Reality Ravings

Tonight the challenge was to design for a fashion and pop icon. Speculation mounted was it Madonna, Britany 'she needs some help', or Snow White. Now that would be interesting you can just see Heidi Klum saying "bring an old fashioned fairy tale into the 21st century without changing the essence of her character".

Speaking of Heidi does she have the best job in the world? Turn up at the beginning to announce what the challenge is, and then turn up at the runway show at the end. Tim Gunn is the one who has to try and remain immaculate until the end of the evening to shut up the institute, plus pop in a few times in the day to announce the surprises or critique the early prototypes on the designs.

Anyway the fashion icon was Sarah Jessica Parker, which completely overwhelmed Chris March because "that is why I moved to New York because of Sex in The City". Wasn't Sex about four girls looking for love and looking fabulous? Anyway he must have connected with it.

The challenge was to create a two piece look for her label Bitten. However it had to be affordable, and retail for $40. Which meant they could only spend $15 on material. Clearly no labor costs were taken into account in the final costing, unless they use some seriously illegal sweat shops to manufacture Bitten clothes.

They had 30 minutes to develop the design then present it to SJP, who would then pick seven of the designers to make it. Those seven would then have to pick one other contestant to assist them.

The pairings ended up being:
Lisa and Sweet P
Kit and Chris
Victorya and Kevin
Marion and Steven
Ricky and Jack
Christian and Carmen
Rami and Gillian.

At this point I thought are they going to eliminate two people, or was it going to be a blessing not being picked by SJP as you cannot really cull the helper.

They had $15 and 30 minutes to buy material at Mood Design Fabrics and eight hours to sew it.

Sweet P freaked out being picked to be Elisa' partner, no reassurance was provided to Sweet P when Elisa started spitting on the fabric to mark it out. She must be able to spit through the eye of needle to get it accurate.

Also apparently Elisa does not know how to use a sewing machine. So if she wins are the labor costs of handsewing the garment taken into account?

Marion was having difficulty finishing his. His partner Steven was extremely dubious about the whole concept. Steve is into classic looks, whereas this was pretty shaggy or as Michael Kors described it Poquahontas look was always going to be trouble.

Ricky just kept crying.

Tim Gunn warned Christian that it looked a bit too retro, Christian with the arrogance of youth dismissed his advice.

It was judgement time - the judges Michael Kors, Nina Garcia (will she be on next season since she has been fired from Elle magazine?), Sarah-Jessica, and the inscrutable Heidi.

Some of the teams had difficulty with the concept of designing an outfit for a wide range of sizes.

Four teams were left standing the two highest scores and the two lowest scores.

Victorya and Kevin - Her design was an above the knee black dress with a snazzy waist coat over the top. SJP said "I think you did a really good job" and Nina said "Charming a lot of people can wear it."

Marion and Steven - this outfit was a train wreck, Kate Moss couldn't make it look good. Nina said "Proportions very awkward" and Heidi said "I don't get it - looks like a rag."

Lisa and Sweet P this was my favourite, a blue dress with a cape draped over it. It was stunning she may be kooky but wow. SJP said "Sexy" It just looked money.

Christian was an aqua blue dress with a black/grey patterned jacket over the top. Michael Kors said "Design of jacket to ambitious" "too retro and won't fit a lot of people".

At this point Christian went on the offensive and said "I just want to hear what SJP has to say." (pout).
Well he got no positive reinforcement there. She said "Stronger colour - more severe in person then paper".

Victorya won the challenge and her design would be in the fall collection of Bittan.

Then the two lowest scorers were there. The judges asking each of the them which of their pairing should go home. The helpers quite rightly said the team leaders, which the judges agreed with. After Christian was told he needed to be more accessible Marian was swiftly eliminated.