The Challenge
Make a red dress with Campbell soup branding for the Red Dress Awards, which promote awareness of heart disease in women. The designers will be making these dresses for women who have heart-related medical problems. Presumably to cut down on the "designers pick tall skinny chicks first", their clients are randomly assigned.
The designers are given half an hour to discuss designs with their clients. They have a $100 budget at Mood (who thoughtfully pulled out all the red fabric which best goes with the Campbell branding), plus some assorted branded fabrics from Campbell (who also provided a guide book showing various logo and soup can designs). They will have one day (boo!) to complete the design.
Dresses by Designer
In alphabetical order. Note that for this week, the designers typically used a red colour basically within a few hues or shades of the regular Campbell's soup can, so if I don't mention a colour, it falls within that range.
Amy makes a long, flowing layered dress with a gentle sweetheart neckline and incorporates a small waist detail using a Campbell branded fabric. In motion the style of draping that leads to streaming away from the body often looks a little odd from a direct front shot, and that plus the folds where the gather is at the high waistline made me a little dubious. Once I saw it from the side and back I suddenly loved it, though. Overall, it suits her client and fits really well. The top of the bodice has a bit of frayed fabric softening the edges, a nice detail.
Anna has made an above-knee layered skirt with an off-white or ivory underlayer. At the waist there is a fabric belt. From that part down, it's fine, if not particularly remarkable. The bodice, however, has issues. On first glance it looks like an extremely deep V cut from a circular shape, but at a closer look it's actually set onto an off-white or nude cloth that closely resembles a tank top in shape and neckline, with some pleating visible. It's... not working, particularly in that colour. If it were a dark gold in line with some of the other Campbell colours it... still probably wouldn't work, but might've at least come closer.
Anthony has gone for a skirt, top, and jacket rather than a dress or gown. The jacket is this kinda funky-cool shape that hangs open in an inverse V, edged at the bottom with black and with a really neat collar. I don't love-love it but it seems to suit his client (I'm in a minority on feeling that judging from certain other blogs, though). The top is black-edged Campbell fabric; I can't see the shape under the jacket. The skirt is an above-knee pencil. Overall I feel it works well on his client, although I'm not convinced it's the right outfit for the event.
Ben has made a floor-length gown with a slit Up To There that's edged in Campbell fabric. It's got a wide halter neck and this really interesting gold belt that's wider at the sides than in the middle. I think that belt speaks to his comic-book inspirations, and it really works for me, and flatters the client. I expect some people will hate it, but I'm fond of the superhero inspired looks. The back is nearly-bare, framed by the halter straps and the narrower back of the belt. This is overall one of my favorites, though the bodice could have used some better finishing and fit (but: one-day challenge). I also think it's styled very well.
Emilio may have to be pulled from my "make it to the end" list if he doesn't step up. His offering of a sheath dress may be impeccably made, but it's not all that interesting and, frankly, makes his client (who is not what I'd call fat) look pregnant. His main fabric appears to have a red-on-red dot pattern, which you can hardly see from a distance. The empire waist treatment is kinda cool, using Campbell-branded fabric edged in gold. Oh, and did I say "impeccably"? Mmm, not quite; the bodice and back have some puckering going on. But: one-day challenge. I cut some slack for that for him, too.
Janeane makes me say "Oh, honey, no." I just... it's... okay, the red part, which is super-super-shiny, is what I'd call a bog-standard spaghetti-strapped evening gown, except it only goes to the knee and has a really weird tucked-under hem thing going on which does not look right. Peeking out from under that at a few inches longer is this really dingy off-white matte fabric underlayer. That same dingy fabric appears at the top of the bodice in a horrifying treatment of half-crumpled napkin, with one dark Campbell-branded fabric piece visible. I do not like it, and the styling isn't helping at all.
Jay Nicolas. My first reaction was, honestly, "Meh." Long gown with sweetheart bodice. But at second look there's some vertical pleating on the bodice making a scallop that I think is fairly flattering on the client, though I also think it might've worked better with a slightly different neckline. From the side, it looks rather better and a lot more interesting. Just under the bodice is a tiny roll of Campbell-branded fabric which almost makes the bodice look like a separate piece, which I'm ambivalent about. The skirt has a not-quite-ruffle at the bottom which I'm also ambivalent about, though I love the length. Really most of the interest is that bodice, just not from straight on. Overall I think I like it.
Jesse is addicted to jackets, I swear. This particular one, in off-white, might be cute on another outfit... it has a sort of cardigan feel due to the cut of the neckline and the buttons and ends right at her waist, which could work with pants as long as he took the stupid folded-square of Campbell fabric off it. It looks odd over the dress, though, and seems to have some construction issues. The knee-length dress is fine from the waist down and is a good length, but I do not like the straps, which cut across the arm in a very non-flattering way. The cups of the bodice look far too small for this woman's bosom. The waist has a "belt" of dark red and white which gets a little lost in the folds as the dress is fitted loosely at the waist, but is otherwise a nice touch.
Jesus might as well have hung a sign on his client saying "cougar". It's the trifecta: short, tight, and shiny. It has hideous bedazzle straps which are thankfully only really visible up close, but do not help at all, unless by help one means "look like a hooker". However, I do like what he did with the Campbell-branded fabric, using it at the side (possibly both sides, I couldn't tell) for some interest. Aside from that, though, it does not fit her, unless that sheer amount of fold in the front was on purpose, in which case, bad call. Plus it pulls badly in the back. Not liking this.
Jonathan has a long dress with an almost racer-back-like bodice and a tiered skirt. The idea was definitely a good one, but it may've been too ambitious for a one-day dress. The colour is darker than the other dresses, which was an interesting call, albeit one perhaps a bit ruined by the very bright red fabric used in the back that I think could've been done without. Execution clearly suffered a bit, probably because of the short time... it's not terrible, but it does feel unfinished. Which it probably is. I think overall I like it, though I wish he'd done something other than a last-minute-tacked-on Campbell-fabric belt (maybe making one of the tiers use some?).
Maya also clearly had a good idea, but it, too, suffered in execution. In this case I think it was overworked rather than incomplete. The idea was to make a heart-like shape, but not a literal heart shape, using a gold fabric paired with the red. The end result was unfortunately overly bulky in a less than flattering way, although from the back it was very "Hello, Nurse!" Her use of a Campbell-branded fabric for a clutch was a great idea, though; it brought the branding in without having to work it into the dress. I like the length, just under the knees and showing off her client's extremely shapely calves. I hate the shoes, though.
Mila has established herself as someone who has a very graphic approach to fabric, and this week was no exception. I personally loved the heck out of her dress, a long gown with a kinda square-with-halter-straps neckline. The gown has two stars on it she got from one of the branding pages, one moderate-sized one on the right side and one very large one on the lower left; they were placed so that they were only visible as stars from the side and lent an interesting pattern from front or back. My one real criticism is the sheer size of that second star, which I think was a bit much; if it had been closer in size to the first, I would've liked it better. The neckline and halter straps were outlined in Campbell-branded fabric used in a ribbon-like manner, and was really cute and flattering. Me likey.
Seth Aaron had a crisis of confidence (an attack of "forgetting designer in favor of client") and ended up reworking his top twice if you count moving to draping and then away from it. I'm glad he didn't do the Grecian draping thing even though I think it would've been pretty because it wasn't his style at all. Unfortunately his last minute rework left the top perhaps a little simpler than ideal. It's certainly not bad, a crossed-layered red fabric edged with tabs of Campbell-branded fabric, and it's certainly flattering to his client's figure, but I suspect it's not what he would've done if just given free reign. The belt, also of square Campbell fabric, is neither a big plus nor a big minus. The skirt is black, which I think was a bit out of place with everything else on the runway; I wish he'd gone for a dark red instead. It's also a little simple, come to think of it. However, like the top, it flatters his client. The jewelry and shoes work well with the outfit but I think the pulled-back hairstyle may be a little harsh on her. Overall a solid middle-pack entry.
Judging
My picks for top 3: Mila, Ben, and Amy
Judge's picks for top 3: Maya, Amy, and Mila
I do have to admit that from first-impression-only Amy wouldn't have been on the list, so this is influenced by the later view (the one the judges get, actually) and the stills. But the judges and I agree that she and Mila belonged there. Where I feel they misstepped was Maya, whose vision was interesting but whose execution I feel fell short. I'm used to them ignoring Ben, though Tim Gunn and I agree he's being overlooked despite good work.
My picks for bottom 3: Janeane, Anna, and Jesus
Judge's picks for bottom 3: Anna, Jesus, and Jesse
Janeane got lucky. I didn't really like Jesse's much but it wasn't terribad. Janeane's was definitely not as good. Anna and Jesus had, respectively, poor design and poor taste. The judges and I obviously agree on those points. They also both had poor execution, although the judges seem to think that isn't the case for Jesse, which makes me wonder what they're seeing that I'm not (or vice versa).
Winner: Amy
I think given those choices I would've picked Mila over her, but I won't argue with this. The dress met all the criteria (well, if you count the clutch) and was definitely flattering and well-made. Mila's is really a pretty niche dress, while Amy's probably has wider appeal, and I'm sure that figured into the decision, so, congratulations Amy!
Auf: Jesus
Although I certainly don't think Anna is going to last much longer, I have to agree soundly with this one. It's not just tonight's "mama cougar"; it's that it seems to be his whole style. When he was leaving he mentioned he was 21 and I said "Oh." I think if I looked at my taste at 21 (or at some of it) I'd be horrified now, so perhaps with time Jesus will find a way to meld his inclinations with an eye towards editing for sensibility. I don't think he's a bad designer but I do think he needs to really think about the message his fashion sends to the viewer. I will miss his good spirits, and hope he does well from this.
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