Hello, PR fans! I am beat tonight, and still have to do a bunch of reading, so I'm going to try to keep things short and sweet. (Ha. Like I could stop running my mouth--er, fingers.) Here's a little blogging party game you can play at home: Gordon is currently sitting in the living room with me. How many minutes do you think he'll make it before he gives up on watching the show and runs away?
We start in the hotel, and Austin bitchily says that Kara deserved to stay more than Jerell or Mila (but not to their faces, of course). Nothing much comes of it, and soon the contestants are off to their next destination: the U.N.! We see the classic view of the black slab building ringed by the world flags, and then cut to what I think is the U.N. Peace Garden. Angela greets them, standing by a table of six flags chosen from each of the six major world regions: Chile, Greece, India, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, and the Seychelles. Each designer must make a dress inspired by the colors of the flag, and the culture of the country.
Mondo chooses Jamaica; Michael chooses Greece and shouts "Opa!"; Mila picks Papua New Guinea because of the colors; Jerell picks India for its embellished ethnic flair; Austin picks the Seychelles and makes a dumb lispy joke I won't transcribe; and Kenley is left with Chile, but says she's happy with it. Looks like the designers also get a binder with some information about their chosen country as well.
Hello, PR fans! Don't know about you, but I'm still stinging from last week's results, and the generally disappointing judging over the last few episodes. Tonight's challenge is to create an outfit for the revival of Godspell. Now, I have a soft spot in my heart for this musical--along with Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar, it pretty much comprised my religious education. But that said, is there anyone who hears "Godspell" and thinks "glamour"? I mostly just picture mimes.
We open on Columbus Circle's Flatotel, where Austin is doing Kenley's hair, and all the contestants are reeling from Rami's dismissal. Then off they dash to Times Square (ish--Circle in the Square Theatre on 50th) to get their challenge. I think I saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee here. Angela is waiting for them, and introduces their guest judge, the composer of Godspell (among many others), Stephen Schwartz. Now, that is definitely high-powered in the theatrical realm, but for fashion? I remain skeptical. But the contestants seem delighted, especially when they learn that the winner will have their look featured in the show, and they'll get a bio in the program. I wish to stop here and point out that Kenley's hair is apparently still up in rollers, because her head looks enormous and she's wrapped it in a giant scarf. Not the done thing, Kenley!
Ah, and here is the "glitz"--the actress they're designing for is playing a wealthy, ostentatious woman who has stolen her riches from others. (I'm scrambling to think of which song this goes with...maybe "All For the Best"?) Then I get confused because the director starts explaining that the whole cast should look as though they've assembled their own costumes from their own closets, or thrifting, or whatever. So...she's supposed to look like she's made her own costume of Rich Woman? Incidentally, the stills from the show indicate that a copious amount of confetti is involved in the production. Ah--the challenge is also that Rich Woman will have her costume assembled onstage by the other actors...so the designers must do separates, and they have $200 and one day.
Hello, lovelies! Just spent a lovely evening drinking wine with my best girls, and now am BUI for sure (blogging under the influence!). Probably the best way to deal with TV recaps, actually. Well, at least we can be reasonably confident that no one will fall off the stage tonight, barring any model mishaps!
This week's challenge begins with Angela onstage, looking like she's gone on a mad shopping spree. She's festooned with eight tote bags, and each designer must choose one. Of course they all vie for the most fashionable version--there's an orange leather bag, a green-and-white striped one, and one that's all faux fur--but in the end, it doesn't matter. Inside the bags are luggage tags with a season written on them, and the designers are to design a look for someone planning a weekend getaway in the season they've been assigned. Angela does the math for us--4 seasons, 8 designers--to explain that the two people on each season will be facing off against one another.
The designers are exposed to daylight, which doesn’t seem to
agree with all of them. Austin, naturally, is sporting a straw boater. I’m
amazed he’s not clad in a white flannel suit to go with it. Must have left his punting pole by the
Thames. Anyway, they’ve been trotted out to Central Park for some fresh air and
panhandling—though in this case, they don’t need money, they need a muse,
chosen from among the various people in the park. And of course, that’s not enough—they have to convince their
muse to give the designers their clothing! I don’t really like this
challenge—it stretches the designers’ skills, but I always become preoccupied
with how sad I’d be if one of my favorite outfits was chopped up into something
I didn’t like.
Anthony tells us in a talking head that although he’s often
dinged for his big personality, that will be the quality that puts him ahead in
this challenge. He’s right—I would
die if I had to approach strangers and convince them to give me their
outfits. “Excuse me, ma’am, would
you mind…oh, never mind, I’m sure you don’t want to. Sorry to bother you.” And
then I would auf myself and save
Heidi the time. (Sorry, Angela, you don’t have a good catchphrase, so I’m
casting Heidi in this scenario.)
Ha! Angela throws them a bone by saying that the budget is
$150, and the designers are allowed to use any portion of that to convince
their muse to cough up the threads. Of course, then they’ll have that much less
for Mood, so there’s some calculation at work. Rami observes that they’ll have a difficult time in New
York, because “we know that New Yorkers don’t take that shit very well.” Heh.
Hello, PR fans! I type with weakened fingers, as I finally made it back to Zumba tonight and am now spent. Lifetime, be gentle with me. The title of this week's episode gives me some pause, given that last week we had Miss Piggy as our guest judge/client. Tonight are we going to see Charlie the Tuna?
No, but I'm not as far off as one might think. The designers' next challenge is to make an outfit inspired by the colors and flavors of gelato, and they've actually got some poor scoop jockey with a cart from "L'arte de Gelato." April points out that the board of flavor options is rather over the top, and she doesn't even know what some of these flavors are (notably, "Fruits of the Forest"). Michael is last week's winner, so he gets to pick first. He scampers over and chooses grapefruit, and is handed a tall skinny cone from the server. He's a little disappointed, because the ice cream is sort of pale blush-colored, not the ruby-red grapefruit color he'd hoped for.
Michael then chooses the next person to pick--Mondo. Mondo wants cantaloupe. Mila chooses "Milk and Sour Cherries." April chooses blueberry. Jerell chooses the infamous Fruits of the Forest, which turns out to be a rich red color. Kenley chooses passionfruit. Austin chooses Vanilla Madagascar (I have visions of a white gown with a Carmen Miranda hat). Anthony chooses green tea. Rami chooses kiwi, and last is Kara, who winds up with "chocolate with cayenne pepper." She's disappointed, but I don't think it's a bad pick--I'm not sure why she's so upset.
Hello, all-star readers! While I'm enjoying the season thus far, I can't say that I'm particularly excited for tonight's episode, "Patterning for Piggy." Not only has the Muppet movie come and gone, but I don't care if these designers can design for a puppet. And I don't really need to see a talking ball of foam judge the dresses. But hey, maybe they'll surprise me. And it's certainly ripe for a Surprise Twist, in which the designers think they're making a dress inspired by Piggy, but then at the last minute ALSO have to make a matching dress FOR Piggy! (If it happens, you totally heard it here first.)
Angela comes out and does a coy intro to the challenge, telling the designers they're to design "a flamboyant cocktail dress for one of the most famous fashionistas in the world." She also tells them that this guest has had everyone from Burberry to Prada design for her. Huh. I did not know that. Austin thinks it'll be Cher or Lady Gaga, but the designers all laugh, and a lot of them seem really psyched. The Muppets touched us all, I guess. We see a lot of Miss Piggy shots in various outfits, and there's one with straightened hair that kind of reminds me of Jill Zarin. Ah--"the winning designer's cocktail dress will be modified for Miss Piggy's figure." So they still get to build human-sized clothes, at least. (Good thing--you know how these designers all are about working with plus-sized models!)
In the workroom, Mila decides to go 60s Mod for Piggy, because it doesn't need to be costumey. Kenley tells us she loves Miss Piggy because she grew up watching the cartoon, and I immediately start grumbling that that isn't authentic Piggy. Muppet Show is where it's at! Statler & Waldorf 4eva! Let's go to Mood and walk it off.
Austin wants a hot pink fabric, but Gordana notes that a lot of other designers are grabbing black. I also observe that this time, the designers keep their own time...no Tim (or even Swatch!) to chivvy them along. With an "All right, Mood, Imma holla atcha!" from Anthony, we're off to the workroom to sew, sew, sew!
Gordana doesn't want to do structure, like the other designers are--she feels that her vision is more free-spirited and flowing, which is beautiful on a woman (or a pig, I guess). Mondo tells us that he thinks her dress is beautiful, quiet and soft, and doesn't fit the challenge requirement of "flamboyant." I'm thinking that all this working footage would be improved if they played the theme to the Muppet Show over the top. Here you go (here you go, here you go again...)!
Hello again, lovely Runway fans! I have made my peace with this new, Tim Gunn-less runway, especially because I have it on good authority that he will definitely be back for next season. Whew! (Also, for all you fans of Gunn's Golden Rules, he's working on a new book!) I've tuned in early enough to catch the "coming up on this season," and it looks like Isaac definitely won't stay as sedate as he was this week--for good or ill.
Angela welcomes the designers and announces the guests who will deliver this week's challenge: the two men who make up Badgley Mischka! Badgley (or Mischka) demonstrates via self-tanner that orange is always in fashion. The task tonight is to design a dress for attending the opera, and it should be fabulous and creative. (I assume they're referring specifically to opening night at the Met, which I know is fancy because Alex and Simon made a big deal of it on RHONY. See how educational reality TV can be?)
The designers all retire to the workroom to sketch before heading to Mood (with $350, but only a day to make the dress), and I find it interesting to see how few of them embrace the sponsor's HP Think Pads for sketching. April tells us that on her season, she used a ton of black, so this time she's embracing color. Not, apparently, in her hair, however. Austin tells us he was called "the king of couture" on his season of PR (was he?), and will be humiliated if he doesn't do well on this challenge.
Mondo chooses Jamaica; Michael chooses Greece and shouts "Opa!"; Mila picks Papua New Guinea because of the colors; Jerell picks India for its embellished ethnic flair; Austin picks the Seychelles and makes a dumb lispy joke I won't transcribe; and Kenley is left with Chile, but says she's happy with it. Looks like the designers also get a binder with some information about their chosen country as well.
