Who goes there? Please leave comments so (An Aries Knows)!
The challenge for week five of Bravo TV’s Project Runway was to find a design that would take Brooke Shields’ character, Wendy Healy, of NBC’s Lipstick Jungle, from being a high-powered movie executive by day, to socializing with her husband at night.
LJ Runway Monday’s Heidi Gunn gave designers Timothy J. Lambert, Mark G. Harris, and me–Becks!–the same challenge. And now the judges will decide…
The other night when I was going out to Green Acres for a sewathon with Tim, he decided he wouldn’t wait for me before he ate, because “you never know what may happen on the road.” I’m sure he was talking about traffic, and not my tendency to get sidetracked if I have a camera with me.
But indeed, I did, and here’s what caught my eye at the Baby River Oaks theater.
….it’s time to say happy birthday to my favorite…
…Mark G. Harris!
All this talk of sewing and such reminds me of a conversation my sister and I had with my mother when she (Mother) was in Shady Pines, Version 3.1. Someone with Alzheimer’s often doesn’t know where she is, but events that took place decades ago are as clear as if they just happened.
Out of the blue, Mother to Debby: Do you remember that skirt?
Debby: What skirt?
Mother: The black and white skirt I made when we moved to Ft. Benning.
Debby: No, I don’t think I remember that skirt.
Mother: I loved that skirt.
Me: I remember that skirt.
Mother (happily): You do?
Debby (doubtfully): You DO?
Me: I remember that skirt because I hid behind it when people spoke to me. I felt safe.
I knew to keep my explanation simple, but I remember that skirt for another reason: I used it in Three Fortunes in One Cookie.
My mother took me to the doctor one day, but she had no license then, so someone drove us. I’m not sure who, but either before or after the appointment, it must have been that person who took our photo. I can still feel the warmth of the sun, and hear the sound the skirt made when the breeze whipped it around my mother’s legs. I wasn’t afraid of doctors or hospitals by that time; still, my mother was, as always, a sustaining presence.
The scene was much different from the one I wrote in 3F for Phillip and his least favorite aunt, but the skirt whipped by the wind, and the happiness of the memory, was the same.
On Bravo’s Project Runway, the contestants were challenged to create a women’s wear look for an athlete to wear during the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics. The design should project the image of the U.S. to the world and make the athlete feel proud to represent her country.
LJ’s Heidi Gunn gave the Runway Monday designers the same challenge.
I don’t know what time it is in your part of the world, but here in the Central Time Zone, it’s just after midnight of August 11, and that can mean only one thing.
A NOLA MULE IS ON THE MOVE to be the first to wish Marika the happiest of birthdays!
Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air–moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh–felt as if it were being exhaled into one’s face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing. Honeysuckle, swamp flowers, magnolia, and the mystery smell of the river scented the atmosphere, amplifying the intrusion of organic sleaze. It was aphrodisiac and repressive, soft and violent at the same time. In New Orleans, in the French Quarter, miles from the barking lungs of alligators, the air maintained this quality of breath, although here it acquired a tinge of metallic halitosis, due to fumes expelled by tourist buses, trucks delivering Dixie beer, and, on Decatur Street, a mass-transit motor coach named Desire.
It’s a party!
While in New Orleans for a Vanity Fair shoot, Summer was invited to a party taking place next month at the Queen Anne Ballroom in the city’s Hotel Monteleone, famous for its literary associations. Rumor has it that an editor from a New York publishing house will also be there. Summer’s been working on a behind-the-scenes tell-all about the models of LJ Runway Monday, but she knows everybody corners editors at parties with their book ideas.
“I need to lure him to me,” she explained when she called her favorite designer, Becks. “Then ensnare him!”
“You sound like a spider,” Becks said, but agreed to meet Summer near Jackson Square to discuss design ideas. While walking to the Café Du Monde for a beignet and café au lait (Becks) and bottled water (Summer), Becks saw this sign.
Photo copyright JennAn idea was born. And as an editor might say, “Then what happened?”
Summer and I won the second week’s challenge of LJ Runway Monday! I’d like to thank judges Michelle Hors, Miranda Priestly, and TJBTimmy, boss-of-us Heidi Gunn, the other designers, Mattel Top Model Figarunt for behaving so badly, Mattel Top Model Nikki for breaking her hip, and all the people who read and commented.
I’m that much closer to the $100,000!
What? There’s no money involved?
Dang.
Figaro models Mark G. Harris‘s design.
Nikki models Timothy J. Lambert‘s design.
In our other lives, we are all writers.
You can read what the judges had to say right here.
This week on Bravo, the Project Runway designers were challenged to design a cocktail dress with their models as their clients. Their task was to use green textiles; that is, textiles that are environmentally responsible: no synthetics, no poisonous dyes and that, when appropriate, were organically-grown. The other part of the challenge was that the models, not the designers, went to Mood to pick out the fabrics. EEK!
If you think the PR designers were a little freaked, imagine the reactions of the Runway Monday designers, Mark G. Harris, Teej, and me–our models are made of PLASTIC. What do they know about green?
My fears seemed justified when Summer presented me with:
dark green satin and a bundle of raffia ribbon. RAFFIA?
I could have thrown the raffia in the trash, but since Summer picked it and I was designing for her, I simply considered it another part of my challenge. I envisioned her attending a Manhattan cocktail party hosted by Al “King of Green” Gore and his wife, Tipper, to honor several dignitaries from Madagascar, the Philippines, Cameroon, and Nigeria, where the raffia palm grows and is an important part of the countries’ cultures.
When Summer mentioned Grace Kelly as one of her fashion icons, I knew immediately how I wanted to dress her. Her instinct about fabric color that would contrast with yet complement her hair and skin was good. My design evokes 1940s understated glamor with its scooped neck, cap sleeves, and peplum waist over a three-paneled pencil skirt. Using the organic raffia ribbon–with a little drama in the back–to cinch the waist and to accent Summer’s shoes brings the design a twenty-first century global sensibility.
