Laughing it Up
25 year old Daniel from Massachusetts and 25 year old Floridian Kenley seem to have struck up a friendship and they were shown kidding around and laughing. However, their camaraderie seemed to annoy the other designers who found them distracting, particularly Kenley’s laugh.
Tim Time
In his early assessments, Tim liked Joe’s skort/jacket design. But he found problems while assessing Blayne, Jennifer, Daniel and Jerell. He thought Blayne’s design was a little too “Sgt. Pepper” which prompted Blayne to ask who Sgt Pepper was, making Tim shake his head and mutter, “My God, youth.” He thought Jerell’s pencil skirt with horizontal stripes had the potential to make the more “muscle-y” female athletes “look wider than they are.” He thought Jennifer’s sweater/dress combo could potentially look “matronly” again (which is what dinged her last week). And Daniel’s concern about making his athlete look like “Superman or Wonder Woman” didn’t worry Tim because athletes were supposed to be larger than life like those comic book heroes. Olympians in Tim’s words, weren’t “wallflowers.”
That’s My Machine!
Tensions seemed to be rising among the designers (and earlier than expected) as Daniel and Joe clashed over Daniel’s use of a sewing machine that Joe had deemed his. Daniel said Joe was a “cry baby” and Joe called Daniel a “chump.”
Sinking Design
Blayne noted that Jerrel’s design was reminiscent of the movie, Titanic. His outfit did look dated, particularly with the rather silly looking, wide-brimmed hat with red and blue polka dots. Blayne snarked that if Jerell loses, “his heart will go on.”
Patriotic Athleticism
The top 3 designers were Terri, Korto and Joe. Terri’s pin-stripped blazer, tri-colored tube top in US colors and white pants was thought to be “simple yet stylish” and would make the athletes look “very smart and sharply dressed.” The judges loved the versatility of the outfit, and Apolo liked the colors she used because it made the outfit “really pop.” Joe’s skort/athletic jacket combo with ‘USA” on the front of the skort was complimented for being “very athletic looking.” The judges thought his design was “very, very smart” and they liked the “patriotic details” he incorporated. Heidi thought his intertwining of a blue and red zipper was “very clever.” Finally Korto’s white linen pants and white leather vest with red/blue accents was thought to be “very comfortable [looking and] very functional.” They liked the lightweight leather for the vest and thought the whole outfit was athletic looking but “very sophisticated” at the same time.
Really Missing the Mark
The bottom three designers this week were Jennifer, Jerell and Daniel. Jennifer’s gold striped short dress with black sweater was deemed “bland” and “silly looking.” The judges didn’t find anything Olympian about it, noting that it was more suited for a “prim and romantic” athlete. They noted she had trouble separating her personal style from what the challenges require. Daniel’s form fitting sleeveless dress in a bluish purple fabric was said to have missed the challenge’s mark completely as his model looked like she was “from the Republic of Cocktail Land” and only appropriate if the Olympics had a “sport [for] drinking.” They also didn’t like the fabric’s color which could look blue or purple depending on the light. Finally, Jerell’s skirt, cravat, blouse and hat combo was deemed to be “costumey.” The judges thought that a whole group of women dressed like that would look like “they were coming from a movie set.” It was too out there and Nina thought it was a little too reminiscent of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
A Little Bit of the Dream Attained
Korto, who had to escape her native Liberia due to civil strife, had noted earlier that the US represented a second chance for her to attain her dream of being a designer We’d like to think she attained a small bit of that dream when her design was declared the winning one for this challenge. As the winner, she was granted immunity.
Leaving the Past Out
It came down to Jennifer and Daniel. Jennifer couldn’t survive two weeks in the bottom 2 and was eliminated, with the judges finding her designs “stuck in the past.”
