It's nobody's fault but your own. (project runway rant)

[dark_blue_mania]

Reading the blogs and message boards, people seem to love Ping.  What I see is that her likability is due to the fact that she's living on her own planet and is super-creative.  But as a clothing designer, I just don't get it.  People talk about her edge and vision, and that she just needs to get the hang of translating it.  But to me, it's the

Comments

[heart_of_stars]

Yeah, I agree that you have to possess craft skills as well as "vision", at least if you pretend to be a craftsman. I can tell people I have great ideas for a really great album, but if all I can do is bang tunelessly on a piano, I'm not a frakkin' musician!

[heart_of_stars]

Also, I call clownshoes on her not being eliminated when she creates an outfit that fails to cover the ass, has hip pieces that Cirque du Soleil would reject as "too weird" and is in part lamely explained away with "I thought the model's skin tone would contrast more" - with multiple fittings, did you fail to notice the girl was crazy Irish pale?!?!

There are always moments on reality talent compositions where it's down to a choice between someone who did something kinda blah but executed it OK, and someone who had a crazy idea but didn't execute it at all. A lot of the time, they keep the crazy person - they also tend to make for better drama - because they admire their imagination, but these often leave me with the same feelings of "ideas are nothing if you can't execute."

And it's funny, Meg said the same thing about Santino - at least he defended his work. He didn't sorta blame the model, have an adorably misguided (and awfully convenient) misunderstanding of the challenge and start to cry.

[touchofwinter]

I haven't been following the season at all, but I like the thinking behind your post.

I've never been able to get behind "conceptual artists" - either produce your idea (or get someone else to produce it if you lack the skill) or it doesn't count.

[dark_blue_mania]

A few years ago I read an interview with Tim Gunn where he recommended that anyone who auditions for the show should have at least one semester of academic design training. Not even so much for the technical side, but as you well know, they will have had the experience of working their ass off on something, only to have a professor rip it to shreds so hard that they need to leave the room before they punch the prof and get kicked out of school. It's really hard for a self-taught designer (especially someone so up in the clouds like Ping) to learn how to handle critique, learn from what they're being told, and make improvements on what they already think is perfect.

[touchofwinter]

Say what you want about Rowan, that was one of the first things on the first day that I learned from Doc Appleson in the art department. His emphasis was that "We are talking about the art, not the person." And man, he quickly talked some of that crappy work into a deep grave. But I still say it was a valuable lesson. (Not that I watch the show) But that's what I hear about Simon Cowl (sp?) from American Idol is good for. People say he's a jerk and he's "mean", but he gives a detailed critique of what you did and failed to do - and gives you a direction to improve on it. He's brusque, sure, but he's no worse than what the contestants will actually encounter if they go into the music entertainment industry. If you can't learn that in a competition, the real world is going to be a bit of a shock...

[eric_trayce]

Andre? What happened to Andre? Make it work!

[alphafemale1]

Thank you for this. I also am seriously annoyed at Ping, and can't wait to see her go home. I think she's a one-trick pony- pretty successful at what she does, but doesn't think outside her box.

And thank the heavens Michael and Nina will be judging the whole season! That was half the problem last season- people could send shit down again and again, but there was no consistency with the judging.

One of the judges even pointed out the "I think she hides behind a language barrier" thing.

[dark_blue_mania]

I love Nina. I totally agree, without her and Michael last season, there was nobody to call the contestants out for using the same blah tricks week after week.

I caught the translator comment, but in my head I interpreted that to mean translating it from Earth-language to Alien-brain. Hehe. When I was at FIT, 40% of my classmates were Korean, and 10% from other countries. A lot of them didn't speak much English (some not as much a Ping appears to), but they knew that was a disadvantage, and minimalized it by paying close attention and asking questions when they didn't understand. I agree, the language barrier is bs.

[valerieloveland]

Ugh, Ping.