Project Runway’s Final Three

Okay…

If you you haven’t seen the show yet and DON’T want to know who’s going to Bryant Park then STOP READING RIGHT NOW!!!

Out of the five remaining designers, Carol Hannah.. Althea.. and Irina are going to show a collection during Fashion Week.

Christopher and Gordana were auffed.

I have to say, as much as I thought Christopher should have packed his needle and threat A LONG time ago… I kind of feel bad for him. I don’t think I didn’t like him as much as I thought I did…

I felt bad for Gordana too because she has such a sad story filled with triumph.. but yknow.. it’s not Dr. Phil and damn, if sad stories won you things then I at least should be able to open a door on Let’s Make A Deal, dammit! LOL

Out of the three, Irina is probably going to win but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see Carol Hannah take it … she’s grown on me and I kind of like her all around general attitude. Plus, she never had formal training so to be THAT good by being self taught then to me, that’s just talent.

We shall see!

Oh.. and btw.. just how bad did Cindy Crawford look! Give up the bouffant girl, this ain’t no Kenny Chesney video!!

Alright.. alright.. don’t all you Kenny fans start sending the hate mail. I KNOW Kenny doesn’t have bouffant hair in his videos .. it’s just a damn reference to his song “The Good Stuff” .. so just settle yourselves down!! LOL

What The $%^&* Is Up With Project Runway????

Wrong…

Wrong..

Wrong…

SO DAMN WRONG!!

Ok.. so I had to give up doing PR recaps because apparently, On Demand decided to NOT put up the episodes right after they aired.. the way they had at the beginning of the cycle. So even though I’m kind of up to date.. I catch the show at random times so it was just to hard.

But my JAW DROPPED when Shirin was given the “AUF”…

Shirin? Over Christopher?? You have to be kidding me!

Although I was a fan of Christopher’s in the beginning, he’s just gone down hill for me and has consistently been in the bottom for what? The past few weeks?

Shirin may not have WON challenges :: I think she won one :: but to eliminate her because ONE dress wasn’t up to par? … The BOTTOM half of the dress wasn’t up to par?

No.. not acceptible.

I liked Shirin.. liked her energy.. liked her designs.. liked that she was as good as she is for being so young.

This is so wrong it’s BADONG!

RECAP: Project Runway 6.2 and 6.3

Okay… I know I’m late with the whole recapping thing but NOT having a job to go to anymore seems to have turned into me NOT having a lot of time to do things other then go to the shop.. take care of the house.. and the kids.. and do my mother’s biddings… you get the idea.

Anyway.. I’m going to catch up in one post so forgive me if I don’t get every detail in.

EPISODE 2 – GOODBYE MALVIN

So Rebecca Romijn :: I don’t think I spelled that right but am in too much of a blogging mood to Google in so again.. forgive me :: was the star guest. At the time of filming :: remember the whole legal snafu? :: Rebecca was very, VERY pregnant with twin girls she later named Charlie and Dolly.

Ok.. we won’t go there on the names.

The challenge was to create maternity wear. It could be day wear, sport wear, evening wear.. didn’t matter. It just had to fit over the faux “baby bump” that was issued for the models to wear on the runway.

Understandably, most of the designers had never designed for a pregnant woman although Qristyl does designed for fuller sized woman and Epperson is married with children. My thought at the time was that if I was a male designer of woman’s clothes and my woman was pregnant with my kid then I would definitely design something for her.. so my expectations of him were high.

Since I watched this episode a week ago, I can’t go into all the details about who designed what. Maybe that’s a good thing because what is forgotten can’t apparently be that good, right?

I do remember thinking that most of the designs were “safe” .. or what you would think that someone in Rebecca’s position would wear. The one’s the I do remember were either in the top or the bottom with two exceptions…

Epperson created a jumpsuit that I thought would have been remarked on more. I’m not a fan of jumpsuits but that’s probably because I don’t have the shape to carry it off. I thought that it was a unique idea.. something not so usual but also thought that if I was a pregnant woman who has to pee a lot then a jumpsuit may not be the best way to go.

Irina also had a design that I would have liked to have heard the judges thoughts on.. it was a little swingy number but it a beautiful shade of tiffany blue with satiny accents. I thought it was adorable but maybe it was too “safe” for the judges.

Shirin won the challenge :: GO TEAM SHIRIN :: by designing a dress in a wine color with a matching coat. The coat had a really cool floral print lining and the gathering the accent the belly was not only very well done but also very flattering to the shape. Clearly, this girl has chops.

The other design that the judges liked was Louise’s lingerie-ish dress. Her style presented the initial design as being a little too not :: ahem :: safe to wear in public but she recognized that and modified it to be a little sexy number that allowed for a burgeoning body. She’s as quirky as hell but knows what she’s doing.

Now.. as for the bottom two, Malvin with his weird conceptional road to design came up with a design that was influenced by.. a chicken? Nesting? I forget.. but it was basically a black feather :: yes.. even though Nikolas is the self professed Prince of Feathers, Malvin beat him in using them :: top with a burlap sling that went across one shoulder and cradled the baby bump. I think the bottoms were just a pair of black pants or something. Don’t remember.

At any rate… I know his design left the judges with their chins on their knees but you know what? I really didn’t think it was all that bad. Maybe without the feathers, though.

Mitchell.. well.. what can you say about Mitchell? After the disaster of Episode 1, he was conscience of not baring too much so he came up with a casual design of a t-shirt and shorts. I think if he was able to pull it off, he would have redeemed himself in the eyes of the judges and even.. possibly.. been in the top but alas.. poor Mitchell fucked it up.

It looked sloppy.. the shorts were HUGE.. but even if ill-fitting, there’s no excuse to not have been sewn well. Hell.. I can hem a pair of pants better then what he did on the hem of those shorts!

Even though Malvin’s design was bizarre, I thought he executed it way better. But alas, he was sent home and Mitchell spared.

EPISODE 3 – GOODBYE MITCHELL

OMG.. it’s about time they got rid of Mitchell! You know.. it got to the point where it was like, “… why the hell is he even ON this show?” and I could just imagine all the designers who tried out and were NOT picked wanting to prick their voodoo doll of Tim Gunn even deeper.

Okay.. so this was the first time that the designers were paired into teams with the challenge being to create a “surfer girl” look that still told their point of view. They also threw in a last minute challenge of creating an avante garde look that complemented the surfer look.

Gotta love those “last minute” challenges.

The team leaders were:

Shirin who picked Carol Hannah as a team mate

Qristyl who picked Epperson as a team mate

Mitchell who picked Ra’mon as a team mate

Logan picked Christopher

Johnny had Irina :: not in the literal sense.. get your mind out of the gutter! ::

Louise went with Althea… or maybe visa-versa. Don’t remember who was team captain.

At any rate.. it doesn’t take long to realize that Epperson and Qristyl were going to clash harder then the titans.

Right away, Epperson was all over Qristyl.. from fabric choices.. to sewing techniques and Qristyl jumped on the defensive. Maybe Epperson didn’t mean to be so critical.. maybe he just wanted to do well in the challenge.. maybe Qristyl shouldn’t have been so defensive.. who knows. The only think that I do know is when you’re working in a team, it’s sometimes a lose/lose situation. If Epperson deferred to Qristyl as the team leader, the judges would have said he should have spoken up.. In this case, Qristyl was reamed for not speaking up enough.

At any rate.. their design wasn’t that horrible. Classic “beach” printed sun dress with a nice fitting bodice and skirt was made well but not something that you couldn’t already find somewhere in a store already. Their second look sucked. The chocolate brown one piece bathing suit did not fit right and it’s covering wrap was nothing but a robe with big poofy :: think Princess Di’s wedding gown :: sleeves. One side brown.. the other side green.

The other drama-fest going on was between Mitchell and Ra’mon.

I guess Mitchell kind of knew that he dodged a bullet last week so when it came time to pick a team mate, he choice Ra’mon. I believe he even said at the top of the show that he thought Ra’mon would carry him through the challenge.

Carry him? The boy did more then carry him. Ra’mon did EVERYTHING for their designs. He actually created 3 looks. The surfer look was really pretty. It was a flowy dress comprised of different dark hued sea colors. The second look was this skin tight Catwoman-y brown wet suit jump suit kind of thing. But at the last minute.. and I do mean LAST MINUTE.. he created another dress out of neon green neopryne :: spelling? :: that was TOO neon so he started to hand dye it with only about a half hour before the models were due on the runway.

Poor Ra’mon was over-extended.. over-wrought.. and more then over-surprised when the judged named him and Mitchell in the top two. I’m glad he threw Mitchell under the bus. He should have ran him over again in reverse because Mitchell didn’t do anything but a sew a bathing suit that you couldn’t even see.

The judges were just as shocked. So shocked that they FINALLY sent Mitchell packing.

Here’s pictures of the winning design. I’ll be honest, when I saw it on television I was dumbstruck as to how all the judges went ga-ga over it but seeing the pictures, it doesn’t look THAT bad.. let me know what you think:

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

… so there’s been a pretty heated conversation going on between Jen512 and my buddy The Goober about healthcare. If you’re up for it, you can read it HERE.

I was going to post my episode recaps for Project Runway and Top Chef but I think this topic is a little more important.

NOTE: Just let me set the records straight before I go on my tirade. I am not a liberal.. conservative.. Democrat.. Republican.. a sheep.. or a lion. I am just someone who tries to live right.. tries to provide for my family and loves my country. I don’t trust politicians OR the judicial system for that matter so please don’t think that I have a hidden agenda or am just spewing what I hear from someone else. I keep an open mind about everything and am the first one to google something I don’t understand before I form an opinion about it.

With that said…

Before I met Chief, I had very little :: okay, NONE :: experience with my state’s welfare system. I grew up in I guess you could say a lower-middle class :: or high lower class :: neighborhood where no one really knew they didn’t have anything because we had what we needed :: food on the table, roof over our heads, etc. :: and everyone was basically in the same position that my family was.

We went to Catholic school, went to college and then went to work. We got married.. bought cars and houses and didn’t have any of the drama that you routinely hear about on the news on in the paper.

When I met Chief, he was a working as a chef for a ridiculously high end caterer :: they wouldn’t do a wedding unless the price tag was a minimum of 50 grand :: but was making half of what I was making an hour. In fact, he was making less then an entry level position for the company that I worked for.  He was trying to raise 3 kids without any type of child support because all the judges he and the crack whore went before fell for her sob stories.

According to assistance limits, he was making too much money to get on any type of program that would help with electricity bills or heating bills but was able to get about 180.00 a month in food stamps.

That’s basically 6 bucks a day.

Which the state immediately cut off when he went on unemployment.

NOTE: There is a “down” time in catering and generally you work 8 months and then are laid off for 4 months. Carpenters go through the same thing.

If you think it was hard financially when he was working, imagine how hard it was when he was on unemployment. It was that reason why he decided to open up the store. The way we figured it on paper, my paycheck would be able to handle all the household stuff while his unemployment would go towards opening the store.. and then the store would be able to pay for itself.

He was smart.. and it worked. It was hard.. it was :: and still is :: 20 hour days and a lot of  sacrificing and a lot of worry and a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

I’m not complaining. It’s just how it is. We chose to open a store.. we knew it was going to take a lot of inner strength.. outer elbow grease.. and a lot of praying.

To say we work hard is an understatement. You can ask any one of customers and they will tell you that we do the very best that we can to give our customers things that they want that they can afford.

But what torques the hell out of my Chinese food suffering bowels is that while we are constantly pushing.. constantly striving.. constantly trying to make sure all our bases are covered, there are people that I wait on everyday who are just skating through life.. and think they are ENTITLED TO SKATE THROUGH LIFE.

The Crack Whore can run an air conditioner in every damn window of her apartment 24/7 and doesn’t have to care about what her electric bill is because she doesn’t HAVE TO PAY her electric bill.

She’s on welfare… the state pays it.

And guess what? On Tuesday, MY electricity was turned off because I owed a 28.00 back balance.

You read that right…

FOR 28.00 FUCKING DOLLARS, THEY CUT MY ELECTRICITY OFF.

Or how about this one:

One of my regular customers came in on Monday asking if she could get a few things to hold her family over until her husband got paid on Wednesday. Knowing that she has kids to feed, I said “sure”. So she got something like 25.00 worth of stuff.

As I was slicing her lunch meat, she tells me that she will be having Gastric Bypass surgery in October.

Now, there’s no denying that she’s over-weight. But Gastric Bypass? There’s no way that I would have thought that she’d be a candidate for it. I know people personally that have had the surgery and they were OBESE. Like, can’t fit through the front door obese. This woman is no where near that size.

But guess what? She’s on welfare.. so guess who’s paying for the surgery?

At any rate.. it wasn’t even that pissed me off so much.. on Wednesday, she came in to pay her bill with her mother. While she was waiting for me to finish up with a few people in front of her, she started checking our our shelves saying that she had her first nutrition meeting and was looking for things that she would be able to eat after her surgery.

She then tells me that what she is going to do is join Nutri-Systems after her surgery so she doesn’t have to worry about counting calories or proteins or whatever the hell she has to check.

You know what the going rate is for a monthly subscription to Nutri-System?

299.95 A MONTH!

You can’t make your fucking money stretch so you have to ask for credit from me to feed your kids but you’re going to spend three hundred dollars a month for Nutri-Systems???

WHAT THE FUCK!

So.. as delicately as I can be.. I asked her how she was going to be able to swing it and you know what her answer was?

“… oh, the state is paying for it because I have to have the surgery for medical reasons”

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??

I had to swallow my tongue because you see.. years ago.. I was 12 sizes bigger then I am now. I’m not that big anymore because I just started to eat right and I exercised. A lot. And eventually, I got down to a size 12.

No surgery .. no state paid food delivery service.. nothing but determination and commitment.

Then there was the whole glasses fiasco.

I needed new glasses and Chief needed glasses period. My insurance basically covered the exam.. the frames.. and the lenses but not anything extra like transitions :: where the lens get dark automatically in sunlight :: or UV protection or that kind of stuff. Chief needed a bifocal so because that was out of pocket also, I had to give up the transitions so that he could have the bifocals.

Okay.. whatever.. his was more important then mine and we could have only afforded one so the bifocals it was.

Two weeks ago, Weed came into the store and I forget how the subject even came up but he pulled out his little welfare medical card and said, “… I LOVE this thing. Do you know that I got two pairs of glasses that turn into sunglasses.. and I didn’t even NEED them I just got them because I could.”

Remember that scene in Austin Powers when the mannequins head explode?

Yea. That was me.

Oh.. and did I also tell you that the state is paying for him to get his G.E.D and is giving him a laptop so that he could study and look for a job? All because HE WENT TO JAIL FOR BURGLARY AND DEALING?

Or how about the woman that comes in bitching that her 700.00 a month in food stamps isn’t enough?

Or the other woman who BUYS a food stamp card from some barfly for half the amount in cash?

Or the couple who come in saying that yes, they can afford to have a second baby because they’ll be getting more food stamps when the baby is born?

Is it me or is something wrong here?

Why can’t the widowed father of 5 kids get any type of help from the state because omg.. he actually has a JOB.. but a baby making factory can get free food, free housing and a monthly cash stipend and is doing NOTHING to make her life better? Because to HER .. her life is SWEET.

“… I ain’t gotsta do nuffin’. Dey gotsta give me my money” .. that being an actual conversation I had when I asked what she was going to do when the state finally goes bankrupt and her food stamp card becomes useless

Some would say that I have nothing to bitch about because I choose to accept the food stamp card in my store. But I couldn’t have a store unless I take food stamps. The majority of my customers are on it.. and instead of having a moral struggle with it, I just feel like I’m basically getting my own money back.. since as a working person, my taxes go to providing them their lifestyle.

So you’ll have to forgive me when I hear about how the current administration wants to give MORE of my hard earned income to somebody else.

I’m struggling but because I had a job.. and I own a store.. nobody cares. Nobody is giving my kids free school supplies.. or school clothes.. or lunches.

No one cares about how I’m going to make my next car payment or utility payment or the fact that I had to cut out a lot of things that we’ve become accustomed to in order to keep a roof over our heads.

As long as there are more people with their hand out then there are with their hands in their pocket.. we are going to be forced to dish it out. And that’s just plain wrong.

Give a man to fish and he’ll eat for one day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat everyday

… or something like that.

For more details on Food Stamps, read THIS post that I wrote back in April

<< end rant >>

RECAP: Project Runway 6.01

Whoosh!

All is right in my world now that Project Runway is back on the air! And the best part of it’s move from Bravo to Lifetime is that IT’S ON DEMAND!!! The good Lord definitely knows what I need to make my life easier… LOL!

Anyway…

So, yknow, with 16 contestants it’s a little hard to keep every detail straight so this post is basically just an introduction to the designers and my first impressions of ’em

NOTE: Other then having an art degree, I have no clue about how the designers do what they do so if you’re looking for some professional criticism or critiques then you came to the wrong damn place!! LOL

So Episode 1’s Challenge is to crate a red carpet dress that shows the designers point of view.

NOTE: After five seasons of the show I still don’t know what the hell “Point Of View” means!!

Guest Judge this epi was Lindsay Lohan who.. well.. didn’t seem as dysfunctional and random as Perez Hilton makes her out to be. Maybe it was the lighting.. dunno.

Althea Harper

Althea is everything a tall.. good looking 23 year old should be. Cocky as all hell!

Her gown was just ok. It was some silvery – grey satiny number that had some flowery something or other on the bust line that at first, reminded me of something Demi Moore wore to the Oscars like 20 years ago or something.

I really wasn’t that impressed especially after hearing say how incredibly brilliant she is.. but you know, it was the first challenge and I guess nerves worked into the equation. We’ll see how she does. She’s not at the top of my list but really isn’t at the bottom either.

Ari Fish

Okay.. this Ari chick was nothing short of fucking weird. Alright.. so maybe I shouldn’t have said that but come one.. look at this picture and tell me she doesn’t look like Mia Farrow in “Rosemary’s Baby” meets the Clockwork Orange dude.

She wants to make clothes that are multi-functional.. like a halter top that turns into a tent with water filters and air purifiers built in. Just completely random and strange. I was like.. WTF???

If I remember correctly, she doesn’t have any formal training :: if she does, then I apologize for the error :: and while I really don’t believe that it’s necessary… I really don’t believe that she was selected. I’m certain I heard a collective howl coming from the other designers who tried out and weren’t selected.

Needless to say, her mylar soccer ball looking halter thingy just had people’s head scratching and poor Ari was sent home.

She did have a parting word or two of wisdom :: seriously :: that I thought was very insightful but right now, I can’t remember it. Too late.. not enough caffeine!

Carol Hannah Whitfield

Carol Hannah is another young girl all filled with piss.. vinegar and confidence. Unfortunately, I don’t think she’s AS talented as Althea but what do I know.

She made this tan-ish gold – ivory dress that from the waist down wasn’t bad.. I just wasn’t too crazy about the corset-y top with the piping stuff all over the place. I think in the preview, she made a number of pieces the same way so maybe that’s her “signature” or maybe :: like Althea :: she had the butterflies and just resorted to something that she knew how to do.

Christopher Straub

Okay… I like this dude. I really do and I really hope that he makes it to the end and at least has an opportunity to do a collection for the finale.

I like that he is self trained.. no formal schooling. I like that he doesn’t pretend like he does :: he had asked the other designers about certain terms they used that he hadn’t heard of :: but what I like most about him is that he uses material from Wal-Mart in real life to create his designs. To me, it only proves that you don’t have to have a lot of money to either build your dream or in the case of one of his dresses… buy your dream.

He got emotional when his dress appeared on the runway and I don’t blame him… it was a big deal and I can appreciate that.

He also won .. and has immunity for next week. TEAM CHRIS!

Epperson

I truly like this dude. He’s just so calm and serene and laid back and so NOT about the drama.

He’s just a real cool cat.

He definitely has talent.. but I wasn’t feeling this particular dress. I liked the plumy color but wasn’t too thrilled about all the scarf action happening at the neck.

At any rate.. I hope he does well. I also hope that he goes far enough so that his world changes for the better and he gets to have his own line or whatever it is he wants to do.

Gordana Gehlhausen

Ok.

This chick scares the hell out of me.

She reminds me a Nazi matron that yells YOU VILL LIKE MY DREVESS while hitting you with a riding crop.

I did like some of the designs they showed from her shop but what she created on the runway for this episode was just “eh”.

Looks nothing like the design she sketched which is a shame because I liked the sketch better then the actual dress.

She always looks miserable though and I can count on some kind of drama with her this season

Irina Shabayeva

My jury is still out on Irina.

I did like the dress she created.. it was a neutral lace sleeveless top with a deep decolletage over a satin skirt of the same color. A black sash belt made it pop and to me, it just moved like water.

Don’t know whether or not I like her personality or not but realistically, it’s about her talent so I guess I can’t say too much.

She does have a dog so really.. how bad can she be??

Johnny Sakalis

Ok.

I like Johnny.

I REALLY like Johnny.. even though he has a penchant for flip flops and that’s just wrong but anyway…

Johnny had a rough time this episode. He’s a recovering meth head and I give him all the props for turning his life around.. but I guess being in the high pressure situation he was started playing with his head. I felt bad for him.

I kind of figured that if Bravo went so much into detail about his melt down then Johnny was going to shine and he did. I wasn’t too crazy about the bubble hem but everything else was sexy as hell and if I had the body to wear it, I’d scoop it up today.

I hope he does well. I really do.

Logan Neitzel

Dunno how I feel about Logan.

Ok, I guess.

I wasn’t exactly godsmack at his designs in the preview and wasn’t really impressed with the two tone gown he designed for the runway.

But we’ll see… there’s still a lot of show to go.

Louise Black

Weezy got some quirk to her.

She’s some kind of throw back to something but I give her credit for walking the talk.

Her clothes are a little quirky too.. definitely has an old school 20’s or 30’s feel to them..

Her design followed the same mode but I wasn’t really two thrilled with the frilly stuff on one shoulder or the movie theater drape hem but it wasn’t all together awful.

Not sure if she will go far in the competition or not but she is an interesting character to say the least.

Malvin Vien

Malvin is … well.. I’m not really sure how to describe Malvin.

He appears to be one of those young designers who are under the philosophy that anything he designs tells a story longer then War and Peace.

Sometimes a dress is just a dress, yknow?

His design was okay.. A little grey number. Nothing that I was like OMG about but we’ll see what he does in the coming episodes.

Mitchell Hall

Oh Mitch!

What the hell were you thinking, buddy?

Mitchell started out with this .. this.. “thing” that resembled something that Queen Victoria would wear.. this high collard bunched up thing that wound up not fitting the model right.

Under the gun, he basically just wrapped the model in the left over SHEER NUDE COLORED FABRIC basically ensuring that she would be showing all her naughty bits under the bright television lights.

In hindsight.. it was a good thing his original design tanked.. because I think he would have been sent home. We’ll see how he does next week.

Nicolas Putvinski

The self described PRINCE OF FEATHERS or something like that reminds me of some way other there make up artist on some other reality show on some other network.

You’ll have to forgive me.. I try to watch them all and sometimes forget the details!

Anyway… his black dress was okay. I mean, I liked it but it could have been something that you’d find at Hot Topic or Charlotte and Russe.

Qristyl Frazier

OMG.. girlfriend got SOLD!

All the judges slammed her dress and I have to be honest with you.. I didn’t think it was that bad.

I mean.. yes, the dress did look like a solid one and a print one ripped in half and then sewn together but my GOD they made it seemed like something that was horrible.

Maybe it looked different in person then it did on tv.. I don’t know but this was just one of those moments that made ME feel stupid because I wasn’t seeing what the “professional” were seeing.

Ra'mon Lawrence Coleman

I like Ra’mon.

I do.

I like that fact that he’s smart :: he was a pre-med student before chucking it all to be a designer :: and I like that he really understands the body.

Most of all.. I liked the fact that when Johnny was having a serious meltdown, Ra’mon went to talk to him.. to try and understand what he was going through.

To me, that showed the kind of heart he has and I hope as the season continues he excels.

Shirin Askari

Okay.

This kid is my favorite.

She’s a new fashion grad with a WHOLE lot of confidence but doesn’t come off cocky like Althea.

She’s goofy.. she’s sweet.. she laughs.. and she makes amazing clothes.

The dress she made for this challenge though, fell a little short from the designs they showed in the preview but, like the others, it may have been a little bit of nerves and a little bit of the lack of time they had to actually create.

At any rate, I hope she does well. She just has that IT thing going on

So there you have it..

I hope you watch the show.. and I hope you add your own comments.

Being in a house full of testosterone means that I’m in serious need of girl stuff to talk about!! LOL