Project Runway 20 - EPISODE 08: "Uncut Hems"

 Date for Entry: (Sunday 20 August 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 20 August 2023)

** Biker Chic **

THE EPISODE

    As the episode commenced, Mr Maxwell joined the remaining designers in the backstage lounge for a short conversation and light drink. I too appreciated this part a lot. As he left, we saw Christian on the television screen. He mentioned a road trip in the morning that sent the designer out of the lounge and to their beds in the hotel. They were taken to Christian’s store. It was cool but when they got into the room with all the denim was a huge, surprise.

    The designers were split up into head-to-head teams of two. In each of the four teams, one would be a winner and the other would be subject to elimination by the judges. Kara being the winner of the previous challenge chose Anna who did not have any previous experience using Denim before. Anna was also given an apology from Korto before getting to Christian’s store and was given advice to use bleach on the denim but did not heed it. She had to start over from scratch.

    Brittany chose Laurance as an opponent and several soft things occurred. There was no violence in the working periods of this challenge but they displayed themselves. Korto was chosen as an ‘opponent’ by Rami and Prajje and Bishme were both teamed up as the remaining two designers. They didn’t like the idea. This was also the first time that I saw Bishme without his cap on. It made me realise I didn’t know if he had tall or short hair, lol.

    Ms Garcia was not present for the presentation and judging segment of the show and she was replaced by a gentleman named Willy Chavaria. The guest judge was Julia Fox whom I also did not know. It was hurting to hear and see that Rami was the one eliminated. We waited for a while and then Christian came into the room.

    I have been waiting for the past three episodes to see when the SIRIANO SAVE would be used and boy, tonight was that night. I was shocked but happy at the same time. I couldn’t dance like everyone else in the living room or my video recording of the show would have been spoiled. I hope he gets far.

    I was very proud of Laurance who won the challenge tonight and she was also given a five thousand dollar reward from Gloria Vanderbilt. I never thought you could take denim pants and make a couture evening wear as she did.

 

MY DESIGN

    This design was shown to me in my mind at seven in the night before episode eleven. I was in Scarborough Tobago (Old Government Road) at the time. Seeking ideas for this design was not easy. I was able to see the model Shanae this time. The model appeared in a short jacket with a green shirt below and a short skirt. She is supposed to be a biker girl. Also, ideas for the jacket came from thinking of Brittany and Laurance.

    The slits by the arms and in the gloves are supposed to be silver buttons that shined from the light’s reflection. The same for the white circles in the upper portion of the skirt. Somehow, I decided to play with triangular shapes again as in the uniform challenge for this season. Maybe it might make it costumy as triangle pieces that flapped gently when the model walked around?

    The lower/chest part of the jacket are cutouts that showed the green top below with a small strap going around the body and connecting the front and back pieces. Somehow it made me remember Marquise’s Avante-Garde garment from Season Eighteen. The most difficult piece of the drawing was the hairstyle that could not be traced on paper. I liked what I saw the model had in my mind still. I also did not have the right colour for the bow that I saw.

 

SELECTIONS BY CATEGORIES

    Designers with HIGH scores tonight were Bishme, Korto & Laurance. All three designers tonight were awarded hearts. For the Personal Selection, there was a tie between Bishme and Korto. There was another tie for the Challenge Selection between Bishme and Laurance.

    Designers with SAVED scores were Prajje, Rami & Anna. Only Anna in this category was given a dislike. Prajje was given a tick and Rami was given a heart. Both gentlemen are tied for the Personal Selection and Challenge Selection.

    Designers placed in the LOW scoring category were Karra & Brittany. Kara was given a tick and she was given the Personal Selection. Brittany was awarded a heart and was selected for the Challenge Selection.

 

LINK(S):

• Images of the Challenge's Designs.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Project Runway 20 - EPISODE 07: "Fashion, Inside Out"

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 09 August 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 09 August 2023)

** Covered & Seen **

THE EPISODE

    A really beautiful This week the designers were gathered in the backstage lounge before walking over to the runway area. Christian came out in a fabulous shirt. It looked breezy but the pants were regular jeans. Not sure if he left it to Bishme during one of the working days. Behind him were some models giving an example of the expected outcome.

    Since Laurance won the previous challenge, she was treated to an extra hundred dollars at Mood. During the working period, we were given a short mention of a story about Black Wall Street from Kara. We got some culture and home pictures from Fabio and Korto.

    I was surprised by Bishme for pulling a move that Kayne did with having nothing for his model. That was a panic for me. However, it was a good thing to see that Kara finally had a sketch for once and she won. I feel she should maybe keep on doing those sketches and she might win some more challenges. The night before the runway presentations looked very stressful for Fabio. I could see that he was struggling and it was beginning to get painful thinking that he might be on his way out of the competition by elimination.

    The next morning Prajje was without pants as his model was partly naked too in the workroom. He had a nice, coloured nail polish on. Everyone saw that Anna was topless too and busy stitching up her garment, while the modes sat around her. The guest judge was Paulina Porizkova. I did not know her too. Another person I did not know too was Sergio Hudson who filled in for Ms Garcia in her absence. Christian too was not there. Mr Maxwell filled in for Christian to send Fabio off to clean his workspace. I again will miss Fabio.

 

MY DESIGN

    In my mind, I saw the full garment on the Sunday evening after the episode. Only on Monday I got up and drew it out in the morning before the long and tiring day of house cleaning. The face and hair were the hardest parts to draw. Luckily, I had the correct shade to match the hair colour the lady in my mind had. I believe it was the model named Yuen from the show that was the lady wearing this garment in my mind.

    Another difficulty was trying to get colour overlapping with the sheer ‘shirt’ and the bralette still seen. The belly part was exposed and the skirt was opened to the front. I saw very small flower prints used, which reminded me of my design for the Ashley Longshore challenge in Season Eighteen. Not sure why there was a red belt but I ‘obeyed’ in a way by transferring the vision I saw in my mind to the sketch board.

 

SELECTIONS BY CATEGORIES

    Designers with HIGH scores tonight were Prajje, Kara & Rami. There were ties between Personal Selection and Challenge Selection. Rami and Prajje were chosen for Personal Selection. Rami again and Kara were chosen for Challenge Selection.

    Designers with SAVED scores were Bishme, Anna & Brittany. Only Anna was eliminated with her design being given a dislike. Bishme and Brittany’s designs were chosen for both Personal Selection and Challenge Selection.

    Designers placed in the LOW scoring category were Korto, Fabio & Laurance. The Personal Selection was a three-way tie by all three designers. Only Fabio and Korto’s designs were chosen for the Challenge Selection.

 

LINK(S):

• Images of the Challenge's Designs.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Project Runway 20 - EPISODE 06: "Like Totally '90s"

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 19 July 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 09 August 2023)

** Student Cheer **

THE EPISODE

RED TEAM	BLUE TEAM
Anna, Brittany, Kayne, Fabio, Kara	Bishme, Rami, Laurance, Korto, Prajje

    This week the designers were set into two teams of five. One was called the red team and the blue team. A lot of challenges occurred with the red team trying to have their designs cohesive. I loved the background that the editors made for the designers’ sketches. We were given some insight into fashion in China by Anna in her younger years.

    During the working period, the red team seemed to look behind. Strange how they followed the advice from Brittany’s recall from season eighteen and it ended up being backfired by those same judges. I was happy for Bishme and the blue team. Go, Blue team!

    Christian had to sit and wait for Kayne like in previous episodes. I did not bother to think that he would be eliminated earlier because he did the same and got high or he would have won. Sadly, that was not the case tonight. He actually was eliminated and that was quite a shock for me. I thought he would have made it to the final and won with the strength that he showed from the start of the competition. I suppose I  will have to regroup the designers during the week.

 

MY DESIGN

    My design for this week was a cheerleader outfit. I thought that it was too plain and maybe too simple for the judges. To Celebrate Grant’s house (in Hillview) and Mitchell’s house (in St George's), I placed the first letters on the top of a blue vest coat-like top. I could not draw a coat that is tied around the waist so I used fabric and played with shapes instead. To try and make the colours work, I decided to use complementary colours with blue and orange, and red and green.

    The hands were already drawn so a pom-pom probably would not have been able to insert by the left hand. I used a blue flag instead. The choice of colour for the hair came from thinking about Hester who was eliminated some episodes ago.

SELECTIONS BY CATEGORIES

    Designers with HIGH scores tonight were Bishme, Prajje & Laurance. Since Bishme and Prajje’s designs were given hearts, they were easily taken for Personal Selection. I decided that Laurance’s design would go for the Challenge Selection.

    Designers with SAVED scores were Rami, Korto, Anna & Kara. Both Korto & Anna’s pieces were chosen for Personal Selection. There was not an easy choice picking one between these two designs. I placed Rami and Kara’s designs as Challenge selections.

    Designers placed in the LOW scoring category were Brittany, Kayne & Fabio. A heart was given to Brittany’s design and a tick was given to Kayne and Fabio. I favoured Kayne’s look for both Personal Selection and Challenge Selection.

 

LINK(S):

• Images of the Challenge's Designs.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Project Runway 20 - EPISODE 05: "Seeing Red"

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 11 July 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 09 August 2023)

** Runway Ready **

THE EPISODE

    Tonight, the designers were taken into the runway arena for their challenge. At first, the lights were turned off. When they came on Christina was hiding behind a large bold of red fabric. We were told that the roll contained one hundred and ten yards of fabric. Christian said, “Create an outfit to stand out from the rest [of designers.]” Since Korto was the winner of the last challenge she was given the first pick for a model.

    The designers were asked to use only that fabric to create a look that is distinctively them and must be able to stand out. We were told that it was one hundred and ten yards in the bolt. I felt like I think I would have not liked this challenge. It took me some time after typing out the important words section for this chapter to see an idea coming to mind.

    Worries came from Kara when she had nothing to work with. She showed everyone her sketch on paper and it looked like a scary alien, lolz. She also had a short crisis when her model ended up being taller than expected and the skirt was too short. We were also told by Brittany and a challenge she faced sometime after her season eighteen experience. I hope she’s okay.

    During the working period too, I became a bit distant from liking some of Anna’s pieces from the past two episodes. I see that what she was doing was almost the exact dress. Many of the designers backstage commented their anger on that decision as the judges tried to elect a winning designer and the eliminated designer. I loved seeing Hester with her mannequin lying on the table as she tried to work on her garment. She had a big struggle to finish her piece in the last hurry to the end of time. Sadly, I felt heartbroken that she was the eliminated designer and Victor too was gone.

    The designers were also told about the ten thousand dollar prize for the winner at the end of the show. This prize was given to from Wells Fargo Cash Card. They were also treated to a special shopping gift sponsored by Christian the night before the runway presentations. There was also a new person I did not know named Lena Waithe. Very wonderful person. Ms. Garcia was shocked and mentioned the poor quality of the designs minimalist and drapes.

 

MY DESIGN

    For my design, I was very tempted to put a shade of orange. I had to hold back and try to stay true to the rules. The model’s hair was the first idea in my mind. Everything else came in part by part downwards. I decided that cutting patterns and shapes into the fabric would be a quick attraction and make the model feel comfortable in a way that the holes made the outfit breezy and not too heated.

    I had another idea to put a dark purple vest below the dress but I remained true to the rules. The eyes instead were coloured blue and the lips coloured dark purple for small variety. It makes me wonder what Bishme did to make the dark colour in the two faces he made on his design’s top.

    Brittany was the winner and she got ten thousand dollars from Wells Fargo Cash Card. The eliminated designer was Hester. I was sad to see her go too. This week a lot of people disagreed with the judges. I too shared the same feeling choices were very difficult to select.

 

SELECTIONS BY CATEGORIES

    The Designers in the HIGH scores category were Brittany, Anna, and Kara. Unfortunately,  all three designers in this category were given dislikes from me. For the Challenge Selection Brittany was selected. A winner for the Personal Selection had to come from the SAVED category. That winning designer’s place was a tie between Prajje & Korto.

    The Designers in the SAVED scores category were Prajje, Korto, Laurance, Kayne, and Bishme. All five designers in this category were awarded hearts. Challenge Selection was a tie between Korto and ‘Kayne’. The Personal Selection was also a tie between Laurance and Prajje.

    The Designers in the LOW scores category were Fabio, Hester, and Rami. Only Hester’s design was given a dislike. Fabio and Rami were both given hearts. Fabio was my winner of the Challenge Selection. Rami’s look was the winner of the Personal Selection.

 

LINK(S):

• Images of the Challenge's Designs.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Retirement Function for Mrs Joanne Rogers-Small

 Date for Entry: (Monday 03 July 2023)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 07 August 2023)

CREATION OF PROGRAMME.

ST. GEORGE'S COLLEGE

[T3, W:12 – D:52, (Td:0)*].

This morning I came in the maxi alone to Valsayn. I met up with Mr Marlon on the way walking in while we spoke. I spoke with Mrs Santana and Mrs Rogers-Small when they came to sign in the office. I had breakfast in the kitchen. I took some time working in the ‘specialist room’ where I spent forty-five minutes reading from a Form 3 mathematics textbook. 

    Around the seventh and eighth periods that evening, Mrs Santana sat with me and we finished the programme. She suggested that I put the words to the songs on the programme if I needed things to take up blank parts of the paper. Some of the images that she got from students were sent to me. I also found some on Facebook that she got via WhatsApp from me.

    The rest of it was finished on a ride to Curepe. We had a good laugh when Mrs Allen-Brown asked her question in the office. Very late in the night, the programme was finished. It was sent off to Mrs Santana by email for review.

Link(s):

• Retirement Function– Joanne Rogers-Small (Programme).

 

DAY OF FUNCTION.

** Tuesday 04 July 2023 **

ST. GEORGE'S COLLEGE

[T3, W:12 – D:53, (Td:0)*].

Mrs Santana met me in the specialist room and she said that everything was getting ready for the function. She had the office staff print out a copy of the programme that I made last night for the first preview before running all the rest through the printer. I took a look at the copy with her and it was beautiful. She had the rest printed off and left to go see about something. I folded the programmes and headed off to the library.

    My bookstand was taken from home to school for the event. I had it set up in the office before taking it over to the library. A tenor pan was taken from the music room. Thankfully it was opened for me to enter. No one was there anymore. I gave Mrs Santana the programs on her way to the library. ‘GG’ and I went to the art room to get the T-shirts. Miss Gittens was having her nails done. A small issue with the arrangement of the room was fixed quickly. The performers came and students participating came too and the function began exactly at 1:30 pm.

    The function began with the National Anthem that I played. The student to do that couldn’t so I filled in for them. ‘Mel’ played “My Tribute” on his violin. Some of the other performances and items were quick. I was not nervous about the performance. I gave Miss Gittens the ‘clapping pen’ that we used in evening rehearsals to keep the pulse. Everyone began correctly and the audience enjoyed the dancing.

    Sometime after the function, I got the function cake from the kitchen fridge and then shared it with the performers first. Miss Gittens got her piece first. Miss Harris took half of Mrs Santana’s slice and Donna got the second half. They ended up wanting more and that dish was finished. From the office dish, who was there got. The teachers who wanted more got more and the last was given to Joshua.

    I washed up Mommy’s baking dishes in the kitchen when Mrs Santana came to eat her lunch. We had a good laugh talking about today and some things that happened.

Link(s):

• Images from Retirement Function. 
• “To The Ceiling” Performance. **

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:06 am – 3:09 pm)