Collect(ion) Yourselves

By Olivia Leigh in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 7, 2007 10:40PM

When you think of stylish, modern fashion, don't the terms "neon," "flares," "fringe" and "overalls" pop into your mind? Oh, wait, they don't? Well, on Wednesday's fashion designer throw down, the challengers were faced with modernizing such dreaded fashion trends that we all hoped were relegated to the design graveyard in the sky. As if designing a chic outfit with shoulder pads wasn't hard enough, Nina Garcia also bore the bad news that they would be working in teams of three, forced to mix not one, not two, but three fashion crimes into one three-piece mini-collection. Despite being allowed to choose their own teams (a process that went surprisingly well), drama was not lost on the scissor-wielding contestants, with loads of spats between team members.

Our Chicago contestants hit their first major bump in the road this season, with Steven showcasing a piece that wasn't cohesive with the rest of his team's, and Victorya suffering a classic reality TV character trampling.

While the first three episodes of PR painted Miss V a fairly sweet, articulate contender for Fashion Week, on Wednesday, the nation got a glimpse of her Mr. Hyde, as her bossiness, condescension, and passive-aggression soured our opinion. Sure, we, too, would have been irked to be on a team with Teary McWeeperson and an archetypal hippie artist, charged with designing a three piece mini-collection that incorporated the trends of neon, cutouts, and underwear as outwear, but the Mean Mommy attitudes displayed by our UofC-er probably weren't the best way to deal with obviously emotional personality types. Unsurprisingly, the infighting between Miss V and Ricky didn't help them overcome their challenging trends, and their team was placed in the bottom two.

Steven's team of Sweet P and cuddly Chicagoist favorite Chris were given the trends of the dreaded shoulder pads, dance wear and baggy sweater. Selecting an uber-blah shade of oatmeal, the team's collection was fragmented and uninspiring under the helm of Papa Marsh. Although Steven received a lashing from the judges, including special guest and backhanded smiler, Donna Karan, in the end, our beloved Chris "I'll make things out of salad!" Marsh was given the boot for creating a beauty queen/mother of the bride ensemble, as Team Jillian took it home with a so-wrong-it's-right denim collection.