PROJECT RUNWAY.....Nick Verreos Episode 8: Not Enough Thunder and Too Much Down Under

This past week's episode of Lifetime's Season 11 Project Runway, the remaining designers were placed in two teams--"Team Slick and Hip" and "Team Shades of Grey". Then, their challenge was announced: they had to design three looks--per team--for Australia's "Thunder From Down Under" male revue dancers/performers. Heidi Klum was very excited about this episode:

 Heidi Klum and Australia's Thunder From Down Under male revue dancers/performers

This was supposed to be this season's "Menswear" Challenge. Menswear is always a touchy subject on Project Runway. Many of the contestants complain--EVERY SEASON--about how "they don't do Menswear". Or they complain how "different" it is from doing womenswear, and therefore that's why they don't do it. Here's the thing, if you are taught in fashion college how to make a basic women's shirt (or if you learn it yourself from reading sewing books and using your home sewing machine), you can do a men's shirt as well. As long as you know construction, how to take proper measurements, and the differences between women and men--body-wise--you can do it.

 Tim Happy: Looks like Tim Gunn was very happy as well to be introducing the boys...

Velcro Mensss: Australia's Thunder From Down Under male revue show off their, um, body waxing expertise

Anyhow, the results were bad. Not just bad, but BAAAAD. Some on the web tried to cut them some slack, citing the "they only had one day" factor. No excuse. Especially when--in some cases--there were 2-3 designers working on ONE look, in other words, some designers only had to to do 1 or 2 garments to make ,in that ONE DAY, and that's it. The final looks--all of them--were so uninspired, badly constructed and lacked creativity, that well, for the first time in Project Runway history, no winner was chosen. No Best Look, no Best creation, nada. #Fail as the Tweet kids would say.



Before we take a closer look at HOW BAD these creations were, I want to show what these kids should have done--or at least used as "Muses" for creating looks for the HOT "Thunder From Down Under" boys. Or at least, I would have done something in the line of ANY DSquared2 men's collection--similar to this--just add lots of VELCRO, of course:

Hot Trench--DSquared2

Sexy Suiting--DSqaured2

Biker Jacket Business--DSquared2

Now, the Project Runway Menswear TRAGIQUE:

Stanley Hudson Team Shades of Grey--I give Stanley points for creating an entire suit in that one day. If he can do it, so can the rest of the designers. Period. If they cannot, they shouldn't be there. It is a competition after all. The only thing is that...

It looked like a suit from a 90's Ross Dress For Less ad, seriously--or like from an International male Catalog, the "business suit section"

Then, there was this MESS:

Amanda Valentine (pants) Layana Aguilar (jacket), Richard Hallmarq (shirt), Team Slick and Hip--The whole entire suit looked as if he had thrown it in the washer and dryer by accident and it had shrunk four sizes. What happened???

What is going on with that too far spread collar? And that jacket? That "Thunder From Down Under" guy is a TROUPER for sure because he must have been thinking "WHY am I dealing with these suiting amateurs?"  I'm sure their actual costume designer must have been hysterically laughing somewhere in Vegas...

Daniel Esquivel (trench coat, pants) Patricia Michaels (shirt), Team Shades of Grey--Oh Dear! This looks a bit scary. I'd run from this guy. He reminds me of...

 A Flasher

Michelle Lesniak Franklin, Team Shades of Grey--Michelle was one of the only--OK, THE ONLY--designer who was a little creative--design-wise--with her look. I liked the plaid zip-up vest; it was kind of Jean Paul Gaultier-ish. But I had problems with...

Why is that rise/crotch length was sooooooo LONG?! (stop thinking what you're thinking!). This is just BAAAAD! It looked like A DIAPER, or like an un-intentional "drop-crotch" pants.And then the shortness of the vest made it look even worse.

Richard Hallmarq (shirt), Samantha Black (vest, pants), Team Slick and Hip--Umm, OK...where are we going with this little three-piece look? He looks like a back-up dancer from the Backstreet Boys...circa 1995. The shirt--made by Richard was all things wrong...

Richard tried to be "creative" with that collar but in ended up looking like a mistake and the shirt was way too long and the bad fit of the shirt made this .000003 % body fat hunk of a guy look like he a pooch! Go figure.

Amanda Valentine (pants) and Richard Hallmarq (shirt) Team Slick and Hip--Oh huney! Both Richard AND Amanda failed on this one on so many levels. Let's begin with Richard's ill-fitting shirt:

That collar must go into the Project Runway Hall of SHAME of Worst Shirt Collars Ever. And the fit was waaaay too tight: why are the shoulder/armhole seams two inches away from where they actually should be? I saw Richard take measurements, but did he even use them? And that tie? Is it taped on? Oh Dear...And then, there were Amanda's pants:

Not only were they badly fitting, too loose and too sloppy, then they began to rip right in front of the judges eyes. It was so tragic and yes, Miss Amanda was eliminated. And hopefully, those hot "Thunder From Down Under" boys ran back into their private plane and headed back to the Costume Designer in Vegas and had a rip roaring of a time laughing about this whole entire mess of an experience. Bless their Aussie Hearts.



Scroll Below to Read my RECAP for this week's episode:

Not Enough Thunder and Too Much Down Under

Wowsa. That's all I can say. This was an
eye-opening episode for sure, for several reasons, not the least being
the fact that there were hot, semi-naked MENSESSS showing their six-pack
abs. But even with all that distraction, there was nothing to hide just
how BAAAD those clothes were. The outfits they ALL made were a mess.
Plain and simple. But as they say, "The show must go on," so let’s get
started.



The Nitty-Gritty

First, let's get all the important nitty-gritty parts of the challenge
out of the way. This week, the designers—who were coupled in teams of
two as of last week—were put into two teams of four, per the judges'
requests. Patricia, Daniel, Michelle and Stanley were part of Team
Shades of Grey and Richard, Layana, Samantha and Amanda titled
themselves Team Slick and Hip. They were given their challenge: to
create looks for the famous Thunder From Down Under male
performers/strippers. They were given $750 to create three looks per
team (that's $250 per look!) and one day to do it. So there you go. This
should be fun right? Not.



Season 11 Faux-Kumbaya

First, let’s talk about how mean some of these designers are getting in
their confessionals. I found this very interesting. Why? When I went to
NYC to attend the "Project Runway" Season 11 Finale Runway Show at NY
Fashion Week last month and consequently, attended a "Project Runway"
reunion party where they were all there, all the Season 11 designers
were very, "I LOVE EVERYONE!" When I asked them, they all individually
said to me—repeatedly—how much they all got along and because of the
teams aspect of the season—they were all "lifelong friends." But here's
the thing: last month when this reunion party occurred—we were only on
the third episode, and NONE of them had seen all this behind-the-scenes
dissing. I would LOVE to talk to them now and see how they feel about
all the supposed Season 11 Kumbaya.



The Workroom

Moving on...I noticed right away that these season's designers were
making mistakes. I guess it's the teacher in me, but it was obvious just
how off track they were. First off, they all took each of the
dancers/performers measurements and they were SUPERhuman. I noticed the
male...



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