(no subject)
OMG THEY ARE ALL SO CUTE!
I always find the first few episodes frustrating - there's so many people that they basically spend very little time with each person. And if something interesting is happening - like Johnny's meltdown or Mitchell's total-lack-of-dress catastrophe - then even more time gets taken away from the others. Did we even get a single look at what Logan or Epperson was making until they hit the runway?
But anyway, my overall impression of this group is that I like a LOT of them! So I'm gonna go through all of them here.
Christopher - aw how cute is he?! I admit that when he didn't know what smocking was I was thinking "oh this is NOT going to end well" but honestly? His dress was probably the best thing up there, he totally rocked it and if he can consistently do interesting stuff like that on such a short timeframe, who the hell cares if he knows what smocking is?! And he seems so nice and sweet, I love him.
Johnny - MAN, I was really not expecting to love him so much! Based on what Tim has said it sounded like Johnny was going to be this season's asshole bad boy, but if he is he certainly hasn't shown it yet. He came off as so sweet and lovable, which just wasn't what I expected from his picture and stuff. I felt so bad for him when he was freaking out. On some people that could come off as just obnoxious, like "suck it up and deal with it!" but it seemed really genuine and he just looked like a lost little puppy dog. And you could tell the other designers thought so too from the way they were all trying to comfort him and encourage him! Plus, HOW CUTE WAS IT when Tim was comforting him and talking him through it and then he gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek?! AWWWWWW. I thought his dress was kinda weird honestly, but I'm glad the judges liked it.
Louise - I thought I was really going to like her but I'm not really there yet. Partially just because she didn't get much screen time, I guess. Jury's still out on this one, basically. And I can't remember her dress at all, which is unfortunately going to be true for quite a few people. With 16 dresses up there I can't remember them all and I don't think Lifetime has pictures up yet - I'm not used to their site yet so I could be wrong, but I can't find 'em.
Irina - Hmmm. I suspect I'm going to end up disliking her - she feels like she'll be the Victorya of this group in a way. She didn't do anything wrong yet, she just gives off that "I'm here to win, not to make friends" vibe and usually people who say stuff like that mean "I'm here to win and for some reason I think insulting people will help."
Ari - well. I'm a little sad to see her go because at least she was interesting and she could have been fun to have around. But I can't pretend her outfit wasn't ridiculous, especially given the red carpet theme of the challenge.
Nicolas - I can't decide about him! When I first saw his picture and heard what Tim had to said I thought sure he was going to be obnoxious, but in his casting video he came off as really sweet, actually. We didn't see a TON of him in this episode but he still seems pretty sweet, he certainly didn't do anything wrong yet.
Mitchell - He seems nice enough but I don't really have much sympathy for what happened to him. He encounters some sort of setback and he basically can't do ANYTHING? Sends a model down the runway in completely sheer and unstyled fabric? It seemed like he had plenty of time after the fitting to make changes. Okay, maybe he didn't have time to completely resmock it, but I don't understand why from the fitting to the time the models came back to dress for the runway he apparently didn't do anything. When his model came back, he basically pinned some fabric around her right then. What the hell? I don't see why he couldn't just rework what he had. Let it out some, add some contrasting panels on the sides, or just add flat panels of the same fabric, whatever! I just can't figure it out. If he can't deal with anything unexpected better than this, he is NOT going to last long on this show!
Shirin - She was sort of my favorite beforehand, and I think she might still be. She's adorable and sweet and perky, and she's talented - after last season I'm thinking of it as the Leanne combination! But to be honest I don't remember much about her from this episode - I can't recall what her dress looked like, I just know that she still seemed sweet and cheerful like she did in her audition tape and casting video.
Gordana - Hmm, I really don't have much of any thought about her yet. Was she the one with the two-toned dress who was afraid it seemed too washed-out under the runway lights? I think maybe she was, and whoever it was I kinda liked that. A lot of times the designers can't really do that - watch something come down the runway and think "some aspect of what I was trying to communicate isn't coming across as well as I would have liked." Or rather, they can't think it without getting whiny or defensive or something. She wasn't complaining about it looking different or trying to make excuses, it just sounded like she was wishing she'd chosen more contrasty fabrics - and maybe that she would be keeping the different lighting in mind in the future.
Carol Hannah - Again, I don't have much to say. She's cute, nice, and she seems talented.
Ra'mon - Um, it annoys me that his name is apparently pronounced Ra-mahn and not Ra-mone. Beyond that, I don't have much to say. This would be so much easier if I had pictures of the dresses to jog my memory.
Logan - Love him! Beforehand I expected to love Shirin and Louise and possibly Logan and Ari. Seems like I was right about Logan and not about Ari. Not that I disliked Ari, she was just a little too kooky to be a favorite. But Logan, he seems like he's going to be a favorite of mine for sure! He seems nice and it doesn't hurt that he's totally cute! I'll be fawning all over him just like the models. And of course he would be named Logan! ;)
Malvin - Can't decide, can't decide. Sometimes I think he's a little too out-there, other times I think he's kind of a sweetie. We didn't see too much of him this episode so time will tell here too.
Qristyl - Um. That is an unacceptable way to spell Crystal, okay? She seems very blahhh to me. I was not at all impressed with her dress. And I find it weird that her whole "thing" is designing for plus-size gals - or "plus sexy" - when there are clearly no plus size girls on Project Runway. It's nice to see someone who does design for plus size girls, especially since in the modelling world "plus size" sometimes seems like it means "three dimensional", it just doesn't work with PR. So, uh...now what? It feels like designing for plus size girls is her entire shtick and without it she's completely devoid of anything memorable.
Epperson - Epperson disappoints me. Between the dreads and the insistence on being called solely by his last name, doesn't he feel like he should be a character? And yet he's not - he's so low-key it seems like everyone constantly forgets he's there - and so do I. Bah!
Althea - Once again, I have nothing to say. She might be the least memorable of all so far, she's like a non-entity. Jury's still out here too!
In other news, I'm so glad Daniel won the all star challenge! What a cutie pie. I was so excited for the all star challenge just for the chance to see him again! Gah, he's so freaking adorable. But did anyone else notice that Santino disappeared? When the other designers came out to congratulate Daniel I was waiting to see Santino's congrats - since they were from the same season I was waiting for an adorable hug or something and....wait, where's Santino? I'm pretty sure he wasn't there at all. When they kinda showed a more zoomed-out shot it was pretty easy to tell since he towers above everyone else. Did he get pissy that he lost and leave or something? That doesn't really seem like him - yeah, he's a cocky asshole, but he's like a NICE cocky asshole, y'know? He's mostly just a clown and then when it's time to be serious and polite he does it. Well, most of the time.
I enjoyed the models of the runway thing too - it's nice to see the model elimination now rather than not seeing it until next week! And some of the behind the scenes stuff is cute too. I thought it was really sweet how all of the girls were applauding and congratulating Chris and they seemed genuinely happy for him. Probably as time goes on and they form relationships with "their" designers they won't be QUITE so happy for the competition, but it was nice to see. And they mostly seem like nice girls so I'm sure they'll still be applauding the winners throughout the season - just maybe not quite so genuinely!