I do not get this decision. Nina and Michael were going on and on about, "Why should we have to edit his collection?" "Who would wear this?" "It veers toward clown clothes!" I just kept thinking of Alexander McQueen because that is who Mondo's collection reminded me of.

McQueen, motherfuckers!

P.S. Bite. Me.

I thought the polka dot dress was spectacular, and there were a ton of other really adorable clothes in Mondo's collection. I also loved Andy's collection, and am pretty pissed off that after specifically telling him "Don't do a warrior woman collection" they complained that the stuff he showed wasn't like his old stuff that they all loved so much. Um, mixed messages much?

Still baffled by the "this is the cutting edge, this is where fashion is going" comments about Gretchen. Her color palette looks like the basement of the house I grew up in, so apparently fashion is currently going to the suburbs in 1978?

After a bit of back and forth I figured Nina and Michael weren't going to vote for Mondo regardless. If Heidi or Jessica had brought up McQueen they would have just turned around and said, "See--Mondo's derivative."

And I don't know much about what other designers are doing, but if no one is designing like Gretchen, it's because no one is into designing muddy, poorly proportioned messes.

ETA: Yeah, if I had the figure there were things in Andy's collection I would have totally worn. Loved the gray, one-shoulder dress and the green dress with all the pleats. And my sister (who is 51--"aimed too young" my ass) said the same thing about several of Mondo's pieces.

so apparently fashion is currently going to the suburbs in 1978?

According to the Samantha Critchell article the AP moved a short while ago, yes.

But this is perhaps where fashion differentiates itself from the other arts. When popular taste in, say, painting or literature gets dull, as it does, tastemakers don't implore the artists to be more dull. Oh, there are corporate interests that do, certainly, but it seems odd for someone like Michael Kors to stand up and say, "Fashion is going to be boring this year! Be more boring!" (errr, at least that's how I heard it. :)

I wrote:

When popular taste in, say, painting or literature gets dull, as it does, tastemakers don't implore the artists to be more dull.

And then realized that, after 20 years of reading the Paris Review and the New Yorker, I may well be terribly wrong about that point.

it seems odd for someone like Michael Kors to stand up and say, "Fashion is going to be boring this year! Be more boring!"

Bwahaha! Yes, this.

I just can't get past the colors. And I'm still astounded -- aside from the eleventh look (i.e. gray-green flour sack), what Gretchen showed them last week was exactly what she showed on the runway. If it was boring and unfashionable last week, I don't get how heels and some bright pink lipstick on the models made a difference.

It was odd to me that Andy's collection got dismissed out of hand right away. There was a lot of really pretty wearable stuff in that collection. A lot of gray, though, and if you don't like that green he put with it ...

If it was boring and unfashionable last week, I don't get how heels and some bright pink lipstick on the models made a difference.

no.shit.

Any weirdness with judging Andy's collection I can understand because there is a side mini (pseudo?) scandal about his use of design techniques found in Japanese pattern books. In any case, clearly all substantive discussion of his collection was edited out in favor of the Gretchen/Mondo argument.

In any case, clearly all substantive discussion of his collection was edited out in favor of the Gretchen/Mondo argument.

This! Also, as soon as they called Mondo's work a "cousin" to Seth Aaron's I knew there was no way they were going to let him win.

EW is not happy about the PR outcome. Here's the recap:

[link]