Nov 15 2007
Getting To Know You
The fifteen contenders meet up in the apartment complex where they'll be staying and do a quick intro of themselves. After that, they all head to Bryant Park, home to the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, where the last three contenders standing will compete for a chance to win it all, or more specifically, a spread in Elle magazine, a chance to sell their line on Bluefly.com and new car from Saturn.
Down to Business
The contenders have some champagne in Bryant Park before they are met by Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. Heidi asks them how they're enjoying things so far and then declares that the party's over. She announces their first challenge will be different from the previous first challenges. Namely, the designers will not be required to use unconventional materials (like groceries or furniture) to create a design.
Who Are You?
The first challenge will require the contenders to create a garment that reflects who they are as designers. Heidi points to 3 tents about 50 yards away and announces that they'll use the materials from the tents. At first the contenders assumed that they would have to use the actual tents until Heidi clarifies that there is $50,000 worth of fabric inside the tents.
'Running Like a Mexican for the Border'
That’s how Ricky, the 35 year old from California, described how he sprinted for the fabric-laden tents. He also made us chuckle when he said that his strategy for selecting fabric was basically to just grab as much as he could, unabashedly stating, ‘I was a whore!’
Rain Goddess
42 year old Texas native, Elisa, made an interesting impression on her fellow contenders (and us!), first by rubbing her fabric on the lawn (we're not sure why, but she mentioned something about liking to treat her fabric with herbs and other things), and then by having an unconventional approach to her work, like sewing and cutting fabric while sitting on the work table.
Rush To Sew
The contenders are given 13 hours to complete their designs and everyone, except Elisa, who finished early because she decided to disregard Tim's advice to clean up her design, made a mad rush to finish their creations as time ran out.
The Judges
In addition to Heidi, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia return as judges. They are joined by guest judge, famed designer, Monique LHuillier.
Just Our Opinion
Fashion, like art, can be subjective so it's just our opinion but many of the designs on the runway for this first challenge was underwhelming. We saw a lot of cocktail/short dresses that you'd find on any rack in any department store. Not exactly what we'd consider showcasing who these designers are.
Flower Power!
Two of the top three creations had a flower design in them. (Think Carrie Bradshaw on 'Sex and the City' and those gigantic flowers she'd wear on her dresses.) Rami (31 year old from Ramallah) created an elegant, one-shouldered evening dress in gray silk with the fabric gathered into a flower shape at the nape, while Victorya (34 year old originally from Seoul) created a black cocktail dress off-set by a metallic silver flower. The other top design was from Christian (21 year old from Baltimore) who designed a skirt/plaid jacket combo with an 'edgy' silhouette.
Red Carpet Ready
Rami's design was declared 'chic' and 'sophisticated' by all the judges and he's deemed the winner. His dress looked very pretty to us, and we could envision a celebrity wearing it on the red carpet. For winning this challenge, he won immunity for the next challenge and cannot be eliminated next week.
'Pooing Fabric, Train Wreck'
Elisa, the self-described 'avant-garde' designer, lands in the bottom three along with Ricky (baby doll dress inspired by lingerie that the judges thought was too safe a design) and Simone for her oddly created azure blue gown that had an inexplicably complicated and messy looking train consisting of torn fabric jumbled together. Heidi declared that it looked like Elisa's model was 'pooing fabric.' Nina deemed the dress a 'train wreck' and watching the model trip on the messy train, we had to agree.
No Wow Factor + Poor Construction = You're Out!
Despite Elisa's poor execution of her 'vision' (which we didn't quite understand because she articulated it as a whooshing sound of sorts), Simone is kicked off the runway for her jacket/cocktail dress ensemble which the judges found boring, and Simone admitted was not well made because she had run out of time.
