HOUSTON – On this week's episode of Fashion Star, Kara Laricks continued to be a design goddess, Ronnie Escalante (I consistently forget who this person is) still can't get a bid (oh yeah, that's why!), and Elle Macpherson still has a serious case of uber-scary-botox-face. Elle Macpherson is the most useless and I wish she'd go away. There are only two supermodels I enjoy watching in a TV-show-host capacity: Heidi Klum because she's awesome and has a neat accent and Tyra Banks because she's CRAY CRAY. If you're not either of those women, get off my television screen.
The theme this week was "high end and low end," where each designer was tasked with creating two complimentary looks, one for a high end market and one for a lower end market with broad appeal. Basically, design one thing that only famous people can buy and then another thing that real humans can buy. I always find it interesting to see how designers interpret this kind of challenge—what exactly constitutes high end? Shouldn't all clothes look expensive? Do poor people not get to look chic and hip? Important questions, people. Important. Fashion. Questions.
There were several highlights this week, including an AWESOME Technicolor print dress from Nikki Poulos that went to H&M, two rather adorable structured dresses from Sarah Parrott, also to H&M, and finally something exciting from Luciana Scarabello in the form of a beaded shift dress that can be found at Saks Fifth Avenue. But we really must take a moment and talk about the wonder that is Kara Laricks. She designed two tuxedo jackets this week that, for perhaps the first time, seemed truly original. I don't think I've seen anything quite like either of these jackets, and I WANT THEM. RIGHT NOW. Saks only picked up the high end jacket with tails, and I would totally go out and purchase right this minute but it is just slightly out of my price range. If you have somewhat deeper pockets, I highly recommend you skidattle over to Saks Fifth Avenue and check out the Tailcoat Jacket by Kara Laricks.
But now to those less fortunate, the bottom three. I didn't see a clear loser in any of the bottom three this week—and was, frankly, surprised at the outcome.
According to my calculations, Ronnie Escalante has thus far designed approximately zero articles of clothing worthy of a bid from either H&M, Macy's or Saks. I haven't seen a single original concept in any of his designs, and I don't understand what everyone sees in him. Sure, he's worked for some big names in the business. Sure, he wears a scarf really well and seems like a perfectly nice dude. But last I checked, none of those qualifications mattered as much as having talent. And this week, Ronnie designed two very boring and hackneyed evening dresses in black and teal. Alas. John Varvatos seems to have some inexplicable faith in Ronnie, because he was chosen for the mentor's save this week.
Edmond Newton found himself once again in the bottom three after designing what can only be described as a chainmail atrocity paired with a lamé disaster. One dress looked like he had literally run out of fabric and had no choice but to go to a hardware store and build a sleeve out of metal links, and the other was both lamé and lame. You see what I did there? I have no idea what he was thinking with this concept, but hey, at least it was original. I find Edmond to be incredibly hit or miss, and when he misses he misses big time. But the buyers dig him enough to save him.
And that leaves poor Lisa Vian Hunter and her car coats. The issue here is that those car coats were freaking adorable. I mean no, they weren't super innovative or creative, but they were well-made and incredibly wearable. I'm confused as to why Lisa went home when she's made a sale and produced a perfectly delightful coat, and Ronnie gets to stay, despite the fact he hasn't sold a single thing and made boring, uninspired dresses this episode. I'll just leave it to the fashion professionals, I suppose. Because who on earth could possibly know more about fashion than the incomparable Jessica Simpson? What's that you say? My pet bichon frise Louie knows as much about fashion as Jessica Simpson? Now that's just rude.
Thanks for reading, and as always, thanks for watching KPRC Local 2!