TEAM MONDO
Mondo has what I think of as two bets for The Tents in Sam and Asha, but they are both so different that he really needed to push them a bit this week, but kind of held back.
SAM—Norah
Sam’s client wants a body conscious, colorful dress that can go from day-to-night. Now, I don’t think Sam has done much in the Body Con Realm, so he seems a bit worried., But he does tell her that she’s “gonna get some color.”
At Mood, though, he goes for grays, and by goes, I mean struggles and struggles to pull a bolt of fabric from the shelf until — as he says, “a much stronger” — girl comes to help. Back at the workroom, he attempts another painted fabric technique on a gray textile that Mondo equates to a World War II battlefield nurse’s uniform splattered in blood.
Not a good look, even in WWII.
So, Sam scraps the entire look and goes in another direction, with other fabrics — also gray; I kept wondering if I heard wrong, but I swear both Norah and Sam talked color. Oscar calls it when he says Sam’s look looks "sad."
WHAT HE SAID
I’m ecstatic about my look. It’s absolutely fantastic. Norah looks great in it and she’s working it out.
WHAT I SAID
I am not a fan of the sleeves, which just seem too oddly large, and, again, where’s the color? I think some color might have saved this.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Guest judge, from Benefit Cosmetics, Annie Ford Danielson, doesn’t actually comment on the dress, but makes a Benefit pitch by saying their cosmetics line is about how you feel, and she thinks Norah feels good. [To be fair, Norah did like the look.] Jen Rade liked the nipped in waist, but said it was boardroom to boring. Zanna Roberts Rassi said she would never use that dress in a fashion spread for Marie Claire — which, again to be fair, wasn’t the challenge — and loved the paneling but missed the Wow! She said she’d seen it a hundred times before. Rachel Roy thought it too playful for the boardroom, and not sexy enough for the bar.
ASHA—Erin
Erin has lost fifty pounds and wants a dress to show off her new curves; plus, she has a birthday coming up and wants to celebrate with a new look. Asha says she’ll ‘Beyoncé’ the girl.
At the critique Mondo quashes every idea Asha presents: don’t make it too short or it’ll look cheap … lose the idea of a midriff cutout … less bling … dear god, less bling.
Asha gets lost in it because she cannot think of a way to give the client what she wants without making a look Mondo is sure would be messy.
WHAT SHE SAID
My model is, like, giving everybody life. She looks absolutely beautiful. This is my favorite runway ever.
WHAT I SAID
I don’t like the fabric; I don’t like the way it bunches up; I loathe the color, but Erin really brought the Beyoncé sashay!
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Annie Ford Danielson continued the benefits Cosmetics ad, and didn’t really comment of the clothes. Zanna liked that the client liked the look — which isn’t really a compliment to the designer — and Rachel Roy loved the body hugging look but called out the bad construction. Jen Rade also noted the consistently bad construction from Asha but liked that Asha had some good ideas.
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