Thursday, August 14, 2008

Episode 5 Recap

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Fsquared recap of this week's Project Runway. Last night's episode gave the designers the challenge of working in teams to create a day-to-night look for Brooke Sheild's character on the TV show Lipstick Jungle's second season. I've never seen the show, but she seemed to be very sweet and excited to be part of PR, as well as a surprisingly good guest judge (my expectations for celebrity judges are pretty low). Yet again, I'm struck by a certain similarity to a past challenge (Remember when SJP guest judged last season?), but this turned out to be a very interesting and entertaining episode.

Instead of recapping the entire episode, I'll be giving my impressions of all the teams and their designs, starting with the winner, Keith, and Kenley.

All images are from Bravo.com's Project Runway page. Thanks Bravo!



This team was interesting for me, as Kenley happens to be my favorite designer, while Keith is...not so much (If you're going to act like the Best Designer Ever, it seems like making good clothes wouldn't be so difficult). But interestingly enough, Keith came through and produced an appropriate outfit without changing his original design at all, while Kenley seemed to be trying her hardest to steer him in the wrong direction. I'll chalk this up to the contrast between their aesthetics--I think Keith's was much more suited for the bohemian look the challenge required, and overall Keith was able to take charge of the team and produce a good outfit.

As far as the design goes, I thought the convertible sleeves idea was interesting and came out very well. I could definitely see Keith's style in the volume of the skirt, and while I'm not a huge fan of that particular belt with the rest of the outfit, I thought the overall look was perfect for the challenge and the character. Congrats to the both of them!



Now moving on to Jerell and Stella. At first glance, this pairing would seem like disaster, but working together, they made a great team (and how adorable was it to see Jerell trying to make Stella feel better about being picked last? Now I really hope he pulls a Chris March and suddenly starts making the judges love him. And Stella is annoying me less every week, so good for her.). They both seem to have a very calm and relaxed attitude to the show (unlike some other designers--Daniel, I think you should learn some deep breathing exercises) that let them work efficiently together and produce a great design that showcased both of their strengths.

As for the look itself, I personally loved it. It had a bohemian attitude while still having enough professional style to be appropriate for work. I lovelovelove the skirt and the way it moved on the runway, and liked the top as well. According to Tim's blog on Bravo, Brooke Sheilds didn't like the leather belt, which probably was their downfall. I'm not sure the accessories helped much, either--the sunglasses and bag combined made it look a bit too daytime-casual on the surface, although I love the shoes and thought the zebra belt was a fun play on the "jungle" theme.



Moving on to Terri and Suede. They had some issues as a team, and I'm a little confused as to why Terri decided to let Suede make the top (I think he could have handled the pants without causing Terri to flip out) but they produced a really nice outfit that probably would have been in the top three if it hadn't been a team challenge. Despite their problems with it, I really liked the top and it's bohemian style combined with the professional-looking pant was enough to get them through to next week.



Now for Korto and Joe. I love how everyone else chose their partners all bright and happily, and Korto just goes, "Joe". You could tell she was thinking, "Okay, between Leatha-chick, Panic Attack and Notkevin McStraighty, who's going to screw me up the least?" Unfortunately for her, Notkevin apparently figured that if the design sucked and Korto couldn't go home, the judges would just pick some other person to auf--at least until Tim showed up. I actually though Korto was going to finish her whole "Joe-street-bus" rant with, "I would let you get run over, cause you screwed me over, you idiot!" But either way, it was still an awesome rant and partially made up for Korto's design, which was...well...

This was one of those "What-are-the-judges-smoking" moments, because I was sure this would be in the bottom two and most likely chosen as the worst. I'm still convinced that it would have been, if not for Korto's immunity taking away from any of the situation's drama. I think Korto has a definite vision and she will follow it through. Sometimes this is good, like last week. Sometimes this is bad, like when you make a horribly fitted (C'mon Nina, I was depending on you to call them out on it!) tube dress with odd gold trim, and then cover it up with and orange sack. Admittedly, they edited the jacket enough so it wasn't as bad as it could have been (the sash was a good move), but this was definitely my least favorite of everything that was on the runway last night.



Onto Blayne and Leanne. I think Blayne is getting slightly more human every week. Maybe it's the lack of tanning? He's less orange, I swear. Well, he's become rather endearing to me, as opposed to my original feelings of "Please go in a tanning bed and stay there for the rest of the competition, please". And I really respect that he took responsibility for his design and said that he should go home. Because, honestly? This wasn't that bad, but it wasn't all that good, either. For starters, it was way too casual for work--the turquoise shirt contributed to that just as much as the shorts did. I will say that I liked the blue shirt underneath (if for the color alone), but while it was a nice, well-made casual look, it was completely wrong for the challenge. Blayne's just lucky that the judges gave him a pass, because "well-made but totally wrong" was the exact same description I would have given to Jennifer's dress last week.

I just noticed that I barely mentioned Leanne at all. Um...I did not like her scarf. And that's pretty much all I can say for her this week.



And finally, time for Kelli and Daniel. I might have disliked Korto and Joe's design, but at least the concept wasn't terrible. This was...just not good. I thought is was amusing that Brooke was completely thrown back by Stella's corset idea, and then this shows up on the runway--because at least Stella's corset would have been well made. This was completely unsuitable for both the day and night looks, I didn't like the colors (the black was overpowering and boring, the teal and leopard print just looked cheap) and was just bad. I didn't disagree with the judges at all by putting this in the bottom, and I understand why Kelli went home. But considering that the best thing Daniel's made has consisted of plastic cups, I think his time on the show is running out, and I can't blame Kenley for cracking up at the thousandth time he's mentioned his amazing taste level.

Speaking of, stay tuned for next week's episode, where we see the return of Chris March and how Daniel's "impeccable taste" can handle drag queens. Check back soon for our podcast!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Episode 3: New York at Night

And welcome to the third episode of the F Squared Podcast: Food and Fashion! This episode focuses on the third episode of Project Runway Season Five. We start off with our usual welcome, and then move onto the news. Not much to speak of, but there is some talk of Kenley. Also some Top Chef news. Then, we move onto our Episode Recap and discussion in which we recap (as usual) and talk about all the dresses (yet again as usual). Then we move onto a special discussion about the models this season, based on our small knowledge of modeling. We then move onto an "email" section where we talk about our recap for BPR and our lame lame poll in the sidebar, and finish off with a goodbye. Sorry about the length guys, we tried not to make it too long but didn't succeed very well.

Some links from this episode:

Chris March's Blog on Elle's site

All dresses made/discussed in this episode

As always, if I forgot anything or anything is wrong send us an email at fsquaredpodcast@hotmail.com

Now usually we put our player here but I finally figured out that the player doesn't only have that episode. So. From now on (and edited in the post) there will be a player (that you can scroll for the episode) and a link to just the episode. Sorry about that guys, didn't mean to disappoint/create any kind of difficulty or confusion, not sure that it would. Anyways, as said here's the player AND a link to just the episode. Happy listening!

-Abby and Sophie, F Squared Podcast hosts

Episode Three: New York at Night



Episode 4 Recap

My god what an absolutely heart racing episode of Project Runway.

This episode of Project Runway started off with Korto mentioning how she was so sad that Emily was gone. Boo freakin' hoo. Sorry but I don't particularly miss her, but hey maybe that's just me. The designers left for Project Runway HQ where the winner of last weeks challenge (Kenley) decided to stay with her model and therefore eliminated Emily's. How sad. Anyways, now that Bravo has yet again de-importantized the models, we move on to the challenge.

In this episode, a feild trip! How exciting! Gotta love those. Tim Gunn takes the designers on a magical adventure to...oh, no it was just a track and field place. Not as exciting as the Hershey's store I guess. Inside the building, they meet Apolo Ohno, an Olympic gold medalist who apparently knows a thing or two about Olympic fashion. It is revealed that their challenge is to make an opening ceremonies outfit for the American team. And the designers are off on their fantastic adventure in fashion.

At Mood drama ensues. First Keith takes Terri's fabric (shame on you Keith!) and doesn't give it up for her when, well, it was hers first. A little disappointed there Keith-boy. Also at mood, Stella decides to use black for her garment. Wow Stella, that's a good way to earn yourself negative points. But I guess it's okay because Jennifer didn't even use red white and blue. Though I'm not sure why this challenge had mandatory RW&B. Yeah it's the US thang but aren't there other ways? Anyways, the shocking thing is that Stella wasn't the one to choose leather, it was Korto. Now you gotta wonder what was happening here. Stella is the leatha all the way girl while Korto not so much. So this was quite the surprise for me at least. Kudos to both of them for branching out. Especially Stella.

Now back to the work room where all the fun sewing and such happens. There's not much to talk about really. Apparently Kenley has decided to make Daniel her gay-best-friend. Great. Because that's just what we need, Kenley laughing her head off. Apparently I wasn't the only one annoyed. Joe and, oh, everyone else was pretty annoyed as well. Hopefully one of the challenges will require duct tape so we can use it on Kenley's mouth. Joe was having quite the issues today I must say. First there was Daniel rethreading "his" machine. Okay, sorry Joe, but get the hell over it. It was like you were finding an excuse to hate the guy. Personally, I think Joe doesn't enjoy being the token straight guy. Unlike some past people like Kevin. Kevin ate it up. He complains that "there are too many queens around,". Well I'm sorry Joe but that's what you get when you're on Project freakin Runway. Lots and lots of gay guys. What did you expect?

Tim Gunn makes his walk around and makes the usual comments. One of the ones that stuck with me was calling Blayne's dress looking like Sergent Pepper. Of which Blayne had no idea what the hell Tim Gunn was talking about. He went on to be clueless to say that the only thing he knew nothing about the Beatles except from Across the Universe. Now, Across the Universe is a great movie but it's far from classic Beatles. Nice job Blayne of making a Foolilicious out of yourself again. The second time in the episode, the first being his obsession with tanning. Dude, get over it. I can tell that you're addicted to this tanning thing but thats one thing that we like to call "unhealthy habits". Deal with you own paleness. Plus tanning that often isn't healthy so...good thing that you're getting this PR detox.

Daniel also decides that his garment looks like Wonder Woman. Actually, I would have to disagree because to the best of MY knowledge, Wonder Woman tends to stick to something a little more skimpy than that dress, but what can ya do? On Kenley's advice he gets rid of the cape like thing he had made to go with his dress. This wasn't the only hand Kenley had in Daniel's work. She also thought his fabric was too purple, but failed to mention that to him when it was one of his bigger downfalls. Am I sensing sabotage here? For the record, I didn't think that fabric was purple. It was blue. No question in my mind. Now off to bed for more competition in the morning!

The next day, the designers are all spiffed out as they usually are for runway shows. Not sure why, but that's okay. They hastily fit their models and send them off to the product placed Loreal Paris Makeup Room and the Tresseme Hair Salon. In which they all demand red white and blue. And it's time for another runway show!

Now I'm not gonna talk about everything, just some ones I liked and some I hated. Oh but before that, I think everyone who made a dress that looked like fashion was out of their mind. They're freakin' athletes. It's kind of hard to oh, run a mile or be all tough, strong, and intimidating in big floppy hats and heels. Anyways. One I detested was Daniels, even though I adore the guy. It looked cheap it looked not thought out it just looked stupid and gross. I mean, no one pairs two bright colors like that. Never. And the buttons down the front were just the icing on the cake. Hated it, hated it, hated it. Another one I didn't really like was Leanne's. On and on with her structural things and the only color was the collar. It seemed a bit too boring. And strange. Focus the strange on the collar.Another one I didn't really like was Jerell's. It LOOKED like he was trying to be fashionable and not complete the challenge. And there was too much going on. I liked the hat though it was pretty cool. Didn't work for the challenge, but it was cool.

Now for ones I liked, isn't that lovely. Alright we're gonna start with my ultimate favorite this game, Joe. Joe just totally captured the challenge. It was sporty, which is what the Olympics are about. It had freakin USA on it. It just totally ruled, though I didn't know that was how skorts worked. I thought skorts were skirts that had shorts built in UNDER them, not that strange dysfunctional "skirt-in-front-short-in-back" thing that he has going on. Another one I really liked was Stella's. Okay yeah it's black. But it's sleek, it's sporty and it's kickass. That's all there is to it. It seemed sorta red white and blue X-Men to me but maybe that's the comic geek in me talking. Another one that I liked was Korto's, though it would not finish in my top. I liked her leather jacket thang though her pants were going to take over the world. It was fashionable, just liked Joe's better.

The top three are revealed to be Joe, Korto and Terri. The bottom three are Jerell, Daniel and Jennifer. The judges talk down to them and shower them with compliments, have a little chat and decide that Korto is the winner (though nice work Terri) and Jennifer is out (though you better do better next time Daniel or else you're in trouble). Now during this whole happening I was shaking in my seat. You see, Daniel is my personal favorite and I knew from the minute I saw his horrendous garment that this would be a very, very scary episode. So as I watched this episode, I hid behind my hands and prayed to the Project Runway gods that he wasn't the one eliminated. When it was announced that Jennifer was out, I jumped out of my seat and screamed "YES YES YES THANK YOU YOU SMART JUDGES. You were way too close on that one, it was going to be traumatizing" and I sat through next weeks preview.

Now what did I think of this episode? I thought it was traumatizing. I almost died of a heart attack and fear for my favorite Daniel being eliminated. I just hope that the judges are nicer to me in the future and don't make me practically keel over. As said, I think Joe should have won (yeah Korto's was great but his fit PERFECTLY) and I was glad that anyone other than Daniel was eliminated. Looking for more of our opinions on this episode? Stay tuned for the next episode of the podcast in which we will discuss the designs at length.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Submit your Opinions!

Okay so say you're listening to our podcast and you realize you have so many opinions that you can't fit them all into an email? Or maybe you'd prefer to just SAY them to us. Well wait no longer! If you have opinions that you want to send to us in a verbal or video form, feel free to mail them to our email address. If we get any of these, we will feature them on the podcast. Make it as long as you want (but don't get carried away) and feel free to say anything you want. If you just want to tell us your opinions on...well...us, then just let us know in the subject line or somewhere in the email that you don't want it aired. Happy recording (if you're interested)!

- Abby [and Sophie] of the F Squared Podcast

Episode 2: Eco Friendly

Hello all our listeners!

Not sure if you're out there but here with exciting news. A second episode! And a third due out in the very very near future. Anyways, a little about this one...hmmm. Well, first of all, this one isn't nearly as long as the last, which I hope some of you listeners who don't have time for long podcasts will like/appreciate. For our second episode, we discuss (you guessed it) the second episode of Season Five of Project Runway. First we start off with a welcome and a special news segment. Then we go into our episode recap and discussion where we discuss the dresses made and what we thought of the episode. The normal. In our discussion, we talk more about our impressions of the designers considering all we've seen. To wrap it up we beg for email yet again and wrap it on up.

Here's all of the links that we talked about today:

All the dresses discussed in this episode

Again if I forgot anything, let me know. If you're looking for links to Blogging Project Runway and Blogging Top Chef, they can be found in our sidebar. Feel free to drop us a line at fsquaredpodcast@hotmail.com. The podcast is posted below, though there's a link in the sidebar, and a link to itunes in the sidebar where you can download it. Please enjoy the latest episode, and stay tuned for more!

- Abby and Sophie, hosts of the F Squared Podcast: Fashion and Food

Episode 2: Eco Friendly



Wednesday, August 6, 2008

F Squared is on ITunes!

Good news what reader/listeners we have! F Squared is now on Itunes! That's right, an easy free way for you to download our podcast. I'm not sure how podomatic works yet, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the height of easy downloading our content from there. So. As of now, it will be there to download EASILY. Key word easy. Anyways, me and Sophie are hoping that this will drag in more viewers.

As of now, I don't believe we are searchable on ITunes, which is only slightly messed up, but supposedly it will be in the next 1-2 days. In the meantime, look forward to another episode being posted sometime tonight, and a third episode either coming out on Friday before I leave for a week, or sometime in the next week (in which Sophie would have to upload it so not so sure about that). Also on Friday, look forward to a review of the fourth episode that will be on Blogging Project Runway and on this blog.

So enough chatting already! Dying to find us on Itunes? Look no futher than the follwing link:

F Squared Podcast on Itunes!

With all due respect, Abby (and if you can name THAT reference you also get a Hoho.)

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Episode 1: First Impressions

Welcome to F Squared: Food and Fashion! A podcast about Bravo's hit reality shows Project Runway and Top Chef. This is our premiere episode, in which we discuss the premiere episode of Season Five of Project Runway. We'll start of with a quick intro about ourselves and news from both the world of Project Runway and Top Chef. Included is news on Project Runway's switch to Lifetime. Then we'll go into a quick episode recap and discussion about 5x01. In it, we include our opinions on the winner, loser, and all the garments made in this challenge. Next we have a discussion about our impressions and thoughts about all the designers. To wrap it up, we'll talk about how to contact us and a quick goodbye.

Some of the links to things mentioned in our podcast:

Cooking with Friends (on threadless.com)with Andrew of Top Chef

Boston.com Stylephile blog on Project Runway switch to lifetime

Boston Globe article on Fauxhawks featuring Bravo stars(just the images from it)

All the dresses made/discussed in this episode

For links to Blogging Project Runway and Blogging Top Chef, check out the sidebar (thataway -->). Did we forget one? Feel free to drop us a line at fsquaredpodcast@hotmail.com to let us know.

The podcast is below, as well as in our feed (http://fsquaredpodcast.podomatic.com/rss2.xml) and in the sidebar. Thanks for listening, and look forward to a second episode in the very near future.

-Abby and Sophie, hosts of the F Squared Podcast.

Episode 1: First Impressions