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Sep. 23rd, 2009 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nigeltdeSo Project Runway Australia has been pretty awesome this season, the first I have watched it, with the entertaining/repellent drama mongers culled out about half-way through to allow the focus to settle on people with some real promise and a sweet nature. In fact, probably the best thing about the last few episodes is seeing just how strong the friendship is between the final three. The pleasure they took in each other's successes was really delightful to watch, almost as affecting as the inevitable snapshots of familial love and pride that accompany the runway show and announcement of the winner.
Not a fan of William's collection: the print the judges gushed over was pretty but nothing I haven't seen on a sarong before, and I just did not get that palette at all, all dull mustard and bright red, pale pink and beige. I also disliked the styling and nineties accessories. The red dress had great movement but the same boxy, unflattering silhouette as most of the other pieces. I don't know who the judges thought would be buying from this collection.
Lauren's collection was interesting and pretty and very on trend and I am stunned that she seemed to make one or two garments in a day after the Simon Locke's critique. But she led with her best look and after that first, supercute minidress all the subsequent slightly less cute minidresses didn't have nearly the same impact.
She seemed to draw inspiration from her great week 9 design but in the end there was nothing we haven't seen before. The showstopper dress was pretty but that slip does. not. work. and it just makes you remember how stunning Jennifer Carpenter looked in that gorgeous Zuhair Murad at the Emmys.
I very much wish I had access to a high res look at Anthony's collection because while I liked it best of the three it's difficult to say why; pixellated pirated video and the dreary photos on the official website (which I have stolen and attempted to clean up here) portray a collection that is half rags draped over X-treme jodhpurs and half a jigsaw puzzle of shoulders, belly-buttons, knickers and sideboob. But it did look fabulous in motion (despite the stilted and odd way he asked his models to walk) and I can see that it is intended as a collection of statement separates instead of actual outfits. The last dress was gorgeous from the back and would look equally lovely and even wearable from the front with few more undergarments.
Plus he's kind of hilarious with his rose gags and his bag-lady-from-an-upscale-neighborhood drag (yes, those are hedge clippers).
He was pretty obviously a front-runner from the start, a competent seamstress with a consistent point of view, outlandish enough that he can be heralded as a new and unique voice discovered by Protect Runway Australia®; something the show, which attempts to be seen as in genuine dialogue with the creative and economic aspects of its industry (especially since Christian Siriano), needs to legitimise its existence (by contrast Australian Idol attempts to be in a dialogue with nothing but itself and its viewers' nostalgia, and its one shot at legitimacy was lost halfway through season four when Bobby Flynn got canned. This is why it is surprising when people from AI actually manage to ever get mentioned in the context of music again).
Henry is no Tim Gunn but is a vital presence in the show, an enthusiastic and friendly mentor who seems to form a real relationship with the designers and come to care about them. The worst parts of the show are at the start and end, where it gets tied up in its generic drama, in interminable pauses, dubious editing and portentous music, and where it is sabotaged by the unending fidgeting of Hinze. You would think that as a model she would know how to hold herself but hosting is a thankless role in itself and she doesn't have the poise or charisma of Heidi -- let alone the accent -- to make it work and it can get pretty excruciating. It's an even wider gulf than that between the immeasurably fabulous Cat Deely and Natalie Bassingthwaite on So You Think You Can Dance.
There are other comparisons to be made -- the more challenging and creative challenges compared to season 6 of PR US, the swearing, the greater acknowledgment of economics by the judges -- but ultimately what strikes me most is the discombobulation of local accents and local (well, Melbourne) streetscapes transplanted seemingly unproblematically into the PR skeleton with exactly the same production values, sets, music, colours, editing etc. As it stands though it is probably the most decent local reality knockoff I've seen, which I think speaks to the strengths of the original. Unlike SYTYCD which as great as it is can just be interminable in the length of episodes, the craziness/boorishness of certain judges and the utter heights of blandness routines can achieve, PR is generally snappy and interesting. If only it would forego the abovementioned irritating generic conventions it would be a good fifty minutes of lean mean entertainment.
Not a fan of William's collection: the print the judges gushed over was pretty but nothing I haven't seen on a sarong before, and I just did not get that palette at all, all dull mustard and bright red, pale pink and beige. I also disliked the styling and nineties accessories. The red dress had great movement but the same boxy, unflattering silhouette as most of the other pieces. I don't know who the judges thought would be buying from this collection.
Lauren's collection was interesting and pretty and very on trend and I am stunned that she seemed to make one or two garments in a day after the Simon Locke's critique. But she led with her best look and after that first, supercute minidress all the subsequent slightly less cute minidresses didn't have nearly the same impact.
She seemed to draw inspiration from her great week 9 design but in the end there was nothing we haven't seen before. The showstopper dress was pretty but that slip does. not. work. and it just makes you remember how stunning Jennifer Carpenter looked in that gorgeous Zuhair Murad at the Emmys.
I very much wish I had access to a high res look at Anthony's collection because while I liked it best of the three it's difficult to say why; pixellated pirated video and the dreary photos on the official website (which I have stolen and attempted to clean up here) portray a collection that is half rags draped over X-treme jodhpurs and half a jigsaw puzzle of shoulders, belly-buttons, knickers and sideboob. But it did look fabulous in motion (despite the stilted and odd way he asked his models to walk) and I can see that it is intended as a collection of statement separates instead of actual outfits. The last dress was gorgeous from the back and would look equally lovely and even wearable from the front with few more undergarments.
Plus he's kind of hilarious with his rose gags and his bag-lady-from-an-upscale-neighborhood drag (yes, those are hedge clippers).
He was pretty obviously a front-runner from the start, a competent seamstress with a consistent point of view, outlandish enough that he can be heralded as a new and unique voice discovered by Protect Runway Australia®; something the show, which attempts to be seen as in genuine dialogue with the creative and economic aspects of its industry (especially since Christian Siriano), needs to legitimise its existence (by contrast Australian Idol attempts to be in a dialogue with nothing but itself and its viewers' nostalgia, and its one shot at legitimacy was lost halfway through season four when Bobby Flynn got canned. This is why it is surprising when people from AI actually manage to ever get mentioned in the context of music again).
Henry is no Tim Gunn but is a vital presence in the show, an enthusiastic and friendly mentor who seems to form a real relationship with the designers and come to care about them. The worst parts of the show are at the start and end, where it gets tied up in its generic drama, in interminable pauses, dubious editing and portentous music, and where it is sabotaged by the unending fidgeting of Hinze. You would think that as a model she would know how to hold herself but hosting is a thankless role in itself and she doesn't have the poise or charisma of Heidi -- let alone the accent -- to make it work and it can get pretty excruciating. It's an even wider gulf than that between the immeasurably fabulous Cat Deely and Natalie Bassingthwaite on So You Think You Can Dance.
There are other comparisons to be made -- the more challenging and creative challenges compared to season 6 of PR US, the swearing, the greater acknowledgment of economics by the judges -- but ultimately what strikes me most is the discombobulation of local accents and local (well, Melbourne) streetscapes transplanted seemingly unproblematically into the PR skeleton with exactly the same production values, sets, music, colours, editing etc. As it stands though it is probably the most decent local reality knockoff I've seen, which I think speaks to the strengths of the original. Unlike SYTYCD which as great as it is can just be interminable in the length of episodes, the craziness/boorishness of certain judges and the utter heights of blandness routines can achieve, PR is generally snappy and interesting. If only it would forego the abovementioned irritating generic conventions it would be a good fifty minutes of lean mean entertainment.
