S01.E03: The Ultimate Accessory

[dialyn]

The young designers choose a statement piece (accessory) as inspiration for their looks.

[MrsClaus]

I watched but only because my 9 yr old daughter wanted to watch.

 

I pretty much figured out who was going to win before they ever even started sewing.

 

And please, referring to yourself in the third person is annoying.  It does not make you important.

[dialyn]

I guess we have to accept the appearance of the stupid white dresses throughout this season.  It is a distraction that doesn't result in much of anything except giving the assistants something to do.

 

Any of these teenagers can sew circles around me, that's for sure.  I thought this group was generally a nice group (Zachary didn't always refer to himself in the third person; I'm glad he dropped that over time), and the assistants were supportive without trying to overwhelm their children.  I especially loved the sports dad who is trying to be supportive of his daughter Emily.  He might not have been the most helpful practically speaking, but he gave it an honest try, and his daughter seemed to appreciate his effort.  I was always closer to my father than my mother--maybe that's why I liked them so much. 

 

What I don't like is that the teenagers are making clothes for women that seem more inspired by media stars rather than fashions a woman could wear in normal life (with the exception of Colette, whose cool black and white dress could have been worn by Diana Rigg in her "Avengers" period).  Plunging necklines and transparent corsets are the cliches of the modern fashion world, and have gotten pretty boring as a result.  Zachary won with his "Story of O" look, which didn't surprise me. I don't know why all the love for corsets these days...the things never look comfortable.  I do Zachary credit, however, he has a lot of thought and back story to his creations.  I love someone who can spin a tale.

 

On the other hand, the fashions were better than many outfits we've seen from some of the Project Runway adults.

 

The judges were fine.  I still wish Christian was mentoring these young people. His advice is always solid.

[Madding crowd]

How old is that Ingrid girl? She kind of freaks me out because she has a face and speaking style of an adult on the body of a ten year old. I also think these kids don't need so many twists-they have more twists than the adults on PR. They also shouldn't have aired the sad story of the girl dealing with her parents divorce-she doesn't understand it now, but having this personal stuff aired will embarrass her in the future.

[dialyn]

How old is that Ingrid girl? She kind of freaks me out because she has a face and speaking style of an adult on the body of a ten year old. I also think these kids don't need so many twists-they have more twists than the adults on PR. They also shouldn't have aired the sad story of the girl dealing with her parents divorce-she doesn't understand it now, but having this personal stuff aired will embarrass her in the future.

I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if she has told the whole story on her Facebook page or other social media.  Youngsters these days don't see a problem with sharing all ... and they may not have the embarrassment level some of us have would the same have been revealed for us.  Maybe it is healthier to have no secrets.  I'll pretend for her sake that it is.

 

I agree about the whole twists things.  They already have a short deadline and the somewhat dubious help of their assistants. That's really enough. 

[blaase]

How old is that Ingrid girl? She kind of freaks me out because she has a face and speaking style of an adult on the body of a ten year old. I also think these kids don't need so many twists-they have more twists than the adults on PR. They also shouldn't have aired the sad story of the girl dealing with her parents divorce-she doesn't understand it now, but having this personal stuff aired will embarrass her in the future.

Ingrid Nilsen is 25 years old. Vanessa Simmons is 31. And they both look and sound like they are 16.

Thought chubby gay kid ( sorry name escapes me) has the best chance of being on project runway when he turns 21.

[dialyn]

Ingrid Nilsen is 25 years old. Vanessa Simmons is 31. And they both look and sound like they are 16.

Thought chubby gay kid ( sorry name escapes me) has the best chance of being on project runway when he turns 21.

Vanessa doesn't look 16 to me. She does sound much younger than she is.  I just don't know why she's there. I realize the job takes no credentials but, really. she brings nothing to the table as far as I can tell.

 

Zachary is the young man's name.

Edited November 8, 2014 by dialyn

[aradia22]

My recap is up on trashtalktv. I was too tired to watch the show live so I just watched it the next day. I don't know if it was because I only had to watch it once or because this was just a better crop of hamsters but I liked them. The show's still kind of boring but now I'm used to it. I thought the quality of the clothes was good for a one day challenge with teenagers though I'd appreciate it if they didn't keep prompting them to cry.

[aradia22]

 

How old is that Ingrid girl? She kind of freaks me out because she has a face and speaking style of an adult on the body of a ten year old. I also think these kids don't need so many twists-they have more twists than the adults on PR. They also shouldn't have aired the sad story of the girl dealing with her parents divorce-she doesn't understand it now, but having this personal stuff aired will embarrass her in the future.

Maybe it's because I've watched her on youtube for a few years now but I don't see a discrepancy between the way she acts and the way she looks. Although I do think she comes across as a little more fake after doing more work for other people. She's one of the more intelligent youtubers. She's always been fairly articulate and well-spoken and I think she studied architecture.

 

This is slightly off topic but the In a World... argument of Lake Bell's kind of rubs me the wrong way. Yes, you shouldn't adopt a baby voice because you're trying to appeal to guys and you can totally find someone's voice irritating. But the idea that you should automatically reject a voice that's high pitched and/or feminine because it's incongruous with your picture of an adult or a professional bothers me. It's similar to one of the reasons I always disliked What Not to Wear. Sure you shouldn't show up for work in pajamas but why should everyone conform to your ideas of appropriate attire? Whatever. Off on a tangent now.

 

As for Emily, I actually think they didn't discuss everything. It was a little awkward how they talked around it. I don't think it was just about the divorce. Some of the things she said made me think that she's had some therapy or counseling and that it might have been for an eating disorder or self harm.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Pretty telling when a 15 year old kid makes a better corset than Kate did on PRAS.

 

While I am fine with Emily being into grunge, that camouflage hoodie with shorts was really not the best outfit to bring to wow the judges. Yes, it's wearable but it looked like something

 

The vest she paired with the black dress looked like it was cut differently on each side which I found really distracting. I do have to give her credit for deciding to take some stuff off (it looked like a red or blue scarf?) before the runway. Some designers never learn how to edit and just keep piling stuff on top of their models which ends up making them look messy and buried under all the layers. I thought her black dress lacked a lot of sewing/design technique. Obviously she knows how to sew because the hoodie and shorts she brought were sewn well, so it's too bad that her black dress looked like a no-sew arts and crafts project.

 

I cut the kids on this show a lot of slack because, well, they're kids. But one thing I loathe on PR is the long involved stories to explain lackluster designs. I really want to give Emily a pass because she is clearly still healing from whatever she wouldn't specifically talk about (I have no basis for my guess, but it sounded like it was probably an eating disorder, cutting, or suicide attempt), but listening to the story behind her second dress was like having to hear Angela's story about the French nanny throwing a dog party or whatever that bull shit was a few seasons ago. I honestly don't care what the story is. If you have to explain your dress to me, it wasn't done well enough. You aren't going to be able to leave a 45 page treatise on the rack to sell your dress at a store so the design needs to be able to stand alone without any explanation and appeal to people without you standing there spinning some story to convince them how fraught with deep meaning your dress is.

 

That said, however, I liked that Zachary had a very clear inspiration and idea for each of his designs. But the difference was that I could see his clothes were good even without the stories. His Marie Antoinette design was really interesting and clearly had a regal inspiration even before he explained the cape and the fabric choice. In cases like that, the story just enhances what you are looking at but the story isn't necessary in order for you to understand what you're looking at. I think that his second dress could have had more wow factor, but at the same time, his critique from the judges was to make something more ready to wear. I really liked that his dress wasn't a flat one dimensional color. The sponged on ombré color gave the illusion of texture and some depth. While it was simple, at least it didn't look like an arts and crafts project as Emily's did.

 

When Colette said she loved 60s and 70s fashion, I was prepared to dislike her designs (especially since I didn't care for the dress/choker she brought for the first round) but I liked how clean her black and white dress was. That was a good blend of classic and modern. I also really liked her second dress. The paint looked like an interesting print (and her mom was right to use tape to add the illusion of a belt - that made it look neater and more pulled together).

 

I would have been fine with Colette winning (and I was afraid the judges would be swayed by Emily's sob story and give her the win) but I am glad that Zachary won. Aside from referring to himself in the third person during that talking head, I liked him and I like that he put thought into all three of the designs we saw from him.

[scarlettudor]

I liked that Zachary chose the most dramatic accessory to design for.  I didn't pay a lot of attention to the bustier, but I loved that gorgeous green skirt.  And was his second design the grey dress?  I thought it was equally compelling even though the judges called it 'too simple' or 'no wow factor.'  I'd like to look at that one further. Are there photos of each week's designs somewhere?*

 

Also ~ loved aradia22's phrase << this was just a better crop of hamsters>>

 

*Found them

 

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway-threads/photos/season-1-episode-3-final-looks#id=1

 

I love Zachary's 2nd look, the grey, even more when I looked at it longer.  And the bustier was perfect with the headdress and skirt.  Maleficent, look out!

Edited November 8, 2014 by scarlettudor

[dialyn]

I liked the grey dress too except for the blue dots.  The gradation from black to light grey along with the choice of the type of paint (sparkling in a subtle way) made for interesting results.   That was a good example of Zachary and his mother working well together on his idea.

[leighdear]

 

If you have to explain your dress to me, it wasn't done well enough. You aren't going to be able to leave a 45 page treatise on the rack to sell your dress at a store so the design needs to be able to stand alone without any explanation and appeal to people without you standing there spinning some story to convince them how fraught with deep meaning your dress is.

This is an absolutely perfect way to express that concept.    

[BradandJanet]

Zachary made me a bit nervous when he chose the dramatic headpiece because Vanessa said something about making clothes real women would wear. While I wouldn't wear either his dress or the Maleficent thing, he managed to make a dress that didn't look too costume but still worked with the accessory. Good job.

[Bebecat]

Maybe kids who are bullied, depressed, have issues, etc are more inclined to take up such a singular skill, one they can work on alone and do whatever they want. I hope the show is not going after these types of kids on purpose just for the sob stories. ANTM does enough of that.

I think Colette should have won but she has to watch not to make only clothes for Twiggy, though there is probably a market for that. She was kind of adorable. I was not so much into the aesthetics (hate that word) of the other two but Zachary was the better sewer/technical designer and his clothes were stronger as to what he was trying to put across. I am not a fan of clothing with messages, so the "Hope" dress did not overwhelm me, it seems like of manipulative, if she was not so young. But for teens I could that be inspiring though the girls who get it and feel hopeless are not going to have the nerve to wear it, Imo. It is an attention-seeking dress. Her black dress was not good. Show skin in one place...but if they going off pop stars etc they will never learn that.

Love Christian, but wish they would drop the muslin thing, or at least let me just start with muslin, not that a-line dress shape. I do like seeing two looks though. At least Colette changed up the shape of the dress.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I dislike the second task because it is just thrown in there to stress out the designers and it's just a glorified arts and crafts project. I know that fashion and design isn't ALL about sewing but painting a muslin dress seems like a step above finger painting, plus they all delegated the muslin dress to their parents.

[Found A Peanut]

I really liked the parental relationships in this one - solid and supportive, not overbearing. I hope that as a mother I can be as calm and helpful as Zachary's mom during crunch time. He felt comfortable turning to her with his freak out before he really lost it, which was a level of trust lovely to see, and she did just the right thing in drilling down into the task, helping him to prioritize, calm down a bit, and get himself back into the moment. Nicely done.

I thought I'd have to quit watching this show if it turned into some kind of stage parent/precocious monster drama fest. Passionate, self-motivated kids making the most of an exciting opportunity, I'll be happy to watch, though. Now if only they'd give the kids at least a couple of days so they could really polish their work.

And hasn't Christian grown up nice!