PR 11 Ep 13: A Day Later: Some People Are In For The Fall ... And Someone Is Out

Final Four! Final Four! Stanley, Patricia, Michelle and Daniel each receive $10,000 to create a 12-look collection for Fall 2013; fall colors, fall clothes, fall. Then, they’ll return to the Runway to show three looks o the judges, who will then choose three designers to show full collections at Fashion Week for Fall.

The operative word, ‘fall’, because one of them is going down.

As usual, Tim gets to travel around the country to each designer’s home, though, sadly, he doesn’t get to drive a new Saturn this year. Is no one going to get a new car this season?

I digress. Tim stops in to see Patricia in Taos, New Mexico, one of the most gorgeous places I've ever visited. I loved seeing Patricia’s family, and feeling their support for her, not really just to win, but to do good work. After seeing what she’s done, Tim loves some things and then tells her to steer clear of the more literal Native American motifs or rick the dreaded Arts’n’Crafts critique from Nina.

In Portland, Oregon, another one of my favorite places in the whole world, Tim dines on burgers and wine with Michelle and her family. Tim tells them that he stood up for Michelle on many occasions with the judges—which I found odd, because I thought he never gave his advice to the judges, but, Go Tim! He loves what he sees of her collection—the one-tenth that she has done—but reminds her not to over-design.

In Austin—and, yes, I love Austin, too—Tim finds Daniel—of the bad moustache and now the bad [Ch-ch-ch-Chia] hair. When Daniel commented on his hair, “Isn’t it fun?” I shrieked “No!” I also shrieked “No” when Daniel explained his inspiration as the cosmos, the nebulae, Salvador Dali—explains the ‘stache—and Berlin architecture. But, Tim likes what he sees, except for one Grandmotherly coat which causes him to give his “Monkey House” analogy: it stinks when you first walk in, but after a while you don’t notice the smell, but, really, it still stinks.

In West Hollywood—and what gay boy, or man, hasn’t been to WeHo?—Stanley is in his high-rise studio, creating very rich pieces. Tim gives him the same advice he gave Michelle: Edit! Edit! Edit! And then he spots an orange dress and almost throws himself out a window; the color just doesn’t work with anything else he’s seen, and, luckily, Stanley ditches it.

So, we’ve been in Taos, and Portland, and Austin and West Hollywood, now it’s time to rip ….

MICHELLE

Back in La Grande Apple, the designers are given help again, and, though none of them say it, they all wish they don’t get Richard. Michelle lucks out and gets Amanda, and they immediately begin gossiping about how much work Stanley still has to do. Apparently they’ve already forgotten that, all season, Stanley seemed on the verge of not finishing, and then pulled a win out of his swatches.

Michelle says her inspiration is the Lone Wolf—and she’s recreated the wolf image in a sweater that PR cast-off, and wack-a-doodle, Joe, made for her—and says the theme is a metaphor for how she felt during the season. And, since it was such a big hit last week, she’s doing more breastplate harnesses, and, well, she‘s doing coats, too, because, well, Heidi said so.

That said, I instantly loved her collection. I couldn’t see many women wearing all of the pieces all together, like she showed them, but mixing and matching the modified chaps, and the killer coat with the built-in, or built-on, messenger bags and saddle bags—something The Adorable Zac Posen™ told her to stop saying—was genius. But, as Heidi noted, the collection was kind of drab, with only subdued colors and no pops.

I loved her sweater—thanks Joe—and loved the sheer dress under the neoprene skirt. I kind of agreed with Nina that the hair, messy as it was, didn’t work, and the make-up made thin models appear even more gaunt.

But, all in all, her collection was the most cohesive, the most edgy, and the one that made the judges want to see more.

Michelle is the First One In!

PATRICIA

Patricia gets Layana—who is pregnant now and still feeling the sting of losing to Patricia last week—who instantly raves about Patricia’s work to her face, and then calls it awful behind her back. Just another reason the universe kept Layana from The Tents.

Patricia says her inspiration was ‘trees’ but then she shows feathers and horsehair and handmade sequins … and a leather lumberjack shirt. Oy. That was one hideous piece, and one that seemed the most out of place; luckily, she listened to Tim and ditched that for another piece to show the judges in the Last Runway.

I loved the horsehair cape—even though it reminded me of Chris March’s human hair looks from seasons back—but then she sent down that dress, with the big earrings and the big necklace and the scarf and it was just too much. I loved the scarf, with its feather design, but it was a lot going on. The blue sequined number was cool and retro and yet seemed totally out of place within the rest of her mini-collection; I will say, I loved the Tina Turner Smurf headpiece … I could rock that look!

The judges are divided on Patricia. Heidi thinks her show could be fun and cool, and The Adorable Zac Posen™ loves that she’ll put on a show, but Nina is all verklempt over the Dr Seuss inspired hat; she worries that Patricia’s 12-piece collection will be all over the map, but, shockingly, Nina gets out-voted and Patricia gets Slot Two.

STANLEY

He’s all about elegance and luxury, and says his collection will be an homage to the 6os. I think there was a bad edit and he meant to say it was an homage to a 60-year-old woman. It was beautiful, but it looked old. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it needed some spice.

And some work. Stanley was paired with assistant Richard—and Stanley tells us Richard is great at sewing by hand—who then crashes and burns because he can’t sew leather. Again, Richard? How did you get on this show if all you can sew is chiffon and jersey?

Stanley, mostly because of Richard, got the I’m nowhere near being done edit, which means he’ll, of course, be done, but play it off like it's a last minute thing.

I liked what I saw; notice, no ‘love’. His looks were very well-made, trademark Stanley work, but were also Ladies Who Lunch-ish. He didn’t listen to Tim in the workroom, when he said to sex it up, and that was the judges’ biggest critique. The sequined skirt, as The Adorable Zac Posen™ pointed out, was a good three inches too long, and then Zac said the gold dress was a foot-and-a-half too long.

Both Nina and The Adorable Zac Posen™  hate his proportions and the old lady styling, and Zac calls the looks ‘Chic banal’ which in laymen’s terms is ‘Yawn’. All the judges agree that his looks need some youth, and that Stanley better work on that.

Heidi, who dubbed Stanley one of the Snoozeboys, ekes out a shot at The Tents because, well, Salvador Richard was up next and, well, ... yeah.

DANIEL

He gets Samantha as his helper and I thought she’d do for him what Amanda did last week and help him perk up his three looks; alas, no luck. Daniel’s nebulae, cosmos, Dali, Berlin looks are all black—and stingray, which The Adorable Zac Posen™  told us was a bitch to work with—and dull. Didn’t he tell Tim that the colors of the nebulae were reds and yellows and blues, in addition to black, and did his new hair get in his eyes and make it so he couldn’t see that he was sending boring down the runway?

Daniel, as he’s done all season, gets trapped by one idea—The Daniel Shoulder, anyone?—and then runs with it. But a stingray jacket and stingray side seams and a stingray zipper do not say cohesion and ‘I’d like to see more from you.’ They say, ‘Good night, Daniel.’

He showed three all-black looks, which anyone who’s watched the show knows never works. If I had a nickel for every time Nina has said ‘Don’t send an all-black collection down the runway’ I’d have about forty nickels; not a lot of money but you get my point. No all-black shows! Dammit!

But Nina is right; if you want to use ALL black, then you need drama and volume and shape and Daniel had none of those things. His looks weren’t as older woman as Stanley’s, but they also weren’t as well-made as Stanley’s. He was the Queen Snoozeboy, in my mind. I’ve already forgotten all of his looks.

And that won’t get you to The Tents. That gets you a plane ride back to Austin with a separate seat for your hair and mustache.

MY TAKE
From the look of last night’s show, the Lone Wolf is now the one to beat. Michelle has been second-best, or the best dress on the worst team, all season, but now that she’s doing all her own work, she’s the best.

And I like her kooky accessorizing, though it could be toned down.

Stanley needs to stop saying ‘I hear you’ to the judges and really hear them. Make it youthful; get some sex in there. Youth-ify yourself.

Patricia, well, she won’t win, but her show will probably be the most debated. It’s a love/hate collection, I’m sure.

Next week, The Kors—Michael Kors—is back. When I saw the preview and saw him sitting fourth chair, with The Adorable Zac Posen™  in First Chair, I was secretly hoping for a Designer Bitchslap.

Stay tuned.

What did YOU think?