Underwear for Outerwear Designs

This week’s runway began with a sexy bang, awaiting designers saw models walk out in sexy lingerie. Alyssa soon joined to lay out the challenge details. The designers were tasked to create outerwear from underwear by transforming corsets into high fashion looks. Each designer would be given a standard corset to use, completely with the ability to re-design, but the corset had to be fully visible in the silhouette of the final look.

The stakes were high for this week’s runway. As Alyssa was going over the challenge details, head designer for AdoreMe.com, Helen Mears, also joined the designers. Adore Me is an online e-commere site for women’s lingerie, sexy looks for women without sacrificing comfort. Helen announced that the winning look would be sold in a limited edition on AdoreMe.com and that the designer would be awarded $10,000.

With the details laid out, the designers were off to Mood with a $200 budget for this 1-day challenge. Afterwards, the designers were back to the workroom to begin cutting away, although Michelle accidentally cut her finger instead — YIKES!!

Anne soon came by for her check-ins. She began with a history on the use of corsets in high fashion looks, so making it clear there should be no excuses in the work done for this challenge. She was enjoying some of what she saw, but cautioned others on certain elements of their looks. Some needed a push, while others were doing that themselves, such as Irina. I am glad to hear that during Anne’s consultation with Anya that Anya realized her fabrics can’t do all the work for her! Django probably got the toughest critique and really just hoped he could make the runway critiques this week.

When the models came in, Jasper was back to his normal antics of working on his model’s walk and running around the workroom. Also after the model fittings, a couple of designers were doubting their work, Dmitry and Cynthia. As the day tolled away we saw some designer shade being tossed around — with Jasper for gluing lace onto his garment; Jasper calling out Cynthia for not using her corset in what he thought was the right way; and Biddell telling Dmitry that this was not his best work.

It was soon time for the runway! This week’s guest judges were designer Rebecca Minkoff and model Olivia Culpo. This was just a so-so runway for me. There were a few amazing looks, some looks that had amazing details, but certainly a few underwhelming looks. The judges’ top and bottom 3 were mostly what I had on my list, but I don’t see how Anya was not in the bottom. Her look was a hot mess and so poorly constructed! Django might have had a little too much going on, but at least his look didn’t have construction issues.

And then my one change in the top would have been including Juli. I still think Juli should have been out last week, this look doesn’t wow me enough to change my mind. But that is all in the past, and looking at the present, I did like this look top to bottom. Whereas with Dmitry’s look, his top did have a wow factor, but the pants kind of felt like a throwaway. A few other quick mentions — Michelle’s look felt like PJs to me; I didn’t care for Sean’s plaid and I thought the fit was a little too baggy to read sexy; I don’t see why Biddell was jumping on Dmitry about his best work because his work this week was certainly not his, way too safe!; I didn’t love Anthony’s work, but I was at least intrigued.

The win did come down to Irina and Christina, which was 100% the right call. I loved what Cynthia created. It was effortlessly beautiful, simplicity and minimalism at its best. But while Irina’s look was perhaps a little too sexy for me, I think she deserved the win of the week for creating just so much more and doing it so well. The jacket she designed was so fierce, such a bold, great color, and was really amazing. Perhaps AdoreMe.com could more easily sell what Christina created than Irina, but my choice would have been Irina for the win. Both talented ladies however knocked it out of the park this week, leaps and bounds above the rest.

As mentioned above, I would have traded Django for Anya in the bottom 3. Django’s look was not the best, but it wasn’t the worst, so I was glad he did not land in the bottom 2, which was between Jasper and Cynthia. I legit thought it was Cynthia going. Her look left no impact on me. I didn’t get her color choices and it was just a very sloppy look. And then just for fun, she created a Kentucky Derby-esque hat, which really hurt the look versus help.

But ultimately it was Jasper who was eliminated. I really didn’t care which of the 2 left. I don’t think either had done much to stake their claim to stay. Jasper has created nothing but super commercial looks, not really high fashion at all. This look definitely read slutty, not sexy. The fit was just way off and the lace was applied so poorly. You could tell he glued it and didn’t sew it, not that this would have made a huge difference in helping the overall final quality of the look.