Like a Reflection on a Car Crash

Wow, that went really fast. I've never taken a winter class, and I knew it was going to go quickly but GEEZ. Oddly though, I do feel like I learned a lot.

I'm already a blog addict. I have one on deadjournal. One on livejournal. One on each of three obscure and long-forgotten blog sites for different reasons. One dedicated to my quest of watching 250 movies this year. (Yeah, this is shameless self-promotion.) One on facebook for random thoughts. Seriously, this writing thing and sharing it with people who couldn't care less--it's old news to me.

However, having to post blogs on time and having it be so shortly after I get home from work... it was tough. I'm sure there's a reason for having it be 11 pm, but it would be so much easier to have it be midnight. Technically, arriving home from work at around 10:15 should give me enough time, but there's truth to the winding-down myth. It's hard to move from 8 or 9 hours of working straight into more working.

I think blogger was a good option. I only wish that I'd been able to use the pop program I already have for my other journals (I wasn't kidding, I do this too much). For some reason, it seems easier to me to just open a simple program from my desktop than to navigate to a staggering, what, 3 pages? Such work!

It's odd to me that this is new to people, not going to lie. In my mind, basic and slightly-past-basic html knowledge is just.... a given. Knowing how to create your own link or image code, or format your text and sizing--that all seems like it's simple stuff. I guess I only know a bunch of nerds...

However, I did enjoy this class and absolutely loved the opportunity to make references and have them understood. My friends aren't as .... we'll say immersed as I am, not at all. I mentioned Liza Minelli once and got the blankest stare I have ever seen.

I nearly cried.

Jeffrey vs. Angela's Mom

In season 3 of Runway, there was an episode where the designers were to design for an "everyday woman". This translated to having the other designers' mothers, sisters, and aunts for their models! Two of the designers, Jeffrey and Angela, already didn't like each other, and then Jeffrey ended up with Angela's mother for his model. She was, to say the least, a bit dowdy and a bit frumpy, and certainly not a good option for a model. She had little poise, little self-esteem, and all that is necessary for showcasing a garment. It's easy to understand why Jeffrey was so frustrated with her.
The clip that I want to focus on occurred right in the middle of the show. It was the second day of construct, and Jeffrey had started working on his garment. Darlene, Angela's mother, begins complaining that she's not comfortable with the garment and she doesn't like the color, and the cut isn't complimentary, and on and on. Jeffrey explains that it's the fabric she wanted, and when she keeps complaining, he asks her to please leave because he's irritated with her and he doesn't want her near him.

Naturally, this upsets Darlene and she goes to Angela very upset. There follow shots of Darlene snuffling and crying to Angela, "Nobody talks to me like that! I'm just so hurt. So hurt and so insulted." Angela, in turn, goes to Jeffrey and tells him he should be ashamed for treating the poor woman like that.

It's hard to tell where this was meant to be seen. Obviously, we are shown precisely what is meant to be seen. However, I'm a very confrontational person and I have little sympathy for people who like to reside in their own pathetic puddle, while asking other people to come sit with them and moan. I don't like people who can't stand for themselves, who try to speak in small voices and hope to make their opponent feel stupid. I don't have any sympathy for people who just sit and bemoan their own situations but don't try to speak up for themselves. So, yeah, I do feel like this is something shot in Jeffrey's court. He comes off as a jerk, but we are shown how annoying Darlene was being. All of the shots of her were uncomplimentary, and we're reminded again and again that Jeffrey got to choose his model last and was therefore stuck with her.

It seems like we're supposed to side with Darlene because she's the one crying, and she's a woman and a mom, and people are saying Jeffrey is being a jerk. But, like I said, all of the build-up pushes to the side of Angela being a wacko and then, apple and tree, assuming that Darlene is just as crazy. So it's a bit of an ironic thing when you side with Jeffrey, but I totally do.

Granted, the garment he ends up making is hideous and totally suits her, but still. It's hard to deal with someone who is so against you and against working with you.

Project Hegemony

Project Runway is all about revenue, let's be honest. The point of having a fashion designer is to design clothing that people will want, that they'll buy. The point of having a show about finding that designer is to create a hype around them that will create a market when they actually start to produce designs.
There's a struggle, however, in finding a balance between what "works" in a market and what the designer's vision is. Waist-level pants worked for who knows how long, but someone had to step out and make hip-level jeans. Many times on the show, we see the judges saying, "There's no market for this," but the designer is obviously coming with a vision and feels that yes, there could be a market for it. If a designer would rather design for regular-sized women, i.e. ready to wear fashions, then they get categorized under "plus-size designers" and are written off as unable to design high fashion.
There's really nothing about Runway that refutes the power structure in America. It fully recognizes that there's a market of buyers, and if you don't give them something they'll want, you have no product. It can be a beautifully constructed outfit, seamlessly built and flawlessly modeled, but if the consumers aren't interested... well, it's trash. So the creative structure of the designer, the artist, is crushed. In a way, it's like the West Coast rock movement. They had a vision, but because they needed the revenue from "the man", their vision became a tool against them. Designers need sponsors, they need to be able to buy cloth and hire models and repair machines. But if that means they have to conform their vision to what the client wants, and they have no freedom, then is it really worth it?

Little Miss Picky

I don't really like Heidi Klum. Yeah, I'm more partial to her than to other super models, but she's still just a bit flaky for me. Her face in this ad is a bit of the reason why. The look on her face is really kind of.... evil, in a way. She's got the designers' heads on pins and she's picking them out one by one to throw them away. Of course, they've got the cleavage going on and the semi-sexy face. It's saying, "You want to watch, you want to see what happens, you want to see what you'll see."
The designers are secondary in this ad. What, a little pink box with 15 designers in it? Of course, I can tell which is which simply by how they're standing and their mini-appearance... but as a first-time viewer, I'd have no idea of the identity of these people. You can also see where the "Premieres Tonight" is circled in that sketchy yellow to make you think of design. It's a good idea, I just don't like this ad.

Confessions of a Runway Junkie

Due to time constraints, Miss Luxie was unavailable to offer her input on this particular interview. In her place, I asked the lovely Sarah Norton to assist me.

Sarah is a design student along with me, in the greatly miniscule theater department here at UMBC. The costume design students are limited to, maybe, 6 or 7 people. It's not a very large field of study, especially not at a science and math... and computer.... school. Sarah, along with 5 other theater students, spent Wednesday nights at the beginning of the fall semester watching Project Runway, so she was the perfect person to talk to for this interview, although not the initial choice.

Sarah started watching Runway during the second season, about halfway through. At that point, she mostly watched it alone, duking it out with her brother for the right to wield the remote. "It was really the only show I liked, the only show I even tried to watch," she explains. As a budding designer, there was something captivating about this show. Seeing people get to design garments and then have the opportunity to make them on someone else's tab and have them critiqued by industry experts... it was like watching a dream.

"When you watch things like Survivor or Real World, it's not real. It doesn't seem like reality, because nobody is ever really put in those situations. Oh, stuck on an island? In a house with 6 other carefully selected, relatively attractive, constantly drunk twenty-somethings? It's just... it's silly. It's not realistic. But with Project Runway, it was something I'd seen before. I've worked in costume shops, I've built garments, I've drawn designs. I know that what they're doing is a real task, a real challenge. I know that creating a dress in 8 hours is... well, it's impossible!" Sarah mentioned that she entertains the idea of one day possibly being a contestant on Runway, but is unsure of whether or not she'd want to go for it.

When it comes to the personalities of Project Runway, Sarah has much the same things to say about them as others. She enjoys mocking Heidi Klum: just because she's a model doesn't mean she's charming! Tim Gunn and his catch-phrases were one of the first things she mentioned. Although she's watched for a season and a half, his accent is still hard for her to figure out. The designers themselves are also a point of discussion for Sarah and her friends. On the morning after a new Runway, they discuss the craziness of Vincent, the sweetness of Michael, the cattiness of Laura.

The judges can be quite catty as well. Sarah got heated about one particular challenge elimination, where contestant Alison was eliminated because the judges felt that she had committed some heinous crime against "the female form", because her model didn't look twiggy. "It looked way better than that awful paper... thing that Vincent made! It was like a bag! He just put a bag on his model and then talked about how it turned him on!! I think that what made Alison really get out was that Minnie Mouse hairdo. That was a mistake. But the garment, which is supposed to be the important thing, wasn't that bad. I liked it. It had a design, it just happened that her model had a size 3 waist instead of a size 1." After Sarah calmed down, she remarked that she saw Alison being in the top three and never expected her to go so much earlier.

Actually, Runway has become an easy reference for Sarah. More than once, while walking in a mall or leafing through a magazine, she has noticed something and turned to a friend to comment, "Oh, doesn't that look like the dress Kayne did for the couture challenge??" Unfortunately for her, there are only two or three friends to whom that sentence will make any sense.

How Not To Get Auf'd

For my interview, I plan on talking to my dear friend Lux. While I may change my mind, these are the questions I plan on asking her:

• When and why did you start watching Runway?
• Do you watch it in a social setting, or generally alone?
• How much attention do you put into not missing an episode?
• Have you ever felt like the judges were too harsh with their critiques?
• How satisfied have you been with the winners?
• How seriously would you consider buying the fashions produced by the Runway winners?
  

Runway

As a costume designer, I love to see fashion photography--not only for the designs and garments represented, but also for the choices made by the photographer in representing the fashions. A part of that is represented in Bravo's Project Runway. I only recently got into it, this last season, but I'll admit I was sucked in right away. Something about watching these lucky lucky people get to design and create on someone else's tab was just like watching a dream come true. So, I'll be talking about it for this class. More specifically, I'll be discussing the 3rd season, since it's the one I watched and Bravo doesn't do crazy marathons of past seasons. I WISH!