Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Monday, December 30, 2019
My Two Cents: _____ Attacked Jews In New York
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There, I said.
Look, it’s like this … way back in 2016, _____ came down an escalator to announce he was running for president, and he started off by labeling Mexicans as drug dealers, rapists and murderers, invading our borders and taking our jobs. And then, as president, he went after those other brown people, Muslims, and wanted them banned from our country.
That’s hate; that’s racism; that’s _____. But it gets worse, because his followers, all of whom hate the same people he does, and many more people, decided to get into the business of speaking out about “others,” meaning anyone who isn’t white and straight and Christian.
And we’ve seen a rise in hate crimes since _____ took office and that is no coincidence. When you stand as the leader of a country and denounce a group of people based, really, on the country of their skin, or the shithole countries they come from, you feed hate, and violence, and murder.
But then it’s not just the brown people, is it? This weekend we saw yet another anti-Semitic attack in New York, just one of dozens in the last few weeks. And why?
Simple, when you speak hate against a brown person, hate-filled people will go after brown people; a woman in Iowa is in jail because she ran down a young girl because that girl is Mexican. But you also feed the hate of people who hate the Jewish community, and we’ve seen a rise in anti-Semitism since_____ took office; and you also feed the hate of people who despise the LGBTQ+ community, and we’ve seen a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ crime since _____ took office; when you order children to be taken from their parents and held in cages, you feed the hate. And hate knows no color or race or gender or sexual orientation or ethnicity.
Hate just hates.
See, maybe he just wanted y’all to hate brown people, from south of the border, or the Middle East—well, not the brown Middle Easterners who give him money while they behead journalists, but he wanted y’all to hate.
And so every time there’s a shooting of mostly brown people in, oh, I don’t know, let’s say El Paso; and when there’s a shooting of a synagogue in Pittsburgh, for example; and when you have white people telling black people to get out of their parks, out of their dorm rooms, out of their hotel lobbies, out of their stores, you lay it at the feet of _____.
He fed the haters while running for office and then unchained them after he was elected.
So, yes, Donald J. _____ killed those people in New York this weekend, with the words he used to start his campaign. And let’s be clear, one day the hate will be directed at you, unless you do something about it.
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Sunday, December 29, 2019
Saturday, December 28, 2019
I Ain;t One To Gossip But ...
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A while back on this here blog, we talked about how Emily Ratajkowski’s husband, Sebastian Bear-McClard refused to pay rent on his Bleecker Street apartment in NYC because of a “loft law” which was meant to protect starving artists.
Sebastian moved into the apartment in 2013 and was paying $4,200 a month, and when the rent went up in 2017, as they do, to $4900 a month. Sebastian decided that was just too much and so he stopped paying and filed an application to register the apartment under the city’s loft law.
And then his wife entered the picture and actually called her squatter husband a freedom fighter who was standing against the fat-cats of Wall Street …cuz people who can afford $4200 a month in rent are the ‘little’ people. Anyway, Antoni Ghosh, who doesn’t own the building but rents five of the six units and sublets them out, including the one to Mister and Missus Squatter, filed a lawsuit against the couple for $250,000 in damages and back rent. Ghosh said that because Sebastian wasn’t paying rent, he had to pay $23,000 a month of his own money to the building’s owner Rogers Investments.
But in a weird twist, Rogers Investments actually paid Sebastian and Emily Squatter to leave the building and the couple took the money and left in October … moving back into their $2 million home in Los Angeles … like most starving artists.
Yeah, they really stuck it to the fat cats.
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And speaking of cats, er, Cats, those of you waiting to see Cats might wanna wait a minute and see Cats 2. Not a sequel, per se, but a second version of the film because the one that opened to terrible reviews and horrid box office—it made $6.5 million over the weekend in comparison to Stars Wars taking in $200 million—wasn’t actually finished when it opened and director Tom Hooper was still working on the visual effects. So, theaters have been given a new version of the film.
Working Title produced the star-studded Christmas film, which cost roughly $100 million to make, and yet couldn’t wait for the finished product to hit theaters and released an incomplete film, with horrible edits and laughable CGI effects like …
Dame Judi Dench’s cat character has human hands like she was some sort of bestiality experiment between man and feline gone terribly wrong.
Rebel Wilson’s cat character had fur covered human breasts.
Jennifer Hudson Grizabella appeared to have her face melt during the showstopper Memory.
And Taylor Swift … was in it, the most egregious thing ever! Just sayin’.
And now they want to handful of people who saw the mess won opening weekend pay to see the altered mess again.
Cats may have nine lives, but this film shouldn’t have even had one.
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If you ever thought that Hollywood was a small, incestuous little town, here’s yet another example … the Original Bennifer—not that tired JLo-Affleck mess—might be getting back together?
It might just be that Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, whose break-up filled that celebrity gossip cycle about Sad Lonely Jen may be flirting with one another.
Or maybe flirting with us? After his breakup with Angelina Jolie, Brad and Jen ALLEGEDLY began talking again, and then he was a guest at her birthday party which meant they were Friends again. And that spiraled into Brad talking about how he handled breaking up with Jen for Angelina, and then Jennifer and Justin Theroux broke up.
Two + Two – Two = Bennifer 2.0?
Personally, I’d rather see hotter-than-hot sexy couple Justin Theroux and Angelina hook-up. But that’s just me.
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This story kills me … one Vicki Gunvalson, AKA the O.G. of the OC AKA RGOC AKA Real Housewives of Orange County wants new housewife Braunwyn Windham-Burke off the show after a season of debauchery, girls kissing, threesome thoughts and boob flashing.
Gunvalson, who was reduced to a “friend” status for the current season, was part—small part—of the sat down for the third part of the reunion and demanded that Windham-Burke change her behavior if she wanted to stay on the show:
“I don’t like the kissing [girls]. I don’t like the nakedness. I’m sorry. I don’t. I think it’s disrespectful.”
She was mostly angry …read jealous … about the times that Braunwyn made out with her BFF Tamra Judge. And Braunwyn wasn’t there for Vicki:
“Just because I choose to kiss women doesn’t make me classless.”
Gunvalson shrieked:
“Do it off camera. Fifteen years, I started this show. We don’t do that. Turn it down, Braunwyn … Get off the show. Let’s elevate. I lost two clients last month because of these shenanigans … They said it doesn’t meet their moral compass. We have kids watching this!”
Meanwhile, host Andy Cohen was confused as to why kids would be watching reality trash and then pointed out several things about Grandma Vicki …
Like the time a few seasons back when she bared her own breasts on camera.
Like the time she demonstrated how to give a blow job on camera.
Like the time she got so drunk in Mexico she pissed her pants.
Like the time she kissed fellow Housewife Shannon Beador.
Gunvalson doesn’t want Braunwyn off the show, she wants her to stop treading in her spot … getting drunk and acting the fool on TV.
Trouble is Braunwyn is 42 and Vicki is old enough to be her mother. The OG needs to settle and get back on her meds.
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If anyone knows Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, the sequel to 1990’s Home Alone, you know it was a crappy film … basically a rehash of the first film in a new location …but with ALLEGED billionaire Donald ____ in a cameo.
Well, this year the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s [CBC] broadcast of Home Alone 2 but had to edit the film for time allowed and they deleted _____’s cameo. Cue Presidential Tweet-storm. No, seriously, he was pissy about the deletion and took his rage to Twitter:
“I guess Justin T doesn’t much like my making him pay up on NATO or Trade!”
Seriously, the President of the United States of America thinks the Prime Minister of Canada ordered his cameo in a nearly thirty-year-old movie deleted?
And then Little Man _____waded into the fray because Daddy loves Ivanka more and he’s trying to score points:
“‘Pathetic’: Canada’s CBC under fire when Trump’s cameo in ‘Home Alone 2’ disappears from Christmas broadcast.”
Hasn’t he got endangered sheep to kill while they’re sleeping?
The CBC responded with its own statement:
“As is often the case with feature films adapted for television, Home Alone 2 was edited for time. The scene with Donald _____ was one of several that were cut from the movie as none of them were integral to the plot. These edits were done in 2014 when we first acquired the film and before Mr. _____ was elected President.”
Yes, the edits are five years old, but someone is so desperate, in light of IMPEACHMENT, he has to make everything a plot against him that he screeched about this now.
Still, I’m with Canada … _____ is not integral to the plot …of anything.
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Friday, December 27, 2019
I Didn't Say It ...
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Annette Bening, actress, on her son Stephen’s gender identity after transitioning from Kathlyn Elizabeth in his teens:
“He’s managed something that’s very challenging with great style and great intelligence. He’s an articulate, thoughtful person, and I’m very, very proud of him. When I was younger, part of me thought I could save my children from having to suffer, which was, of course, ridiculous. They have to go through their struggles.”
That’s parental love; loving your children unconditionally, and being there with them as they make their way through life.
PS Is it just me or does Annette bear a striking resemblance to Elizabeth Warren?
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Barack Obama, my president, the greatest president, speaking at a leadership event in Singapore about women:
"Now women, I just want you to know; you are not perfect, but what I can say pretty indisputably is that you're better than us [men]. I'm absolutely confident that for two years, if every nation on Earth was run by women, you would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything ... living standards and outcomes. If you look at the world and look at the problems, it's usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way. It is important for political leaders to try and remind themselves that you are there to do a job, but you are not there for life, you are not there in order to prop up your own sense of self-importance or your own power."
Look at that! Barack and I are likethis on the issue.
Men have been fucking up this country for two hundred years. Now’s the time to let women take over and fix this shiz.
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_____, speaking like a fool, again:
“I never understood wind. I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous—if you are into this—tremendous fumes and gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint, fumes are spewing into the air, right spewing, whether it is China or Germany, is going into the air. A windmill will kill many bald eagles. After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off, that is true. By the way, they make you turn it off. And yet, if you killed one, they put you in jail. That is OK. But why is it OK for windmills to destroy the bird population?”
You cannot make this shiz up: he said this.
Either impeachment is getting to him or he is the most illiterate person on the planet.
Or both.
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Mark Galli, Christianity Today editor, on _____:
“I am making a moral judgement that he is morally unfit, or even more precisely it’s his public morality that makes him unfit. None of us are perfect we’re not looking for saints, but a president has certain responsibilities as a public figure to display a certain level of public character and public morality. My argument is not to judge him as a person in the eyes of God, that’s not my job, but to judge his public moral character and to ask has he gone so far that he evangelical constituency that we represent can we in good conscience do the trade off anymore. It strikes me as strange that for people that take the teachings of Jesus Christ seriously, teachings of the Ten Commandments seriously, that we can’t at least say publicly and out loud and in front of God and everybody that this man’s character is deeply, deeply concerning to us and in my judgement has crossed a line and no longer think he’s fit to lead the United States of America.”
_____ attacked Galli and called him unfit—nice comeback, I know you are but what am I—and those _____-vangelicals still support the drug-addicted pervert.
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Elizabeth Warren, promising to read the names of transgender people killed every year when she is president:
“I will make sure that we read their names so that as a nation we are forced to address the particular vulnerability on homelessness. I would change the rules now that put people in prison based on their birth sex identification rather than their current identification.”
Nice idea, but howsabout fully investigating the murders of our trans brothers and sisters and fully punishing those people? Howsabout stopping these murders and murderers so we never have to read their names?
Howsabout that, Liz?
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Dwyane Wade, NBA player, on accepting his queer 12-year-old child Zion:
“You want to talk about strength and courage? My 12-year-old has way more than I have. You can learn something from your kids. I had to look myself in the mirror when my son at the time was 3 years old and me and my wife started having conversations about us noticing that he wasn’t on the boy vibe that Zaire [Wade’s other son] was on. And, I had to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘What if your son come home and tell you he’s gay? What are you going to do? How are you going to be? How are you going to act?’ It ain’t about him. He knows who he is. It’s about you. Who are you? All these people that’s out there saying those things, look at yourself. Understand that you’re the one who got the issues. It’s not the kids. I watched my son from day one become into who—she—now eventually has come into. And for me it’s all about, nothing changes with my love. Nothing changes with my responsibilities.”
That’s how a parent acts if they truly love their child.
Kudos to Wade and his whole family.
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Thursday, December 26, 2019
Biltmore
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Our weekend getaway to Asheville included a trip to the Biltmore Estate. We’ve been several times, though never at Christmas, and the house never fails to amaze. We toured the house, the gardens, the winery … because, of course … and loved every inch of it, so here’s the story of Biltmore along with some of the photos we took….
In the 1880s, at the height of the Gilded Age, George Washington Vanderbilt II began visiting Asheville, North Carolina. He loved the scenery and climate so much that he decided to build a little summer place in what he dubbed his "little mountain escape". His older brothers and sisters had their massive, luxurious summer places in Newport, Rhode Island, and Hyde Park, New York but he wanted the mountains.
And he called his hone Biltmore, derived from "De Bilt", his ancestors' place of origin in the Netherlands, and "More", Anglo-Saxon for open, rolling land. Vanderbilt bought nearly 700 parcels of land, including over 50 farms and at least five cemeteries, and began construction on the house in 1889.
   
Due to its somewhat remote area, and to make building the home easier and, if possible, quicker, a woodworking factory and brick kiln, which produced 32,000 bricks a day, were built onsite, and a three-mile railroad was built to bring materials to the building site. Construction on the main house required the labor of 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons. The house is over 175,000 square feet—roughly four acres—with 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces and 43 bathrooms; the entire estate originally covered 125,000 acres but is now a much more modest[?] 8,000 acres.
Vanderbilt went on extensive trips overseas to purchase decor while construction continued. He returned to North Carolina with thousands of furnishings for his newly built home including tapestries, hundreds of carpets, prints, linens, and decorative objects, all dating between the 15th century and the late 19th century.
And finally, on Christmas Eve of 1895, George Vanderbilt opened his home to family and friends from across the country, who were encouraged to enjoy leisure and country pursuits. Notable guests to the estate over the years included author Edith Wharton, novelist Henry James, ambassadors Joseph Hodges Choate and Larz Anderson, and U.S. Presidents. George married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in 1898 in Paris, France; their only child, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, was born at Biltmore in the Louis XV room in 1900 and grew up at the estate.
  
Driven by the impact of the newly imposed income taxes, and the fact that the estate was getting harder to manage economically, sold Vanderbilt 87,000 acres to the federal government. After Vanderbilt's unexpected death in 1914 of complications from an emergency appendectomy, his widow completed the sale to carry out her husband's wish that the land remain unaltered, and that property became the nucleus of the Pisgah National Forest.
He didn’t want his "little mountain escape" affected.
However, running such a large estate was overwhelming, so Edith consolidated her interests and sold Biltmore Estate Industries in 1917 and Biltmore Village in 1921. She intermittently occupied the house, living in an apartment carved out of the former Bachelors' Wing, until the marriage of her daughter to John Francis Amherst Cecil in April 1924. The Cecils had two sons who were born in the same room as their mother.
  
In an attempt to bolster the estate's financial situation during the Great Depression, Cornelia and her husband opened Biltmore to the public in March 1930 at the request of the City of Asheville, which hoped the attraction would revitalize the area. Biltmore closed during World War II; in 1942, 62 paintings and 17 sculptures were moved to the estate by train from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to protect them in the event of an attack on the United States.
The Cecils divorced in 1934, and Cornelia left the estate never to return; however, John Cecil maintained his residence in the Bachelors' Wing until his death in 1954. Their eldest son, George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil, occupied rooms in the wing until 1956. At that point Biltmore House ceased to be a family residence and continued to be operated as a historic house museum.
 
Their younger son William A. V. Cecil, Sr. returned to Biltmore in the late 1950s to help his brother manage the estate when it was in financial trouble and make it the profitable and self-sustaining enterprise his grandfather envisioned. William eventually inherited the estate upon the death of his mother 1976, while his brother, George, inherited the then more profitable dairy farm which was split off into Biltmore Farms.
In 1995, while celebrating the 100th anniversary of the estate, William Cecil turned over control of the company to his son, William A. V. Cecil, Jr. After the death of William A. V. Cecil in October 2017 and his wife Mimi Cecil in November, their daughter Dini Pickering began serving as board chair and their son Bill Cecil as CEO. The house, not including the 8,000-acre property and other businesses on the site, is assessed at $157.2 million …unfurnished.
 
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 Biltmore is a major tourist attraction in Western North Carolina, with over two million visitors each year.
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Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Peace ..To All... Merry Christmas
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I didn’t know what you wanted for Christmas, so I decided to regift y’all what I gave you last year … a repostage of my annual holiday wish. It still holds true … for me:
Christmas means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It's a religious holiday. It's a shopping holiday. It's a day for those who shop religiously. I'm not a big fan of either. So, for me, Christmas is a day to spend with those you hold most dear in your heart. For me, it's Carlos and my family. Of course, the family is mostly on the Left Coast and I'm over here on the right, so Christmas is me and Carlos, and Ozzo, Tuxedo, Max Goldberg, and Consuelo Roca Jones—all our furry kids. It's a day of relaxation and togetherness; reflection and laughter; of a good dinner cooked and shared by the two of us. It's not a day for What did you get? or for thinking How could I have spent so much? It's a day for How lucky am I? How lucky indeed. Christmas is more than a celebration; it's a connection we all can share regardless of faith, if we look at it as a day of Peace. A day to relax; to forgive, if not forget. To be at Peace. Every year I get the same question from friends and strangers alike: What are you getting for Christmas? What do you want for Christmas? And I always say, What I get is a lovely day. What I want—and I ask for it every year—is Peace on Earth. So here's to Peace on Earth, and the little parts that each of us plays in creating our own peace. To make amends to those we may have slighted in the past year; to those who may have slighted us. To talk with the people we love just because we love them. To be nice. Just to be nice. There's a concept. Maybe if we all took a moment to think about how we'd like to be treated, we would find ourselves treating others the same way. It's a small step, but an important one. A Please here, and a Thank You there. You're Welcome is good, too, though My pleasure, is better. Hold a door open for someone; let someone with fewer packages get in line ahead of you. Lay off the horn. Don't speed. Smile. Be nice. Be at Peace. Merry Christmas world. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa. Merry Festivus. Happy Holidays. Peace. And so that's my wish for you and yours. Health. Happiness. Love. Peace. And, while I've said it over and over again, that I have my personal spiritual beliefs and they do not follow the teachings of any organized religion, every Christmas, no song makes me feel more peaceful, more happy, more at ease, more hopeful than this one.
And so, I'll end with O Holy Night, not because I am a religious man, but because I am a hopeful man, …
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new glorious morn
…a peaceful man, a contented man. And no one, for me, sings it better than my girl, JHud … Jennifer Hudson.
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Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Monday, December 23, 2019
PR 18 Ep 3: Ho Ho, Ho!
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We’re supposed to believe the designtestants woke up and found their penthouse decorated for Christmas, with Christian stopping by with a buffet? Um, okay? I mean, menorahs, fully decorated trees, ribbons, paper, garland, wreaths and ornament just popped in?
And poor Brittany was given the obvious line—“It looks like the holidays threw up in our living room”—and will clearly, dearly, pay for that later.
See, it’s not just Christmas, with Christian on a shelf; it’s the dreaded Unconventional Materials Challenge™, the one that makes some, and literally breaks others. Let’s rip …
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THE SAFES
—clockwise
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Chelsey used ribbon and pillowcases and leaves to make a pretty …safe … outfit. And she actually thought this was a top look. Oh dear.
Dayoung chose streamers, tinsel, glitter tree twigs and bows to make this Christmas Sprite. I love the ethereal quality to it.
Delvin started out with silver tin man wrapping paper but switched it up with an Abominable Snowman tree skirt and ribbon. Delvin is an up-and-coming courtier, y’all, and he does not do arts and crafts; clearly, cuz this stinks.
Geoffrey grabbed ribbon and wrapping paper and redeemed himself from Week 2 with this chic uptown look.
Marquise had immunity from last week’s win but took a risk with ribbon and tinsel to create his Tina Turner Christmas Look. This was a top look for me, but Safe for the judges.
Melanie gave us Mrs. Scarecrow Christmas with corn husks and ribbon. Cute, but bland, and not at all festive party.
Nancy used ribbons and a tree skirt for this chic look, with a jacket to boot; and a boot purse with lights!
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TOPS AND BOTTOMS
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ALAN
Alan is more interested in shrieking and playing than designing and winning, so he had no plan at all to get his materials; he just grabbed whatever he found and ended up with “a lot of nothing.” But he also reminded us that “your boy don’t come from much” so he has this, right?
Uh huh. Alan started with a green velvet tree skirt to make a green velvet skirt, and ShaVi wasted no time in calling it a dress for a “Laura Ingalls’ dinner party guest,” or a “Medieval Times does holiday” or maybe it was “Game of Thrones Red Wedding the day after.”
Alan thinks he can shade? Honey, ShaVi schooled you on both shade and design.
Day one and done, and Alan had nothing for his model to wear, and so he made a choice—blue ribbon and silver leaves and sheer insets and lopsided asymmetrical boobs—which y’all know Nina will love. Christian took one look and gave him a word of advice: “Focus.”
Alan’s model ends up showing a lot of boob—he seemed pleased to bring “titties on the runway”—and the sheer inset was so short there was a glimmer of the Fine China … a look and a line most PR fans will remember from the Peach days. And then to add insult to lopsided boobs ,Alan creates a Yeti Boot for the model to stomp the runway. The look on Christians’ face at the sight of the boots was priceless.
WHAT HE SAID
I went way out the box … I love it.
WHAT I SAID
The skirt is kinda fairy and elf, but the boobs and the boots are the worst choices ever.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Elaine nails it when she says, “if this were the Burning Man challenge, you’d be in the top three." And when Alan seems pleased, she adds, “But Burning Man doesn’t happen in December.” Nina hates all of Alan’s excuses week after week and says there’s nothing but ribbon and no construction. Brandon says Alan “spray-painted a bird and stuffed it on her breast” and added that there were no ideas and no taste. Karlie was simply stunned by the boobs.
SHAVI
ShaVi isn’t a fan of the holidays—he sips wine while the others grab goodies, which leads me to think we’d be great friends—but he likes making something out of something else; he once made a Emmy dress out of his Grandmother’s drapes, so he’ll either go great guns or Carol Burnett Show skit.
He chooses garland and red and gold velvet ribbon for a “dark, romantic, monochromatic” look. He painted the gold ribbon red, and created a corset, topped by a Cranberry Bra, over a floral poof skirt. The idea is fabulous until the cranberries wrinkle and shrink making it look like California Craisin Titties—something Alan might have liked. He scraps the berries and uses more garland floral, though Christian warns him to make sure the look isn’t bulky.
WHAT HE SAID
Even though it’s not my original vision, I’m happy with it.
WHAT I SAID
It screams festive fun holiday party, though my one quibble was that I might have liked another color in the mix.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Brandon had misgivings when he saw it behind the screen but fell in love when it walked. Nina loves the color and proportion, and the defined waist and the exuberance. Elaine called it a “couture piece … job well done” while guest judge actress Kiernan Shipka wanted to wear it.
VICTORIA
Victoria used the same strategy as Alan, which was grab everything, but then she was able to refine her “stuff” into an actual idea and a look on Day One.
She has pillowcases and cranberries wreaths for a shoulder detail and Christian warns her that it cannot look like the model has a wreath around her neck. But then he also worries that her unconventional materials—pillowcases—may appear too normal; luckily, even with a slight language barrier, Victoria takes his notes and runs with them.
WHAT SHE SAID
I can’t believe I pulled off an unconventional challenge.
WHAT I SAID
She listened and used bits and pieces of cranberries and leaves and ribbon, glued to the dress, for extra festivity. It wasn’t just a wreath on a pillowcase.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Karlie asks Victoria if she's in the top or the bottom, and she says she’s in the op, and then adds:
“I’m not confident person, but I have eyes.”
Indeed. Nina “loved” the dress with its texture, sexiness, dimension and drama. Kiernan called it’s “vibrant” and “eye-catching.” The other judges also liked it, but also said it was not the Best of the Best this week.
TYLER
Tyler called the run at the materials “worse than Black Friday at a K-Mart in Ohio.” Ouch, for Ohio, though …
He’s got ribbons and stars and ornaments that can be read as lace, but he’s also afraid of being called costume again. Christian assured him that last week’s look was costume-y because of the silhouette, so this week he needs to keep that in mind.
Sadly, somewhere along the way Tyler loses that thought and his mind. The stars are gone; the ornaments as lace are used sparingly, and all the ribbon he has left cane barely cover the model’s ‘ass’ets. He’s left with what he calls a “Freakum dress,” which, thanks to the producers and an onscreen explanation, I learned was “a sexy dress, usually worn to the club, to freak all the boys and make them want you.”
Yeah, I don’t think he hit that mark either.
WHAT HE SAID
I’m just glad I finished.
WHAT I SAID
It’s a gold and white sack; it’s awful. It won’t make the boys want you, it’ll make the boys want to run away from you.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Brandon said, “Call me conservative, but that is short” and added that it was “conceptually and technically” poor. Nina thinks Tyler is “cute and funny,” but the dress has “construction problems, fit problems” and it “reads [again] like a costume.” Karlie said it was “too short” and crossed a line. Kiernan thought it was a bad fit, had no shape and wasn’t at all creative.
SERGIO
Sergio likes the Unconventional Challenge because in his own work he uses up-cycled materials. Um … okay. But I don’t think that means baskets and wrapping paper like he took this week.
Yes, he grabbed a very large basket he’ll use at the bottom of a skirt utilizing a kind of a hoop skirt under it, with a wrapping paper dress. When someone calls it bell shaped, Marquise suggests adding bells to it—sabotage?—and Sergio goes for the idea. Seriously, it had bells in the skirt that jingled when it walked.
Christian likes the look but then Serg-ego comes out and says he doesn’t really need Christian’s approval. Ack; this guy. And when he gets the Call From Home, for a hot minute I think that’s the ominous clue and he’ll be going home?
WHAT HE SAID
She literally looks like a holiday dream.
WHAT I SAID
It’s chic, but the basket wasn’t used in a new way, and the wrapping paper, though meticulously sewn together, was just wrapping paper.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Kiernan loves a dress with a soundtrack and called it fun and flirty and wanted to wear it. But, as she said, if it came down to a choice between ShaVi’s look and Sergio’s dress, she’d prefer ShaVi’s. Karlie loved the exquisite tailoring and said it, oh yes she said it, “rang her bell.” Elaine called the tailoring “insane” while Brandon said Sergio was really feeling himself, though, as the viewers know, he feels himself all day long.
BRITTANY
Brittany got hit in the nose and spent the ten-minute-Grab-Your-Materials time stemming the blood loss, so she was left with a cranberry wreath and wrapping paper, and not a single idea, or way to make it work.
Still, she has a plan for some cranberry fringe and a way to use different papers to create a new pattern in a chevron design. Christian likes the idea, but warns her that it’s a lot, and she might not have enough time.
And she stumbles; she can’t do the chevron; she stumbles; she can’t do a full-on cranberry fringe. She ends up with a chevron bodice, a copper paper skirt, and sad little cranberry strings hanging from the top,
It’s a literal mess.
WHAT SHE SAID
I am absolutely mortified.
WHAT I SAID
Rightly so. It’s awful. It’s what I would do, with wrapping paper and a pitcher of margaritas.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Elaine is shocked that this is a Brittany look, while Brandon is scandalized by cranberry placement. Nina and Elaine like it, because, as Nina says, it’s the only part of the dress that moves. Brandon tells Brittany that even though she got bad materials, she’s better than this d-i-saster, and not to blame the paper because just down the runway is a flawless wrapping paper dress. Nina called the concept “OK,” but hated the stiffness of the too-tight skirt. Elaine says the look never moved beyond the wrapping paper aisle. Kiernan got the deciding vote in what Brandon dubbed Cranberry Armpits and said she, too, hated them.
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It comes down to Serg-ego and ShaVi for the top spot, and while I think ShaVi’s was a better unconventional look, and use of materials, the judges gave the top spot to Sergio.
As for the Bottoms, they are clearly Alan and Tyler. As for being in the Bottom, Brittany gets a pass this week, and so it comes down to bad taste Alan-tude or Tyler’s better, at least last week, tailoring.
Luckily, Bad Taste gets the fur covered boot and Alan goes home.
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Alan is gone and I’m glad. He’s that reality show contestant who isn’t there for the competition, but just to be on TV. I mean, he wasn’t very good, but he was loud and laughable and show-y. And now he’s gone. Good.
I was . Her ribbon dress and coat was stunning. But I wondered where the ornaments she spent so much time smashing went to until I remembered …
Last week Nancy noted that Delvin wasn't helping Dayoung complete her design while others were, so maybe she used the hammer and ornaments to make him a little on edge?
I, for one, don’t hate the idea.
Sergio? Ick. His ego, and his obvious dislike for Christian is annoying. Every week, Sergio dismissed Christian’s critiques, but this week was the nastiest when he said, "I don’t really need Christian’s advice on this one because I’m honestly in love with my design. The judges are going to gag when they see this."
I am so waiting for it all to come to a head, and for Sergio to get the ego check he deserves … from Christian.
I loved Geoffrey coming out of his room on that first day with his “tits out” as he said.
LINE[S] OF THE NIGHT
Tyler—and he really is funny—shading Sergio’s win last week:
“Congrats to Sergio for getting through a streetwear challenge with a ballgown.”
Tyler doesn’t want to be a “salty bitch” but I live for it, and I want him sitting next to me while he does it.
Tyler, again, as he pondered his placement in this episode:
“It’s funny, usually I’m not mad about being on the bottom.”
Oh, gurl, we already knew that.
Geoffrey, on Alan’s look:
“I’m not really sure what party she’s going to, but she’s going to be on drugs.”
Drugs are what caused that outfit.
Tyler, yet again, after being torn apart by the judges:
You have roasted me like a Christmas ham, And I deserve it.”
Nina was right; he is funny.
Christian, as the designers head to the runway:
“I feel like there’s a lot that needs to be done … and glued.”
And thrown away, amirite?
So, who do I like? Nancy is interesting to me; and Marquis, too, both in looks and designs. ShaVi is stepping up, and so is Dayoung. Even Victoria, whom I thought would be the Language Barrier Joke, had some great ideas this week. Tyler is sinking; Melanie and Chelsey are fading; Sergio and Delvin need to get a room and et their egos battle it out. If Geoffrey settles, he could go far.
Next week: the designtestants go to Good Will to design a look for Karlie Kloss for a Council of Fashion Designers of America event.
And the fabulous Laverne Cox is the guest judge.
What did YOU think?
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