Episode Report Card Jeff Long: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Innovation
By Jeff Long | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 11.30.2004
Each week, the loser of the challenge will be eliminated from the show. The three remaining designers will present their collections at Olympus Fashion Week. Okay, I'd already be annoyed with the product placement if Heidi hadn't said the thing about cash being so important. It's a necessary evil -- not only for the TV show, but also for the designer to get his or her start.
One winner will be chosen from the three presented collections. The winner will receive a fashion spread in Elle, a mentorship with Banana Republic, and $100,000 to start his or her own fashion line. That's hardcore. I'm a little unclear on what the "mentorship" might include, but maybe they'll clear that up later. Starting credits roll. They mention Olympus Fashion Week again. Two and a half minutes -- three mentions. Okay, folks, let's ration.
After the credits, we see Mario Cadenas arriving at LaGuardia Airport. He's twenty-three years old and from Miami. "I never compromise my art," he tells us. It's a good thing he is whoring his uncompromised art on a subsidiary of NBC. They never compromise art. Just witness Joey for confirmation. We see a sketch of one of his creations. It's a Cruella DeVil-style evening gown. An odd touch to the sketch is the long mane of red hair covering a good third of the neckline of the gown. Wait, this is a paper doll! There are tabs and the face is cut out. Does Mario make paper dolls? They then show another gown on an actual person. It's a black halter-style gown with slits up both thighs. The girl wearing it in the picture is impossibly thin, and the gown kind of hangs off her, so I can't really tell what the silhouette is supposed to be. As well, she's standing in a thatched hut and has flowers in her hair and I'm confused by the art direction. Not a good first impression.
Next up is Nora Calguri, a twenty-one-year-old Pratt graduate from Cheshire, Connecticut. Now she looks like Todd Oldham. Cute as a button. She won "best collection" two years in a row at Pratt. The photos of her work are super-modern. Like her, her designs are sort of androgynous, with shrouds and pod-like garments. I'll bet she is very influenced by Japanese culture. That's just a guess, though. Some of it reminds me of the Prada Sport stuff from like four years ago. Or, Yohji Yamamoto. Anyway, it's pretty awesome that she won that award twice.
The foppish guy from the auditions gets out of a taxi. His name is Austin Scarlett, he's twenty-three, and he is from New York. ["Let me just say for the record: I LOVE AUSTIN." -- Wing Chun] Austin's dressed sort of like a cross between Quentin Crisp and Julie Andrews. He's a walking billboard for MAC cosmetics, too: he is fully slathered in makeup. To each his own, but...damn, that's a lot of makeup. Austin announces via voice-over that he has always loved fashion. Photos of his previous creations appear. They are remarkable. He clearly loves romance and glamour. The gowns have a kind of French burlesque look to them -- lots of frill and corseting. They're pretty hot. Austin tells us he tried to be normal in high school. Poor guy. Next to Austin Scarlett, I'm an All-State tennis player, first seed. Not that I'm bitter or anything.