The Challenge
Create a look for a young girl in roughly the K-3 age range. The twist came on the next day, where they were given an extra day to add an adult outfit to go with the kid's outfit.
Dresses by Designer
Amy
Girl made some odd choices this week.
Her kid's outfit involved a teal midriff sweater with an odd cowl/kerchief neck and long sleeves. Although the midriff cutoff was an odd choice it almost works for me, and is put over a simple white top. The skirt is made of various orange petals, and I kinda like the idea but not the execution. It was paired with beige leggings which I don't think worked that well, though I like the bell cuffs on them.
The adult outfit turned out not so great. The simple aqua spaghetti-strap top and the black sash dividing it from the patns are fine. But the pants, whoa nelly. Using a set of layered petals with five different colours (aqua, black, orange, pale orange, and beige... I think) she made a set of flowing pants. I think if she'd done it as a skirt and discarded the two palest colours this might've worked, but the actual result was, I'm sorry, hideous. Aside from all that, the edges of the petals were very ragged on both outfits, which didn't help either.
Anthony
Not a bad entry, but not great, either.
The kid's outfit was a fairly simple dress with a loosely-fitted sleeveless bodice in a cute flower print. The neckline is seamed to make a loose flap around it; the back is a similar shape, both being a narrow U or loose V. The skirt is bright pink with a waistband of red... I can't tell if it's trim or fabric that was cut in a wavy manner. The skirt has a lot of volume and looks a little like it's swallowing the kid, although that sorta makes it sound like it's hideous, and it's definitely not.
The adult outfit is done in a red that goes nicely with the pink on the girl's skirt. The sleeveless top has a V-neck that's outlined in a ruffle which continues down to the waist. There's a gap between it and the skirt in the front (but not in the back). The skirt is knee-length and fairly flattering. The construction is not so hot on the whole thing, though.
Ben
Cute kid's outfit, interesting adult one.
The kid's dress is in a really pretty pastel lavender which suits the girl's colouring very well, a fact I mention because I think a lot of the other designers didn't take that into account. It's knee-length and falls in loose folds, so it moves really nicely. There's a wide off-white sash across the waist that is met by two strips on the side of the same fabric. Coming down from the shallow V neckline is some seaming detail which is very subtle. The shoulders have those pointy cap-sleeves that Ben is fond of. There's really a lot of detail in this dress that's easy to miss on a quick look but very obvious in stills, and kudos to Ben for putting the same work into this he would for any challenge.
The adult outfit is what I'm coming to think of as very much Ben. The top is done in black and a dark blue-grey. The neckline is square and right up to the neck; the black goes across it in a thick line and onto the triangle shoulders, and also down the center. In the back, the top is open in a teardrop shape. The entire thing is loose and tucked into the grey pencil skirt, which I just now noticed in stills has some interesting seaming and an inset of that same off-white material that's on the kid's dress. Really, I kinda liked it to start with but now that I'm seeing the details I like it even more.
Emilio
For all his smack-talking you think he would've done something more interesting.
First off, a big yawn for the kid's dress, which is the cliché-est princess dress in existence, done in a pale peachy pink, with an even paler pink inset down from the lace collar, with buttons inset in it. The waist and the bottom of the short sleeves are also outlined in that colour with inset pink dots. It's pretty shapeless, definitely a young dress, though he did seem to have the right age client for it. The bottom, which falls at the ankles, also has lace on it. I mean, it's fine, but it's exactly like "insert princess costume here", which really isn't all that... anything.
The adult dress is done in a light, slightly purply pink. The puff sleeves are somewhere between cap and short, and are probably the most interesting thing on the dress, which otherwise is a seamed sheath coming down to the knee. The neckline is assymetrical in front, though very shallow and easy to miss. You could safely wear this dress to Easter services. Again: yawn.
Janeane Marie
Again, I'm forced to go with: yawn.
The kid's look is a thin-halter-strapped sack dress in a bright orange that suits the girl's colouring pretty well. That's the only complimentary thing I can think of to say about it. It has this weird mass of multi-coloured (but still all orange) straps at the front on one side, and in the back. Very messy. It's worn with leggings in a kinda interesting black and white fabric, almost a cow print. The girl's styled pretty well, though.
The adult look has a jacket that I think I may have made in home ec. It's an orange that's just off the kids' orange enough to look wrong with it, very circular in shape, with half-sleeves and a wide collar. It's worn over a top with a grey and black pattern I'm not going to try to describe on the front, with an almost muscle-shirt like cut, which in the back is a tank-top style cut and a totally different black and white zebra pattern. It's a little chaotic. The bottoms are simple black capri-length leggings.
Jay Nicolas
Jay put out an outfit set rather different from anyone else's. In a good way.
The kid's top is done in a very dark brick-red with black. In front, the top is simple and sleeveless and has two round black-lined pockets; in back it has a yoke-like cut. The top of both the front and back as well as the yoke is outlined in thick black, which is also on the dropped waist; there's a dark gold button on each part. It has a very short "skirt" composed entirely of noodly ruffles in both colours. The top has been paired with a dark grey, subtly-striped pair of pants which are tailored to fit close. It's very chic, and the only real issue I have with it is it's more suited to a pre-teen than a K-3 girl.
The adult version of the top has black tank straps with a button on the top which angle inwards in the back to a low square stripe of black. The rest is the same ruffling technique used on the kid's top. It's worn with black pants that are tight and really well tailored. The only thing I don't like about the styling is the bright yellow shoes, which I think stand out too much.
Jesse
I've been pretty underwhelmed with him so far so this was a nice surprise.
The most striking thing about the kid's look is the really cute knee-length wool coat, done in bright red with large buttons. Seriously, it looks really well-made given the time. The dress is a light grey with red detailing. It has a purposefully slanted waistline and piping leading to the waist, which I hate. I like the red collar though. It's the same length as the coat. The girl has a big red flower in her hair which matches the red in the outfit, a kinda cute (and appropriate) touch.
The adult dress is a darker grey with rounded black panels in the side which give a shape that flatters the hell out of his model. The detailing is done in the same red used on the kid's dress in the form of piping down the center around red buttons, and a flash of red visible under the thick two-strap leather belt he chose. Up at the shoulders is some light pleating, and the neckline is in a wide triangle, giving it an almost flying-bird-like look. I really like that part. The sleeves are just longer than cap-length with a round-cap feel.
Jonathan
Was apparently smoking from the same crack pipe Amy was.
The kid's look is... okay. The body of the dress is a bright, cheerful yellow. At the bottom there's an off-white stripe separated from the body with a thin black one, and it hits just below mid-thigh. The sleeves, also off-white, are large but not puffy in the puffy-princess sense. If he'd stopped there, I might've liked it, though even with the sheer white ruffly bit down the front it's not too bad. Unfortunately, he paired it with a high-collared bolero (at least I think the collar is on the jacket) in the same colours, but with a really odd white cloudy pattern going on, and a lot more ruffly circles around the bottom of the back. I hate that part.
The adult look is composed entirely of those white circles over a white base. It's got similar sleeves to the kid's dress, is fitted pretty closely, and is really short. I kinda think Michael Kors summed it up best when he said it looked like she was caught in a tornado of toilet paper. I really can't improve on that description. I think somewhere in there was a really good idea, but it did not. Work. Out.
Maya
Bright and cheerful yellow! And, you know. Dark bits.
The kid's look starts with a bright yellow zippered jacket with a very wide, floppy collar. The inside of the sleeves, which don't quite reach the wrists, has visible brown and white lining. Kinda a neat touch, really. There's two red zippers leading to pockets in the front; the area around the pocket is seamed in an ellipse. Under the jacket, the top is hard to see, but it appears to be a simple loose tee in orange with black... um. Bits. Like, extra bits of fabric, slightly layered. It's paired with leggings that seem to be made out of tights-like material. That part I don't like, but that jacket is pretty awesome.
The adult look features a jacket, too, in a slightly less orangey yellow. Big triangular collar bits show the pale yellow lining and are outlined in light bronze. Assymetrical zippers at the center and the pockets are also that light bronze. There's something a little odd about the back part of the collar, like it looks like it's supposed to be sewn down but it's loose. The jacket also exposes the midriff. At first I thought that was "the bare midriff" but it looks like there's a fleshtone bodysuit or top under it. I do like the jacket overall except that back bit but I'm not sure midriff was the right length to go with. The pants have a loose sashy waist with a small ribbon-like tie-off, and are in a warm charcoal. They're tailored tight and end above the ankle. Very flattering. I don't like the turquoise necklace and shoes she paired with this but I admit they do go.
Mila
Very much in her style.
The kid's outfit looks like a watermelon/strawberry Nerds box. (That's candy, in case you didn't know.) The right half is the watermelon side, the left the strawberry. Around the neckline, down the front center, and at the hem is an outline of black-spotted white fabric. On each side is a large half-circle pocket in black. The dress ends high on the thigh exposing some knee-length white-with-black-polkadots leggings. I really like this in principle, though the near-formless A-line of the dress probably reads a bit young. It's fine for the K end of the scale, though.
The adult outfit was phoned in. The jacket, which is very loose, is white with thick black trim at the upright collar, neckline, bottom, and the just-past-elbow sleeves. The neck/collar is assymetrical and the jacket closes on the far left. It's paired with a boring pair of black leggings. I think given the black trim of the jacket it would've worked better with white, actually. Also, the triangle hem of leggings is bothersome.
Seth Aaron
Two things to note: a) the kid's outfit is adorable but still has the punk touches you expect from Seth Aaron, and b) he made the jacket without sketching or planning at all, which given the result is whoa.
The kid's look centers around an awesome sleeveless hoodie. I have to admit something; when he said "black and white houndstooth" I groaned. I was wrong to doubt. The zipper area is wide and white (with a white zipper). The half-circle pockets are pink, outlined with white, and have two large grommets each. On the back when the hoodie is up you can see a big 5-pointed star with "SA" on it, which is just the sort of touch you get on kids' clothes sometimes, so very appropriate. The inside of the hood is lined in pink. The top, barely visible under the hoodie, is pink and black striped and appears to have a bit of a cowl neck. It's paired with a black skirt with grommets on the hemline. And he made a pink and black purse, which is not only a great touch (which he did because his daughter used to collect purses at that age) but was his "model's" favorite bit.
The adult look features an absolutely awesome jacket that I would love to own. It is done in black and white in a pattern that is similar to houndstooth writ extra large. It has a big collar with a triangular flop on the right, which offsets the left-leaning assymetry of the jacket's closure and pattern. The sleeves end at the elbows. It is tailored like crazy and fits his model so perfectly I could weep. "Make me that thin again!" would be the contents of my sobs, but it would be mainly so I could wear this fucking jacket. Did I mention how awesome it was? It is. The pants, by the way, are black skinny jeans with studs down the left leg in front and down the right leg in back, and have zippers on the inside at the ankle. I like them, too.
Judging
My picks for top three: Seth Aaron, Jay... and, hrm. Ben or Mila.
Judges' picks for top three: Seth Aaron, Jay, and Jesse.
My pick for winner: Seth Aaron
Actual winner: Seth Aaron
I disagree on Jesse... his stuff was fine, but I think Ben and Mila were both overall better. Ben's problem was a lot of the interest in his outfits was subtle, I think, though I still really like the result. Mila's wasn't perfect but I think was one of the better attempts, and with a little more polish would've been really nice, I suspect. But Jesse did make a very sexy adult dress and a great jacket for the kid, and that seemed to be what the judges liked.
As far as the other two, go, though, Seth Aaron deservedly won, IMO. Not that Jay's was not great as well, because it really was very well done. But Seth Aaron's hit the age group square on, whereas as I said I think Jay's is just a little more pre-teen than K-3. It still would've been stiff competition, though, in the adult outfits. Jay's is really very chic, but Seth Aaron's jacket is, um, well... yeah, okay, I would've still picked Seth Aaron.
My picks for bottom
Judges' picks for bottom three: Janeane, Jonathan, Amy
My pick for loser: Janeane
Actually auf'd: Janeane
If I could have a bottom four it'd be all four, because I can't really argue with Jonathan and Amy's placements (and obviously I agree on Janeane), but I wish they'd called Emilio out on his boring-ass outfit. I think that Jonathan and Amy, however, both had interesting ideas that didn't work out, as compared to Emilio who had a lousy, overdone idea that wasn't done terrifically. And since Janeane was in part in the bottom for being weak on design, given the way you could practically walk into a store and buy her stuff off the rack (especially the kid's outfit), it's a fair reason to want Emilio in the bottom.
Where I agree completely with the judges is, obviously, Janeane. No offense to her, but she really did not ever do anything that wowed me, and a couple times made stuff I really disliked. This week the problem was less with the actual result and more with how simple and home-sewing it came off. It was time for her to go.
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