PR 17 Ep 12: A Room With A View ... To The Tents

First off, sorry for the delay in recapping. We spent all day long in Raleigh at the Mexican Consulate getting all the paperwork filed after Carlos’ father passed away; but I’m back, and it’s time to dish …

It’s  down to the Final Five and y’all know who needs to go, amirite?

This week’s challenge was to create an experiential fashion show as part of an art installation at a warehouse to show the judges who they are as a designer. Very chic; very avantgarde; very New York!

And, as Karlie told them, “Make it bigger and bolder than anything we’ve seen before.”

Let’s see how they did …

TOPS AND BOTTOMS

SEBASTIAN

He wants to take a look he’s already done and update it; risky, because the original look is barely two months old so how much of an update can it be? And then he tells his room designer that he wants the room to be a Greek palace … in yellows and purples. Now, unless he’s thinking of Greek palaces in porn videos, I think he’s missed the mark in his idea for a room.

And then he has issues at Mood finding the right material; and then he has issues with the construction of his gown; and then he has issues with his room and his gown looking too divergent.

Sebastian has so many issues, he has a meltdown and threatens to leave the show. Luckily, a quick minute to pout, and a bottle of water later, he’s back, though he still seems lost.

Christian sees Sebastian’s look and notes that with all the flaps and wings, it’s too front-heavy. He asks Sebastian to think about making the flaps go all the way around, which Sebastian does, but then the proportions are off and the model looks like a Tampon display … not that I’ve ever seen one or would know one if it did, but I was thinking ‘wings’.

Guest judge, Bergdorf Goodman fashion director Linda Fargo loves the dress—it’s her favorite and she thinks Sebastian should win—but hates his room; the two things don’t go together. Cardi B—not a judge, but gurl has opinions—also loves the dress and hates the room. Christian—who has taken the judges into the workroom to show the designer’s season long looks—says Sebastian makes great clothes but doesn’t have a story to tell and that makes a show worrisome. Nina agrees, and says it’s Sebastian’s techniques and skills that have gotten him this far, but Brandon doesn’t care about that, or the lack of a story, when the looks are as well made as Sebastian’s.

BISHME

He’s going back to the lamé –as is rose gold lamé –and wants his room to be Baltimore Blooming because he feels that whenever he references his roots in B’more, he’s a winner, baby.

His room, though, is not a winner, because his creative consultant took him literally and there are cab doors and shoes hanging from telephone lines and graffiti. Bishme explains that he wants a more dream-like Baltimore, with roses and flowers growing from the concrete. Christian loves his room idea and his rose-out-of-concrete idea but warns him, again, not to overdo the look.

Once he’s finished, his rose lamé model is hoisted by Bishme to a platform in his new, muted, dreamy room with a peplum and a huge rose ruffle growing behind her head.

Elaine thinks that Bishme met the challenge of bigger, better and bolder, though she notes some imperfections and bunching of fabrics in his piece. Karlie sees a theme running through all his looks and Linda Fargo admires how much range there is in his looks from the season and calls his last look an “entrance maker.” Nina loved the proportions, while is not a fan of the overdone—by Bishme this season—peplum but loves the top piece and Bishme’s POV.

HESTER

Her idea of a room is a rococo room that becomes a forest, but then that morphs into rococo bondage picnic which ends up being kind of just a picnic.

Though it was no picnic watching her sweat looking for fabrics … or watching her work at something only to have Christian tell her that she made the same top last week …or to watch her take a pair of scissors to her work. Hester is a mess; again.

In the end, her room is kind of art gallery picnic, with her model standing inside a gilded picture frame sipping tea… in the shade.

Cardi B is not sold on the room and says there’s “too much going on” with Hester’s look; that’s saying something when it come from over-the-top Cardi B. Nina and Elaine love the room. but Elaine doesn't think that the look is something “bigger and bolder” and Nina is worried about the harness and Brandon is annoyed by the ill-fitting bustier. Christian likes that Hester’s so different from everyone else, but Linda Fargo, seeing all her looks at once, thinks it’s too silly and theatrical and not very marketable.

GARO

He wants a Jetson dressing room, where hands come out of the wall to dress you. He wants a futuristic hostess skirt, with a lampshade dress and a corset … what? … and he thinks he has this because, once again, he’s done this before and it’s in his wheelhouse and he’s a winner.

As Cardi B would say, Okurrrrrrrrrrr.

Christian thinks Garo’s look is “super chic” and not as overtly sexy as some of his other work. He cannot wait to see it in Garo’s Intergalactic Changing Room. And the room is something, though to me it’s less Jetson’s and more 2001: A Space Fashion Odyssey. And I mean that in a good way.

As I do when I say the lampshade effect is very cool, because of its boning it can be flipped up or down as the wearer prefers. And Garo does point out that his look is all different pieces which can be mass-produced and made marketable.

Smart thinking, especially with Linda Fargo as a judge.

Nina thinks that his run this season has been inconsistent, but this week's look is an improvement. Karlie thinks he has no shortage of ideas—though a lot of them include corsetry—and brings finished garments to the runway. Elaine thinks he has taken to all their feedback to heart and loves the corset and its reptile fabric.

TESSA

Once again, it’s about her mother the ceramicist, because Tessa won the week she made the ceramicist’s dress. Uh huh.

Tessa talks about her wabi-sabi aesthetic in that there is beauty in imperfection and that’s why she doesn’t finish hems. Huh; wait until the last week to share that nugget when you’ve been dogged for weeks about unfinished hems? Methinks Tessa is lying again.

Christian, though, gets the idea, but warns her about her clay color palette, and Tessa goes big and bold with … lavender. Hu huh.

Christian questions the many layers in Tessa’s piece, and calls them messy; he then touched the dress, makes a face, and wanders off. That’s what I do with Tessa, too.

At any rate, she makes an earth-tone [read: dull] kimono with super-long sleeves created from woven strips of differently colored fabric. And she actually has her model sit at a potter’s wheel and mold clay, which sends specks of clay onto her look, which, luckily, is mostly clay colored.

Karlie doesn't think it looks finished, and Cardi B, whom Tessa seemed desperate to impress, said it would look good in a window, but maybe not on a runway. Ouch. Brandon hears the  wabi-sabi story and says he suddenly gets Tessa, but doesn’t ask why she’s never once mentioned it before, ever?  Still, Brandon says the only thing he wanted to buy from Tessa’s room were some of the pots. ouch. Linda loves the addition of lavender to the clay palette. Christian does point out that Tessa has a clear brand, but even Nina only likes parts of her clothes and worried Tessa may not have enough inspiration to show a whole collection.

Linda thinks Sebastian should win, while Elaine goes for Garo; Nina is also Team Sebastian, and Brandon holds out, saying he hated Garo’s and hated Sebastian’s room. Brandon and Nina think Tessa should go … home, but Karlie is unimpressed by Hester. Brandon thinks Bishme, when he hits it, really hits it, and Elaine thinks he rises through each challenge.

But on the runway, Garo takes the top spot.

Sebastian and Bishme follow, leaving Hester and Tessa in the Bottom. Sadly, or not, Hester would put on a colorful show, while Tessa would put on a Tryptophan, sleep inducing show.

Tessa, who cannot tell the truth, is out, and I feel good.

Tessa is gone. I’m happy. I’d only be happier if the PR had a reunion show and Tessa could be called out for her blatant lies and her nasty comments and her last minute wabi-sabi-ness.

I loves me some Sebastian but that pseudo-meltdown and the “I quit! I’m going home” business felt contrived and stupid.

LINES OF THE NIGHT

As the designer’s leave the workroom, Sebastian says:

“C’mon, bish.”

And I thought  that, because of his accent, he was saying:

“Cimon, bitch.”

Turns out he was taking to Bishme.

Bishme, when the designtestants went to the CFDA [Council of Fashion Designers of America]offices:

“I could cry, but I didn’t win it yet, so I’m gonna save my tears.”

And then he puts his fingerprint on the wall.

Christian, to Bishme, who has very little for his model to try on:

“You have a wing, but no skirt?”

Hey, sometimes a wing is all you need … ?

Brandon, looking at the past work of Sebastian, and saying of one look:

“I’d slip on some stilettoes and put my hair in a top know and go out in that.”

And he’d look fabulous!

I loved when Brandon gave Bishme a compliment and Bishme said when that happens his heart smiles; Brandon looks to Nina and say, “Look, I have a fan.” And then Bishme talks about calling his mother, Nina, and having the name Nina tattooed on him, and Brandon sulks away!

As for The Tents: I see tons of corsets in Garo’s work; a lot of B’more from Bishme; colors like you ain’t never seen before from Hester; and a rather unclear storyline from Sebastian, which could be a death knell since ever PR fan knows the runway needs a through story.

Next week: Hester sews her thumb to her garment and Bishme gets the teary-eyed stomp off. But what about the runway show?

Lastly, this is a good week: Tessa’s off the PR and Yvie Oddly won Drag Race. I’m loving it right now.

What did YOU think?