That's DIANE von Furstenberg, my friend

But you're right, she did design the wrap dress of the '70's...:)

I think in regards to the secondary contest between the models they got rid of the choosing of a model with each challenge because the designers kept picking the same ones after a while.

Plus, how the winning model is chosen does not really make it a "contest" between them but rather a game of chance. Julia, last season's winner, did not win because of her looks, abilities, or her being "fierce". She won because Jay won.

'Dub: The Tarah camel toe was lame -- have you read the theory that Stonehenge was a great big khunt? I shit thee not. Look at the photos from space -- way better than Tarah.

Glad Rasputin bubbled to the surface. Check out the Boney M song about him, and also the exhibit of his enbalmed dick (At the Heritage Museum, I think), which seems to have been the size of a small child's arm. Napoleon's was on view as well, but somewhat ... LESS NOTABLE.

There's a spread in the current Vanity Fair (with Kate "no nose cartiledge" Moss on the cover) about the fatuousness of "It what it is," featuring Donald Rumsfeld.

If Andrae had told me to shut up and sew, as he did to Emmet (IT'S A FAVOR), I'd have shoved that needle so far up his ass he'd be smelling it for a year.

Let's track Andrae's mysterious Madonna/Faux English accent.

I think that women in general wear less, and so had less to work with, (I myself went out last night in two postage stamps, some string, and a Kleenex) which makes the winner's creation all the more amazing, and Andrae all the more a pathetic tool.

I thought Zulema's dress was hideous and think the only reason she was't given the boot was that the judges were pissed that Kirsten didn't use the scarf in her outfit. As Nina pointed out, the scarf didn't necessarily have to be cut up, but it should have been used. I think the judges also wanted to punish Andrae for behaving so unprofessionally and that's why they put him in the bottom two with Kirsten. But I really think Zulema's dress was by far the worst and it should have gotten her kicked off.

Brilliant recap. The Svan appreciates the speed with which it came and the humor.

Aries: (I'm the same sign) you have to build without a model and with what little you've been given; and as I've said, women dress in much less than men, and start with much less material and hence fewer possibilities.

I think she did a good job, though I'd have spent a great deal more time on the top, to free up more material and avoid the butt-skirting shortness that is a hazard of the trade -- sometimes you run out of fabric. It's a hot dress. PASS.

I don't mind unintentional butt-cheeks, in a dress made only of a sweater.

Regarding the flabby model ass in the sweater dress: my guess is that most models get by on their youth (and hence higher metabolism) and a steady diet of cigarettes and wine (and coke), and not so much the exercising. the diet also helps with the sicky, affected look most of them have.

I believe Kristen was kicked off because she dug her grave deeper than andrae or Zulema. She admitted that even she wouldn't wear the outfit she created to represent herself. Plus, she got all spacey and dreamy while saying she would have used any other scarf ("except the napolean, which is truly spectacular") which completly annoying. Nina was right: she didn't have to cut the scarf- just use some creatvity! She's a lawyer for christsakes, what, she couldn't find a loophole?

Workingfashiondesigner: I'd never have cut my vintage leather jacket, with the Blondie/Ramones/Xray-Spex tickets still in the pockets, and the autographs from The Cramps (Including Bryan Gregory), straight on my tits.

I identify with the victims of Katrina who would not leave their homes.

Some things are just yours and part of your life.

You just don't cut some things apart.

They should have kicked out Kirsten AND Zulema. Kirsten's stuff was just plain ugly and non matching, but Zulema by far put in the least effort i think. i mean, what did she do? STRETCH the sweater out? Cut out a neckline? I could have done that.

Holyterror: Again, I am not suggesting that she should have cut her prized possession. Kristin was presented with a challenge and I believe her inability to find a way to work around is what lost that challenge for her. I understand where she is coming from: I have a prized collection of vintage beads and necklaces that I inherited from my grandmother. I wear one everyday. I would never destroy them to make dress straps but I would incorporate them into the outfit (as belt or something at least). This would have been harder had my prized item been a vintage leather jacket but Kristen had a scarf. There are so many ways to style a scarf without destoying it.

In my opinion, Kristen had the opportunity to strengthen her creativty and keep her family heirloom.

zulema sucks...period. and about the whole women wear less than men and therefore the female designers had less to work with..zulema was also wearing a pair of jeans that she could have used. and, hopefully, she was wearing a bra and panties that might've cum in handy. as for kirsten...when the designers make an outfit, the outfit becomes property of bravo and project runway. so the issue wasnt about cutting up the scarf. if she had used it in the outfit then she would not have gotten it back. besides, it was an ugly scarf and would only have made that hideous outfit even worse.

Zulema should of been kicked out. Her dress was very cut up 80's FlashDance. I think Jennifer Beals wore that during a welding scene....

Andre is pure reality gold, nothing better than incoherent crying and insensitivity from that bitchy judge Nina and Michael Kors!

KH

"I myself went out last night in two postage stamps, some string, and a Kleenex."

Holyterror, Please continue....

EdHill: I don't really remember the rest.

Workingfashiondesigner: You're right. I defer to your better judgment.

I guess I'm the only one who liked Kirsten's outfit. Was the problem that she wasn't willing to go far enough for fashion with the heirloom scarf? Was her creation too much like the original? Please do inform me.
Zulema's "dress" was so hideous I can't believe she even sent it out there. Food was the last thing on my mind when the great white ass jiggled out from under that sweater.

The problem with Kirsten was she didn't listen to TIm. He told her straight out that the shirt sucked, although he did it in his oh so polite classy Tim way. Saying things like "are you sure about this?" "Be prepared to asnwer questions about it" regarding her porsche shirt. But she didn't listen.

You disregard Tim at your peril.

Santino grew on me when he started laughing at Andrae's crying. I lost it when he started blabbing about his dress represented "the first three years adn the alst 3 years of my career" or some sort of babble. I'm like DUDE, its just a creative exercise. ITs not symbolic of anyhting.

How can you not laugh at that?

I found this to be extremely well written. I hope people appreciate that. I have to go now, I think I ruptured something laughing.

you're partially right edhill... it is a creative exercise but clothing is also extremely symbolic and has been since humans started wearing clothes thousands of years ago.

and the issue w/ kirsten's was that it was just plain ugly. that shirt looked like a bib at red lobster.

More about the new TVgasm official dress, the Cheongsam. Who's with me here?

Word, grifter. Kristen's outfit was "just plain ugly". The judges told her she had no "taste". Let's consider that code for it's f**king ugly - now go home!
Zulema's never should have cut the hem before she put it on the model, and she had that unfortunate shiny gold sweater material to work with, but what there was of the dress draped well. So even with the day time showing of a full moon, it was still better than the butt ugly "outfit" Kristen put together.

Holyterror, although I am loath to disagree with a fellow aries, I must do so with your Zulema dress assessment. I think Tim Gunn said it best when he called it "vulgar" on the Bravo site. I know nothing about fashion design or how to make clothes but if Zulema only had a limited amount of material, it would have been better if she had used what she had to ensure we weren't looking at the underside of the model's butt. That kind of view is best left for Penthouse spreads or the gynecologist's office. Zulema should have taken away more material from the front (maybe having the dress open all the way down to the navel) rather than the back. Granted, this might not have worked with that kind of material but there had to be another alternative than what Zulema ultimately came up with.

Aries: I just watched the repeat, and I agree with you -- she was wearing a lot of other stuff and could have used it, and also didn't need that whole cowl affair up top. Plus I got to revisit what a bitch Zulema is as a housemate and no longer want to be generous in my assessment of her.

Sg-Dub: I think the Mister Mistofeles moves were supposed to be Dragon Lady moves. You'll need to practice them in your new office uniform. Get someone else besides Andrae to design it -- what a piece of crap.

Besides his ultra-mature meltdown, Andrae also started off with a "Markus" -- silence, look at feet, ask out loud where to begin. I'd have cut him off right there.

"Andrae. You are EEN!"

heidi doesn't even use the word "are." she just says, "you een!" or "you out!"

did you see the look on chloe's face when santino said they didn't want to give him 2 in a row? she was pissed.

I thought Heidi was so cute when she was like "you would never make that girl walk down with her butt hanging out!"

cute cute cute cute

this show rocks. I'm so happy it's being recapped.

Oh EdHill...I knew you'd see it my way...LOL...Santino ROCKS!!

Zulema should have been kicked off before Kristen! Heidi told Kristen that "the judges felt that the taste level was not there"...but I think a cellulite covered ass hanging out of a gold sweater dress was a hell of a lot more tacky than what Kristen designed. Plus, Zulema's model was wearing those damn oversized sunglasses! Ugly!!!

The most important part of PR is being able to "defend" your design. I think Kristin got the boot because as Tim said, the challenge was about how far you would go for fashion. Would you givethe clothes off your back? Obviously Kristen wouldn't...but then again, I know lots of girls who treat their Hermes scaves better than they treat most people (yes, I love fabulous bitches like that).

Great recap. I had to leave the room when Andrae started crying. It was too embarrasing to watch. Kristen's skirt wasn't too bad, but the shirt was crap. And her defense of the outfit, plus her admission that she wouldn't wear it herself was what got her booted off. I once tried to make a shirt out of an old teddy bear when I was 10 and it turned out better than Zulema's hideous gold dress, and all I had to work with were some kitchen scissors and safety pins (I was very bored). Although I must admit, I feel much better about my own ass after seeing that model's jiggly "professional" butt saunter down the runway. Looking forward to next episode's recap!

this whole zulema thing is being overdiscussed - but i have to put my two cents in.
she did a roll hem (or whatever the technical term is) and without that she could have had more fabric. and holyterror, you're right - she could have loosened the cowl up for much more material.
the sunglasses and hair were henious. i didn't like her when she was like, "i did this corset.." in the first hour. BOO corsets.

This is the best part about being a predominately M-F TVGasm reader - you come back on Monday to find TWO glorious PR recaps.

The worst part about Zulema was that she tried to blame it on the model! While the model did have some cellulite (and I won't deny having a sinister chuckle or two over it), she didn't have a big ass by any means. That dress wouldn't have covered anyone's butt - take some responsibility!

I am SO glad you are recapping this, SG. (Are we on a nickname basis?) And what a coincidence I'm wearing one of my cheongsams today!

Even though Kirstin's top was ridiculous and she wouldn't part with her scarf, I think she should have been kept over Andrae -- not only because of his completely unprofessional breakdown, but because his dress was really, REALLY hideous and had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I think we've all known or worked with someone whose aspirations are so lofty that they never really get anything done, and he's one of those. NEXT! One of the (many) great things about Kara Saun was that she took her material and time constraints in stride, and never seemed to address a challenge as anything but a challenge -- never a measure of her as a person.

You people who sew can tell me: Could Kristin have made the skirt a bit shorter and have managed to make some nominal matching "top"? I kinda liked the skirt, and it was at least something well-crafted and complete (again, unlike Andrae's).

Please lay off the model's ass. Most models starve themselves rather than exercise (muscle adds weight, which is a negative when they give their "stats"), so they don't even draw on what little fat stores they have. Being thin doesn't mean you're in shape, and I think most people's thighs get a little dicey when they get that close to the point where they're no longer "thighs" and become officially "butt." I feel sorry for the girl, as I'm sure she wouldn't have chosen to be exposed in that way, and was still a trooper about it.

Have you ever seen one of those people whose legs just BECOME an ass, with no intervening transitional fade mark? They come in both "very fat" and "very thin" varieties.

I ain't down on the girl's butt. Its a bit nice to see a "normal" butt, when we are assaulted with altered photos of ideal beauty. Besides I thought she did have an ass/thigh separation point. It still didn't make Zulema's dress any better though.

BTW, Diane Von Furstenberg is one of the few top designers that creates clothes that non-model figures can wear. Always beautiful and comfortable!

Andrae's dress WAS hideous, but then again I think denim should only ever be used to make jeans. Anything else is unexceptable and almost guaranteed to look white trash.

However, I am thankful to Andrae for one reason... I have officially added the word "bedraggled" to my daily vocabulary. It especially comes in handy to describe how I feel on Monday mornings.

all that gold dress needed was like, a band of material sewn on the bottom from another garmet. there was no 'shortage of cloth'.

Nice "Cats" reference by the way. I had a good chuckle on the crosstown bus. (Yay being able to read tvgasm on your blackberry!)

so so SO happy you're recapping this show! i recently moved and Bravo sadly isn't on the tier of cable i can afford (stupid dish network). definitely keep including lots of caps for the poor people like me who can't watch!

Jelodi: Yeah, she did. I was just making a general ass-observation.

#31 - holyterror, in reference to your question about whether or not kirsten (and it is kirsten, not kristen for all you dyslexics out there) could have made the skirt shorter and used some of that material to make a better top...the short answer is yes. there are a million different possibilities that kirsten, and all the other designers for that matter, could have come up with. for example, kirsten could have turned her gold jacket into some kind of vest/halter and her jeans into a skirt. and then she could've also incorporated the gold sleeves into the skirt. and maybe even used the t-shirt as a scarf or something sticking out of the vest. then it wouldn't have been so glaringly obvious that she didnt use here grandma's scarf. basically, you have to think of the components of clothing as puzzle pieces...once deconstructed those pieces no longer belong to pants, a shirt, etc. they become raw material that can be recut and rearranged into new pieces and resewn into a new garment.
ultimately, no matter how hideous someone's creation turned out, ya gotta give props to all the designers b/c it's always easier said than done.

The best part, other than Andrae's meltdown, was when he turned to the judges right after being told he was safe and Kirsten was out and said through his tears, "But the funny thing is I actually like her!" as though that had anything to do with anything. What a moron.

Did y'll read that Jay actually turned down the dough and the "mentorship" with Banana Republic?

I think the dough and the job should have gone to Kara Saun as runner-up.

Grifter: Thanks for the info, and I agree on the props. It's amazing that the piece Daniel made for the first challenge, for which he had a week, was not nearly as good as the one for the second challenge which had much greater constraints.

For you America's Next Top Model fans out there, if you didn't notice, booty girl Rachael, was a semi-final reject from cycle 3 of ANTM. AKA the crying in the bathroom girl. I don't know if this is a step up or down here! :D

i was shocked to hear that jay turned down the money. i guess there were too many constraints/strings associated with it. i'm sure he'll be successful without it. and during the first episode of this season kara saun said she now has financial advisors, business plan writers, etc so sounds like she doesn't need it either.

holyterror--

where did you read that about Jay? I'm curious as I hadn't heard anything about that and when I googled Jay McCarroll it's all pretty outdated information

Thanks

Hmmm...holyterror - are you a Post reader too?

Try this link to an article in the Washington Post (you may have to register):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/08/AR2005120802181.html

Apparently, he also made an Emmy dress for Heidi that she didn't wear. It actually makes me like him more and just goes to show that these contestants REALLY aren't interested in selling out or being pseudo celebrities. (One of them will probably sign up for the Surreal Life after I hit "post.")

BSideLover, thank you, thank you, thank you for posting the link to the Washington Post article. The writer is accurate, insightful and hilarious. I love how she called Zulema's dress a hooker dress, although I think that's a bit of an understatement for what that dress actually was.

Whereas I love Zuma, the brilliant msn puzzle game available at www.zone.com, I however do not care for Zeluma one bit. There's one thing I don't understand though, ("ONE THING?!?!"), Kristen was chastised for not using her scarf however Omorzeluma failed to use any of her pants and nothing was said about it.

djjazzyjason - i thought the same thing about zulema not being chastised for not using her jeans. but since i love her i wasn't upset. seems that a few of the designers didn't use all of their materials yet nothing was said to them either. i think the 'behind the scenes' people (and yes, there are producers, writers, etc even on this show giving cues, pointers, etc to shape 'storylines') zeroed in on kirsten's sentimental attachment to her tacky scarf and wanted to turn it into a plot point complete with her tying it around her neck when she left the cutting room and then wearing it as a halter top in her post-outed interview.

>

yuck any one else see that Pepper was on Celebrity Poker

Ceenee (#44): I got it on Realityblurred.com.

BSideLover (#45): I used to be a big New York Post fan. Never have read the Washington Post. Thanks for the link.

There's also a pretty good one page spread in the December 9 Entertainment Weekly (with a DARLING picture of Heidi). Sounds like there's some discord. Heidi says (about the dress you mentioned), "Jay's gown just didn't work. He was very cavalier about the whole thing."

Jay has a two-hour special of his own on Bravo this February about his post-show career, so I guess we'll get the poop.

Miss J.: I saw that!! She was trying SOOOO hard to be a flirt!

I lovelovelove that Santino was so snarky to Andrae and Chloe. His stuff is gorgeous and so far he looks like the winner to me. Mark is a close second, though.

No one should feel sorry for Chloe having only an itty bit of fabric. Boo-hoo bitches! What she had was basically uncut fabric, fresh from the bolt. She had it easier than all of them because she didn't have to worry about pre-existing seams.

# 52 - my point exactly, mrs. petersen, about chloe having a blank slate to work with. i should've put the comment here instead of at the end of the other article. and who's mark? am i missing someone?

I think there are two reasons why Kirsten was criticized for not using her scarf when others didn't use their jeans, etc. First, her shirt was basically a bib version of her previous t-shirt with little change. They probably thought she needed the extra material to create something different than what she started with, whereas Zulema didn't, as hideous as her "dress" was. Second, the point of the exercise was the see what they would sacrifice, and she made the biggest noise about not being willing to sacrifice something. While I think she was well within her rights, she could have just made her outfit without raising the issue and it might not have sent up a red flag that she wasn't willing to sacrifice. You know the judges heard about her ongoing backstage comments about the scarf.

Did anyone see Jay McCarroll on "The Comeback" on HBO? He played himself and created a dress for the Emmy's for Valerie Cherish (aka Lisa kudrow). She eneded up wearing the dress backwards. It was pretty funny.

Awesome interview with Jay McCarroll that talks about the Heidi dress, not taking the prize money, and "Project Jay": www.salon.com/ent/tv/int/2005/12/07/mccarroll/index.html?sid=1418946

Mel: just wanted to thank you for that wonderful link!! I loved Jay on PR #1 but that interview makes me love him even more!!

To everyone else: thanks for making this the best site to read for PR. Thanks!!!