Digital Johnny, Real Johnny

I love her actually. My boyfriend knows her and she is actually a very sweet person. Don't forget that the editors can make a caricature out of people just in the ways that they edit footage. David and I have actually talked about this whole thing at length and while she's definitely not the strongest designer when it comes to haute couture, she is definitely the strongest in the ready to wear category. She blew everyone else out of the water in the Banana Republic design challenge (incidentally the winner of the show gets an apprenticeship position at the Banana Republic desigm studios) and Nancy O'Dell picked her design for the Grammy dress challenge. She had problems when it came to the quirky challenges that a designer wouldn't come up against on a day-to-day basis like creating an outfit out of items from a grocery store. Granted, I don't think she's going to win the competition, but I don't think she was as manipulative as Bravo wanted you to make her out to be. If you noticed in last nights episode, Vanessa ended up being the biggest bitch. I hated her the most.

I don't know what she did that was so bad. She treated it like a game with oppenants instead of friends. She outed both Austen and Kevin as bad leaders (which was absolutely true). Her only sin is that she didn't make friends as readily.

And everyone forgets this, but she won two big challenges (the Banana Republic and the Grammy Dress) and came in as a solid runner up in the wedding dress. I think you could make the case for Kevin in the top 3, but Austin was too caught up in his own thing (beautiful though it was--he wouldn't listen to directions) Clearly Wendy is no slouch and deserves to be there.

But then again, I'm pulling for Jay.

Yeah Jay had my vote when he made that dress that looked like the chrysler building. It showed innovation, creativity, and master craftsmanship. I love Kara Saun's style, but that's exactly what she is, a stylist.

I realize that even reality TV characters are just that - characters. I *liked* all of Austin's clothes better than Wendy's (even his Banana Republic dress and the Grammy outfit) and I like his personal style a lot more. I think the judges should have focused more on who will do better at Fashion Week than which dress some girl from some show I don't even watch would wear to some event I don't even care about. I wouldn't buy Wendy's clothes because I think they are "dowdy", just like her. Ready-to-wear may be her forte, but this show is about fashion and Wendy is just not "fashion". What I didn't like about her the most is that she was the only one willing to totally sell out the other contestants in front of the judges. While I doubt that actually affected the judges' decision to kick people out, that's just something that I cannot respect.

I thought austin's grammy dress was in the realm of too much glamour for the grammy's it felt more like an oscar dress. My other major problem was that it didn't look finished. It looked like he took some chiffon and tied it around her body and called it a day. it didn't look like a finished garment. Austin's garments are WAY too period. He's a costume designer. He was bourn a century too late. I love the garments he comes up with but they aren't enything that anyone would buy. Michael Kors even told him in the last challenge that he needed to break out of his haute couture mold. Not every one of the challenges was to make a couture garment, some of them were geared towards ready-to-wear. The fact that Cotton and Banana Republic were the main sponsors of the show is testament that they're looking for a more mainstream look. As I said before, I'm still rooting for Jay, because I love his stuff. It's very Heatherette.

As far as Wendy selling out her fellow contestants, she was put in the comprimising position of being flat-out asked what her opinion of the leadership had been in the group projects and she told the truth. They weren't making sure that everyone was realizing a singular vision. There were leadership problems. And she clearly wasn't going to make the same mistake that Vanessa did when she said that she was the weak link. That's tantamount to suicide. She said what everyone else was already thinking and had said in their 1-on-1 interviews, but because she said it on the runway, she's the bitch.

And in regards to Wendy winning the last challenge. You might not care about Nancy O'Dell, and you might not watch the Grammy's, but the challenge was to make a dress for her, that she got to pick. They got to ask her questions about her personal style and what she like and didn't like. The challenge was about making the customer happy and Wendy did the best job of that.

To summarize, I DO think that Wendy is the weakest of the final 3 contestants, however, I don't think she's the evil bitch that everyone is making her out to be. She just got lucky in getting through to the final round. As for Austin, it's clearly not going to hurt his career since he had a line at fashion week this year and the show gave him enough publicity that people will defintely be looking out for him.

1. i don't watch this show.
2. i am easily bored at work and went thru all the pictures on the webpage.
3. i don't know who nancy o'dell is.
4. from photos on imdb of her at various award ceremonies, i would say that her preference in gowns is long, with a train, and a huge slit right up the front--thus i would say that austin totally should have won that. but again, i don't watch the show, and i'm assuming what she said there is different from what she has worn in all the current pictures visible from her public life. so basically, i now think her hypocritical and will forever more as i'll never actually care enough to watch anything she's in or this show.

in conclusion: i think i like kara's designs, over all, out of everybody's.

nancy o'dell is the overly perky host from Access Hollywood.

i had issues with the dress based on the fact that it was orange, not my kind of color.

Yeah, the top was cute. Just not in that color.

I second the Chrysler building dress comment. That dress was amazing. I like Jay because he injects just enough edge into his garments to make them unique and fashion forward without making the model look like a caricature. Kara Saun is great, but she doesn't seem to do anything genuinely new and fresh. You'll always look good in what she makes, but you won't necessarily look interesting.

And as for Wendy Pepper, I have mixed feelings. I don't think her work has been consistent. Sometimes she has great concepts and just hasn't executed it well. In that respect, she'll make a great apprentice; she's got the ideas, she just needs to hone her technical skills. While I personally wouldn't have chosen her over Austin, I can understand why the judges did. Austin has already got the creative concepts and technical skills to be a great designer on his own. Were the apprenticeship with Halston or Valentino, Austin wouldn've been the man. But if I hear Wendy say one more time how she likes to watch people squirm I might throw something at the TV. Or if I hear her bitch about people psychologically fucking with her.

That said, I think Kara Saun is going to win. She's more Banana than Jay.

*SPOILER* *SPOILER* *SPOILER* *SPOILER* *SPOILER* *SPOILER* *SPOILER*
If you look at the footage of fashion week. They show each person's individual line. Kara Saun's is a direct rip off of the design concept for The Aviator. Jay's line looks great, but it's soooooo not Banana and he wouldn't be staisfied with an apprenticeship there. Wendy is a great fit for Banana even though Jay is the most polished designer of the three and I so agree that Austin would have won if the apprenticeship was with Halston or Valentino. He belongs in the world of couture.

I personally think Austin would do very well at Banana. That store and Austin both make me think of feminine glamour, and I think he'd be able to produce a lot of pretty designs for them that would be very popular with their customers (His dress for the Banana challenge still has the highest rating). Wendy, on the other hand, would definitely stick to the sweater-set/casual pant section of the store, which - while functional - is not the kind of thing I buy at Banana if I'm going to pay Banana prices. Give me something unique and glamorous, not more of the same. If you actually look at Banana's dresses, skirts and blouses, you'll see a lot of things that are Austin's style - flowy, vintage-inspired, romantic looks. Sure, he'll need to reign in the frills, but just as the internship would help Wendy hone her inferior skills, it would help Austin bring his "vision" a little more down-to-earth. Also, to say that he's talented, skilled and (now) famous enough to have his own line, only underscores the fact that he should have been one of the final three. Lastly, I don't think that Jay would necessarily be dissatisfied with Banana. Sure, he's more edgy than they are, but as his Chrystler-building dress shows, he can do something pretty when not given as much free-reign as he was given in most of the other challenges. If this show was purely about who is best for Banana, more of the challenges should have been about designing something that was fit for the store. To let someone express themselves however they want and then tell them that they're not right for the store seems ridiculous because they judges have only seen them design specifically for Banana once! Anyway, I totally agree with Erica - Kara's going to win.

The problem with bringing Austin's "vision" a little more down-to-earth is that they've been trying to get him to do that the entire show. If he's not going to listen to Michael Kors when he tells him he needs to break out of his "couture mold" which is a well-respected name in the industry, then he's sure as hell not going to listen to the design team at Banana Republic. Wendy's dress which won the Banana Republic challenge was the most couture and glamorous that Banana has ever gotten and that's coming from someone who used to work for the company. And her dress sold out in stores and online in less than 24 hours.

Telling someone that something is all wrong after they've already made it, isn't really the most effective way of getting them to make the kind of product you're looking for. I can't help but think that the competition is a little like law school. They give you your assignment, let you do what you think is best and then slam you for it when grades come out. Apart from the design school guy's random and not-so-constructive visits, the contestants were left to work on their own and express themselves. In a real design studio situation, I imagine that the designers would be working more closely with a team and have better feedback before presenting their final product. I always got the feeling that Austin was on the right track, but left up to him, he had no real reason to not go for the full-on "Austin Scarlett creation." I guess I'm just a fan of Austin's clothes. I like glamorous and vintage... not that anything that could be called "couture" would ever fit me since it's made for women who are 6' tall. Lastly, I thought Wendy's "holiday" dress was boring, boring, boring. Hell yeah it looks like a Banana Republic dress, but I thought the competition was about who was the best designer, not who could best immitate what BR already thought of.

Actually that's exactly what the challenge was. They took them to the BR design studios, showed them the color palate that they were using for the season and the pieces that had already been included in the line and they were instucted to design a holiday cocktail dress that lived in the same world as what they had already designed and Wendy did just that. I think Austin's designs are beautiful, but they are very distinct and don't live anywhere near the world of BR. It's funny because everytime the challenge involved Austin having to design something that was realizing someone else's vision, he missed the mark. I think he's great, but he doesn't design for anyone else but himself which I respect completely, but it bit him in the ass multiple times during the show including the final challenge that got him eliminated.

Krsitina, I just discovered this post. For some reason, I thought I was the only person in the world obsessed with this show. Yay! Yay! Validation!

Oh Robyn, you're not alone!!
And Kris - I also hate Wendy. I will never think of anyone else when I hear the word "dowdy"

Who do you guys think will win it? Isn't it so tragic that Austin didn't get to fashion week?

I don't want to hear how "the show" edited it to make her look evil.....this woman is pure evil!! Just by watching her confessionals and the finale you can tell what kind of person she really is! I also don't believe it was a game, she should go by her talent alone and not have to worry about sabatoging the other contestants. From the start she said she was going to do anything to win. She is vile and I am very very very happy that she lost! she did not even deserve to be in the top 3.

Word.

I'm so happy that Jay won. He's definitely the most talented and innovative of the bunch and I can't wait to see where he goes.

He's gonna be so fucking miserable at BR, though. His design is the antithesis of the WASP-y conservative style that is BR.

And I can't wait to see his spread in Elle.

I'm also glad Jay won. His stuff isn't as pretty as Kara Saun's, but he is much more innovative and has a great personality and personal style. Although he probably won't like BR that much, it is just an internship and the real prize of the show is getting money and representation to start his OWN line, which he really will like.