The Fashion Show: Ode to La Mode

The designers start the episode in their hotel getting gussied up for the day.  Reco and Daniella fake nice with each other, and Reco tells the camera that he will tolerate Daniella, even if he does not trust her.

In the work room, Kelly, Isaac, and Laura Brown are waiting.  Why is Laura Brown part of this show?  She contributes nothing.  The Harper’s Bazaar Mini-Challenge is a quiz on fashion history.  Isaac rattles off seven designers who will be the focus of the quiz:  Halston, Chanel, Christian Dior, Madame Gres, Emilio Pucci, Gianni Versace and Yves St. Laurent.  Anna is very excited because she teaches fashion students.  Cheater!  The quiz part is dull and pathetic, with almost all of the designers doing poorly.  The notable exception is Anna, who, of course, wins.

I need to take a minute, though, to single out Reco for his shameful response.  For his question, Isaac asked Reco, “What celebrity always wore Halston in the ’70s . . .  Farrah Fawcett (R.I.P.), Cher or Liza Minnelli?”  Reco’s response was that he doesn’t know shit about Halston, then he guesses Farrah.  Which is utterly and completely wrong.  LIZA WITH A Z is the correct answer, of course.  Reco needs a lesson in both fashion history and gay history.

Isaac makes everyone reconvene on the Fashion Show runway where the producers dramatically reveal a gallery of vintage gowns.  There are seven gowns on mannequins, and each is designed by one of the same seven designers from the quiz. The elimination challenge will be to design a gown that is both a tribute to the original designer but also to have his or her design style come through.  Knockoffs will not be tolerated.

Anna, as the winner of the quiz, gets to both pick which designer she wants and to also assign everyone a designer.  Anna chooses Coco Chanel, and then she plays a game of favorites.  In assigning Yves St. Laurent to Haven, Christian Dior to Daniella, and Gianni Versace to Big Bertha, it’s clear that Anna has selected designers for her friends to give them the best chance at success.  In assigning Madame Gres to Merlin, Emilio Pucci to James-Paul, and Halston to Reco (ha!), it’s also quite clear that Anna wants them all to fall on their faces.  Reco says that Anna is just “trying to throw some salt in a pimp’s game.”  Word.

Demonstrating his complete and utter ignorance of Halston, Reco says that he is going to design a corset for his homage to Halston.  Um, yeah . . . already looking like Reco could go home.  Merlin is also freaking out because he has no idea who Madame Gres was or what her design is associated with.

Merlin is in luck, however, because that night Madame Gres came to him in his dreams.  I am not making this up.  The next day, Merlin tells everyone that, in his dream, Madame Gres said, “Don’t fuck up, bitch.  I’m Madame Gres.”  Oh, Merlin.  What a mess you are.

Meanwhile, Daniella goes back and forth on whether she should make a skirt or a pant for her outfit.  Since she has Dior, I would counsel her to do the skirt because he was all about the hourglass.  Instead, she goes pants.

Isaac and Kelly show up for their inspection.  Isaac has some sort of hissy fit when he sees that Big Bertha is using pleather.  Give me a break.  Isaac and Kelly are, like me, confused by the idea of Reco using a corset.  They also note that Haven’s outfit looks a mess and that Anna’s jacket does not look like Chanel.

Let’s just skip to the Fashion Show.  The guest judge is celebrity fashion designer Peter Som.

Haven (Yves St. Laurent) – Dear lord.  This is a mess.  It’s a brown pantsuit with a pink top underneath.  The top of the suit is just a vest.  The pants are so badly made, friends.  So.  Badly.  Made.  Nothing about it looks YSL – the colors aren’t right, the fit isn’t right, the design isn’t right.  This is so sad, too, because you can tell how much Haven loves the ’80s power look.

Daniella (Christian Dior) – Wow.  This is pretty awesome.  The jacket is completely correct as Dior, and she has captured the cinched waist by belting it.  I’m not at all bothered by the pants, either, even if they’re way shiny.

Anna (Coco Chanel) – The model is dressed in a black dropped-waist dress with pleating below the waist.  The black and white pattern of the dress is very modern, as is the pleating design.  Over the top of it is a short purple jacket.  I like the dress very much, but the jacket doesn’t look right.  It’s too meemaw.

Reco (Halston) – Oh, for goodness sakes.  This is in no way Halston.  NO WAY.  It’s a red Medieval Times waitress uniform.  Like if Hester Prynne was taking your order.  It’s flaming red, ultra flowy, the neckline is elastic and off-the-shoulder, bell-sleeved, and corseted.  It’s a drag queen dress.  It’s terrible.

Big Bertha (Gianni Versace) – YES, MA’AM!  He’s made a black pleather bustier that has a sheer neckline and sheer sleeves.  The skirt has some fullness with a black pleather band at the bottom. BB also added a gold accent to the bustier on one side.  As much as I despise Johnny, this is great.

James-Paul (Emilio Pucci) – Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  A beautiful Pucci-esque print top with a black pencil skirt.  The blouse is very intricately made, featuring interesting soft folds throughout.  It is very detailed, and it looks amazing.  Take that, Anna!

Merlin (Madame Gres) – Merlin has sent out an aqua one shouldered gown.  It’s surprisingly Madame Gres.   She must do a great job of explaining herself in Merlin’s dreams because there is lots of draping, and it’s very flowy, just as it should be.  The only criticism is that there is a collection of draping that sits at the model’s hips, which, to me, makes her look hippy.

When we get to judging, the audience’s top three are revealed:  Daniella, Anna, and Big Bertha.  Anna is really excited until the judges take her to task on the jacket that she made.  They tell her that she should have sent the model down the runway WITHOUT the jacket.  Then they tell her to sit down because she didn’t win.  Ouch!  Daniella and Big Bertha collect lots of compliments for their work.  Ultimately, Big Bertha wins.  While it was a great design, I don’t like Big Bertha, so I will not celebrate.  Petty?  Yes.  Do I care what you think?  No.

Moving on . . .

The bottom two are, unsurprisingly, Reco and Haven.  Really, both of these two deserve to be here.  Reco has a nervous breakdown in his judging and cries the whole time, explaining how he did not know who Halston was.  Haven acknowledges the faults of her gown, admitting that it did not turn out as she had hoped.  For the judges, it boils down to which is worse, not knowing or not being able to do it.  Isaac tells Reco that the only thing that resembled Halston in his look was the red, and he didn’t even know that. He reminds Haven that she knows YSL, but she couldn’t translate it.  Haven is sent home.  Reco explodes into tears, and Haven comforts him.

Haven leaves and tells us that being here was a great experience.  She hoped to go to the end, but she will cherish meeting Isaac and the advice she received from him.  You know, I have always liked her.  She good people.

There we have it folks, and, doggone it, this was actually a good episode.  No qualifiers, no nothing.  Let’s hope the goodness pours into the next episode!

Season 1, Episode 8: Ode to La Mode (originally aired June 25, 2009)

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Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal, Barbara Nitke