LJ Runway Monday Challenge, Week 10

On Bravo’s Project Runway, contestants were asked to design an outfit transforming recent college graduates into career women. The designers had to please not only the young women who were their clients, but also the women’s mothers.

Heidi Gunn asked the Runway Monday designers to show the judges what our models would be doing if they weren’t models. When Summer was discovered by Mattel, she was a college student with a double major in broadcast journalism and political science. When I asked why she picked those fields, she said she’d always been inspired by Barbara Walters’ interviews with world leaders including U.S. presidents, Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Russia’s Boris Yeltsin, China’s Jiang Zemin, the UK’s Margaret Thatcher, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, India’s Indira Gandhi, and King Hussein of Jordan.

As Summer said, “A good TV interviewer wears clothes that make her look professional and attractive, but her clothes shouldn’t draw attention away from the person she’s questioning. The interviewer isn’t the story.”

Summer on the job

Button Sunday

Last night I uploaded my Hurricane Ike photos to share with you, and I realized that almost all of them are of broken and felled trees. It’s not that I don’t care about the damage to structures; I do. I feel compassion for people who’ve lost their homes or are dealing with roofs, leaks, flooding, and broken masonry, fences, and hearts. But I think the truly dramatic photos that capture human suffering are taken by far better photographers and are available to anyone online and on television.

Also, I just love trees. I love their grandeur. I love thinking of how they’ve been around longer than us and will be standing when we’re gone. I love the music they make when the wind blows through them. The shade they provide us–and often their bounty of nuts and fruits. The home and playground they provide to wild things. Some of the best memories of my life are of playing under trees, climbing them, and walking through them in forests.

The day before Ike came, I took some photos outside. I stared up into my elm at all the nests, unsure if they were birds’ or squirrels’ nests. I watched the doves and jays and cardinals–the pigeons and grackles that other people dislike, but I rather admire–and all the little birds whose names I don’t know, and wondered how they would fare.

After Ike, with the elm split in two and many of its branches gone, the nests are gone, too. I haven’t awakened to the sound of the mourning doves for over a week now. Today a power company crew took our tree down. I know it had to go. It was broken, and sooner or later it would fall. We’ll plant again, of course, but I will miss my pretty elm, and I know the birds and squirrels will miss it, too.

As I told Tim a few days ago, he and James have taught me to make peace with pruning because it’s necessary for new growth, so I will think of Ike as Nature pruning herself. Still, I think the loss of old friends always deserves to be noticed.

the Ike photos

Your designers at work

As if giving our visiting fellow Runway Monday designer Mark G. Harris a hurricane wasn’t enough, Timothy and I also offered to take him to the fabric mecca of Houston: High Fashion downtown. After determining on Thursday that they were open for the first time since Ike blew through, your hardworking designers immediately siphoned gas from a neighbor’s vehicle jumped into the car for the adventure of shopping in a store that sustained hurricane damage. Water-saturated bolts of fabric were stacked throughout the sales floor waiting for the insurance adjuster, and men on ladders tore out pieces of the wet ceiling overhead, but we just shopped around the mess, doing our bit for the local economy. Although, um, when it comes to High Fashion, “economy” is not exactly the word of the day.


Why yes, that price does indicate that the fabric is $179 a yard.
Nothing’s too good for the Runway Monday viewers, right?

Want to see more? Then click here!

THANK YOU!

Summer’s design won the last challenge. Thank you to all the judges and especially to my fellow designers, not only for what I thought were great designs but for not sabotaging my design when it was in the top-secret, secured location during Hurricane Ike. We all sewed under bizarre circumstances that delayed the Runway, but the sun is shining now, and we’re ready to face a new design challenge.

On a related note, our guest judge, Charles, was driven from his home by hurricane damage. I hope you’re able to get back home as quickly as possible, and I’m glad you’re okay even though your property sustained damage.

LJ Runway Monday Challenge, Week 9

On Bravo’s previous Project Runway, former contestants were brought back to team up with the remaining designers. Each team had to create a look using one of their astrological signs.

Heidi Gunn asked the Runway Monday designers to use the astrological signs of their models. Born on August 5, Summer is a Leo. According to Astrology Online, Leos are ambitious, courageous, dominant, strong willed, positive, independent, and self-confident. They are the LIONS of the zodiac, and there is no such word as doubt in their vocabularies. They are born leaders, whether in support of, or in revolt against, the status quo.

Did I design correctly for my lion?

Materials: End of summer/into fall sunny orange satin, copper glitter, and coppery-brown trim
Inspiration: As if the Lion wasn’t enough inspiration, Summer has always reminded me of the original kitten with a whip, Ann-Margret. For this design, I decided to let couture meet Vegas.

Ruled by the sun, fiery Leo strides into any room with confidence and is unafraid to command attention.

This season, celebrities have been finding new ways to update jumpsuits, and Summer is no exception. Her orange satin jumpsuit is trimmed to mimic a lion. Although she has her own beautiful mane, I added a touch of lion mane around her throat and in her hair. A closer look:

Leos are known for loving drama and are willing to create a stir.

Your heart may break if a Leo puts you behind her, but at least the view will be good.

Leos could have been the reason the phrase “bold and beautiful” was created, because they are–from head to toe.

Kitten? Lion? Lion tamer? Leo is whoever she wants to be.

You can see Timothy’s design for Nikki here, and Mark G. Harris’s design for Figaro here. Tomorrow, you can read what the judges have to say about the designs in Heidi Gunn’s comments. Feel free to share your own thoughts about the designs in comments to any of those posts.

And if you’re interested in my previous designs:

Week 8: A Foreign Affair
Week 7: Drive It or Wear It
Week 6: It’s a Drag! I won!
Week 5: Lipstick Jungle
Week 4: Olympic Gold
Week 3: New Orleans Inspiration
Week 2: Going Green I won!
Week 1: Grocery Store

And more waiting…

I’m going to get back to sewing now. Everything we can do is done. Lynne assures me that all is ready out at Green Acres. (Hard not to remember how it was our refuge during Hurricane Rita–so much has changed since then.) Denece assures me that all is well out at the Democrats’ Den. (I forgot to tell her a crazy dream I had about being at her house–I’ll save that for our next conversation.) All is well at RubinSmo Manor with The Brides and Sugar.

Here at The Compound, the sun just began to shine again after the sky had been overcast for a couple of hours. We’ve had some breezes, but the wind hasn’t reached us yet. Windows are taped here and at the TimLair. We’re filling up our tubs now. Batteries are in the radios and flashlights.

I promise, I’ll update as I can. For now, you should know that the first hideous sign of Hurricane Ike has arrived. He’s sent out his flying sock monkeys, and they are devouring me from the feet up. SCARY!