Lurifax

Oh here in the frozen north I am longing for it. I loved Merline, who seemed very original to me. We'll probably get it in April ?

Late to the party, I know. To me, a lot of Brandon's stuff looks very Danish - for example, http://www.brittsisseck.com a big favourite of Princess Mary

I really enjoyed this season, and even enjoyed loathing the twins (it has just finished in Sweden - it showed every day). Just wanted to say that I think there is a big difference between sort-of-copying from memory, like Kenley's McQueen wedding dress, or some mid-field girl a couple of seasons back who basically re-made a Malene Birger collection for her audition pieces, and taking clothes with you to exactly duplicate with the aid of a tape-measure and notes. The former gets you booted for lack of originality, but the latter gets you expelled in shame with a damaged reputation. Thank you all for your forum contributions, even with a month other so delay - ?

Yes, exactly, Weary. Camilla Kerslake is wearing the coat dress for the photo-shoot and looking super - while the pic on the designer's site would make me, at least, think it was unwearable avant garde/unconventional materials. It brought to mind Jeffrey Sebelia's PRAS outfit with the mask/hood thing that he fought for.I thought the other clothes on Zyanya's web site were amazing too

I asked my husband what he thought (not that he is an authority of any sort at all), and he suggested Samoan or Tongan. Not on the basis of her dress size, but because of her face

In the context of unconventional materials, I came across this amazing designer from the Netherlands: zyanyakeizer.com What is interesting is to see her design being worn in (sort of) real life: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-3218183/Camilla-Kerslake-dating-England-rugby-captain-Chris-Robshaw-signed-Gary-Barlow-fighting-breast-cancer-humour.html Compare that with Laurie's flapping mouse-mats ....

Swap il at times approaches the glories of Fabio

Count me in as a wearer of knickers! But there is a worse word than (shudder) "panties" - pantie-hose... The horror, the horror. The Swedish term is "sock trousers" which is really pretty funny, too. And I can't stand the English term "norks" for breasts - usscchhhh

And wouldn't those have been perfect inspiration for the cities challenge for St Petersburg, rather than the lavender abomination with a cape?

I know I'm late to this party, but the discussion about Mary Kay is interesting. No idea what it's like (don't think we have it here) and I realized how hard it is to judge except by brand image, as I guess we all buy one item at a time. But two questions: how much MK do Nina and Heidi have in their make-up drawers, rather than Burberry, Charlotte Tilbury, Armani etc? And what would have happened if a contestant had sent out a double-knit pant suit, as they were trying to dress "the Mary Kay girl"??

This???http://www.wikiart.org/en/tag/peter-the-great#supersized-search-247275

Thank you! The hairdresser doesn't like it if I rip up her gossip rags to be accurate .... And I'm sorry not to know the series, but at least my incompetent report of the item in Se & Hör was comprehensible to you guys! It was a lovely outfit on a beautiful woman. PR is HUGE in Sweden, and often is shown every day - we got hooked by Austin Scarlett and never looked back. But oddly enough, the Gretchen series is always skipped over in the re-runs - can't imagine why (granny pants and cruelty, anyone?)

Given that Joseph and Merline had loads of brocades and St Petersburg as inspiration, they had so many starting points that weren't going to lead to a dull sheath dress and a bib. How about the boyars' fabulous long brocade coats that Peter the Great made them give up? Catherine the Great, all shoulders and Austin Scarlett? Anna Karenina? The last empress Alexandra, Edwardian elegance and lego'mutton sleeves? Today's oligarch wives? I suppose they are meant to use the place as inspiration, rather than dress people to fit in today (in which case the answer would always be jeans) or dress people to go there on holiday (in which case the answer would always be jeans) I can't wait for this season to reach us in Sweden, so I can see it, not just read this forum and look at the photos on the Lifetime site. We just got PR Junior instead - sigh

Spotted today at the hairdresser: Darling Dmitry's drop-dead trouser suit for someone at the BET awards (sorry, don't know who she is as I am ignorant but she is clearly v famous and in a TV series called something like "Orange is a new color")

I suspect the Blake - Shapnil thing was a bit on the lines of my husband in Birmingham, when he ordered a gin and tonic in a pub. Husband is Finnish and speaks BBC English. The girl behind the bar said (in his ears) "Oisenlimininda?" They had a conversation that basically consisted of "what???" and her repeating the question, until I translated her question into "Ice and lemon in that?" Neither was trying to be offensive - it was just an impasse. (But then she didn't say "Sorry, I don't speak Russian")