The Fashion Show: Episode 7

This week on The Fashion Show, the designers worked in pairs to complete each of the challenges. In the Harper’s Bazaar Mini Challenge, they paired up to answer every party girl’s favorite question…

“How am I going to turn this party dress into work attire? Because I don’t have time to go home and shower.”

You know you’ve been there…and if you say you haven’t, I know you’re fibbing!

Though working in pairs felt oddly reminiscent of the team challenges we all don’t miss, what made the difference in this case was who ended up working with who. The teams were:

• Lidia and James-Paul
• Merlin and Johnny
• Anna and Haven
• Daniella and Reco

Look at how adorable two of our couples are….so keen, like they actually enjoy these challenges instead of complaining their way through them! With only 30 minutes and a random (erm, eclectic) box of ‘lost and found’ items to work with, the designers got down to business.

As I mentioned previously, Becki Newton joined in as a guest judge for this challenge. Daniella and Reco don’t see eye to eye (surprise, surprise!) and ultimately it’s the odd couple of Johnny and Merlin who come out on top. I wasn’t overly enthused with this design – the button on her lapel was strange – but it was pretty cute. Becki seemed to just love everything, which I found surprising because I wanted to hear some snarky Amanda commentary!

The teams continued working together through the elimination challenge, where everyone got a chance to work for Issac for a day – fully immersing themselves in the designer life at his studio and in front of his mood board. I imagine for any designer that would be an inspirational experience!

The bickering between Reco and Daniella continued, both of them acting like petty children who can’t seem to cooperate. Daniella is dismissive of Reco’s ideas and he just can’t help but stomp around with more attitude than even he knows what to do with. Merlin and Johnny continue to work pretty well together, while Lidia and James-Paul are too different in their ability and talent (I’ll let you decide who is the better one…should be pretty obvious!) to argue that much. With Anna and Haven it’s a match made in heaven – those two agree on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

But, as much as I want to giggle at their little lovefest, it works out in the end. The judges and the audience all loved Anna and Haven’s creation, which was cute and colorful with some interesting fabric and pattern choices. I liked the color choices for Daniella and Reco’s design – but those pants were heinous!! If they had only made it a high-waisted skirt instead, I think it could have worked. The jacket on Merlin and Johnny’s model was laughable, but the rest of it pretty wearable. James-Paul and Lidia…I laughed. Oh, how I laughed when I saw this monstrosity. Then I started trying to figure out what exactly the judges would say about it during deliberation. “Cheap Mermaid Costume” – yep, that sums it up about right!

The bottom two are Daniella and Lidia – given how consistently successful Daniella has been in almost all previous weeks, it’s no surprise to anyone that Lidia is sent home.

The Fashion Show airs at 10pm ET/PT on Bravo and don’t forget – after each episode, check out Tresemme’s Style Seeker for hair style tips and don’t forget that the winning design is available for purchase on BravoTV.com!

Images: Bravo/NBC Universal