PR All-St★rs 6 Ep 6: Boop Boop Be....Uh Oh

This week Alyssa Milano struts onto the catwalk to tell the designtestants that their inspiration for the week is an actress, singer, dancer, fashion icon who has appeared in hundreds of films and worked with Jean-Paul Gaultier and Zac Posen.

Instantly Edward think Rihanna and Katy Perry. Really, Edward?

And out walks cartoon icon, Betty Boop and suddenly as if they’d been told ahead of time, they all chatter about how much they love Betty Boop and used to watch her on TV in Celebrity Rehab or something.

Boop tells them that their challenge for this week is to design a young, chic Hollywood outfit for her, something glamorous and playful and fashion forward.

I think that was about the time the designtestants stopped listening to the drawing. Until she told them that the winning designer will help create a special collection for Betty Boop to be sold at Torrid.com and other locations nationwide.

Cue oohs and ahs.

The designtestants have one day and $200 for the challenge.

Let’s rip …

THE SAFES

ANTHONY Joshua said of Anthony’s look—“Betty’s not going to wear a dress that looks like a tissue that you blew your nose in.” I thought it looked like she spilled something all over herself at a restaurant and covered up with a tablecloth to make her escape.

FABIO I liked the way he cut the design, so it stayed true to itself, but he ended up with a large dark spot at crotch lever that seemed off-putting.

KEN I got less Betty Boop and more Angelina Jolie from this one. Talk about the furthest from youthful and chic.

KIMBERLY I didn’t get the sheer insets on the legs and nothing about floral pants says youthful and chic and Hollywood, unless it’s the Hollywood racetrack and it’s Ladies Day and The Golden Girls are visiting.

TOPS AND BOTTOMS

CHAR

She picked neoprene because she’s never worked with neoprene and nothing says young and chic and flirty and Betty Boop like a fabric you can wear underwater.

Say Goodbye, Char.

Anne Fulenwider only likes half of her design; the top half. And Ken likes it even less, asking Char why she’s making a maternity dress? He thinks she’s tortured the neoprene, but Char keeps saying the dress is not finished.

Char, however, is finished.

WHAT SHE SAID

Honestly, I’m not proud of this design. The bottom is problematic.

WHAT IS SAID

Stiff and not sexy or young or chic or Betty Boop, unless she’s doing an Esther Williams number in her next film.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Alyssa liked the color … that’s all. The Beautiful Georgina Chapman™ wondered why so many people chose to drape their dresses; Char explains that she wanted it to flow and The Beautiful Georgina Chapman™ muttered, “Flowy … in neoprene?” She then suggested that if Char had never worked with neoprene that she never work with neoprene again. Guest judge, designer Rebecca Minkoff thought it a Freshman student competition entry, while said it was a neoprene dress that was such a mess; the worst.

EDMOND

Like Char, he decided to step out of his comfort zone and choose a printed fabric this week, but the fabric he thought looked like an orchid looked like a vagina to everyone else. I kept thinking about Karen Walked on Will & Grace describing the vagina as a beautiful flower that, when it opens …

And so, Edmond scraps the print, turns the fabric over and creates a white dress with black mesh insets that Ken calls train tracks. And when Anne sees it, and Edmond explains that it’s the back side, she asks to see the print and says she likes it and will miss it on the runway.

Edmond switches again and goes for the “beautiful flower that, when it opens …”

WHAT HE SAID

The color really stands out on the runway [though] it’s not necessarily my best work.

WHAT I SAID

The print is a mess and it looks neither young nor chic, and not at all Boop Worthy.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Alyssa says the print hurts; her eyes? She calls it “old” McQueen and said when it walked the front pieces looked like saggy balls. The Beautiful Georgina Chapman™ liked the idea and liked that it should be about contouring the fabric to the body, but says Edmond missed it. Isaac went off; it wasn’t youthful, and no one took inspiration from that girl, “the one in LA, the one in Paris. What woman wants to look old?” he ended by telling the designers that he wants young and chic every week. He wants to eliminate Edmond. Rebecca Minkoff wondered how she could follow that, and Isaac said, “I don’t know, you have to be a child star, or a dog.” She did add that the layers and the straps are distracting, and that Edmond didn’t find one element to feature.

HELEN

Helen is also going for the risk; the risk of stripes in somber gray and black because that screams young and chic and Boop, doesn’t it? But I’ll give it to Helen for being nicer this week—getting a nicer edit?—and talking with her fellow designers.

The stripes are giving her difficulty because if they don’t match up perfectly, then the whole look is off. And that’s what Anne think; the gray says ‘work,’ not werk, and the whole look doesn’t appear young. Helen whips out the polka dot fabric to “youth-enize” it; euthanize?

WHAT SHE SAID

This piece stands out.

WHAT I SAID

I’m getting Goth Betty Boop … or Wednesday Addams Couture.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

The Beautiful Georgina Chapman™ loved the ease of the neckline and the sarong-style skirt; she says the dots are totally Boop, but the gray and black stripes are not. Isaac thought it was a good balance, and if there was ever a tall, flat-chested, thin Betty Boop this is the look for her. Rebecca Minkoff loved the silhouette but thought the stripes said menswear and not Betty Boop. Alyssa, however, did like how perfectly the stripes looked on the garment.

JOSHUA

Lord, he is thirsty to be in the Top—or the Bottom—just to get feedback, and I thought his look would be worthy of that feedback. He wants to take that iconic I ♥ NY shirt and replace the ♥ with Betty’s head; seriously? And, of course, there will be see-through skirts and panties because … Joshua.

Anne sees his ideas and said it’s a street look that needs to be elevated; Josh slithers out a smile, arches one of those eyebrow things, and says, Boop-boop-be-doop.

He shouldn’t have taken the time to be snarky because then he has only the top finished and no skirt or panty; those will have to wait until the last minute on runway day.

WHAT HE SAID

I think the look is so cool. It’s fun … quirky … playful. It’s spot on Betty.

WHAT I SAID

I thought it was kind of junior; and the ‘I ♥ NY’ turned into ‘I [Betty’s Head] Bett     Y’ Odd.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Isaac liked the anatomy of the look and says it’s racy, but non-vulgar. Rebecca Minkoff thought it hit a lot of styles from ath-leisure to luxe, while The Beautiful Georgina Chapman™ loved the take on I ♥ NY and loved seeing the knickers under the skirt. Alyssa thinks it’s very young, because of the crop top, and not at all chic.

MERLINE

Here comes trouble; she picks a blue because she says it’s a new color for her, and yet I swear she uses a blue fabric almost every week. She says she wants to keep the design young and fresh, but she’s making a version of every look she’s ever shown; it’s volume and structure.

But she also second guesses herself and tries to insert a floral diaper fabric into the mix. Anne, in a rare moment of lucidity, nixes the floral and Merline says that without the nappy fabric the dress is missing its voo voo va va … va-va-voom to the rest of us.

WHAT SHE SAID

I’m, like, really proud of this dress. She looks, like, really chic.

WHAT I SAID

It’s like a backwards mullet dress with yards of fabric in the front and nothing out back.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

Isaac wondered “how you go from Betty Boop to this dress, I just can’t see it,” and says it’s neither young nor Hollywood. The Beautiful Georgina Chapman™ wonders if Merline even knows who Betty Boop is, because Boop is boobs, waist and ass and none of that is in this look. Rebecca Minkoff said that all the work in the front made it look like the back was an afterthought which caused Alyssa to wonder if the back was supposed to be wonky.

STANLEY

I don’t think Stanley does sexy and young and chic; I think he’s Ladies Who Lunch. But he tried; he went for what he called sexy and playful, which translates to a high-nicked romper worn under a mini-dress.

Anne looks at the romper and hears the story of the mini dress and simply utter, ‘That’s a lot of fabric.’ But Stanley carries on and makes both looks but scraps the mini-dress at the last minute because … it’s a lot of fabric.

WHAT HE SAID

It looks easy. It doesn’t look fussy.

WHAT I SAID

It’s cute and young, but is it chic and Boop? No.

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

The Beautiful Georgina Chapman™ called it quirky—that was apparently the Go-to word last night—and retro and vintage and modern. Rebecca Minkoff loved the collar and the color, but said it was more Betty Boop In The Hamptons. Isaac called it classic and American. Alyssa thinks it needed a little sex appeal rather than the high neck.

Stanley is safe, and it comes down to Goth Boop and Knickers Boop, and, well, Goth never seems to win, so Joshua takes the prize this week.

As for the losers, Merline gets saved, again, and it comes down to Char and Edmond. Luckily, Char’s tragic neoprene mess bit the dust.

After weeks of Helen belittling the other designers for sharing ideas and talking about their designs, this week she went over the light side; they all did, except for Joshua Eyebrows, who said:

“I don’t need other people’s ideas.”

Um, but you kinda do sometimes, to pull you back from Slutty Bluff.

Oddly, as Char pointed out, not one designer went with Betty Boop Red, which I thought was a mistake. Sure, it could have been obvious, but if the design had been sharply done, it could have been a winner, baby.

Line of the Night goes to Ken, who looked at Char’s Neoprene Nightmare and said:

 “The draping is a mess. If I was her I’d just go pack my s**t and escort my own self out the building before the dress even walks the runway.”

And that would have made for a shorter episode.

Stanley is loving himself this week, but isn’t feeling any of the other designs, saying:

 “They look more like Aunt Betty Boop than Betty Boop.”

And he was right.

Now, Popeye? Seriously? As Anne was leaving the designers she tells them that there’s a message from Betty Boop’s friend coming soon and the designers go cray-cray thinking there’s a twist and a second look and … and … We get a Popeye cartoon to give them a little Boop History Lesson. It was a huge slice of cheese that just filled airtime; had char chosen to take her mess and hit the brick, and had Popeye chosen to keep his yap shut, this would have been a forty-minute episode and that would have been good!

The Tents? Fabio, I’d love. Ken, I’d like. Anthony, I’d tolerate because this week he stepped in it and really should have gone to the Bottom. Helen might show, I hope Joshua does not because 12 underwear looks doesn’t interest me… unless it’s men in underwear cuz, you know … gay. Kimberly? I don’t even remember her; Edmond? I’d love his pecs and guns and sweet smile and shiny bald head to stick around but he’s been two weeks in the Bottom and that ain’t good. Of course, though, Merline has rented studio space in the Bottom and she’s still around so …

Fabio and Ken and Anthony.

What did YOU think?