Banana Republic: Obey.

Well, I didn't break down or anything. I kind of saw it coming. I went down to the lovely RISD campus (where Diana got her schoolin') earlier this week, and of course I thought about her and settled on the fact that she would be out, if not now, very soon. I realized that she probably isn't meant to share the stage with some of the other designers. Not to say that she's worse or better, just to say that she's different. Among graduates of Parson's and F.I.D.M., she was a quirky nerd from Rhode Island School of Design. She's not for big runways, pushy publicity and mass production, she's at her best at an MIT fashion show. And actually, she will be at an MIT fashion show- I'd go, I'm not far away, but it's midweek and I'll sadly be working. She was also on the Today Show this morning (which I missed- thought it was tomorrow. Ah, well. I'll assume she was nerdy, adorable and more articulate than presented on the show.) She's also online showing us how to put robots into handbags and whatever. You know, that stuff she couldn't really utilize on Project Runway.
And so, farewell to you, the lovely Miss Diana Eng.

Oh, and Marla too. Tough break, eh? Bye.


So, this week's challenge was product placement for Banana Republic. Oops, I mean, shop for the winning design at Banana Republic. No, what I meant to say was: Banana Republic, obey.

Andrae and Daniel are soooo cute, and I knew they were going to pull it off. I hope they start holding hands regularly, or at least have best friend montages in which they get into a pillowfight or drink a milkshake with two bendy straws or something. Andrae looked positively orgasmic when he found out he got to set up a window display. I adore that flamboyant little man. Now that Diana's out, he's my boy to win. I'm so pleased he finally won a challenge, and an important one at that.

At first I felt confident that Chloe and Emmett, both being people of business, would fly through this challenge, but frankly, I'm weirded out by their final design. Shiny reversable jacket? Who are you, Guadalupe? And yet the judges raved- I was confuddled.
Also, I finally realized just how short Chloe is. Of course, Emmett is also freaskishly tall, but standing between Grace and Emmett makes Chloe look like a little girl. Like, a toddler. For all my suspicion about Bravo's weird, possibly over-sexed scrapbook choices, they finally delivered a useful picture:

The bare feet, bent posture and baby-blue dress don't really help, but damn! She's got to be about eye-level with Emmett's belly button. She might be up to his nipples with heels, but, I'd take that as a reason to not wear heels.

Also weird: Santino. I never thought I'd say this about anything, but I'm sick of his creativity and vision. It's fine when it's for himself and his clothes, when he starts saying that he knows his vision is going to be the future of this company or of fashion itself or, you know, cars and lifestyles and the whole fucking world, I begin to think he needs to do more than tone it down, he needs to go into therapy. Of course they can't be OUT, fuck no, they're the golden boys! What a turd.
Santino does a much better impression of Tim Gunn than he does of Diana. Was he aware that she had a cold (according to her blog)? And I'm wondering if anyone else caught the multiple notes on his sketches reading, no lie, "Don't hate on this!"
My boyfriend's commentary: "It got better when I saw the Russian hat. I was like, 'How could they keep Santinaaaaaahahaha look at that hat!'"

I think that's all right now- the lap top is going to die in about four minutes, anyway. Hey, I'm collaborating over at another blog, you can check my profile for the link, and I'll probably mention again once I get the time to actally write something over there.