Who goes there? Please leave comments so (An Aries Knows)!
On Bravo’s Project Runway, contestants took cameras to New York Botanical Garden, where they shot photos as inspiration for evening gowns for their models.
Heidi Gunn asked the Runway Monday contestants to do likewise. Here’s the photo I chose, from a field trip I took last year in Houston.
Pssst, Figaro. I don’t think you’ll fool the paparazzi by dressing out of Nikki’s closet to go shopping.
Thanks also to producer Heidi Gunn, all the judges (including TWO guest judges this week!), and everybody who plays along and gives praise and snark about our designs. We’re in the final weeks of LJ Runway Monday, and it’s still fun.
See you on the runway!
On Bravo’s Project Runway, contestants were asked to design an outfit in a particular musical genre for their fellow designers.
Because no one on this planet is ever taking my measurements, I was relieved when Heidi Gunn asked the Runway Monday designers to switch models and pick a musical style for them. I was lucky enough to get Nikki–
Nikki: Damn right.
–and my genre is country music.
Nikki: What?
It hasn’t escaped my attention that many of country music’s female stars don’t really dress “country” anymore. Most of the time, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, the Dixie Chicks, and even more traditional country singers like Dolly and Reba, are red-carpet-ready. I wanted to borrow a little of their shimmer, but also give my design some country and western flavor.
Nikki: I’m allergic to grease. And gingham.
Kudos also to Mark for another great design, and thanks to all the judges and Heidi Gunn for the praise and the snark.
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.”
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.
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.
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
Although a LJ glitch is keeping me from seeing the post, you can click this link to see the final comments of the judges on the three designs and the announcement of who won Challenge 8 of LJ Runway Monday.
Congratulations, Mark G. Harris, for your win with an innovative design for Figaro!
Congratulations also to Timothy J. Lambert for your stunning design for Nikki!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a model to console. Not only did my design cost Summer a win, but my fabric choice permanently discolored her. She’s not having a good day.
Maybe if I give her the judges’ home addresses…
