Sunday, October 23, 2011

PR: Laura Laura Laura

I haven't been around for a while, I admit. A lot has been going on with all kinds of tasks piled up, and I'm only getting to this blog now. I apologize.
Since last I posted, we had the mini-collection week and the home visits/3-looks trial.
The mini-collection week was kind of a bummer.
Anya's pieces were okay...I liked the understated structure to them. But the cinnamony two-piece look sort of reminded me of yoga wear and I didn't care for the pointy hem of her black dress, which just made it look like the dress was backward.
Viktor's pieces were highly praised. I really didn't care much for the blouse print he chose. I could see where it was coming from with the skyline thing, but the blouse looked kind of cheap to me.
Kimberly's looks...oh, sheesh. The silver dress was the only thing I liked. No, let me clarify. I liked the coat she made, but it looked slubby on the runway especially because it was so poorly styled. The third look, the orange top and silver skirt, were unsophisticated (Tom and Lorenzo call it out for hoochieness, which is accurate).
And then there is Josh. His looks were just silly. There were pieces that worked, like the white dress with the mesh, and maybe the striped top. But nothing else worked, and certainly not together. The runway judging at this point was equally ridiculous and ill-fitting.
But I'm really annoyed at the judging (and other comments made) of Laura. I loved Laura's pieces. I really did. I liked the circles and the extent to which they were used. I liked the sassiness of it, and the open fretwork of the top of the dress, with the black cap to the sleeve--I thought it was awesome. I could so rock a dress like that. And the dress they complained about looking like a pillowcase? Couldn't disagree more. The top didn't fit properly, it's true. But I liked the ease of it, and I saw the relationship between that dress and the other looks.
Thus, I was completely upset when Laura ultimately went home, after a total lambasting on the runway. In my view, Josh should have gone, and if the producers were really resistant, Kimberly. Laura has much more spunk to her looks, and a much more interesting point of view. Sure, her stuff is often "pretty," but since when is that a bad thing? Women like pretty clothes.

This whole situation (namely Laura's ousting) was made even worse when you sneak a peek at the collections, on nymag.com or Tom & Lorenzo's blog, for this reason: LAURA'S COLLECTION IS CLEARLY THE BEST. How depressing is that? Her collection is the only one with style and no real inconsistencies. There were one or two pieces I felt meh about, but I feel like Laura's "decoy" collection is the first collection I've really and truly loved in years. Literally years. In fact, Jay McCarroll is the only one I can think of that I really loved as much. The only one I remember, I should say. And guess what? While we don't always see eye to eye, Tom & Lorenzo agree with me. Can you beat that?

In some ways, I lost interest as soon as Laura was auf'd. I didn't really watch the home visits, though I turned in to the second half. I wanted to see who would go home. Surprise! No one.
Here's what happened:
Kimberly had a sleek sparkly dress (plus), a pair of blue pants (plus), a southwest top (minus), a boring blue top (minus), and a poofy pink skirt (minus).
Josh had a crazy muumuu jumpsuit (minus), a pair of pink pants (minus), a weird jacket (neutral), a print/mesh top (minus), and an ill-fitting black dress (minus).
Anya had a brown print dress (plus), a tan coverup (minus), a weird black swimsuit (minus), and a misshapen gold dress (minus).
Viktor had a flowy dress (plus), a white jacket (plus), a cool print dress (plus), a leather overskirt (minus), a pair of print pants (neutral), an embellished top (plus), and a black jacket (plus).
You can do the math. Viktor is obviously in. To my mind, Josh needs to exit, or Anya. Kimberly is safe.
And yet Kimberly and Anya are at the bottom. I will admit that Kimberly didn't pick the best looks from her collection to show the judges. The pieces didn't relate well. That being said, Josh's looks were all shady, whereas Anya had one adequate piece. I know the judges always want to see more Josh, because he's crazy, but they always seem to love Anya, too. I think the judges kind of missed the boat on Kimberly being at the bottom--I didn't necessarily care for what she had, but she does actually have a particular aesthetic that some people to respond to. I felt like the judges missing that is why she was on the bottom, whereas Josh's work, which supposedly has a point of view (even if that is something I don't want to look at) got a free ride.

Since Laura is gone, I couldn't win anyway, so I guess this past week was an academic exercise for me at best. I've seen all the collections and there are pieces I like from Viktor, Kimberly, and Anya. Maybe one or two of Josh's. But all have serious missteps as well. Judging might be interesting, but once again, I sort of feel like they should do what one of our Mid-American Review contest judges did once--reject the finalists we sent them and ask to see a different batch, and hand the crown to Laura.

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