PR 16 Ep 4: Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Ah, a challenge the designtestants loathe even more than an Unconventional Challenge! A challenge almost as despised as a Team Challenge! It’s the Make Something For Heidi Klum’s Collection Challenge!

Heidi, as a client, can be quite difficult and demanding, and can crush a designer with a single ‘Auf.’ And so the designers smile and pretend they’re cool with it, but on the inside ... It’s the Make Something For Heidi Klum’s Collection Challenge!

And even more challenging the designers must make their own textile ... by hand! No computer generated prints; it’s dyes and paints and stencils and, yes, even potatoes, to be used to create your own fabric; panic hits doubly hard. And to top it off, they must gather inspiration while sleeping at the top of the Empire State Building.

It’s one day, no Mood, no money ... for Heidi ... with handmade prints ... let’s rip ...

SAFES

AMY This is so not the NYC skyline underpants she showed Heidi in the workroom, and, while it’s nice looking, it looks like it’d be uncomfortable to sleep in.

AYANA I found out that Ayana—who mostly designs ‘modest’ looks because of her Muslim faith—was going sheer and sexy because, as she told us, she doesn’t dress fully covered inside her home. This was a cool look, a cool lotta looks, but a nice surprise from Ayana.

BATANI This is not something to sleep in; this is something to get down to bidness in ... if you get my meaning. Sex!

BRANDON I like it, but again, isn’t this very similar to the looks he made in weeks one and two? A crop top over some baggy pants? He still adorable but he needs to stretch his POV.

CLAIRE Sorry. Neon dreams ain’t my style.

MARGARITA This looks like sleepwear and moves like sleepwear but has no sexy in it and we all know Heidi likes some sexy times.

SAMANTHA I like the top and the robe—especially the design—but the pants, for some reason, are giving me Popeye and that can’t be good.

TOPS AND BOTTOMS

SHAWN

Loathe her; sorry, I can’t help but say that.

I also can’t help but think Tim feels the same way because, as he points out to Heidi, this is the first time Shawn has anything on the form to show them. Of course, Heidi calls out Shawn for being too “chatty, chatty, chatty” with her sister and Claire offers up a death stare.

And Heidi doesn’t like Shawn’s idea of a jumpsuit as sleepwear because, in the middle of the night, when you just gotta go, how are you gonna get out of it?

Depends? Might work.

WHAT SHE SAID

My first thought, ‘Wow, look at her butt.’

WHAT I SAID

I ... like ... it. Gosh, that was hard to admit. But, still, another sash? One-trick monkey!

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Heidi says she was worried in the workroom, but loves this sophisticated, sexy, elegant look. Nina Garcia says it’s “perfect” and loves the print detail on the sash. Zac Posen calls it polished and well made, while Demi Lovato thinks it’s well-tailored and has great detail

KENYA

For the second week running, we find that Kenya is out of her element and stuck in her head; she needs to find a way to do her POV—sleek, sexy, tailored—in each challenge, even sleepwear!

She shows Tim and Heidi her sketch, but it looks nothing like what she’s got on the dress form. Kenya is more lost than ever, and starts and stops with painting a fabric and then dying a fabric and then, finally, throwing a little something together.

WHAT SHE SAID

I’m feeling okay ...

WHAT I SAID

What a clusterf**k of stuff; and I can see that it’s not even staying together.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Once again, Heidi wanted to know how one would get out of that look when you really really gotta go; she said it wasn’t sleepwear and was, in fact, sad. Demi Lovato couldn’t understand why the robe would be sleeveless and backless if a robe is meant as a cover-up, and called it her least favorite. Kenya starts crying, and Zac tries to stay positive ... he likes the color. Nina Garcia—while she could have gone Meana—stayed nice and told Kenya she appreciated her not taking the easy way out.

KENTARO

I agree with Samantha, who wants to swaddle sweet Kentaro in a blanket and keep him safe on a shelf; he’s just precious, though very anal ... more on that later.

Last week he was called out for doing black, so Kentaro gets props for staying far away from somber this week. But his first stab ... and stab is a key word ... at making a textile ended up with his fabric looking, as he said, “Like I killed someone.”

So, he starts over and creates a bright, colorful nightgown, with the help of his model, Liris, who told him to not forget her curves. But he nearly blows it by dyeing and painting it on the day of the runway and I’m worried it’ll walk wet ... it does not.

WHAT HE SAID

It looks good ... beautiful.

WHAT I SAID     

I thought it a little dress-like when tied at the waist, but more like sleepwear when worn loose; plus, his textile design was really good.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Heidi says all kinds of women would want to wear it, and called it designed, and elegant and flouncy. Nina Garcia thought it adorable, charming, and fresh, while Zac Posen loved the draping and the scalloped details at the top; he called it happy. Demi Lovato said she would love to wear it, but liked it better without the belt.

DEYONTÉ

Deyonté also gets the “I don’t do this” cry, but he, unlike Kenya, gave it a valiant effort even though Heidi literally killed his design because it was too vah-jay-jay specific and almost clown like.

Deyonté starts over with a whole new textile, dyed teal because that was the only color left, and more basic—read: potato sack—design. I mean, his model was covered from neck to knees in teal fabrics; no sleep, no sex.

WHAT HE SAID

I’ve created a great garment ... she looks sexy.

WHAT I SAID

I don’t know what kinda sexy he was shooting for, but if it was operating room sexy he hit it out of the park. Sexy? No. Sack-sy? Yes.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Nina Garcia said it wasn’t sleepwear, but a hospital gown; tight at the top and then no shape at all. Heidi said ‘Ugh,’ declared it unsexy and ‘nothing,’ while Zac Posen called it a boring non-design. Demi Lovato hated the idea of the elastic waistband and the color.

MICHAEL

I like Michael, he’s cute in that Are My Teeth Too Big kinda way; but he’s always talking about sexual fluidity in his design and yet this week I got no fluid at all. It’s all woman, baby.

His idea came from spotting the Chrysler building while sleeping at the ESB; he loved the Art Deco repetition in its design and wanted to recreate that with a Harlem Renaissance flair.

Heidi like the idea, but worries that the length isn’t sexy and there are too many straps to make getting in and out of it easy.

WHAT HE SAID

I’m thrilled the way [it] moves on her body ... slinky.

WHAT I SAID

Slinky, Monique-y. It’s good, and he had the perfect model.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Demi Lovato called it unique, practical and comfortable, and loved the idea of the print to accentuate the booty. Heidi said it was sexy, sophisticated, expensive and, most importantly, designed. Zac Posen dubbed it “Deco Cleopatra” while Nina Garcia, who loved the take on the Chrysler building and New York City in the 1920s, totally got Michael’s idea.

AARON

Aaron had the best idea for a print, and the coolest execution, but then it went horribly wrong. The paint stiffened the fabric so all movement was lost, and then he simply fumbled in his execution.

But, before all that, he found a vent grate at the ESB for his inspiration and Heidi and Tim loved the idea, though she wondered if the entire look would be done in the printed fabric.

WHAT HE SAID

I hope the judges see that I took a lot of time to make the textile.

WHAT I SAID

Translation: I hope they don’t notice how poorly made it is.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Heidi is disappointed with how the look turned out because she loved the print he made.  It’s a bad idea, she said, and far too tight. Nina Garcia went all Means and called it shabbily made and bad sweatpants. Demi hated the unflattering, unsexy shorts and Zac Posen had other concerns than the sleepwear, which he called lackluster.

I thought for a brief moment it would go to Kentaro—and had a moment of fright that maybe Shawn would get a win—but in the end the judges picked Michael’s Deco nightie.

Aaron’s was possibly the worst look out there—the top was just a flap of fabric tucked into bad shorts—but two weeks with low scores made it impossible not to send Deyonté home.

I hated to see Deyonté out this early because he started so strong, but maybe the idea that his baby was due any day played into his fall.

Meanwhile, the twins are still nicknaming and Chip’n’Dale-ing all over the workroom, and the other designers aren’t pleased with their communal work projects. While the other designers help each other when they have time, I agree that Shawn and Claire doing each other’s work is not quite right ... but maybe that’s just cuz I loathe them?

I was ready to kill Claire the way she ordered Shawn to iron this and press that and “Get the pink thread!” She’s a bitch. And that didn’t help Shawn, who barely spoke to her model during the fitting because she was so busy being Claire’s little helper.

Several Funny Lines last night, as when Tim shot off a zinger about Margarita’s print looking like “a menstrual cycle.”

Heidi, on Claire’s attempt at print-making:

“It kinda looks like you sat on a strawberry.”

And she was right.

And then Tim talking to Kentaro about being so anal:

“Let me put it this way, if we put a piece of charcoal up your rearend, it would come out a diamond.”

Kentaro: 

“I like diamonds.”

And that leads us to Kentaro winning the Line of the Night:

“Heidi and Tim say don’t be anal. I want to be stop being anal because I don’t like being anal a;; the time, like ‘Good morning, Anal.’ And no, I’m not anal.”

Samantha replies:

“I like you.”

Kentaro zings:

“You make me feel anal.”

I like the Model’s Confessionals this year, as they critique the designer’s looks; especially now with real models giving input on how to design for a fuller figured client. I especially love that Liris helped out Kentaro while calling herself the “Naomi [Campbell] of Plus,” and without a cell phone in sight!

Now, about Zac’s comments to Aaron about the distraction of Aaron’s own shorts ... the sheer shorts and the tighty whities beneath:

“Thank goodness you’re wearing underpants” 

Zac then tells him to never upstage the model. Zac is nicer than me, because I would have thrown my chair at him. Seriously; I get the whole androgyny thing, but I didn’t see a woman up there showing us her drawers. Stop it!

Brandon and Kentaro’s little bromance is cute.

I lovedlovedloved Nina’s face when Shawn explained and explained her inspiration for her look. Nina? I feel your pain at having to listen to Shawn’s precisely clipped and annoying phrases.

Now ... The Tents ... Brandon still should go; Kentaro moves up, as does Michael. Ayana and Batani still have a shot, though Kenya sinks. Amy needs a win, Samantha and Margarita, too, and Aaron might need to go. Claire and Shawn? Oh, honey, is there’s a fashion god, let it be No Go.

Next week Good versus Evil ... which twin is which.

What did YOU think?