I believe I may have scared my neighbors tonight by yelling "YES!" very loudly when Seth Aaron won. I know I startled my SO with that and the fist pump. But I am super, super pleased that he won.
Pre-Show
Let's review: The judges passed Emilio and Seth Aaron along to the finale (and we'll ignore the 5000 decoy collections for purposes of defining "the finale"), and gave Mila and Jay one more chance to compete for the spot. Upon arriving back in New York, Mila and Jay were told to choose three looks each from their collections and give the judges something to, well, judge.
In what I admit was rather a surprise, they chose Mila. I think it really was very much a toss-up in their eyes, and I have to admit given which looks each of them chose, I would've had a hard time deciding myself. Both of them truly have a strong point of view. Jay is more innovative, while Mila has what on first glance seems like a narrow aesthetic. However, she does have a lot of versatility within that aesthetic—not to mention some serious technical skillz—and I think that's ultimately why they gave her the slot over Jay.
There was no surprise twist this season, no last-minute look, which I thought was interesting. I guess that they've decided to do away with that altogether, and to be honest that's probably for the best, given how much fitting and styling has to be done to finish off a collection. There was the usual models-not-showing-up drama and rush to fit and figure out orders, and then we got the shows.
Collections
As I said last time, I had already gotten to see the stills of the collections, but seeing them in motion gave me a real appreciation for some pieces I'd been ambivalent about before. Overall, all three designers put out some really good work, but my opinion that Seth Aaron should win remained solid. And the judges didn't disappoint me! Did I mention how pleased I am? I'm pleased. :)
Mila ended up at the bottom. I don't think there was necessarily anything really wrong with her collection, and I'm quite certain there will be people who want to own some of her pieces, but it would almost entirely be people who already shared her aesthetic. My favorite pieces were a mid-thigh dress in black and a purply-grey (or greyish-purple?) diagonal stripes early in the show, and a chic and stylish black coat with a wide belt that followed it. My least favorite was a dress similar to the one I liked, oddly enough, but one in which some assymetrical striping and an odd pleather tit-sling marred the look for me.
Emilio ultimately was criticized for putting out more of a "line" than a "collection". That may sound like splitting hairs, but I sort of get what the judges were saying. Most of the clothing looked like good, solid mid-to-high-end department store fare. It really was very well put together in general, although both his personalized fabric and the mustard yellow used in it and some of the pieces did not appeal to me. My favorite piece was, hands down, the gown he put out last, a beautiful flowing concoction of a metallic gold fabric with a sheer, metallic-threaded dark overlay. It didn't really mesh with the rest of the collection well but it was certainly a gorgeous dress. I also was very fond of a simple blue long-sleeved sheath dress. My least favorite look was probably the first one, although that was strongly influenced by not liking the colour. I was distracted enough by the mustard yellow with the bright red lining that I think the actual shape of the coat was lost on me, and the dress using his fabric didn't appeal to me either.
Seth Aaron put out the very polished (and more colourful) version of what has been the style he showed all along. First off, let me note how crazy he is: he brought twenty-four (24!) looks with him and picked ten to go on the runway. Obviously he picked a good set, since he won, but I wonder what the other fourteen looked like... My favorite piece was probably the two-tone yellow plaid and black leather pants paired with a gorgeous leather coat, although there's also a checkerboard-patterned coat near the end I adore and would buy if I thought it would look good on me, aka "if I suddenly lost a lot of weight". My least favorite look was his last one, which had a very odd multi-belted tiered silhouette that I just didn't respond well to despite it being in a purple plaid that I actually really would love to see more stuff in. I also think he had the strongest opening look with his soft-red-with-leather-lines dress and its really intriguing geometric patterned leggings.
And, true to form, when he realized he won, he was bouncy and hyper and oh-so-happy, and that reaction is the other reason I was so happy to see him win: it's terrific when the nice guy finishes first. He deserved it on talent, but it was made that much more awesome by his attitude and personality.
Reunion. Ish.
Only half an hour, taking up the normal Models... slot, and with the combination of models and designers that meant not a lot was covered. There were some apologies for harsh words that seemed reasonably sincere, a moment of true bitch from Jay that made me really dislike him suddenly that I won't repeat here, a reasonably gracious acceptance of his loss by Emilio that made me dislike him a bit less, some over-emotional Ping that sort of turned me off her a bit, Maya saying pretty much what she's been saying about her leaving the show and seeming a bit over having to do so, and a lot of models with accents. I didn't watch MotR at all this season so I didn't really know that much about them, and... er, I still don't.
I am glad they brought back the idea of doing a reunion (and also glad it was Tim and Nina hosting it; it was good to have Nina outside the judging box for a little while), but I kinda hope that next season they make it a bit longer, as it all felt really rushed and I missed the funny outtakes that some of the Bravo-based seasons had. I'd also like to hear more about what the non-finale designers have been doing since the show (although in this case, the answer was presumably "mostly making decoy collections for Bryant Park, except the first few eliminees") and find out if they've got anything else coming up. Luckily, I have the intarwebs for that.
And, one last time: YAY! SETH AARON WON! YAY!
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