Oholibamah

I didn't think Samantha deserved the negative critique - I thought her design was pretty strong (and she must have agreed, because homegirl was looking PISSED up on the runway). But I wasn't a huge fan of Emily's or Alexander's despite the obvious work that went into it. Fade, OTOH, sent out one of the unqualified best looks on the runway for the 6th week in a row. He got some positive comments, but it's a shame he was technically in the bottom. Sean and Kini were the obvious winners, but my cold black heart loves that Kini didn't win. Regardless of who made the blouse, it was Sean's design and, IMO, was superior to Kini's (also very strong) look. I also like that only 3 people have won out of 6 challenges. It'll make everybody else try and step up their games. She hasn't. Like, ever. The one time she said something negative about someone's design (Richard), she cried backstage and apologized after the runway despite him completely throwing her under the bus first. Otherwise Amanda's opinions of other's designs are the garden variety "I don't get it" or "that yellow is ugly". She is never rude, or as unnecessarily dismissive as Michelle was of Patricia or Korina of Sandya. I continue to toot my Amanda train horn and think she handled the awkward non-drama with Korina like a champ. Call me crazy, but I thought those white pants fit perfectly. The fabric wouldn't have worked with a looser sillouette and I thought they pulled the whole look together. But even if they were the worst pants ever made, it was better than sending out a half naked model. Korina needs to get a grip on reality. I have absolutely no basis for thinking this, but I am praying that Tim is bringing back Kristine next week. I am obviously being fuelled by wishful thinking, but i thought her elimination was bullshit and I am hoping Tim's melodrama next week is him realizing he should have used his save on her. Fingers crossed. A lot of the models bleed together for me, but I can say with certainty that Emily and Sandhya have had the same models since the beginning since I know Alisar from GNTM, and Emily's model is such an amazing walker. But even if Amanda had been told the model's measurements, she was constructing pants in a half-hour with no chance to fit them. Knowing her measurements doesn't necessarily help knowing if extra fabric needs to be through the thighs, butt or hips. Korina could have saved herself some trouble by, you know, finishing her own work.

Could Bethany and Jason be twins? I tend to not keep very good track of the show's minutiae, but this could explain a lot of loose ends, including Alison's jealousy and Peter's interest in the situation.

I am too lazy to look up when Bunim/Murray took over, but this is what I was getting at with my original post. They take the lion's share of the blame for the show's decline in quality, IMO. And while this is likely part-and-parcel with the move to Lifetime, IIRC, it didn't happen right away. Season 6 had some kinks to work out (and they did), Seasons 7 and 10 were fantastic, and 9 was an enjoyable season with a bunch of weak designers. 8 would have been fine without the bullying element. Where the show really turned in quality, IMO, was 11, 12 and 13 (the latter of which I am still holding out hope for). Which may very well be possible because of the move to Lifetime, but I'm not convinced it wouldn't have happened, anyway. After all, much of the personnel (Nina, Tim, Heidi) has remained constant, and they haven't seemed to bat an eyelash at the one day challenges, product placement, stunt castings or quality of designs.

I've always found the Bravo/Lifetime distinction a little overstated, personally. Most shows are universally revered for their first two seasons, i.e. Top Model, Survivor, etc. So I will take those off the table. The imbalance obviously still exists, but I think the Lifetime era is anchored by two very strong seasons (7 and 10) that, at least IMO, rival Seasons 4 and 5. There is also a change in Production to account for, as well. For me, Seasons 8, 9, 11 and 12 were horrible, but similar in mood and tone to Season 3. There is a steady move toward drama and stunt casting, but the Bravo seasons weren't devoid of it. I will never understand the likes of Rickey, Suede, and Vincent getting as far as they did. Overall, I agree that it was a much stronger show before it moved to Lifetime, but I disagree that it was this move, specifically, that sealed the deal. Reality TV shows tend to sour over time, and for me the show had a precipitous drop in quality between Seasons 10 and 11.

I know the Bravo seasons have demi-god status around here, but I hated Season 3. The atmosphere was uncomfortable and tense throughout almost the entire season. Jeffrey was abominable, Vincent was disgusting, and Angela was obnoxious - and to top it off, the former won and the latter two were brought back. Top it off with Uli, the one shining beacon of positivity in this glum season, losing, and we have the recipe for one of my lesser-favorite seasons. It still ranks pretty high above Seasons 8, 9, 11 and 12, but that's largely because they lacked a shining beacon like Uli.

This is how I see almost everything Amanda says, which is why I find her such a hoot. Maybe there's a sublty there that people miss, or maybe I'm just delusional. But not only do I not get "arrogant", but I actually find her extremely modest. The only difference between Amanda of Season 11 and Amanda of Season 13 is that she's learned to keep her composure. And I really don't think she mentions her brother that often, especially considering Reality TV's penchant for asking leading questions about these such topics. I actually remember finding it odd in Season 11 that it was practically never brought up. I dunno, I like Amanda. I like Amanda's mole, I like Amanda's jokes, I like Amanda's smirk, and I like everything Amanda designs. By this point I've accepted that I am backing the resident pariah, much like Kate last season.

I think Samantha and Fade only went back to capitalize on the extra cash and get extra of what they'd already bought. They were both safe and didn't provide any soundbytes, so they were easily missed at Mood.

Fair enough - I am not much of a statistician. But we are culling 6 men between two groups of 5. It is statistically unlikely, but I just don't see it as being so unfathomable as to be evidence of producer manipulation, especially with much more flagrant machinations in other seasons. We don't know the methods, but Jeff usually says "we drew for spots", so I can't imagine it's as blatantly questionable as Tim Gunn "randomly" assigning teams out of sight of the players. If I'm not mistaken, the swap in Allstars would have had similar stats - 6 men/Chapera, 5 women/Mogo Mogo with one of the majority the odd man out.

She is the only person I had a positive reaction to in the cast videos. Everybody else ranged from absolutely horrendous to only mildly tolerable. She seems sweet, funny and is in great shape. I am hoping she makes it far!

I just finished watching the cast videos, and oy vey... Natalie and Nadiya are among my favorites. My first impression of almost everybody else was so piss poor that I am rooting for these banshees to make it far.

Flipping ten heads in a row is no less likely than flipping heads-heads-tails-heads-tails-tails-heads-tails-tails-heads. Having Jane and 4 men is the same probability as having all five men. And like KimberStormer said, I find it hard to believe the producers would somehow want to limit Brenda, Holly, NaOnka and Jane's chances in the game given that they were the only members of the F10 giving any quality soundbites or gameplay. Another interesting example is how everybody in ASS ended up on the opposite tribe except Amber. If everybody is reaching into a bag, I just can't see how they would rig the results. The closest I've seen is Jeff passing a tray of eggs to the Fans and Favs in Caramoan. The way he alternated and held out the tray could have subtly effected the fan/favorite demographic of each tribe, or even the strong/weak demographic. But who knows.

For the first time this season, I disagree with Amanda's placement in the Top 3 from an aesthetic perspective. It was sort of ugly. However I appreciate what she said about tasking a risk when you have immunity: not enough designers do this. Even though I technically liked Sandhya and Samantha's dresses better, they were such cliche approaches to eveningwear. I appreciate that Amanda tried something weird, and it's not like her 3rd place dress really beat anything particularly spectacular. (Although, for the umpteenth week in a row, I loved Fade's dress. I just don't think it was at all appropriate for a red carpet). I get that Kristine's design was a disaster, but I cannot believe she was eliminated over Korina. The judges actively liked elements of Kristine's design. The judges suggested ways Kristine's dress could be saved. Kristine has been in the top 3 twice. Korina, OTOH, completely failed at a basic slip dress and swapped one sad green color for another. She was obviously kept around for her drama potential, but I feel like we've been robbed of some great fashion this season with Kristine going home so early.

It's a shame the producers can't make the plot more cohesive and keep Ezria apart, because the conversation writing on the show is pretty genius most of the time, and the Liars are really good at their characters. I shudder to think how insufferable Aria would be if somebody else played her.

This rule is designed to prevent strategies predicated on "help me win and I will give you half". By the time Rob proposed, the game was effectively finished. It was the equivalent of Jaime and Erik getting hitched after filming wrapped but before the finale aired. Who? Exactly. Nobody cares because they didn't win and the proposal wasn't on-air. But it has the exact same effect. Which, is nada. I guess you could make an argument that they were insinuating marriage during the game, but that would be harder to prove, and I doubt the producers would want to discourage showmances and they would have been one another's best ally whether they were using one another or not. Besides, there are such things as pre-nuptials.

RealityTV rejects read message boards every single day. I don't see any need to distinguish between the ones who introduce themselves and the ones who don't. If anybody is concerned about their comments hurting somebody's feelings, then they're naive to think that these comments only "count" if the person they're saying it about stays out of sight. TBH, I feel like Angela has been put on the defensive by this question surrounding her intention in posting here. Otherwise she has basically just been fulfilling a Reality TV Mantra as ubiquitous as "I'm not here to make friends": "It was the editing". Which is pretty part-and-parcel with the Reality TV experience. I've never quite understood the "boards on boards" rule at TWoP until now. What's actually staunching conversation is this inquisition into Angela's intentions in being here and picking apart her explanation for everything. I hope she doesn't feel turned off the experience, because by this point I would be pretty firmly in the "fuck this shit" camp.

My Top 3 was Amanda, Fade and Kini. That said, I actually agree with Amanda's win: Kini's midsection seemed a little off center, and I wasn't a huge fan of the center-folds. I would have preferred the front peplem to be flat and then meet on the sides: it looked a little too much like a pair of vertical lips. I also felt like turning a suit into a menswear-inspired structural dress is much more "expected" than something that by all counts should have been hideous (and indeed WAS hideous for 80% of the episode) into something whimsical and flowy. IMO, this is the second week in a row that I think Sean's look was the unqualified worst on the runway. That said, he's been saved twice by the weakness of his opponents. Last week Angela was eliminated for her track record (and inability to adapt to the competition), and Hernan for his complete inability to take on the challenge and own his mistakes. Sean's was an absolute disaster, but I nevertheless agree 100% with the boot. I didn't love Kristine's, but the sheer amount of work and evidence of design put it ahead of Mitchell's by a longshot. Me, too! I wouldn't have put it in the top, but it's definitely my favorite look from her thus far. I actually think she would have rocked the suit Hernan was given. In Tim's defense, the other side of Sean's skirt looked like a faded old lawn chair. The raw edges had potential. In theory it reminded me a bit of Alexandria's Butterfly dress, which I liked. However, the bandage crop top was absolutely hideous, and the way the skirt's fabric gathered on the side seams ruined the entire "deconstructed" effect. Neither of these elements were present for Tim's critique. I especially loved when he was blaming his inability to work with the vinyl on how terrible the suit was. Like, the fuck? Besides, when you're given a plain white fabric to work with, you can practically do anything with it. Of course, but I'm not convinced flipping somebody the bird is the best way to accomplish that. Pot, meet kettle. Mondo, too. I think Fade and Mondo both have those aesthetics that require some getting used to. I continue to be completely flabbergasted by this degree Amanda hate. I get that she may not be everyone's cup of tea, but Gretchen was a delusional bully. Beyond the hippy thing, I don't get it.

Interesting, thanks for the info. I'd be fascinated to see the conversation they had when/if Heidi realized who she was.

Duh! I knew that but hadn't made the connection. Patricia v. Michelle is one of the few instances of cognitive dissonance where I actively rooted against the person who's collection I liked the best. The only other example of this was Irina v. AnyoneBut!Irina.

FWIW, you are my favorite from a personality standpoint thus far this season after Amanda (who has carryover from Season 11). I also like Fade, Char, Emily and Kristine, but they're all a lot more low-key and thus haven't had as much impact over 3 episodes as you did. Everybody else has started to veer into "annoying".

Patricia winning would have left a very good taste in my mouth. She was the only designer in the Top 6 that I enjoyed as a human being and brought an unprecedented design aesthetic to the show. But would we be saying Michelle didn't make it to Fashion Week on her own if she'd landed in the Bottom 2 but been safe over Daniel? What if Patricia and Michelle were announced as Bottom 2 but both spared without having Michelle singled out? I guess I just find it hard to believe that they ever intended to eliminate her. To me it was obvious producer manipulation to try and trip up their "frontrunner" and cause some drama. I also can't imagine anybody complaining that Chris March didn't make it to Fashion Week on his own because he's so likeable. Michelle being a rancid bitch made it difficult for me to like her, but I appreciated her design sensibilities and think she totally earned her place in the finale.

I will take a great outfit that failed the challenge over a weak outfit that fit the challenge any day, but I get that MMV. Michelle had a great track record by that point and IMO Layana and Daniel had really run out of steam. Besides, to me it was clear that Michelle made a blouse and a pair of pants, which is perfectly fine for a magazine editorial. I wouldn't qualify that as a t-shirt. She did make a pair of pants, but then again so did Stanley and he won the challenge. I think the way it played out was unnecessary. It would have seemed much less fishy if they had just cut Daniel for that canary monstrosity and let Michelle off with a warning. They turned it into a scandal with the roundabout way they ended up keeping her. I think it was all concocted for drama.

Season 7 is my absolute favorite Season. The Top 10 was perfect, and despite the ridiculousness of having so many decoy collections, I can't think of another season that deserved that many. I liked at least one look by each one of them during the Season, and even the ones who went out earlier - Ben, Jesse - had one or two really great showings and a strong POV. Any trio from this Season's Top 10 would have been a satisfying Final 3, which is unprececented. Amy and Jonathan are two of my favorite personalities from the show's history, while Emilio and Seth Aaron are two of its best designers. Maya, Anthony and Mila were consistently good, and even though I personally thought Jay was an enormous bitch, he had a lot of great looks. The challenges were consistently great and produced more amazing looks than any other season: Amy's Hardware, Burlap and Campbell's, Mila/Jonathan's Tracksuit, Ben's Marie Claire, Seth Aaron's Harlem, "Air", Print, Mama and Baby, Jesse's Mama and Baby, Maya's Hardware, Jonathan's "Air", and Emilio's Harlem, Heidi Gown, Print and Circus. For me Season 7 provided a glimmer of hope that maybe Lifetime wouldn't ruin the show, afterall. It's been all downhill from there, but I still cling to it.

Unfortunately, yes. Which is why, despite thinking Rami was a great finalist, Christian/Jillian/Rami is only my third-favorite Top 3.

It was strangely endearing, wasn't it? I "awwww'd" when it came out on the runway, but people on the forums loathed it.

I have aired my unpopular opinion that Anya wholeheartedly deserved her win enough times elsewhere that I won't rehash my reasoning again here. But it's true. This Season was middle-of-the-road. The designers skewed toward unlikeable and the design quality was consistently questionable, but there's been worse. That said, I really liked Bert's Pyjama look and White/Gold slip dress, Anthony Ryan's birdfeed, Kimberly's Nina Look, Bird Inspiration and Art-Inspiration, and Anya's Print and Raven Inspiration. And despite thinking the rest of his designs were complete well-sewn nothings, my favorite look of the Season was Viktor's Makeover.