Under The Gunn Ep 4: Don't Suck

This week our designtestants meet Tim Gunn in a very creepy, very dark, very dangerous place. No, it wasn’t Anna Wintour’s house, but a kind of foggy cemetery because this week’s challenge is a mash-up of Unconventional Meets Product Placement Movie Promotion.

After watching a clip from the upcoming Vampire Academy, the designtestants are let loose in a fog of fabric bolts and unconventional materials and must create an unconventional look inspired by vampires in just one day.

We have Jen Rade, stylist to the stars, Marie Claire’s Zanna Roberts Rassi as judges, joined by fashion designer Trina Turk and star of Vampire Academy Zooey Deutch, so let’s rip ….

THE SAFES—clockwise from top left

BLAKE—Team Anya

I got more of a Black Swan than vampire vibe from this look; it’s pretty, and safe.

NATALIA—Team Nick

I liked it, though I wasn’t sure if I liked the dress or the fact that she got the Invisible Edit this week. But her look was kind of a slinky 2014 Elvira.

SAM—Team Mondo

With the exception of the bat-wing bustier, this looked like a grunge princess look for a high school girl.

SHAN—Team Anya

The detail on the top was amazing, leathery and crocodile looking — which doesn’t scream vampire — but the wacky cutouts threw me for a loop.

STEPHANIE—Team Nick

For me, this was my favorite look. I liked that she went white, but still made a vampire look with that collar.

TEAM NICK

Nick pulled back nicely this week and wasn't the designer but actually mentored.

I loved how he got pissy when Isabelle tried to throw him under the bus on the runway; maybe we'll get a Mean Nick next week.

OSCAR

Oscar is growing on me, mostly because he’s lost some of the extra clothing pieces he likes to wear, i.e. the gloves. But also because he’s listening to Nick — who, with Tim’s help, dubbed his look as Rihanna Matador — and learning to edit. I mean, seriously, he was going to make a cape until Nick talked him down on that Auf Ledge. Good call.

WHAT HE SAID

I love the sleek and perfect feeling of my garment.

WHAT I SAID

I liked it; it had kind of a dangerous vampire-in-armor quality to it, and when Oscar called the look Blood Orthodox Jewish Vampire and pointed out the yarmulke, I was totally on board.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Jen Rade loved the idea of a Jewish Vampire — I think she’s more of a Jewish American Princess — while Zooey Deutch dug the yarmulke. Trina Turk loved the detail in the piece, and Zanna thought it was constructed well and fit great.

ISABELLE

So, the challenge is about vampires so she instantly thinks of a dress that looks like a tornado. Don’t try to figure her out. When Tim and Nick visit she is so scattered and doesn’t seem to understand what anyone says — she and Nick are “flowing in different oceans”. Nick worries about the giant hips on her look, but she insists that’s her ‘thing,’ and then she literally throws it away and starts over.

And again she is sewing until the last second, and, gasp, running with scissors, and again, Tim has to shout at her to Stop!

WHAT SHE SAID

Wow! She looks gorgeous. My look is definitely different from everything else.

WHAT I SAID

It does look like a tornado … blew through the workroom and threw a bunch of garbage on the model.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

She tells the judges her look is like a ‘widow spider’ and Jen Rade says, “Welcome to the Mother Ship … and that’s not good.” She called it Lady Gaga but not good Gaga. Zooey Deutch loves the textiles and the risk, while Zanna thought the dress beneath the red was amazing but the red messy mesh was gratuitous.

TEAM MONDO

Mondo struggled a bit this week because Tim told him he needed to be more critical and less supportive; to guide the designers.

He really got stuck on Sam's look but came to the rescue for both Asha and Michelle.

ASHA

She decided to forgo vampire and make voodoo priestess, until Mondo saw her first look and gave her a side-eye. That was scrapped in favor of a hay skirt and a checkered –looking, bathrobe-y thing that Mondo loathed, and that was changed to keep the skirt but add a purple blazer.

WHAT SHE SAID

I am just like, ‘Yes! I nailed it.’

WHAT I SAID

I loved the skirt. Asha was one of the few who really incorporated the unconventional aspect to her look, but I just hate a short-sleeved blazer. Had it been long-sleeved, and a bit longer than the skirt — say, to the floor — I think it would have had a more edgy voodoo vibe.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Jen Rade wanted to leap from her chair she was so excited, and loved the turban, while Trina Turk called it beautiful. Zanna loved the hay skirt and thought Asha hit the nail on the head.  Zooey loved the skirt, but didn’t care for the blazer, especially in purple.

MICHELLE

She’s feeling out of it — she actually tells Tim she feels out of place in the competition — after last week’s critique. But, she picked what might have been the best fabric of all, because of the darkness of it, the creepy reddish orange stripes of it.

WHAT SHE SAID

I definitely think I’m going to win.

WHAT I SAID

I like the eerie skeletal quality of the fabric, and agreed with Mondo that it looked slithery [?]. I also loved the neck, but wished she’d followed through with her sketch and done long sleeves in the netting, too.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Jen Rade called the look beautiful and impressive, and loved the mesh collar piece. Zooey Deutch wanted it, and called it a work of art. Zanna was impressed after last week’s mess, bust she hated the collar piece, calling it Old Christmas Decorations and one too many ideas.

TEAM ANYA

Tim told Anya to keep doing what she'd done last week — be critical, ask questions — but she kind of over-stepped this week and I think her team suffered for it.

NICHOLAS

Nicholas does the trip an fall in the Spooky Woods while going for pieces of chain. And then he picks a brown silk fabric to make what he calls a simple dress that he’ll drape the chains over. But, but, he wants to cover the chains in the same fabric as the dress. The idea seems cool but … Nicholas is the Time Management Fool this week because, even though his dress is simple, he has trouble finishing it and getting the chains wrapped. Luckily, Oscar is fast and furiously finished because he comes by to help.

WHAT HE SAID

I really like it. I think it’s clean, demure, smart, intelligent. It’s got everything that I want to say.

WHAT I SAID

It’s a potato sack with a chain-wrapped necklace. Where are all the chains he promised?

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Trina Turk loved the tobacco brown silk, but thought the silhouette read older — cuz that’s bad in fashion, since everyone knows older women don’t wear fashionable clothes … snark. Zanna loved the chains but hated the dress calling the look a letdown. Jen Rade kept it simple, “NO!”

BRADY

I think Brady suffered from Anya-it is. During the critique she told him he skews junior and should think about designer for a woman in her 30s. So, his moto-cross-bomber-jacket was simplified and worn over a sequined sheath dress.

He wanted to add vampire teeth to the jacket for an edgy spiked look and Anya questioned that, too, but then as it walked the runway she worried he wasn't unconventional enough. Huh?

WHAT HE SAID

Everything looks a little disconnected. I like the pieces but I don’t know if this is really working.

WHAT I SAID

It was too safe, and too pretty and too simple. There was no edge and no vampire, save for the couple of teeth on the shoulders.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

He told the judges his look was for the “mother” of a Vampire Academy student because he’d been told he skews junior. Jen Rade told him that if junior is his aesthetic, then he should follow suit, and she found it funny that his look was bordering on junior, but too boring. Zanna said he was over-thinking his work and that, for her, the dress seemed too old.

WHAT HAPPENED

Team Nick had one Top Spot — Oscar — and one Bottom Spot — Isabelle — while Anya fell this week, landing Brady and Nicholas in the bottom. Mondo had Two Top Shots in Asha and Michelle.

I hoped the win would go to Oscar because I liked his look, but he’s safe, and it came down to Voodoo Princess and Lizard Skeleton. Michelle won — giving Team Mondo its second win — and she finally smiled. I imagine she thinks she fits in the group, now.

Isabelle gets a pass for her Tornado Widow Spider look, so the two Bottom Boys — no judgments — are Blake and Nicholas, and for some reason Tim suggests the judges let Anya decide.

Anya chose Nicholas to stay so the totally adorable Brady gets the boot.

MY TAKE

I didn’t like the idea of the Mentor choosing who to send home; that’s akin top picking a favorite child. And, even though I have a wee boy crush on Brady, I thought it unfair Anya sent him home when she was the one who talked him out of his original idea.

Isabelle needs to go if only because she’s making Mr. Gunn shout and he doesn’t like raising his voice.

I liked that Nick kept his hands in his pockets — or at least we didn’t see him doing anyone’s work.

I was startled when Michelle critiqued Asha’s work and said it didn’t look like her. I mean, she’s known the girl for a couple of days and she knows her aesthetic? I thought, and hoped, Asha would grab a needle and thread and sew her mouth shut.

Favorites for me? Oscar and Stephanie.

Least Favorites? Isabelle and Blake.

What did YOU think?