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| The Mentors and Ms. G Tongi |
In my previous post, I mentioned that I attended the Mega YDC Party at 7th High where we watched the 1st episode of the show. It's the quintessential episode where they introduced the allstars and the young designers. They gave us a glimpse of their backgrounds which gave us our much needed human interest stories behind each aspiring designer.
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| The Young Designers |
Here are some interesting details that caught my attention:
- We learned from a contestant, Adrian, that most of the young designers came from our school (Fashion Institute of the Philippines).
- Adin's dream is to study in a fashion school. He has no formal training in fashion.
- We have a fierce transwoman contestant named Zendelle.
- FIP's previous Designer of the Year (Joy) and his Runner Up (Adrian) are in too. That's like a nicer version of Alyssa Edwards and Coco Montrese from Ru Paul's Drag Race Season 5.
- Rica went to do fashion because her dad won't give her money to buy a designer dress that she liked so she looked for a sewer and got the dress for half the price.
- Marian was a fashion editor who became a designer. She studied in the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and had her intership at Vera Wang.
- And mostly it's about the designer Puey Quiñones, who became infamous for his retagging controvesy early last year. If you live under a rock or has Dory's memory just google it and be amazed by its infamy.
All in all, I liked episode 1 for giving us a good glimpse of what's in store for us in the future. From the get go, I am rooting for my friends, Joy and Rona, but I also started to like other interesting contestants like Marian and Adrian. Although nobody got any specific editing yet (the bitch of the show, the fan favorite, the dark horse, the cry baby, etc.) except maybe for Bryan who seemed to be on his "uber competitive mode" on the very first episode, I'm pretty sure it will come eventually. So far my hopes are high for this show. Then came episode 2...
It's funny how I had high hopes about the show's editing during episode 1, then got a really poor editing for episode 2. Before I get into that, let's talk about what happened.
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| (from left) Chris Diaz, Puey Quiñones, John Herrera G Tongie-Walters, and Paul Herrera |
In this episode, the young designers were informed they will have to work in teams which is so Project Runway Season 11. They will have to work under four fashion houses which represents a certain aesthetic.
House Diaz - Romantic and Feminine
House Rogador - Urban and Sporty
House Herrera - Dramatic and Theatrical
House Quiñones - Edgy and Avant Garde
The young designers showcased their proudest pieces in a fashion show in order to get into the fashion house of their choice. The selection process reminds of Ru Paul's Drag Race Allstars as well as Oxygen's latest model competition called The Face which featured supermodel Naomi Campbell, Carolina Kurkova, and Coco Rocha as mentors.
Each young designer will take their turn as the mentors choose if they are interested of getting them for their house. If the young designer's choice, which was concealed on a scroll that they are holding, matches the house that chose them then they will go to that house.
We learned from this episode that most of the young designers got their first choice except for Rona and Emir who both went to House Rogador by default. Apparently, House Rogador didn't seem like a popular choice among the younger contestants during the selection process.
Right after the selection process, it was announced that their first challenge will be called the Retaso Challenge. It is all about destroying their proud pieces and using those materials to create a look which should embody the Parisian Shoe that they were assigned. I can only imagine how hard it was for the young designers to tear their proud pieces to shreds for this challenge.
In the work room, it seemed like there was a bit of tension building up between Joy and Brian, Rona and her teammates, and Gino and Adin. Honestly, I would've wanted to see more of that work room drama because that's what reality competitions are all about, but instead I only got conflicts with poor editing. From work room we then jumped on to the fashion council.
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| (from left) Cary Santiago, Sari Yap, Naomi Matsuda Monzon, G Tongi, Walters and Tetta Ortiz Matera |
The fashion council or the judges for this challenge includes one of my fashion idols Cary Santiago, Mega Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Sari Yap, Parisian's Naomi Matsuda Monzon, and model turned lifestyle writer Tetta Ortiz Matera. The fashion council liked the look of House Rogador but they lambasted the designs of both House Diaz and House Herrera. Ultimately, it was House Quiñones who wowed the fashion council and won the challenge. The council said that it was the redeeming moment that Puey Quiñones is looking for and then came the tears.
I personally agree with the fashion council's choice of choosing House Quiñones. I love their look and it's definitely up my alley. House Rogador's look was a close second for me if there was any second place. As for the fashion council, I love Tetta Ortiz because of her critiques which were very honest and very good for TV. I would love to see her more in the next episodes of Mega YDC.
Now as for the losing teams, they will have to nominate one member who will be up for elimination. This is very much like The Face's elimination process minus the part where the winning mentor chooses which contestant to eliminate. The designers who were up for elimination were Rona, Adin, and Rica. Like what I said, I think there were some tension in the work room which landed Rona and Adin at the bottom. I didn't know what's up with Rica because in this episode, she only got her moment near the end. What I also found confusing was that I think Sari Yap was asking the bottom 3 designers a question but then instead of hearing the designer's answers, we went straight to Rica's last moment.
I think this episode had a lot of potentially good TV moments but were all wasted because of bad editing. From the beginning til the end, it was all so confusing for me. If I didn't watch the replay earlier today, hence my late post, most of the show would've left a big question mark on my head.
Highlights:
- Is it just me or is Chris Diaz getting the cute guy edit?
- Rona looks gorgeous on TV.
- I am liking Tetta Ortiz Matera very much. She reminds me of Nina Garcia's witty but honest critiques.
- The proud piece fashion show showed us what the young designers can do. I didn't like that they slowed it down but anyways, I loved that part.
- I am so in love with G Tongi's outfits during this episode! They were both breathtaking. I wonder who designed them.
- The prize of Php100,000, an editorial spread in Mega Magazine, and an all expense paid trip to study a short course at University of the Arts London - Central Saint Martins!!! OMG!!! What I would give to study at Central Saint Martins!!! OMG!!!
Lowlights:
- Poor Poor POOR EDITING! I felt like the show was rushed. The pacing was way off. They could've hastened the fashion show part a bit and then gave more focus on the house selection process. I also feel like the editors needed to work more on their story board.
- Though I liked the motion editorial Retaso, I think it took a lot of time from the juicy work room drama and Puey's dramatic moment in the end. The moment that should've mattered felt rushed.
- Those darn tricycles!!! There were loud background noises when the Parisian ladies were talking about their shoes. It was so embarassing. I watched that part with one eye shut.
- That brief moment when Adin was talking during their proud pieces fashion show and he was tagged as Melville. Talk about an editing oversight. Yikes!
- Those magical reality show moments that I am expecting weren't there. You know the moment when the contestants first enter their work room, the moment when they first meet each other, the moment that they defend themselves on the runway, etc.
- Finally, Rica's unceremonious elimination. I think her last moments was so confusing. It was like boom! You're out. It seemed like the ending was all too sudden. Again with the editing! I guess I will only remember her as the pretty petite lady who just wanted a designer dress but daddy said no. But based on her proud piece, I know that she's got it, too bad we can't see more of her on TV. If you can read this Rica, tweet me @FabulousJV. I would love to see more of your designs in the future.
Btw just a disclaimer, I got all of these photos from Mega Magazine's Facebook Page.
Let's all watch their next episode tomorrow, Monday at 7pm on ETC with replays on Sundays 10am.
So that's all I got for now.
Au revoir my loves!
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