Katherine Gerdes

Episode 9: Couture Du Jour

9 September, 12:45 - thus far 9 insightful comments have been made

“Holy crap”… that was my first thought at hearing what this challenge was. My next thought (and it lasted for the full hour) was “impossible.” I know that Project Runway has thrown some seemingly impossible challenges to the designers before (wedding dress challenge anyone?), but this is beyond ridiculous! Before I go further, I just want to state that I love the thought of this challenge. To design an Haute Couture dress is not something most of the PR designers have ever done and it’s a great challenge to really make them think outside their design “box.”

Okay…now back to how impossible this challenge is! I can completely see the designers being able to make something that looks couture, but to be judged on the hand-executed details and finishing is almost too much for even Project Runway to ask of a designer. Just designing and constructing an evening gown in 2 days is a task in itself (I assume that’s why there were teams for the Ms. USA challenge?), but to make them hand finish all the details, whew! That’s a lot to ask. I will honestly say that I don’t know how I would have fared had I been around for this challenge. I almost had a nervous breakdown just watching and thinking about this challenge! Just kidding…but seriously, this is so beyond anything I’m used to designing, I think I would have freaked out a bit. Oh well, guess I’ll see how I fare when I tackle this challenge for my “AUF’d Runway” episode, but that will have to wait until I return from fashion week next week! How exciting is that? I can’t wait to see the other designers and watch the final fashion shows! Oh…and I can’t wait for the reunion episode either, I’ve got a few questions for someone, but I’ll get to that later…

Oh yeah… I almost forgot, in case anyone is interested, here’s a brief explanation of what “Haute Couture” is (Thanks to Wikipedia for the info, check it out for a more in depth description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_couture): Haute couture is basically French for “high dressmaking.” It is custom made, one of a kind garments that are made out of expensive fabric and have extreme attention to finishes and details, all of which are mostly hand sewn. Technically, fashion houses that call themselves “haute couture” have to abide by a law in France that requires them to meet and follow some rules. The rules are that a minimum of 15 people must be employed and the house must show a collection (minimum 35 garments) in Paris each season. Because of this law, only fashion houses in France can technically be considered haute couture and as of Spring 2006, there are only 10 official haute couture houses.

Okay, so that’s all the technical mumbo-jumbo about haute couture, but in recent years, haute couture has taken on a more liberal meaning (no… I’m not getting political here!). Nowadays, many people in the fashion industry tend to view couture as anything that’s not a read-to-wear line (RTW). RTW means exactly that, it is made ready for someone to wear and/or mass-produce. It’s not a custom design and it’s not intended to be hand made. Even as I write this, I think the line between RTW and couture are always blending and changing. Just thought I’d try to explain it somewhat in a simple way… hopefully it helps! (Disclaimer: I am not a dictionary. Please don’t get mad at me if I got something slightly wrong! This is just what I’ve read, what I was taught, etc…) Okay, on to the good stuff:

Jeffery (WNNER): For those of you who think I’m not being fair to Jeffery because I don’t like him personally, I hope you believe me when I say I’m trying to not be biased. I didn’t think he should win last week because I didn’t think his outfit was the best. Feel free to disagree with me, but I am honestly trying to not be biased because of my feelings towards a particular designer or not… That said, I think Jeffery completely deserved the win this week! I’ve heard a lot of people say they hated his dress or that it looked like a picnic table cover, but in terms of what worked best as “Haute Couture,” I think his dress hands down took the cake. It was innovative and fresh and it was not expected. If you didn’t “get it” then don’t feel bad…I don’t “get” most couture! It’s also not meant to be something most people would ever wear. If that was the challenge, then I think Uli should have won, but the challenge was couture and a lot of times when you see couture, you say “I would never wear that!” Ever seen some of Galliano’s stuff? You know what I’m talking about. Wait wait wait… I’m not bashing him in any way! I’m just saying that you wouldn’t want to wear most of his stuff walking down the street or going to a nice dinner, that’s all (he happens to be one of my favorites). I think in the case of haute couture, the garment is generally supposed to be admired and respected for its creativity, beauty and construction, not how wearable it is. Anyways… bravo to Jeffery. I thought he did a fantastic job.

Kayne: In the beginning of the episode, I agreed with Tim and didn’t understand what Kayne was thinking or where he was going with that gold mesh fabric and the gold sequined flower stuff… but I have to say in the end, I thought Kayne’s dress was beautiful. I’m a little confused because no one seemed to like it, so maybe it translated differently in person than it did on my TV, but I really thought it turned out nicely. I loved the asymmetrical corseting in the back and thought it fit both his models beautifully. I also didn’t notice the ombre chiffon on the Paris model, but thought that was an interesting and new twist to the bottom of a pretty dress. For some reason (and I could be wrong), especially when I look at the photos of this dress, it reminds me of Malan’s dress from the second challenge, only this is the “how it should have looked” version! It has similar coloring, but the colors are used in the right way and the dress flows and fits the way I had originally thought Malan wanted it to (boy was I wrong!). Overall, I thought the judges and even Tim where unnecessarily harsh on Kayne this time.

Laura: Oh how my heart went out to Laura when she found out her dress didn’t travel well. That has to be the worst feeling, especially since she knew there wasn’t anything she could do to fix it in the time she had. I would have been begging the judges to watch the video from Paris if that had happened to me. It might come as a surprise, but I actually kind of liked Laura’s dress (well, the Paris version of it!). I did think it was a similar look to her other designs, but for some reason that didn’t bother me this week. I like the simplicity of the black dress when paired with the collar that looked light as air. It’s a shame it flattened out while traveling.

Michael: Whew! That was close. I’m surprised at how hard it was to watch Michael having trouble this week! I guess I’m so used to him always being in the top and being so confident in himself that it was hard to watch him falter. Thank goodness he wasn’t Auf’d. I think there would have been rioting in the streets had he even been in the bottom two! All in all I actually liked his design this week, I think he just feel short in the execution (let’s go back to where I said this challenge was almost impossible!). I liked the layers of ruching on the top and even thought the “bunny ears” worked on his Paris model. The fit was obviously wrong back in NYC and made his models chest look like it was up in her throat so needless to say I liked it when he tucked those “ears” in on the runway. I also thought the color he chose was beautiful. I could see that color working on many different skin tones and the dress itself would flatter different body shapes (all that ruching would really hold in a tummy!).

Uli: Uli’s dress was beautiful. The braided straps around the neckline and bust line somehow managed to look very elegant and the color was stunning (I’m totally in love with gray at the moment)! Going back to what I said about Laura’s dress, it was still very “Uli” and stuck to the formula she uses, but again, it didn’t bother me at all this week. I don’t remember who said it (Kors?), but you definitely couldn’t see this dress with flip-flops on the beaches of Miami, which is a huge step for Uli. Sorry this is short, but I don’t know what else to say. I thought it was a great dress!

Vincent (OUT): Okay…first things first, Yes, I have been reading Vincent’s exit interviews and Yes, I’m surprised and hurt by some of the things he’s been saying. Until I can talk to him next week, I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I’m saddened by how bitter he sounds and the things he has said about the rest of the designers. Obviously everyone has talent in order to be on the show and they deserve respect for that. All I’ll say is that I’m curious to talk to him at the reunion show next week! Now, with that out of the way, I think he was the right “Auf” this week. Personally I think it must have been hard to even pick a bottom two for the judges. I agree with Nina (is that the first time? I’ll have to check) that the top looked like it was on backwards. It was also ill fitting in the front and with a dress that “simple” looking, it needs to fit like a glove! I didn’t get the sleeves/shoulders at all. That’s where Vincent said all the handwork was focused, but I don’t understand on what? The shoulders made his models look like linebackers and I’m not sure why the sleeves had those weird flaps on the sides? I wish there were more photos of each design so we could see details better.