Katy's Take - The Finale

She's back! Everyone 's been asking about where Katy's recaps have gone and if you haven't been following the sad saga on her website, well she thought she would go all X Games on us and sort of injured herself on the snowboard. Anyways, she checked in to let us know all is well and she's caught up on her recaps. Here's her take on the finale:

Final 5 Collections

Christian’s collection wasn’t my favorite, but I completely understood and supported the judges’ decision on the win. It’s obvious that Christian is a natural at design and I’m jealous at the level of his talent (especially being so young!). I thought his collection was a little repetitive and I would have loved to see some color, but designers tend to get in phases, so maybe this is his puffy-sleeved, black and neutral phase. I would be willing to bet that in a season or two, he is on a completely different track and will have a new obsession and I can’t wait to see what it is!

Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she picks out her loves, likes and dislikes from all Final 5 collections.

Katy's Take: Episode 10

Katherine Gerdes was everywhere during fashion week. But she still managed to find time to share her thoughts with us on Episode 10.

Okay… help me out here. I’m totally torn between hating and loving this challenge. Is it possible to do both? I had assumed that I would HATE everything about this episode, honestly I can’t think of anything tackier than WWE costumes except for maybe actual stripper wear, but it turned out to be entertaining and had some good results.

So now the question is; do you think “America’s next top designer” can be determined with a challenge like this (imagine if one of your favorites went home over this challenge, for me that would have been Rami getting sent home over that awful pink thing)? Or, do you think a challenge like this actually helps determine who the best designer is because it shows that they have range and can produce something great even with a ticky-tacky challenge like this?

Ugh, I still can’t decide…

Click here to continue reading Katy's take as she takes a closer look at each of the designs from "Raw Talent".

Katy's Take

I was really intrigued when I heard about this challenge, because I had just recently finished up working on a project for DIFFA Dallas. Each year DIFFA Dallas has a big fundraiser/charity event where they ask designers and artists to work with a denim jacket and transform it to whatever they want. The only requirement is that there is some portion of the original jacket in the final piece, other than that, it’s totally up to the designer what to do with it. Back in Dec, I posted this about what I was working on and this week’s PR challenge inspired me to post the finished dress (I had been meaning to post it, but had been falling behind on everything!).

Anyways, just thought it was funny that I had finished a denim “makeover” and then find out that Project Runway did the same thing!

Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she reviews each design from Episode 10.

Katy's Take - Episode 8

I loved this challenge and definitely think it was the best of the season so far (conceptually and the designs). I’m really excited that the producers created a challenge that specifically asked for something avant-garde and “high fashion.” It’s pretty easy (in Project Runway and real life) for a designer to stick with nice, wearable garments since that’s what usually sells and it’s much easier to complete a simpler garment in the PR time constraints, so it’s not as much a risk to finish.

My main complaint with this challenge… I think it was totally unfair to the models to be selected on their hairstyles. I like the concept of being inspired by a hairstyle, but let’s be honest, most of those styles were awesome, but a few of them looked like the models woke up late and did it themselves. As some of my hairstylist friends said, “It looks like it was 10 minutes to show time and they realized they still had 3 girls to finish…” Knowing how they film the episodes, I think this is probably what happened (they film the model selection part immediately after the last designer has been “auf’d”). So in this case, I’m guessing Kevin was still in his exit interview while they were filming this segment.

Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she reviews all of the designs from "En Garde!".

Katy's Take

Season 3 alumnus Katherine Gerdes is back from her latest snowboarding adventure just in time to give us her take on Episode 7:

Here’s the deal, I missed the new episode Wednesday night because I had a fashion show meeting and I was expecting to catch a rerun, but no luck. I’m heading out of town this afternoon and teaching snowboarding all weekend, so I won’t see it until next week (how awful!).

So… I thought I’d try something new this time. I grabbed the pictures from BPR and read just enough comments to know that Victorya won, Kevin is out and it was some sort of prom theme (obviously for clients since the models aren’t the usual selection). Other than that, I don’t know anything about the episode. I’m going to assume that the designers were asked to work with their clients to make the “perfect” prom dress?

Just keep all this in mind while reading… there’s a chance I missed some important twist to the challenge, but for now (I might have to update this after I see the episode) I’m basing my comments PURELY on the pictures.

Hopefully this works out. If not… oh well. :)

Click here to see how well Katy made it work. Just on the photos alone, she came to many of the same conclusions you did!

Katy's Take

Season 4: Episode 5 “What’s the Skinny”

I loved the concept of this challenge and it was definitely the best episode of the season so far (and not at all because of the drama with Jack and Chris)! It’s a topic that almost everyone can really relate too and we can all look up to and respect these women for what they’ve accomplished. Also, wouldn’t you love to be able to remake your old clothes into something fresh and new to wear? I always hate having to get rid of something I used to love because it either doesn’t fit or it’s out of date.

As for the Jack/Chris topic, I knew it was coming, but I was really sad to see Jack leave. The stress of the competition is hard enough, but also having to deal with a health issue (and a visible one at that) is out of the question. I’m glad that he was able to make the decision for his health, but I would have loved to see him on the show more and I think he had a lot more talent to give to the competition. Assuming there’s a season 5 of PR, I think Jack should definitely get an invite back onto the show!

I was also glad to see Chris come back since I didn’t really think he should have been kicked off the previous week, but I’m a bit confused to the “reasoning” that Tim gave about why they brought him back… to say that it was to “keep the level of competition” didn’t quite pass with me. Under this reasoning, don’t you think it was REALLY unfair for them to not replace the missing teammate for Alison and Jeffery when Keith got kicked off? At least in this episode, it was each designer for themselves, so with Jack leaving, he wasn’t hurting anyone else’s chance.

Also, while I totally believe the above, I can’t lie and say that I haven’t thought about how it probably would have been ME that they would have brought in to replace Keith’s spot (since I was the last one kicked off before the cheating issue). Too bad they didn’t…oh well… maybe I can come back if they ever do a “Second Chance” season of past PR contestants. :)

Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she takes a closer look at each design from "What's The Skinny?".

Katy's Take

Season 4: Episode 4 "Trendsetter"

Yowza… I don’t know when it happened, but my recap somehow got really long this time! Sorry! I’ll keep this intro short (Ugly trends? Teams? It makes for a good challenge, but I’m glad I didn’t have to go through it!). Before I start though, I do have one question that reader "Tundrababe" would like me to answer:

Q: “Those shoes are really cute, and so is the top. Haha - I think they're really reaching in their interpretation of overalls though! I've also wondered about how they pick the accessories. Hopefully a designer like Katy will see this post and fill us in!”

A: When it comes to shoes and accessories, it’s basically a free-for-all situation. Although there wasn’t much fitting in the time that I was there, most designers started pulling different shoes and accessories as soon as they knew what the challenge was and what their fabric looked like so they would have options when the models came in. So far this season, the Bluefly wall looks MUCH more interesting and well stocked then our Macy’s wall. Personally I thought the Macy’s wall was really bad (especially the shoes!) and didn’t have much variety. Also, there weren’t any “standards” for shoe sizes. You basically grabbed the shoes you wanted and hoped that your model could walk in them (which wasn’t always the case).

A personal story about the shoes… on the episode I got kicked off on, I described my dress as simple and sporty and then got criticized by the judges for putting Amanda in heels (this didn’t make the final episode cut). I explained that I had used the most basic/cleanest style of heels on our accessory wall knowing that heels didn’t really fit the look I was going for, but the judges weren’t satisfied. They thought that I should have put her in flip-flops or cool sneakers, and suggested that since those didn’t exist on the accessory wall; I should have used my own sneakers on my model! The problem with that? Most models are aprox a size 8-9 and I wear a 6, so I’m pretty sure there was no way for Amanda to squeeze into my shoes. Anyways, that’s just a personal story on how the judges really do take into account the overall “styling” of the model and not just the clothes. :)


Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she critiques each team collection.

Katy's Take

Season 3 designer Katherine Gerdes returns with her take on Episode 2, "I Started Crying". It's a BPR exclusive!

First things… I have to give props to all the designers for the success of this challenge. I don’t know if you guys have ever shopped at Mood, but $15 does NOT get you much and to be honest I have no idea how they made this challenge work. For a company such as Steve and Barry’s (or Target which I know more about), they have the size and purchasing power to knock the price of fabric down so they can afford a $15 wholesale price, but buying retail fabrics and expecting wholesale garments is really challenging so I give props to all the designers!

Before I get to the reviews, let me put out a blanket statement, so I don’t have to repeat myself over and over again: With the exception of Marion and Steven’s, I thought everyone’s garments look really well executed and properly finished and I imagine this is going to be the case for most of this season!

Also… can I just ask what is up with the hair/styling this season? I don’t know if it’s a new team of stylists or what, but so far it’s been pretty bad this season. I’ve been watching PR this year with a group of girls who are all hair/makeup artists and they cannot stand what is going down the runway (and I’m not talking about the clothing).

Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she reviews each of the design's in detail.

Katy's Take - Episode 1

BPR welcomes back Season 3 designer Katherine Gerdes for her exclusive take on Season 4. Katy not only gives us her insight as a professional designer but also as a former contestant. Welcome back Katy!

Season 4: Episode 1 “Sew Me What You Got”

Yeah! Project Runway is back! Hopefully you guys are as excited as I am! Personally, I’m really hoping that the extra time they took to edit and put this season together will make it a much stronger show this time around.

Before I start, I just want to make a quick disclaimer… I don’t know anything about the new show, or any “behind the scenes” details and I’ve never met any of the new designers. I know as much about this season as you guys do, so my opinions are based purely on what I see on Wednesday nights. I’m definitely not looking to offend or tear anyone’s designs apart (Project Rungay is where I go for that… Love TLO!), but I’ll try to explain why I like or dislike the designs as nicely as I can. Please feel free to disagree with me, but as the season goes along, know that I’m not trying to pick on your favorite designer or dislike their designs based on the designers’ personalities.

Thanks a lot to BPR for asking me to do “Katy’s Take” again!

I just have to say quickly, that overall I was really impressed with the construction quality of most of the garments. I wasn’t into many of the actual designs, but the construction looked pretty good for almost everyone!

On with the show:

Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she responds to each of the designs from the Season 4 premiere.