S05.E10: Rebel With A Cause

[Spunkygal]

I've come to the conclusion that some of the designers misunderstood the challenge.

When they were told to design for a badass they thought they were supposed to design a bad ass.

I shall be joining the "anybody but Sam" team. I'll bring brownies.

And I'll bring the seersucker....with flats.......to burn. Edited April 18, 2016 by Spunkygal

[auntlada]

I didn't like Emily's dress because it didn't say summer to me. Sam has GOT to be doing I-Suck already because he should have been gone weeks ago. I liked Kini's design the best. Is Ken really that short? When he stood between the models, he looked like he was 5 feet tall.

When I saw Alyssa's runway outfit, it took me back to my school days and the nuns. All Alyssa needed was the whimpole on her head and a set of rosary beads and she'd be total nun. The nuns in our school wore the basic white dress with the black apron-like thing. And her hair was so 1980's. It took me back to an old miniseries called Scruples, starring Lindsay Wagner, where her hair was BIG, curly and wayyyyy beyond normal looking.

Thank you for making me realize who her hair reminded me of -- not 1980s or Lindsay Wagner in that show (since I didn't see it), but Laraine Newman on Saturday Night Live, circa 1975.

[Wings]

LLBean has seersucker every year.  For me it says, affluent, republican, suburbanite.  Sam's story did work for his garment, but the pants were way too tight for that fabric that has no give, ugly and not badass.  

 

Issac's baby Bijorn comment was negative but seersucker is one of his favorite fabrics!  Really?  

 

We saw a glimpse of Ken's nasty streak appear.  I agreed with Issac (shocker) that white pants dragging on the ground is not a good idea!  Issac's reaction was curious.  He acted like he had been scolded.  ???

 

Debi also said that she liked seeing flats.  I get this.  I am tired of seeing 5" spikes on everyone, even with jeans, too. 

 

What a lousy runway, I didn't like anything.  Kini's pants would look good in an avant garde challenge. 

 

I love Debi and wish she was asked to be a judge more often.  I like Zac, too.  

 

Loved Alyssa's hair but her dress was terrible.  I like her new short look (googled it).   

 

Now is the time I would usually say I miss PR but I hesitate.  Ashley did not deserve that win.  Her clothes were hideous, HIDEOUS!  

[damnman]

I agree Alyssa's hair was bad, her clothes were worse but I cannot look at that once beautiful woman and agree with the amount of makeup she wears...tsk, tsk, tsk.

[Special K]

in NYC, people are wearing seersucker these past few summers.  Not everyone, but you see it.  Like you see those scrawny young men the kind who wear suits with skinny ankle pants and no socks -- they might be wearing seersucker.  Or young women in seersucker hot pants.  Full disclosure:  I have a J.Crew seersucker blazer and I love it.  I guess I'm edgy.

 

Does anyone remember Michael Knight (whose name now has a "y" somewhere) in the jet-set challenge (wear something for a transatlantic flight that won't look wrinkeld), he made cargo pants with seersucker and they were kind of genius.  Even edgy?

 

When I saw Alyssa's hair, it looked like a total save to me.  Like, we wanted to do something with her hair, it didn't work out, so we just stuck some pins in at the last minute to hold it off her face.

 

I think Dom's stint as cancer research was working as one of those dreaded charity-muggers (chuggers) on the street who accost you cheerily with "Do you have a moment for cancer research?"

[RCharter]

Oh...hipsters.  I can see how they would find seersucker ironic enough to be cool.  Are hipsters badass anymore?

[Special K]

Hipsters are a cliche. 

 

So is badass.

[Cyranetta]

The Vermont Country Store catalog has a lot of seersucker -- but it's mostly nostalgic nightwear, probably as far from edgy as one can get.

[RCharter]

 

I think Dom's stint as cancer research was working as one of those dreaded charity-muggers (chuggers) on the street who accost you cheerily with "Do you have a moment for cancer research?"

Wow, I could see that being the case.  Poor girl, that almost makes me like her, because I can't imagine doing that soul sucking work for three years.  I sold perfume out of the back of someone's car for an entire day (I got work catfished!).  After that day (and earning my place as number one sales associate for selling a bottle of Dark Desires....a knockoff of Drakar Noir) I quit.

 

I do however think its BS that she would sell that as "cancer research." and try to build a story around shiny equipment and lab coats.

[auntlada]

It probably is, but it's not worse than Sam's crap story that he made up sometime between leaving the workroom and arriving at the runway. I don't know where he got that because it didn't seem to bear any relation to what actually happened with his design(s) in the workroom.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

To me the difference is that a fictional story about some girl getting dragged to a party by her mom only reflects on Sam's lame imagination. Dom saying that she worked in cancer research for three years is meant to portray her as a smart science oriented person who has a personal connection to the cause that the guest lady donates (10% of her net) proceeds to. And that's even more egregious if her "cancer research" amounted to "I washed food bowls at the zoo in high school."

But like I said, I get suspicious about claims like this due to the friend of a friend situation I had where this girl was constantly patting herself on the back on facebook and instagram about how she saves lives and helps cancer patients when she's really a paper pusher at a pharmaceutical company. I used to work at a company that made heart ports for babies so I guess I was saving lives too!

[auntlada]

That's true. My opinion may be colored by my hatred for Sam.

I don't know what you did at the company, but if it was something that had to be done, no matter how small or how unrelated to making the heart ports, I'd say you had a part in saving lives. Someone had to do that work so the people making the ports could do their jobs.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I loathe Sam (both his personality and his designs) and I have mostly liked Dom this season. I just think that it's purposely deceptive if you're doing something like sorting the mail or making coffee but claiming that you save lives or are involved in scientific research. I worked in accounting but if I'm to follow the friend of a friend's lead, I was as good as a neonatal surgeon!

 

Meanwhile Sam's story was stupid but no worse than Angela's French dog sitter on her way to a tea party or whatever the hell the Queen of Fleurchons made up for one of those challenges. I actually HATE when the designers make up stupid stories to justify the hideous and nonsensical things they send down the runway (see also: choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance). To me, clothing is like any other art form - if you have to explain it then you didn't do a very good job creating it. The art should be able to stand on its own without a long complicated story about what it means or what influenced you or really any other context.

 

And again, I say that as someone who can't stand Sam and his simpering "aren't I adorable?" comments or his fugly outfits. He is definitely one of those people who thinks he is cuter, funnier, smarter, and more talented than he really is. If you're going to talk so much shit, you better bring it. And a seersucker jumpsuit with a Girl Scout sash across the front definitely doesn't qualify as bringing it under normal circumstances, let alone a challenge for an edgy badass girl, no matter what the crack smoking judges say.

[Steph619]

I lost count with the number of times the word "badass" was mentioned throughout the show.

 

I liked Emily's look, but I probably would've given the win to Kini. I was so glad he decided to get rid of the jacket and just go with the top and those beautiful pants. I'm not the type of person that likes the color yellow, but I really did like his pants and how well they were made.

 

Sam is such a kiss-up to Isaac with the flats. At first, I was so distracted by the model's hair that I couldn't pay attention to the outfit he made, but after I took time to actually look at it, it didn't look well-constructed nor edgy to me.

 

I actually liked Ken's look, but his construction skills went out the window with this design. I'm glad he stayed over Asha, but he needs to step it up for next week or he'll be the next to go.

[NikSac]

I lost count with the number of times the word "badass" was mentioned throughout the show.

 

Way too many!  Hubby who's not a fan of the show happened to walk through the room when they were on one of their "badass" kicks and he said "none of these people deserve to say badass, about anything."  A little extreme, but it cracked me up.

[Beden]

Your hub was right...

[seacliffsal]

So, QVC had seersucker shorts for sale this week, and Isaac, during his Monday night weekly show on QVC, had a jacket with gingham cuffs and collar. He and the host went on and on about the flats he was selling. He also talked about designing what women love....

Therefore, (1) I was SO fashion forward when I was younger and wore seersucker and gingham!, (2) Isaac hates it when someone ELSE designs what women want as he obviously wants that market all to himself, (3) maybe he is so over the top about flats and other mediocre designs that Sam puts out as he decided to use Sam as his muse for what he is now selling on QVC.

Disclaimer, I do buy some things from QVC, and I specifically watched about half of Isaac's show this week so I could compare what he actually sells to the comments he makes on Project Runway.

[Julia]

There's nothing wrong with home shopping. What's wrong is that Isaac is willing to promote things on home shopping that he would recoil from if they showed up here, and that appears to have leached into his judging.

 

I'd actually say that's what he was hired for.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Julia

[auntlada]

There's nothing wrong with home shopping. What's wrong is that Isaac is willing to promote things on home shopping that he would recoil from if they showed up here, and that appears to have leached into his judging.

 

And that although it's apparently OK if he designs what women want, it's not OK if the contestants design what women want. He did criticize Ken for that last episode, didn't he?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Exactly! He criticized Ken for giving women what they want because that's somehow stooping to the commonest level instead of pushing women to wear crap they don't want so they can be fresh, modern, and fashion foe-ward.

[Tony]

I want to hear more about Dom's three years doing cancer/biomedical research. Like was she working in a research lab? I am not calling her a liar but I always want more specifics when people say things like that because I have become a little cautious/wary when people make statements like that, mostly because a friend of a friend is always posting on instagram about how she "saves lives" with her "cancer research" and then her friend told me that she works in QA at a pharmaceutical company. Again, I am not accusing Dom of lying so I don't want anyone to take it that way. I just really want to know more about what she did because it's very interesting to me and it's so different from what she does now which makes it even more interesting!

 

This!

 

She clearly though so highly of it that she mentioned it on three different occasions, clearly to earn brownie points with the audience/judges. As a biochemist, working in a research lab requires extensive education, so I highly doubt she played any groundbreaking role at this so-called cancer research lab for three years with a high school diploma or parts of design school. I was praying for someone to call her out on it and ask her to elaborate.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

So I did some more digging and http://www.halcyonco.bigcartel.com-where she sold pieces here and there.

.

I still give it a bit of side eye.  

 

I forgot to say this earlier in the week, but thanks for finding that little tidbit. She is getting the side eye from me too. Although we have had high school kids work in our lab over the summer and we let them conduct some experiments, it was definitely not life saving research that these 15 year old kids were doing. Similarly, working at the zoo or doing animal care as a high school or undergrad is much more likely to mean doing menial tasks, not research. I'm guessing some non-sciencey people don't get why this is such a sticking point for me, but it's like someone claiming, "I'm a professional ballerina!" and then you find out that the real story is that the person saying this took her kid to a Mommy and Me class or she was one of the fundraising volunteers who cold called people asking for donations to the local ballet company or she's the receptionist at her kid's dance studio. Being adjacent to something doesn't mean that you are actually doing it too.

 

Hilariously, one of my friends from college knew I worked in a lab and every once in a while he would say, "I know you're going to cure cancer one day!" and I had to keep reminding him that my lab doesn't deal with cancer AT ALL (when people hear I work in a lab, they immediately picture a room full of people wearing goggles and white lab coats while surrounded by beakers and microscopes, and whenever we got press for our research the people sent to interview us always wanted pictures/videos of us wearing lab coats even though we don't normally wear them).

 

She clearly though so highly of it that she mentioned it on three different occasions, clearly to earn brownie points with the audience/judges. As a biochemist, working in a research lab requires extensive education, so I highly doubt she played any groundbreaking role at this so-called cancer research lab for three years with a high school diploma or parts of design school. I was praying for someone to call her out on it and ask her to elaborate.

Is it too much to hope that someone asks her about this on the reunion show? Fingers crossed! I mean, if it turns out that she was actually doing cancer research in college, that's awesome and I seriously want to hear all about it.

Edited April 20, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Tony]

Is it too much to hope that someone asks her about this on the reunion show? Fingers crossed! I mean, if it turns out that she was actually doing cancer research in college, that's awesome and I seriously want to hear all about it.

 

Yes! Pleeeaaaasseeee bring this up at the reunion. She definitely says "cancer research lab" every time, so unless the that vet school lab she worked at deals with animal cancers...she's full of it.

[Pallida]

Yes! Pleeeaaaasseeee bring this up at the reunion. She definitely says "cancer research lab" every time, so unless the that vet school lab she worked at deals with animal cancers...she's full of it.

 

Or maybe someone can ask her on Twitter?

 

I fully agree that support is still part of the team, but how a person presents their role matters.  Saying "I worked on cancer research" is very different from "I had a job in a cancer research lab."

[janerazor]

I hated Sam's story about a girl who cuts up her seersucker suit because Mommy is making her go to some dumb party in the Hamptons. First of all, what badass woman (and they are designing for women here, not girls) allows her mother to force her to go to a party? And even if that badass woman did go to the party, she'd wear whatever she wanted; she wouldn't be all stupidly rebellious and cut up the outfit her mommy had told her to wear.

 

Didn't like Dom's dress. Way, way too heavy, even if it wasn't supposed to be for summer. I still like her as a designer; I think she just had a bad idea from the start on this one. 

 

But I also side-eyed her "cancer research for three years" story. My brother is a legit cancer research scientist. With the many years he's had to put in (college, grad school, post-grad work, then getting his own lab), I have a hard time seeing cancer research as something you just do for three years. Yes, my brother does have some people working in his lab who aren't really doing the research. It's not that they aren't valued. But to say they are doing research would be way too much of a stretch.

 

I too recognized Peytie's fabric! But as a teenager, Peytie has a far superior eye for line and proportion than Ashe could ever hope to have. I did like Ashe much better than I did on PR:UTG, but I doubt I'll ever be a fan. And the dress she made in this challenge was so oddly proportioned. It felt so strangely incongruous within itself.

[slothgirl]

I can't remember what exactly Dom said about the cancer thing. But I do think there is a difference between saying you were "doing" cancer research vs being "in" cancer research. One is a specific job and the other is a field. It's like the difference between being a governor and working in government.

 

As much as I find her talking heads annoying, she doesn't seem like the type to just make $*(#  up. She seemed sincere. Sometimes colloquial expressions are misleading. I  once said that I had "done her workshop" about a lady who led creative arts therapy workshops. Everyone assumed I had co-led the workshop. I later had to clarify that I TOOK the workshop. In my main hobby, where special workshops with world class visiting professionals are a frequent learning method, everyone uses the phrase "I did the workshop this afternoon", or "I've done workshops with these teachers:". It's how we say we took workshops. No one would ever assume that the person speaking co-led the workshop with one of these famous teachers. But to the rest of the world, the phrase would mean we worked with the instructor to lead the workshop.

 

Whatever it was, she cared about it and was proud of it. I think that's commendable. Too many people (especially those who are doing a job they hate while watching their dreams go by) just go through the motions and get by with as little contribution as possible. There are SO many workers out there who are slack and rude. If she worked in a job where the accepted dynamic was that they were all part of a valuable team in the field of cancer research, then more power to them. I think that's great. I don't think she said "I was a cancer researcher". I think she said she had a job in the cancer research industry. Even if her words weren't exactly that, I'll bet that's what she meant and she didn't intend to pretend she was a high level research scientist. I haven't seen any evidence of grandiose exaggerations from her about her past. Delusions about her current design maybe...

 

However lowly her job may have been, in my view, it's an important job in that it supports the scientists, and I commend her for doing it and being proud of it.

 

Now if SAM had said he worked in cancer research, my side eye would allow me to see all the way behind my head! ;)

Edited April 21, 2016 by slothgirl