing else managed to be well-executed and vaguely challenge-appropriate. It looks like something Dita would wear, but only because it also looks like a Zac Posen rip-off.
SEAN KELLY
Winner
Photos: Lifetime
The top moved beautifully, but the pants are incredibly awkward. And there was no reason to give Sean the win for this, other than to continue this season’s completely insufferable trend of giving out multiple wins so that some designers can become more hated by their competitors.
Team Sandhya & Char
SANDHYA GARG
Bottom 4
Photos: Lifetime
This was clearly the bottom team from the start of the episode. They chose a bad color, and just made more and more terrible decisions after that. I was shocked by how poorly executed this dress was. When Heidi lifted up the model’s skirt, it was tucked and pinned and just generally a disaster under there. Sandhya at least attempted to do something interesting with the bodice – sure, it came out looking pretty awful, but that attempt alone was enough to save her from elimination.
CHAR GLOVER
Eliminated
Photos: Lifetime
And it’s goodbye to Char, who was the only designer whose personality I actually liked from the beginning. I’m sad to see her go, because I think she’s one of the only designers of the last few seasons who’s actually enjoyable to watch. I actually got misty-eyed when Tim said goodbye to her – and it’s been years and years since that’s happened for me on this show – but I can’t disagree with this elimination. This really did look like little more than scraps.
Judges’ Top 4: Sean, Kini, Fäde, Emily
Diva’s Top 4: Kini, Fäde, Sean, Amanda
Judges’ Bottom 4: Alexander, Samantha, Sandhya, Char
Diva’s Bottom 4: Alexander, Samantha, Sandhya, Char
Next time: The designers get inspired by crazy-expensive jewels and probably still don’t have enough time to make anything decent in S13 E07 – Chopard.
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© Democracy Diva, 2014.
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The Democracy Diva 
Fäde’s was my favourite – again, because it was the only design which actually had some interest. I couldn’t stop looking at it. No idea if it would be appropriate for a reception, though, and I doubt that Fäde has either, because German weddings work a little bit different. It is totally appropriate for the actual wedding before the church wedding, though most brides go either for something more colourful or an actual wedding dress if they either don’t have a church wedding or the church wedding is at the very same day (which is not always the case).
Amanda’s read too much 1960s for me, but than for a bride who picks this is a theme for the wedding it might work.
Otherwise the whole challenge parameters are just idiotic. Creating stunning dresses in one day is nearly impossible, and the team aspect only makes it more difficult. I know that the idea is that both designers spend most time one a stunning wedding dress and then a little less time one the simpler piece, but it never ever happens that way, the designers always split the time so that each designer does one piece – as a result the one who makes the more complicated one has to coordinate on top of it. If they are unwilling to give two days they should have said one dress for two designers…which might have created even more drama, but at least this might have created some more impressive results.
Six challenges, 3 winners… I don’t know what to say anymore. I really don’t. At least your prediction that Sandhya will begin to choke seems to be right, DD, otherwise I’d think they’d chosen their final 3 already. And the fact that Fade isn’t there is a total joke.
As for the challenge itself… Austin Scarlett managed to do it better 12 seasons ago, when he sent a god-awful alternative wedding dress down the runway to please his model/client’s wishes, landed in the bottom 3 and IT STILL LOOKS MORE BELIEVABLE THAN HALF OF THESE MESSES.
I liked Amanda’s dress, and I would like to wear it, but that doesn’t say “wedding reception” at all, not even in the uttermost parallel universe. I refuse to comment on the poorly fabricated drama, that would be to insult my intelligence. Just throwing out there that the Tim save is reserved for either her or Sandhya.
Your Austin Scarlett point is SPOT ON. I’ve said this a lot in recent seasons, but almost anyone from the earlier seasons could have easily won the latter seasons. The talent is just not there anymore. Or if it is, the producers don’t give them enough time to do anything with it. It’s so frustrating that they STILL believe we’d rather watch fabricated drama than people making great fashion.
Ugh, you’re probably right about the Tim save, but I will scream my head off if he uses it for Amanda.
I write about movies, not fashion, but I do love me some Project Runway. Your recaps are on point! I am now following (stalking) your blog. 😉
YAY thanks Mark! I have always believed that you don’t have to care about fashion to enjoy my blog. It’s more about poking fun at celebrities than anything else! (Well, except for Project Runway posts, where we poke fun at nameless, faceless Lifetime producers instead.) Thanks for reading!
The yellow that was picked by Char and Sandhya is a brilliant color and I love it, but not as clothing- because my skin is pink-and-white and it washes me right out. Both Char and Sandhya have darker skin tones and a bright yellow would look gorgeous on them. I didn’t hate the color, but the construction was beyond ick, and I can’t imagine anyone thinking that yarn bodice was attractive. It made me think of the crocheted woollen ponchos that were big in the 70s. (And no evidence persists, because I destroyed all the pictures- that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.)
I loved Kini’s suit the best because I think it best filled the requirements and was one of the better-made (if not best-made) garment there. I kind of feel for him feeling offended by not winning. I’ve seen so many designers show a sketch and then produce nothing that looks like the sketch they’ve shown, to my eyes at least; I think it’s quite possible that Kini really did both design and produce that blouse for Sean’s model to wear with the average pants that Sean made. I think it’s a shame that nobody spoke up and said that Kini had made that blouse- if I’d been there, I’d have done so.
Loved Fade’s fabric manipulation: when they showed that closeup, and you could see that it had been painted as well as layered with the lace and solid black fabric- the amount of work and the vision were wonderful. And when Heidi said she would have liked a lower neckline I yelled at the TV “Because all you want is to show skin!” which made my husband think I was crazy. I didn’t hate Emily’s, but it DID look juvenile.
And Dita Von Teese is gorgeous. All my life I’ve wanted to look just like her, and I’m beginning to think it’s not going to happen.
Dita Von Teese is just so crazily beautiful and fabulous. I feel the same way about her. And ugh, Heidi wanting to lower the neckline – so obnoxious. We get it, Heidi. Not everyone has to/wants to dress like that. Not all of us are former underwear models!
Yeah, would still wear fade’s (and I refuse to use the umlaut, because it’s not pronounced that way…)
One of the really telling things I’m picking up this season is the lack of taste displayed. Now it could be editing (always) but multiple times this season designs that the other designers have liked have been horrifically ugly and on the bottom, while beautiful things were derided. Sandhya’s dress from the first episode was actually beautiful and really striking, everyone except Samantha thought it was on the bottom. Multiple designers this week liked Samantha and Alexander’s set, but that lace was not nearly as attractive as they seemed to think it was. There may be uneven judging for sure, but even the designers now can’t appraise each other’s work in a reasonable way.
Great point about the taste level of the designers. I think it is partially editing, but you’re right that there’s been some questionable-at-best assessments of fellow competitors’ work.
And some delusions on the part of the designers about their own work!
Well, that’s to be expected! 🙂
And no one had anything to say about that ridiculous back slit on Emily’s? It looks less like a deliberate feature and more like she didn’t have time to close up the back seam.
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