| Season AS3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 01.02.2014
Alyssa comes out with a bow tie draped over her neck. I like that look, but it's usually reserved for people who were legitimately wearing the bow tie earlier in the evening. She has the designers recap who's won how many challenges: Christopher and Elena have each won one, Korto's won two, and Seth Aaron hasn't won any. That doesn't go anywhere, so we move on to the week's challenge, which is Ready To Wear. The client is a fashion house based in the Garment District of New York: Michelle Smith and her label Milly. This excited Elena, because Milly has a lot of bright colors. They'll be using Michelle's custom fabrics and making something that will be sold for $400. They get two days, for once.
The designers walk through the Garment District (past a sign that labels it the Fashion District) to the Milly offices, where they meet Michelle Smith. She uses the words "urban" and "tribal" before reminding the designers that the Milly line is "feminine, with an edge." And their sketches will need to be approved by the CEO, which is a rare note of realism on this show.
The four designers are let loose into the production room, where people are trying to work. Korto goes for a very colorful print, surprising no one. Christopher picks out a vegan stretch leather. Seth Aaron is excited about what he describes as a "stop-sign-ish fabric," although it's black and white, not red. And the polygons are hexagons, not octagons. I'm not sure he knows what a stop sign looks like. Elena pulls some neon yellow nonsense, because that's who she is. She's very into the Milly aesthetic
It's time to start sketching, and I'm so sick of racerback dresses. Sorry, Korto, but they were so overdone last season. I really like Christopher's sketch. I'm so-so on the dress, but he's done some really interesting shading. And if he did the face that's on the sketch, I like that he took the time to do it. Well, there's an eye missing, but still. It looks cool. He's doing a tribal print chiffon skirt, which sound crazy. Elena is doing a look that looks just like all her other looks.
Andrew Oshrin is the CEO of Milly, and the designers have to get his approval. He rejects Seth Aaron's zipper, allows small amounts of leather for Elena, has no objection to Christopher, and makes Korto reduce the length of her chiffon maxi-dress. Executive meddling!
Back to the workroom. Elena starts freaking out before anything even happens. Come on, lady. Korto is a little worried about having only two yards of fabric, because it means she has to absolutely commit to every cut she makes. Christopher is skeptical about Elena's white dress, but I'm sure she'll add some colors at some point. He's decided to make his dress into two separate pieces so he can have zippers in different places. Seth Aaron is doing a cocktail dress with a lot of chevrons on it. And suddenly! Elena announces that she has ripped her leather, right at the shoulder. She shrieks and buries her head, because that's how she deals with things.
| Season AS3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 01.02.2014
After a commercial, people come over to gawk at her pain. It's basically the end of the day, so Elena just gives up and hopes to come up with a new plan overnight.
The day begins immediately, and Elena has a plan: she's making a new dress. Christopher is delighted by how crazy this is. The new dress will be like the old one, but with a raglan sleeve, which should allow her to make it a little looser. Korto thinks it's kind of crazy to make a new dress when the whole point is that the old dress is the one that got approved.
Zanna's here! And she brought Michelle Smith, who's naturally very interested. Seth Aaron's dress looks awful to me, but Michelle likes it. There's a tech-mesh underskirt, and he might end up just making the underskirt the skirt. As soon as Zanna and Michelle leave, Seth Aaron decides that instead of deciding between polka-dot and white, he'll just do both. That's the hallmark of fashion, right? Just throwing all your ideas into every garment? Elena has to describe her plans, because the garment she's working on isn't ready yet. Zanna immediately rejects the raglan sleeves. Korto's dress gets questioned by Michelle. Although she likes each individual fabric (which she designed), the mix doesn't work. It's two busy prints, and they clash. Christopher is , and he is dismayed to learn that making two pieces costs more than a single dress, so he has to do the thing that actually got approved.
Zanna and Michelle leave, and there's a frenzy of sewing and cutting. Christopher is still in love with his idea of having both a back zipper and a side zipper, so he asks Elena if any of her dresses have that (no) or if she's at least heard of it being done somewhere (also no). Elena and Seth Aaron try to explain to Christopher that doubling the zippers will double the cost.
The models are here, and Christopher is delighted at the opportunity to actually test his fit and draping. It seems that his process requires a lot of testing. Seth Aaron, however, nailed his fit perfectly. Korto likes the layout of her prints. Elena claims her dress looks amazing, but it does not. Christopher observes that the shoulders look "like big ears. Like elf ears." He is correct.
The models leave again and suddenly there are only thirty minutes left. Christopher can't decide how to put in a zipper, and Korto thinks it's too late in the competition to be asking each other for help. Everyone leaves, and this is the second straight episode of hardly anybody talking in the workroom. My theory is that they've crunched the time so much that everyone has to spend their time cutting and sewing, rather than sniping at each other. Loosen the time constraints a little, and there's more room for entertainment to happen.
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| Season AS3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 01.02.2014
The morning, Christopher is scurrying around in a rush. Everyone else is kind of rolling their eyes at him, because they had two days to do this. He doesn't like the fit of the chiffon skirt, and he tries several times. Hair and makeup take up more time than usual, because this is one of the episodes where the sponsors paid for extra time. Seth Aaron is bragging about how he pressed his dress into the costumey realm. There's a quick round of people insulting their competitors' garments in interviews, but nothing is clever or vicious enough to mention. And then everyone leaves, because it's time to go to the runway.
It's also time to arrive at the runway. Alyssa presents the judges. Georgina Chapman is back, along with her contractually obligated list of products. Isaac Mizrahi is also here, and then we move to the guests: Kristin Chenoweth (!), Nick Cannon (?), and Michelle Smith (obviously). Let's go!
Christopher's dress does not fit his model's torso at all. The skirt looks okay, though. He claims it's divine. Seth Aaron's dress looks crazy and has random cutouts on the back. Korto's dress is a casually draped dress with crazy prints going in every direction. Elena's dress is white and yellow and looks crazy. I don't like any of these dresses, especially for $400.
But I'm not in charge, so let's get on with it. Elena shows that she has a yellow neon lining. Isaac loves it. Kristen and Nick seem to like it, but they're cut down to one sentence each. Michelle says she could see it in her collection. Georgina wishes the zipper down the middle had been white. Nick likes the zipper because it shows him how to get the clothes off the woman. Oh, lord. Moving on.
Christopher seems to be getting away with his skirt, but Isaac doesn't like the drapery of the bodice. Kristen thinks the exposed shoulders are sexy, and she appreciates that you could wear a bra with it. Georgina gets philosophical and claims she doesn't know who Christopher is as a designer. Maybe if you hadn't taken the last half-dozen shows off, you would.
Alyssa says she really likes Korto's dress, and Georgina likes the back. So does Isaac, because they're not as bored with racerbacks as I am. Seth Aaron spits a bunch of random adjectives, and Michelle says she likes everything but the pink ruffle. Nick liked the pink. Kristen wants to know if she can have it. Alyssa asks if she saw nipple, and Seth Aaron insists that she didn't. Michelle thinks it's "a great dress for a special occasion," which means it's not commercial.
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| Season AS3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 01.02.2014
Everyone goes to the back room and Elena speculates that all four of them could make it. The judges seemed to like everything. Their deliberations bear this out; as soon as someone says they didn't like one thing, someone else defends it.
The designers come back out. Michelle announce that the winner is...Seth Aaron! He's guaranteed to be in week's finale. That's week already? Yay! Anyway, Elena is safe. That leaves Christopher and Korto. And we're only at the 49-minute mark. So it's time for a swerve! They get a last-minute reprieve, but they have to fight for the last slot. Each of them will get to pick three of their outfits and "remix" them into a new outfit. There's one hour for this, which Christopher thinks is about enough time for a zipper. And not only that but they're doing it on the runway itself.
So with underwear-clad models standing to them, they begin. Christopher cuts down his red carpet gown and Korto cuts up her Bonnie and Clyde jacket. Christopher says his goal is to show the judges that he's versatile, but I think that's exactly wrong. They were just saying they don't have a sense of him as a designer, so what he should really be doing is showing that he has a consistent aesthetic. This whole segment takes maybe three minutes of television time, and we should have seen a lot more of it. I like the shot of Seth Aaron and Elena trapped in the back room, having no idea what's going on.
Korto made a skirt out of her men's pants and used boning from the insect challenge. Christopher took a belt and a clutch from Bonnie and Clyde and basically just stole fabric from his punk challenge. Isaac likes the visible zipper on Korto and is willing to cut her a ton of slack for doing it in an hour. He also likes a see-through panel on Christopher's skirt. Alyssa briefly speaks fondly of shoulderpads. We seem to be down to the core judges: Alyssa, Georgina, and Isaac. They have nothing but nice things to say, making this kind of a waste of time. The judges will now vote on cards, each of them writing down a name. Alyssa tabulates the votes, Probst-style. The designer who's going through is...Korto! Christopher's out.
Follow Monty on Twitter at @monty_ashley and read his blog, Mysterious Exhortations.
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