Project Runway 9 - Can't We Just All Get Along?

They just gave us a break from a team challenge and then they just throw another one at us. The challenge was to work as a team to create their own fabrics using their HP technology suite and create a cohesive collection but only 3 pieces had to contain their custom made fabrics. We knew whichever team got Josh M. and Bert would have their entire teams confessionals be complaining about them but to have them on one team gives you a public fight along with a ton of confessionals totally bitching about it. Well as you know one team contained Josh M., Bert, Becky, Laura and Kimberly which named themselves Team Nuts and Bolts but I'd just leave out the Bolts part since they are all nuts. The other team consisted of Anthony Ryan, Anya, Bryce, Olivier and Viktor, they went by Team Chaos although pretty much they were all in harmony. Let's see how this team dynamics affects their designs:

Team Chaos:

Print Fabrics:

I liked all their prints and when it became fabric, I liked it even more.

Anthony Ryan

I think that this design looks very preppy punk, I know that totally clashes but I get a preppy feel from the look but it has an overall light punkish look. This is very wearable and sellable, the fabrics looks very good on this design. That pop of color is very nice but I'm not a fan of the color.

Anya:

I thought this was a nice cocktail dress, not a standout really but when it turned around and I saw that back I completely thought it was a strong look after that. It's nicely made and the use of the print is nice, that open square back really gives this dress that sex appeal that is lacking in the front.

Bryce:

This look was the more casual look from this collection, it fits in with the rest. Those shorts look great and I like that the top has a nice movement and is casual daywear but definitely not the best look in the bunch like I said with Anthony's look not a fan of the color.

Olivier:

I wasn't a fan of this look because I felt once again Olivier goes with a pretty muted look but when the close up of the look shows it completely changes my mind. The jacket is so well-made and definitely looks good, the pants actually looks better on the show than it does in this photo. 

Viktor:

I really like this dress! That sheer effect on top along with the slight makes this dress less generic, then that unique print really makes dress interesting. Not much to say other than this look is just great. 

Team Nuts and Bolts:

Fabric Prints:

I get the idea behind these fabrics with their concept of a clock but these fabrics are just terrible.

Becky:

I would say this look is just like all of Becky's work so far on the show. It's been a bit mundane, frumpy, very bland work. I don't like the way the top looks along with the color and that word print skirt kind of sucks. The jacket is alright but definitely not good enough to save this terrible outfit.

Bert:

I like this dress, well almost, the length is just all wrong. He could have made it longer to the ground or shorter to above the knee this would have been probably the best look on the team. I like the zipper going across the front of the dress. Like I said before the print is not so great but he was able to work with it and make it at least partially presentable and he had to use it since no one else really wanted to work with this print and I can't blame them.

Josh M.:

Ugh this ugly word print again! I mean text prints do work sometimes but this is not one of those cases and I can't stand looking at that much of it at once. Whoever chose those words really didn't really think if people actually wanted to wear them. The jacket was nice and interesting and it has that cog concept behind it and I like the color of navy blue top but feel it just doesn't completely fit in with the outfit.

Kimberly: 

I really like this top and that blue that sticks out but whatever that brown skirt thing is suppose to be looks just plain atrocious. The shape is never what a woman wants around her hips, maybe it rided up too high and made it look like this but that skirt is just ugly and I don't want to look at this any longer than I have to.

Laura:

I would say this has to be the best look on this team yet it really doesn't fit in with the rest. I mean yes the blue shows up in other pieces and it incorporates that ugly word print but it doesn't have that casual frumpiness about it that many of the others have. Love the blue color and really digging this jumpsuit although I've seen quite a few this season along with that zipper detailing. 

I think it's obvious who I think had the best team and collection, congrats Team Chaos!

So who did I crown the winner of this challenge? 

Viktor! He had the best look, it was a fantastic evening look that used a print that was unique and cohesive with his teammates. It was definitely a standout among a bunch of great outfits.

Let's see who I thought should be out this challenge

Becky! I've been over Becky's design aesthetic for awhile now, it's just too frumpy and has no modern ideas behind it She is a great tailor but no creativity leaves you with nothing to really design about. I'm glad she's gone because I can't stand to see something like this again.

~Anthony

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Project Runway 9 - The Art of the Matter

Sorry for this being late but I was on vacation in the Caribbeans along with Lauren. Here is my late recap of last Thursday's episode of Project Runway. I'm a huge fan of Haute Couture so I was happy to hear that this challenge would be a avant-garde challenge inspired by art done by art students. Some of these looks I absolutely have no clue how it pertains to either avant-garde or the artwork but I did have a lot of looks I liked although I feel they didn't push it as far as they could have with a challenge that is avant-garde. Let's see how the designers did:

The best looks this challenge:

Anya

I found this design very cool looking, it's interesting and I see the African tribal feel that was going on in the painting put into this dress. I think this is almost a bit too ready to wear but still has that avant-garde feeling. Definitely love that feature top she is wearing and the shape of the bottom skirt is great. I really felt this look was definitely going to be in the top but it wasn't.

Anthony Ryan

Another look from Anthony Ryan that I really like and is one of my favorite looks this challenge. I think it's a very cool look that has an edge with the way the hair is styled. The construction is a bit messy but I get the brush stroke effect that his artist put onto that painting along with the nude illusion under it all. He finally won after so long being in the top, I felt he should have won a few challenges back.

Josh M.

His idea for this design really was original and felt like the painting inspired it. It was original and he pulled out a story from the painting and translated it to this garment. I feel this is almost a bit too ready to wear rather than the couture idea but the top might help along with the "smoke" in the hair. The skirt is adorable and nicely painted. I wonder how the judges could even pick a winner with all these good looks.

Kimberly

I love this look! I'm glad she gave almost a literal look to her painting which was of a giant bird and she covered this look in those feathers. I love the way the feathers look against the leather and the overall silhouette of the dress. This was definitely an edgy look and I think she was definitely a strong contender this round that should have been in the top.

Laura

Another look that I didn't find the most avant-garde but it does have that over exaggeration of those ruffles along with the boning under makes this look different than a typical ruffly, flowy dress. I couldn't for the longest time find out how this related to the painting until she explained it. I like the look a lot but I still wanted this to push the boundaries more.

Middle of the Road:

Becky

This design has nothing avante garde about it, I get the painting from this but I wish it had more of a connection rather than just those green cubes when it had a lot more to it. The shoulder detail has been done before but with flowers and other detailings, the cubes do not make a look avant-garde. Becky is not ever going to be a standout since she is just can't seem to pull off that great of looks.

Bryce

A straight jacket does seem like a haute couture idea, which Alexander McQueen has done and was well executed, while this was not well executed at all. It was pretty much boring, nothing interesting about this look, which is not avant-garde whatsoever, but it was at least finished and well made and had the idea behind it that fit with the painting of a deranged looking person. 

Viktor

This dress looks nice but I don't get it with his piece of artwork. He was given this green painting that look like vines with some blues and reds in there that made these types of thorns. I see that it does look like the dress was attacked by thorns to create that ripped effect but I wasn't even sure what he was going with. Viktor could have pushed it a bit further while keeping to the idea of the painting.

The worst looks:

Bert

This is the most literal look to walk down that runway. To be quite honest, I think he had the hardest artwork since it was just a bunch of random things placed onto a canvas. Everything that pretty much was shown on the painting is sewn onto this outfit. I don't like the fit and proportions but it's definitely avant-garde. It has that unwearable feeling to it while being a bit crazy. It just looks like a terrible mess though, there is a right and wrong way to do avant-garde and this is the wrong one.

Josh C.

I thought pirate wench when I saw this look, she could possibly be a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas at Treasure Island with this outfit. It just looks so cheap and trashy yet more ready to wear than any other look in the bunch. I don't think he understood what avant-garde meant so he just went with this. I don't even get how this was suppose to fit with the painting, I guess her hair makes her animalistic almost like a wolf while having her heart exposed.

Olivier

Another drab look from Olivier, I finally love that the judges called him out on this mess since he deserved it in many challenges so far. I find only the top that is gray looks goo the rest makes absolutely no sense with his painting, it was a whole bunch of color and vibrancy that this is so dull and boring. He needed more color but the look is terrible. I think even his model's underwear is showing in his dress and he even had to glue the top to his model but of course he was able to fix it after Tim Gunn had informed him it was against the rules or else we'd have two shows in one garment. This was a disaster.

So who did I pick as having the best avant-garde look this challenge?

Kimberly! This look is so edgy and avant-garde, I was surprised when she was called safe, although Anthony Ryan is my favorite and he won with the judges, this was just an amazing avant-garde look that isn't a giant bird costume which it could have gone that direction.

The designer that should be out is.......

Josh C. and Olivier, I believe this show shouldn't just eliminate one designer a round but rather eliminate the worst looks because they both are just tragic. This should never be close to the word avant-garde because this is so far away from it, one is trashy the other is just plain mundane. 

~Anthony

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Project Runway 9 - Off The Track

Although for some last challenge seemed like a team challenge, this is the official second team challenge of the season. This episode eliminated an entire "team" because Cecilia decided to quit joining Julie, who she helped finish her outfit last challenge. The four team captains were determined by a race around a track and the first four to finish the race would choose in the order they finished. The teams were all picked and it ended up being Josh M., Anya, and Becky as the first team, Anthony Ryan, Laura and Bert as the second, and Viktor and Olivier as the last team but since the teams were uneven Heidi decided to bring back an eliminated contestant and is it was Josh C. I wonder how he will do in the competition now that he has a second chance and I want to see how far he can get. The challenge was to create a three piece cohesive look that used denim and suede that would fit along with HKNB shoes, the winning look would be sold as part of Heidi's collection on Amazon. Let's see how they did this challenge:

Anthony Ryan, Bert and Laura

I don't get this team's concept at all, they are just three looks that barely have anything in common. I like Anthony's top but his shorts just look terrible and totally unflattering on any woman, I get that he was trying to make it more like something you'd wear with sneakers but this was just bad, disappointing because he's one of my favorites and has so far done so well. Bert's looks like she's going out on the town almost like a cocktail party but after work, this almost seems like something for last challenge but not. I don't get how this outfit works with sneakers at all, so once again I feel Bert is just throwing challenges. Lastly, there is Laura which I actually like her top, well the front at least, and vest but don't like the shorts at all. I think Laura's is the best in her group but damn those shorts look so strange, almost like it's the same as the shirt fabric but added something above it.

Anya, Becky, and Josh M.

I think these three have elements that bring together a cohesion. I think Josh M.'s outfit brings it together because it has piece of Becky's short with the print of Anya's maxi dress. I'm not as big of a fan of Anya's maxi dress for one reason and that's the pink strip down the front, I felt it could have done without that but other than that it is a great dress but it's a casual one that would fit with the sneakers. Becky's outfit was iffy, I don't see this being good at all because the shirt is kind of boring and the skirt just looks so strange with the blue stripes but it's not a terrible outfit. I like Josh's outfit as well, I just think that the print is just great and probably why I like Anya's and Josh's. I like the cut vest yet it all works together as on outfit. Although they had a team mishap it came together to produce some pretty good outfits.

Bryce, Danielle, and Kimberly

This is the least cohesive of the bunch, I don't see how all of these go together, it seems like each just went their own point of few an used similar fabrics. I actually really liked Bryce's dress, it's casual yet has interesting details to it that it isn't just a simple boring dress, especially love the darts and shoulders, it looked better on the show than it does in this picture. Danielle's outfit looks like what she has done throughout the competition and it's just not cutting it since it's so simple/basic that it just has no wow factor, it's pretty much just boring but I like the color of the top. I think Kimberly really had a step down this challenge because this just isn't great at all but at least the jacket is really good and it saves the outfit from being a huge snoozefest.

Joshua C., Olivier, and Viktor

This group I believe had the most cohesive collection. I see one idea going from one look to another that it's soft yet has an tough edge to it. Josh C's first challenge back and he didn't suck, which is a good thing because he was a trainwreck the first time around he actually produced a good look, especially the modern shirt. I like Olivier's top but once again he creates such mundane clothes that aren't modern at all, even after Heidi tells him he should change it, he sticks to his guns and it was a mistake. I like Viktor's look especially the jacket, the dress is nice and cute but I didn't like the fabric when I saw it on the runway, it just looked so cheap but the overall look was a bit more expensive.

My choice for the winner of this challenge is..................

Josh M.! This was a very modern look, I liked he print and the cut vest. I believe he styled this very nice and it totally works with those sneakers. 

My choice for the worst design and the designer that should have been out this challenge is................

I had to agree with the judges on this one. It just looks so boring, this is not something new or exciting and if I just saw this for the rest of the competition, I'd really just rather take a few naps.

~Anthony

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