Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

December 06, 2007

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5

Wow, the producers certainly like to throw the designers of Season 4 a curve ball, don’t they? I think it’s pretty well-known that womens wear designers aren’t always the best menswear designers, and vice-versa, but kudos to them for giving it their all! When watching this episode with my roommate, she said to me “Wouldn’t it be easier to do men’s clothing anyway, it’s all boxy shapes?” Well, that AND a whole lot of geometry, details, fit, and technique. For centuries men’s clothing has gone relatively unchanged, and because of that, delineating too far from the standard is like waving a big ole awkward red flag.

Before we talk about the designs, I wanted to note that Tiki is a good looking man, very successful, and seemingly, a very all-around pleasant guy. Unfortunately, his job description does not immediately scream “fashion forward man” to me … in fact, it’s the Today Show. Let’s not kid ourselves by thinking anything other than the traditional uniform of dark colors and a traditional button-down (a faint colored stripe if feeling REALLY risqué) is ever wanted, or accepted.

I guess I have issues with this challenge because I don’t feel the challenge and the subject match very well. This is a show about design and creativity. How about choosing a man whose job description is a bit more colorful -- an actor, a photographer, or maybe a young professor perhaps? I feel that this would allow the designers to really show their talent, and instead of seeing, for the most part, a mass of badly sewn ho-hum clothing, we could’ve really experienced something fun and exciting.

Let me also say that I by no means think that this was an easy challenge, in fact, technically, it was one of the hardest to date, but I do think that most everyone’s designs fell short of “good,” and I feel that most of them wouldn’t even be worn by the male designers on the show.

READ MORE > >