S13: Korina Emmerich

[Beden]

 

Welcome!  I think this forum is fun, and I hope you will too.  I'm happy to have as much snark as possible :)

 

Some people have mentioned the model's shit talking.  One part of me wants to say that she was just being loyal, and Korina was egging her on.  The other part of me wants to say that she was doing it for camera time.  The third part of me wants to say that since most of the models this year look like homeless men it seems strange for them to be talking shit at all.

Yes, welcome--the people on this site are nice ones, the snark often primo.

 

My take on the model was that she seemed to be a very young girl who was trying to support the designer she'd worked with and likely developed some kind of semi relationship. I wouldn't be surprised if someone--another model, her agent, whomever--pulled her aside and explained to her that models are supposed to be seen and not heard.

[bourbon]

 I'm out of this debate (unless you'd like to PM) at this point because it's obvious - and sad, to be honest - to see how many viewers have responded exactly as the producers wanted them to in this situation. 

Of course the producers want us to respond -- whether it is with outrage at Korina's unjust aufing or celebration that this season's villain got her comeuppance.  The only reaction they don't want is indifference.  Which is why I'm sure they're just as glad that people are defending her on sites like this as they are glad people are criticizing her.  We've all fallen for it, no?  

 

Not really an observation about anyone's statements, but about reality programming in general.  I think people give TPTB way too much credit in assuming that they're trying to get a specific response.  

[Beden]

 

Not really an observation about anyone's statements, but about reality programming in general.  I think people give TPTB way too much credit in assuming that they're trying to get a specific response.

I agree. With probably well placed cynicism, I strongly suspect that TPTB main goal is ratings and added ad revenue.

[ChelseaNH]

I think people give TPTB way too much credit in assuming that they're trying to get a specific response.

How Reality TV Works -- note this is by a writer.  Yes, reality shows have writers.

[Julia]

How Reality TV Works -- note this is by a writer.  Yes, reality shows have writers.

 

I think everyone agrees that they're manipulating the audience. The question is whether their goal is to make, say, Korina or Sandhya or Michelle or Helen unpopular, or whether they simply want them to be controversial, so that people will be equally moved to go online and argue fiercely on their behalf. Which they seem to have been equally effective at.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Julia

[hatchetgirl]

This horrible loser! I hated her attitude throughout the whole show but tonight with Char and on the runway, just unforgivable.

Then her closing "my clients and customers will know better" or whatever... I'd leave her in a heartbeat for the way she has acted.

[Surrealist]

How Reality TV Works -- note this is by a writer.  Yes, reality shows have writers.

 

Slighty OT: Reality shows do employ non-union writers. People who work on reality shows (except for the producers and a few "stars") get paid squat.

[ChelseaNH]

whether they simply want them to be controversial

 

I suppose that depends on whether you think these storytellers intend a villain to be unpopular or just controversial.  I don't expect nuanced storytelling from a reality show.

[Julia]

Nicely put :)

Edited October 7, 2014 by Julia

[Calamity Jane]

Manipulation or not, nobody could predict for sure that Korina would totally implode on the made-to-save-her one-hour face-off with Char.  So, in the end, her own bitchy nature is what did her in.  Had she been able to get out of her own way and just produce a garment that was as much better than Char's as she was claiming she was capable of, slam dunk for her.  If anything, I would imagine that that was the outcome anyone who was trying to manipulate was envisioning.  

[larapu2000]

I like how Korina was only in this episode for 30 seconds, and still managed to ruin it.

[CathinAZ]

She made a couple outfits I liked, but her personality and how she acted on the show made her so unlikable and unsympathetic she just evolved into an emotionally stunted bitch! Her performance in the workroom where she returned to help one of the final five was incredible. Most of her talking heads were pretentious, she talked badly about other designers and she came across as u likeable. In the workroom, she did the same thing as well as in the longer after the runway shows. Even if editors were trying to make her look like a villain for this season, she gave them LOTS of material to work with, given her actions, and came across as self important and having an overinflated sense of her importance and talent from day one.

[KFC]

Oddly enough, I didn't really mind that Korina asked to leave. Clearly the girl was teetering on the edge, so I'm glad we were spared an entire episode of her melting down. I've never understood why the producers think this makes for entertaining television on PR. This show has the benefit of (potentially) beautiful and ghastly garments to bring the drama; I'd rather it not take the form of watching Korina implode or someone like Angela crumble under the pressure. If the contestants are too emotional and can't handle the puppeteering twists of the competition, I'd much rather see them leave.

 

So yeah, maybe she could've handled it better, but under the circumstances (aka... she totally wasn't), I'd rather she just leave and spare us a prolonged bitchfest.

[PepperMonkey]

I agree, KFC; I thought she (Korina) handled it fairly maturely. It was indeed so obvious that she was still shaken to her core over being eliminated in favour of a designer she clearly feels is inferior. Whether right or wrong, she was obviously smarting badly.

 

Char's fake clapping showed that she was on the same level, IMHO, and I think that's when Korina thought, I can't stay.

I much prefer the way she handled it, and in fact, she even said (unless I misheard) that she didn't think she could help Char as she still felt raw over what happened.

Of course, it had to be made that she looked like a bad guy again by leaving. Although she's one of my least favourite designers of all time on the entire show, I don't think her choosing not to participate as a helper in the final five challenge makes her any more evil.

Edited October 10, 2014 by PepperMonkey

[hatchetgirl]

"Char's fake clapping showed that she was on the same level"

I totally read this as Chartrying her best. They appeared to be pretty close through the season, short of the lastfew episodes.

[Julia]

I'd be really surprised if she came back voluntarily. I'm pretty sure that if there wasn't a contractual obligation involved she would have refused. I don't think she was making her case to Tim because she wanted his understanding. I think she was making her case to Tim so she wouldn't be sued if she left.

[RealityGal]

I'd be really surprised if she came back voluntarily. I'm pretty sure that if there wasn't a contractual obligation involved she would have refused. I don't think she was making her case to Tim because she wanted his understanding. I think she was making her case to Tim so she wouldn't be sued if she left.

I do think its a contractual obligation, which is why it seems odd she didn't see this coming.  Part of the reason I would think they make you sign a contract is so they can make you do things that you don't want to do, and every year it seems like they have previous contestants "help" the final 5 or 4.  If they have a "drama" couple they definitely capitalize on that.  I don't know how she didn't see it coming.

[KimberStormer]

I'd be really surprised if she came back voluntarily. I'm pretty sure that if there wasn't a contractual obligation involved she would have refused. I don't think she was making her case to Tim because she wanted his understanding. I think she was making her case to Tim so she wouldn't be sued if she left.

 

Who said she wanted his understanding?  She wanted to leave.  He is the only "authority" she is allowed to talk to.  I would love to see them try to sue for their ability to keep someone held against their will.  Did they sue Sandro when he not only broke his "contractual obligation" but assaulted a camera operator?  But whatever makes Korina sound worse, I guess; goes right along with the edit...

[Julia]

Who said she wanted his understanding? She wanted to leave. He is the only "authority" she is allowed to talk to. I would love to see them try to sue for their ability to keep someone held against their will. Did they sue Sandro when he not only broke his "contractual obligation" but assaulted a camera operator? But whatever makes Korina sound worse, I guess; goes right along with the edit...

No, I don't believe they did sue Sandro. I also don't think it's a coincidence that he came back the next week to apologize past his clenched jaw when every subsequent statement suggests that he doesn't for a moment believe he was in the wrong. I think that was most likely the price of not being sued.

I'm also not sure why you think suggesting that Korina may have been forced to be there under duress is intended to make her sound worse. I think you may want to check your assumptions.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Julia

[KimberStormer]

Sorry if I misconstrued your post.  There's a lot of negativity towards a fairly innocuous person on the board and it's making me jumpy, I guess, quick to want to argue back.

 

I think I'd better retire from my Korina kareer again.  I'm just saying the same thing over and over, I'm sure it's boring.

Edited October 11, 2014 by KimberStormer

[KimberStormer]

I'd like to take this to the Korina thread but I dunno how to move a quote...

 

the only reason Korina's is any worse than anyone elses is because she gave them so much to work with.  If you take her TH out of the equation, there is still plenty about Korina to paint her in a negative light, IMO.  Things that she has done all on her own.

 

What were those things, then?  She was acting horrible (in, it just occurred to me, exactly the same way that that other designer from Milkwaukee was acting horrible towards Unicorn Tim, a season or two ago) during the 1-hour challenge but people hated her long before then.  What did she do?  What was it but talking heads up till then?

 

I know my answer: nothing.  Talking heads, a few spliced eye-rolls, smiles, frowns.  Nothing she did, but a couple people absolutely hammering her in the editing room.  To set us up to hate her as the most abominable monster ever to disgrace the halls of Parsons when she melted down during the 1-hour challenge.  And even editing the preview for this week to make her look as bad as possible: "I shouldn't be here!" she says in the preview, and we're obviously supposed to assume it's because she thinks she's such hot shit, she should never have been eliminated!  "I'm too upset to work, so I think I shouldn't be here," she says in reality.  Shot of her walking off into a poorly-lit hallway in the preview, we're supposed to assume she's stomping off in petulant defiance like a child!  In reality, she asks if she can leave, Tim says yes that's OK (about the only respectable thing about this episode) and she exits, pursued by a camera stalker.  That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about when I talk about editing.

[RealityGal]

I'd like to take this to the Korina thread but I dunno how to move a quote...

 

 

What were those things, then?  She was acting horrible (in, it just occurred to me, exactly the same way that that other designer from Milkwaukee was acting horrible towards Unicorn Tim, a season or two ago) during the 1-hour challenge but people hated her long before then.  What did she do?  What was it but talking heads up till then?

 

I know my answer: nothing.  Talking heads, a few spliced eye-rolls, smiles, frowns.  Nothing she did, but a couple people absolutely hammering her in the editing room.  To set us up to hate her as the most abominable monster ever to disgrace the halls of Parsons when she melted down during the 1-hour challenge.  And even editing the preview for this week to make her look as bad as possible: "I shouldn't be here!" she says in the preview, and we're obviously supposed to assume it's because she thinks she's such hot shit, she should never have been eliminated!  "I'm too upset to work, so I think I shouldn't be here," she says in reality.  Shot of her walking off into a poorly-lit hallway in the preview, we're supposed to assume she's stomping off in petulant defiance like a child!  In reality, she asks if she can leave, Tim says yes that's OK (about the only respectable thing about this episode) and she exits, pursued by a camera stalker.  That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about when I talk about editing.

 

There are three things I can point to: 1) her own facebook post, which I find to be the height of condescension and arrogance 2) her behavior towards Char during judging/after judging/during the sew off/post elimination and 3) her behavior when brought back to help Char.  

 

No one can make up any of those things, and thats not her being a victim of editing, those are all things she did.  People have often thought they have gone home to a less talented designer and have managed to hold it together.  And the most recently eliminated designer is almost always brought back to "help," her inability to suck it up when other people, in the normal world have sucked up worse says something about her, and its nothing I think is positive.  The fact that she couldn't suck it up, to me, gives her the qualities of a child who didn't get her way, and therefore no longer wants to play the game she agreed to play.  This is the game she agreed to play, she agreed to play in the PR sandbox.

 

I don't blame PR for looking at all the footage, seeing who behaved the very worst and creating their narrative around that.  They used her TH, which, I don't know were any better or any worse than anyone else's.  You can't know that, and I can't know that.  I don't think that can be known, unless you've heard people from this season saying otherwise.  But I wouldn't expect a show like this to simply show Korina's meltdown in a vacuum.  Reality TV has an element of storytelling, even shows like Big Brother which are pretty much just about taping people 24 hours a day.  Heck even a documentary has an element of storytelling.  And almost everyone who had some sort of drama was shown in a negative light, through TH and other devices.  Sandaya, Hernan, and even Carrie.  So again, to me, it seems like the rules of editing/production were applied fairly.  The only difference between Korina and everyone else is 1) it happened towards the end of the season and 2) it was a bigger meltdown than anyone else had as far as I could see.

 

Part of the storytelling process is developing the characters.  I think they used Korina's TH to develop her as a character that they developed around her actions.  Things 1-3 above are things that she had total control over, but also showcase the character traits the producers showcased.  So, from where I sit, I don't see how the narrative was that far off the mark, since she displayed the same character traits even when the producers weren't in control.

 

For the record, I was never an ardent fan of Korina (my favorite was Fade).  But I did call shenanigans on the whole Korina/Char vs. Amanda thing, and I thought her TH about Sandaya at the Mood cutting table was on point.  So, I don't think her TH up until that point ruined her for me.  

 

Note - I also don't know how to move posts, so if someone who understands better than me can move Kimber's and my post that would be boss.

Edited October 11, 2014 by RealityGal

[PepperMonkey]

http://tysonrobichaudphotography.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/project-runway-season-13-congrats-to-korina-emmerich-designerkorina/

 

I stumbled across this when looking at some of Korina's designs on her web site and facebook. HOLY CRIKEY, she has seriously evolved as a designer. This stuff looks like Halloween costume pirate girl gear.

 

Some serious growth in her esthetic...

[RealityGal]

http://tysonrobichaudphotography.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/project-runway-season-13-congrats-to-korina-emmerich-designerkorina/

 

I stumbled across this when looking at some of Korina's designs on her web site and facebook. HOLY CRIKEY, she has seriously evolved as a designer. This stuff looks like Halloween costume pirate girl gear.

 

Some serious growth in her esthetic...

But I don't wanna be a pirate!

[Julia]

Wow.

 

That's some taste level defying stuff right there.

[Diane Mars]

I love the high waisted white pants. Don't like the buttons, but love the pants. They'd be awesome with a dark navy blue perfecto !

[auntlada]

I almost like the pants. I hate the buttons. I like the stripes, but I'm not sure about so much stripiness. And the white pants are so shiny. So I might like the design without the buttons in some other fabric. But I like the idea of the high-waistedness. And I might be OK with the buttons on the waist part, not the legs, if you moved them to the side. Either one row on one side or two rows, one on each side of the front -- but not in the middle of the front.

 

The rest of the hooker pirate looks are awful, though. As much as I disliked her stuff on the show (most of it), it was better than that stuff. Although she could have done a longer version of that hoochie dress (I think it's a dress, it might be shorts) -- the black one -- for a red carpet look. It couldn't have been worse than that green thing.

[KimberStormer]

There are three things I can point to: 1) her own facebook post, which I find to be the height of condescension and arrogance 2) her behavior towards Char during judging/after judging/during the sew off/post elimination and 3) her behavior when brought back to help Char.  

 

But you see what I mean?  I said before the 1-hour challenge (or, OK, before the judging for that episode).  The Facebook post you know we disgree on, but I think it is emblematic of the fact that people hated her long before she did anything at all.  She wouldn't have written that if people weren't shitting all over her on the Internet all day and made her defensive.  (I'm not saying it's "the fans' fault she was a jerk", I'm saying there was no reason to post if people weren't responding negatively to her.)  Also, to me, only #2 of those was bad; I thought she was at the very least trying to be supportive of Sandhya in her post and that she handled the bringing-her-back scenario fine.  (I feel certain that had she stayed, the editing would have made it out to be "KORINA IS SABOTAGING CHAR!!  THAT'S WHY THESE CLOTHES SUCK!!")

 

Of course there's a lot of subjective about just how negative, relative to everyone else's, Korina's depiction has been, but I can only call it like I see it, and say yet again I think it's been the most flagrant hatchet job I've ever seen.  They could certainly have set up this storyline without going so completely balls-to-the-wall about it.  I'm not sure of the motivation--they felt they needed an over-the-top villain in a season of boring lame-os?  they wanted to make Char as sympathetic as possible since she was Tim Gunn Saved to the finals?  someone just hates her over there?--but I am sure they set out, on purpose, to make her look as bad as they possibly could, and she did not in fact give them that much to work with.

[Diane Mars]

My opinion is that she's a bitch, and that we should introduce her to Emily, aka "Boobarella", from Best Ink !

 

... And "my problem" with her is NOT that she's a bitch... My problem with her is that she doesn't own it and acts like a 6 y.o. brat when caught acting bad. Like Abby would say (OMG ! I can't believe I'm quoting Abby, lol !) : "Save your tears for your pillow !"

 

Ok, it's more than probably edited a lot, but I don't think anybody gave her a script to follow, and what to say during her TH. Or how to react when she was eliminated. Or what to do when coming back as an helper, like it happens every season.

 

It's sad, because if she really owned it, I don't think her image would be so bad.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Diane Mars

[CathinAZ]

She never was very likeable for me from the first episode. Her talking head pieces and comments on the workroom always had a self-important, condescending toword others and rude vibe to them. I'm all for being confident and having high self esteem, but her words and actions had a rude, immature, graceless and unclassy direction. I understand that editors can "spin" her as the season's villain but not showing clips of her being charming, supporting other designers, doc. ( although I bet there are few, if any, of those) but it doesn't negate the fact that she said and did what we did see on air.

Bottom line, she is an unlikeable, unclassy mediocre "designer". She should be grateful for the exposure the show gave her and be ashamed of her actions.

Edited October 11, 2014 by CathInAZ

[RealityGal]

But you see what I mean?  I said before the 1-hour challenge (or, OK, before the judging for that episode).  The Facebook post you know we disgree on, but I think it is emblematic of the fact that people hated her long before she did anything at all.  She wouldn't have written that if people weren't shitting all over her on the Internet all day and made her defensive.  (I'm not saying it's "the fans' fault she was a jerk", I'm saying there was no reason to post if people weren't responding negatively to her.)  Also, to me, only #2 of those was bad; I thought she was at the very least trying to be supportive of Sandhya in her post and that she handled the bringing-her-back scenario fine.  (I feel certain that had she stayed, the editing would have made it out to be "KORINA IS SABOTAGING CHAR!!  THAT'S WHY THESE CLOTHES SUCK!!")

 

Of course there's a lot of subjective about just how negative, relative to everyone else's, Korina's depiction has been, but I can only call it like I see it, and say yet again I think it's been the most flagrant hatchet job I've ever seen.  They could certainly have set up this storyline without going so completely balls-to-the-wall about it.  I'm not sure of the motivation--they felt they needed an over-the-top villain in a season of boring lame-os?  they wanted to make Char as sympathetic as possible since she was Tim Gunn Saved to the finals?  someone just hates her over there?--but I am sure they set out, on purpose, to make her look as bad as they possibly could, and she did not in fact give them that much to work with.

 

I wonder how you know its a hatchet job and not an edit reflective of her personality?  I'm just curious, has another contestant come out and said something about her getting an unfair edit?  Have Kini, Sean, or Amanda said that their TH were taken out of context?  I know Fade made a comment about the Sandaya "hate", but I've seen nothing from anyone else about Korina.  Have you?*  I, personally, think it was exactly as I said.  They picked certain personalities to bring drama, they weren't sure which one would.  It ended up being Korina.  They used the TH to support the narrative of what she actually did.  I don't see any sort of conspiracy since everyone got the same treatment.  Hernan's worst moment was shown, and supported by TH, Carrie's worst moment was shown and supported by TH, as was Angela's, as was Sandaya's.  Everyone was treated fairly, if you had a shitty moment, or behaved like a brat on camera, that was used and supported by the TH. Unless presented with evidence otherwise, that seems the most logical thing to me.  Many other designers have had hate thrown their way and have not chosen to call fans "misled sheep" or other names or to post condescendingly to FB.  And no producer controlled that, she did.  And the entire Sandaya episode she decided she wanted to talk about on FB was one that showed her in a positive light.  So even when she is shown in a positive light, she is still condescending and negative.  She chose to post on FB in response to a post from Fade defending Sandaya, so I don't think its fair to say thats emblematic of the hate being thrown Korina's way, since the "hate" Fade was referring to was being aimed at Sandaya and not Korina.  To me, if when you're shown as a hero you still maintain bad behavior thats on you.

 

I don't think that asking what she did before her meltdown is really important at all.  The way she behaved, when given total freedom, was in line with her edit.  I expect that fictional shows, reality shows and documentaries will all have an element of character development to them.  In reality shows that character development comes in part from the TH of the designer and others.  But where she was given the total freedom, and where producers couldn't put words in her mouth, her behavior mirrored the same character the producers "edited" all season.  And thats being exceedingly generous, because I think that her TH may have simply been much worse and more snarky than everyone else's regardless.  But even giving her the benefit of the doubt there, even assuming all designers, including Fade and Emily had bitchy TH, it doesn't matter, because when given the power to act all on her own, her actions mirrored the edit she had received up until her own bad behavior during her elimination episode -- all of which she controlled.  I think its fair for a show to "develop" her character in line with the behavior she undertook of her own free volition.  

 

Most of the show tapes, and then is edited.  I think its more than reasonable for a show to see who had the biggest asshole moment and then edit the time up until that asshole moment to "develop" the character.  She gave them plenty of material in her TH to do that and support that.  I don't expect PR to show the moment in a vacuum. That doesn't make sense to me anymore than it would make sense for the first scene of 16 Candles to be the scene with Molly Ringwald sitting with Jake on the table with the cake.  Or for the first scene of the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead to be a fit guy working at the YMCA and throwing a football around with his kid.

 

* - I don't necessarily know that I would take the after the fact/after the episode airing comments of the other contestants as gospel truth, or real proof of anything because I think they all have a vested interest in getting along, protecting their image (if positive), and they may just feel bad that another designer, fairly or unfairly is on the receiving end of negative attention.  But it would be something.

Edited October 11, 2014 by RealityGal

[PepperMonkey]

I think they DID edit her as a villain, but I also believe she gave them plenty with which to work.

From the beginning, her THs were probably not any or much worse than anyone else's; I'm sure they all had their fair share of smack talking and I don't understand insert designer here esthetic, I just don't get insert designer here, I'm worried for insert designer here (which means, yuck! they may be going home for that crap). But as editors, and knowing the big implosion that was imminent on the auffing episode, they then edited her THs heavily to lead up to that storyline and possibly, for US, make it a satisfying elimination.

 

I agree with RG, that for me, anyway, I was completely turned off when she did badmouth the fans as WANTING these designers to hate each other, because that is patently ridiculous... see ALL of our comments regarding how we laughed when they line danced out of the room, how nice it was to see them all getting along together, et. al. Most of us watch Face Off, I've noticed as well, and we all love the camaraderie there, so I'm pretty sure we'd like it here too. Just as we don't know exactly what's in Korina's head, she doesn't know what's in our heads, and I thought it was really rude and immature to talk down to fans of the show WHO ARE THE ONLY REASON THE SHOW EXISTS.

 

Having said all of the above, I thought her leaving the way she did the night of the final five challenge, was NOT necessarily showing her in as bad a light as the episode last week did. I thought she was "relatively" sane ish and clearly still in pain. Even if she shouldn't have still been hurting, she WAS, and I thought it was a smart move to ask to leave. Maybe she could have been a little less dramatic, but they did make a point to follow her ALL THE WAY DOWN THE HALL and watch as she removed her mike, got her stuff and left.

 

I just wish she had been classier post show and stayed above the fray completely. Although I guess she did mend fences with the other designers, she's still looking for someone to blame and it pisses me off that she chose us.

Edited October 11, 2014 by PepperMonkey

[yeswedo]

Folks,
There's a lot of repetitive comments about Korina's actions and the influence / lack of influence of the editors. If you've stated your position already then please move on from the topic. I'm posting this in the latest episode topic as well.

 

PM me with any questions. Thanks!

[Beden]

Thank you, yeswedo. Yes, Korina's a bitch, yes she likely dug her own hole but, with respect to all the posters here, I, for one, would like to move on to new and highly entertaining mega-snark.

[goofygirl]

How OLD is Korina anyway?? She acted like a 10 yr. old having that meltdown in the workroom.  Just take your ball and go home already!

[KimberStormer]

I've always found the easiest way to not talk about something I don't want to talk about, is to simply not talk about it.

 

I've actually really enjoyed arguing about Korina with you guys, haha.  It has been a pleasure to match wits with some very dogged, clever, and respectful debate opponents, who never made things personal or seemed to get angry (at me, I mean, maybe people have been angry at her; just as I have not been angry at anyone here, just at the editors/producers.)  I do think the yeti-to-wear (tm sofaslug) controversy is more interesting, but that's not to say I don't want to push back against stuff like "stomped down the hallway" with my own interpretation, especially since I seem to be about the only one who sees it my way.  Gotta grab my side of that Overton window before it slides out of reach.

[Oholibamah]

Given the perfect storm, I would probably behave similarly to how Korina did, albeit with fewer doses of petulance. I think everybody would, given the right set of circumstances.

 

I can't attest to her behavior on social media since I can't be bothered, and I reckon she should probably leave well enough alone. But I just can't get that worked up by her actions on the show. Especially following season 12 with Sandro and Helen, I really don't think Korina was all that bad. She provided disparaging answers about her fellow designer's work in THs, she became defensive toward Amanda's returnee status after almost being eliminated, and she voiced what everybody else is thinking when she perceived she was getting screwed by producer manipulation. Kini, Char and Alexander have each done these same things respectively. Korina had a few added doses of petulance about it all, but I would take petulance over psychopathic camera-smashing and bullying any day.

 

When all is said and done, I can still say that I actually like Korina.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Oholibamah

[lukehorace]

The Korina story is really told in what happens when she's gone. It may be easy for producers to "arc" a villain story, but it is impossible for them to create the giddy, happy mood of the five remaining designers when they're all at the table together. Having managed a big five advertising design studio I can tell you that personal attitude will kill your design abilities faster than anything else. Great artists simply don't compare themselves to others. Their minds don't work that way. They're too involved with an ongoing creative process. I know this from friends who perform on Broadway and having gotten to know some of the Broadway greats. The higher up you go in the ranks the more kind and generous the people are. 

[KimberStormer]

The Korina story is really told in what happens when she's gone. It may be easy for producers to "arc" a villain story, but it is impossible for them to create the giddy, happy mood of the five remaining designers when they're all at the table together.

 

I absolutely agree with the rest of your post (and God knows I don't think Korina is a great artist) but not this one.  It's very easy to create any mood with editing, that's kind of the whole art of it.

 

Anyway the season is done and so am I on this topic!

[RealityGal]

The Korina story is really told in what happens when she's gone. It may be easy for producers to "arc" a villain story, but it is impossible for them to create the giddy, happy mood of the five remaining designers when they're all at the table together. 

I definitely can see your point.  A few of the designers mentioned how much better the atmosphere felt without her it in their TH, and I think you can ask someone a leading question in a TH, but I don't think they force a designer to give a specific answer, so it rings true to me that she was a negative influence and it felt better without her around.

Edited October 24, 2014 by RealityGal

[TVbitch]

Just binged season 13. For sure, Korina was not the most humble and likeable person in the world, but I was shocked that she got booted before Char. Karina's look was not nearly as bad as Char's in that last challenge, and Sean totally steered Char to the win in the one-hour face off challenge. Char never won a single challenge (for good reason) and she was just not on par with the others designers, including Karina. Kini and Sean said it in their talking heads, it was only Karina that said it outloud. Tim used his save on Char cuz he liked her. Then he gave her the extra 10 minutes in the other challenge and Char was put into the finals even though that last challenge did not merit it.

Char seems like a lovely, well-liked person, but if I was Karina, I would probably be pissed off too. Karina should have stuck gone in the direction of her Native American designs which were super cool, but the judges wrongly steered her away from. I was perplexed.

[KimberStormer]

How funny to think of this thread, go to the Project Runway forum, and find it at the very top.  Neither Reality Gal nor the mod who told us to can it being here anymore if their activity is any indication, I can confess that, on reading it back, I find I was much less fighty and strident than I should have been.  At the time I felt I should be calm and polite, and it just got me walked all over.  I was in a boards-on-boards mindset leftover from TWOP.  People just can't get it through their heads that these shows are edited, and edited after the fact by people who know who it turns out, and edited by those who assert eternal providence, to justify the ways of Nina Garcia to men.  Oh well.