PR 12 Ep 13: Hand Me My Shears, I Need To Cut Someone

It’s Old Home week. The remaining designtestants — Dom and Bradon are already in, while Justin, Helen and Alexandria have to endure a runway-off — head home to create their collections. Six weeks, $9,000, ten looks and a twist: one look must be an unconventional look and Heidi makes it very clear:

No fabrics! Not napkins! No tablecloths and shower curtains! EVER-R-R-R-R-R-R!!!!

So, let’s start with my favorite part of the finale episodes — after the runway, of course — The Tim Gunn Home Visits™!

Let’s rip ….

DOM

She’s created her own prints, and is calling her collection a riff on Blade Runner, or Retro-futurism.

Tim loves the prints, but tells Dom she needs to print them all on knits because that shows them off better. He loves her unconventional look, made from metal door brackets, and especially loves her work ethic.

Dom works as a hostess in a restaurant at night and then spends all day creating her collection.

I’ll say it: Dom is adorable and I’m glad she’s at The Tents.

BRADON

His collection is based on flowers coming up through the snow; icy and sexy, he says, and it gets a Wow from Tim.

His unconventional look is made from clothesline and painters plastic that is woven into yarn. Tim is worried that the buoyancy of the collection is weighed down by the heaviness of the plastic, so I’m guessing Bradon will be rethinking.

Plus side? We meet Bradon’s adorable fiancé Josh and their dog Eddie. Plus-er[?] side? Seeing Tim Gunn on a Pacific Coast beach in a suit jacket.

THE DESIGNTESTANTS

JUSTIN

Tim's heads to Raleigh, North Carolina where Justin says his collection is inspired from his path going from deafness to hearing. Plus, he’s using something called 3D printing to create accessories and some of those simple accessories take hundreds of hours to be machine, um, printed?

His unconventional look is made with test tubes strung onto a gown.

THE RUNWAY

His first look, the white pants, was cool and interesting, but I couldn’t stop staring at the model’s hair. The second look, while the model still sported the same bushel cut, did spark my interest with the 3D belt and the paint splattered technique. But that third look, the unconventional piece, was a giant Wow! I first thought it was fur or feathers, until you got a closer look and saw the test tubes; and then heard the test tubes clinking down the runway.

The Adorable Zac Posen™ called the first look chic, but felt the second look has too many elements. The third piece? “Wow!” Nina, however, loved the minimalism of the first look and loved the 3D belt on the second piece and called the third look The Showstopper.

Heidi loved all three looks, calling them fashion forward, but she hated the hair. The Adorable Zac Posen™ chimed in with a neigh about the hair, while Nina wasn’t bothered by it, even calling his three looks “poetic”.

UP CLOSE

Heidi called his looks “gutsy’ and The Adorable Zac Posen™ called it all chic, while Nina said his POV was clear and good and strong.

Justin’s in!

ALEXANDRIA

She is going all Neo-Nomadic punk, which is totally Alexandria, and she has thirty pieces done when Tim arrives. I thought that might be a plus, but back at Parson’s Bradon wonders if having so many pieces to mix-and-match will make it harder to settle on ten looks.

Her unconventional look will be made of phone books; I hoping no one needs to make a call.

Sidenote: back in the workroom the designers get the Second Monkeywrench of the episode: they must create a Tide-sponsored washable look. Product placement? Check!

The best part of Alexandria’s visit is seeing her smile and laugh and not be at all so serious. The bestest[?] part is when she takes Tim to her Camp Couture and the kids show the "ugly dolls" they made of each PR contestants and of Tim Gunn.

I’d love to see Alexandria sell those because I’d go nuts or my own Tim Gunn doll!

THE RUNWAY
The first look, all in black, was neo-nomadic punk — though hardly Spring — and I loved it. Looks Two and Three kind of blurred together for me, being done in that gray and white palette that is Alexandria. I loathed that captain’s hat-slash-Native American feathered headpiece though.

Heidi loved the hat; she loved all the looks and the little details, like the pocket gloves things; it’s fashion forward and cool and she loves the jackets and she wants it all. The Adorable Zac Posen™ called it a luxe collection, with a lot of details and very modern, but seemed to change his tune when Nina said it was a ‘Meh.’ Nina was not impressed — and that is rule one of Runway: Don’t.Bore.Nina — and called it “not so show.” There was no excitement and not one showpiece; she hated the so-called colors and called it boring. That’s when The Adorable Zac Posen™ chimed it and said the collection needed “magic.”

I’ve a feeling at some point in his life, The Young Adorable Zac Posen™ was beaten up and had his lunch money stolen by The Young Nina Garcia and he will not cross her even today.

UP CLOSE

The Adorable Zac Posen™ called it beautifully made but asked if it was "new" enough to show. Heidi gain stated her love for the looks, but did admit that Alexandria seems to think that grays and whites are the only true colors. Nina called the looks "flat" and set they didn't set Alexandria apart from anything that's already out there.

But Heidi wins, and Alexandria is in.

HELEN

Her collection is based on the idea of Clairvoyance and, well, I was as flummoxed by it as Tim. A Nancy Reagan red doesn’t say clairvoyant, and the print created from a photo of an eyeball seems creepy to me. Plus, she’s all about capes and I don’t get clairvoyant, or even buoyant, about that.

"Where's the excitement?" Tim asks, and I echoed.

Her unconventional look will be made from shower mats sprayed the same color as the eyeball print. Eyeball? Eye roll.

THE RUNWAY
The first look was okay, though I wondered about those stiff wings on the back of the skirt. The second look was a throwaway; seriously, throw it away; I got Belted Red Poncho As Dress from it. And the third look? The Print? It reminded me of an acid-washed trenchcoat I had in the 80s; and let me take a moment right now to apologize for that. An.Acid.Washed.Trench.Coat? WHAT WAS I THINKING????

The Adorable Zac Posen™ said Look One was the best, while Look Two was good, and Look Three was a mess. Heidi wasn’t having it. Nothing new, no fun, not happy, all sad. Nina loved the modern black dress, but hated the belt on the red number. As for the third piece, she said it felt tortured, and like a straitjacket; and, to prove her point, she had the model try to raise her arms and she ended up looking like the robot on Lost In Space: “Danger! Helen Castillo! Danger!” She saw nothing clairvoyant about any of it except ….

UP CLOSE

Nina could only mutter, “What happened?” The Adorable Zac Posen™ called it badly constructed and badly sculpted and agreed with Heidi that the print was awful.

Helen is out, and any clairvoyant worth her salt could have seen that coming.

MY TAKE

I love Justin but on the Tim Gunn Home Visit™ why oh why was he wearing capris? I went all Karen Walked at the TV: Oh … honey … Capris? No … No!

Helen was far too confident over some simple clothes and it was clear from the moment she showed Tim her collection that she’d be out.

Damn those New York City subway stairs! How dare they hurt my Tim Gunn! I am mounting a campaign to have someone follow Tim Gunn around NYC and carry him up and down those steps a la Anna Wintour.

I ♥ Tim Gunn and no one messes with him!

That said … who’s going to win?

I worry that Bradon’s looks might read old lady with all the florals. I love Dom’s prints, and Alexandria’s aesthetic, but I’m leaning a little toward Justin. His Test Tube Dress was just fab.u.lous.

What did YOU think?