Reprinted with permission from www.hautetalk.com

For this challenge, we’re going back to an oldie but a goodie (and Tim’s favorite challenge)—the flower shop. But, Heidi has a few ideas of her own. She liked the hardware store challenge, so the teams will have to use both flowers and hardware to make a cohesive line of six looks. 

Next, Tim evens out the teams by allowing Dream Team to choose two members from Keeping It Real. Blondie chooses Stanley for them and Polka Dots wants anyone but Wind Chime so they select Layana for her sex appeal. In exchange, Keeping It Real gets to pick one member from Dream Team, and they unanimously choose Polka Dots, who is not happy about the switcheroo.

Dream Team settles on a “Christian Dior 1950s Chic” theme, and Keeping It Real is doing “RuPaul Meets Gilligan’s Island.” Okay….

At the flower shop, Blondie tries to add cohesiveness with the colors. Amanda doesn’t understand flowers because they bore her, so she chooses moss. Crazy Cat Lady is hoping his dress does not eat his model. Layana grabs a bunch of something that looks like lettuce.

But once the contestants get back to the workroom and start stretching and folding and molding their materials, it’s no longer a bed of roses. Amanda’s moss is shedding, Hallmarq and Polka Dot’s window blinds are bending like an arthritic grandmother, Kate is making something out of chicken wire, and Blondie is weaving his own fabric from string, which should take nearly forever.

It quickly dawns on Keeping It Real that their garments are practically allergic to each other. Rather than change the designs to make one cohesive collection, they try to come up with a story that will paste them all together. Yeah, good luck with that with the judges.

Tim Gunn checks in with Keeping It Real. He is not thrilled with Crazy Cat Lady’s outfit which may look blobulous and massive. He finds Amanda’s moss to be “pretty,” except for the bald spots. Kate’s voluminous dress is moving in the crafts project category, but she has immunity so she doesn’t really care what Papa Gunn thinks. Then, Tim hits them with the collection’s lack of cohesion. As Polka Dots explains, every outfit looks like it’s made by a crazy person, but each crazy person is being treated at a different mental hospital.

Dream Team boldly states that their theme is “Dior.” The camera does a bunch of quick and peppy cuts through their outfits before settling on Samantha who is studiously cutting out tiny little patterns from contact paper. She’s having time management problems and is getting the Elimination Edit despite her outfit being kind of awesome.

Time for the runway! Meet our judges, Acclaimed American Designer Zac Posen Kors, Nina Garcia Fashion Director Marie Claire Magazine, Leandra ‘The Man Repeller’ Medine in a football jersey and a “just running to the corner bodega for a thing of ice cream” messy bun, and Famed Highway Adopter Bette Midler.

Keeping It Real

Daniel’s dress is a bizarre and unflattering shape with hunks of cabbage on the hips. Crazy Cat Lady’s dress is…chunky and messy. Hallmarq and Polka Dot made a severe strappy flowery thing that was uncomfortable looking. Wind Chime’s model was wearing a burlap sack and carrying flowers on her arms. Amanda’s moss dress looked boring. Kate’s poufy dress looked more cutesy than crafts fair.

Dream Team

Matthew’s dress was elegant, in yellow, white and black, combining rope with flowers. Stanley’s dress is the couture version of Kate’s dress. TuTu’s dress is a picture of elegance in rope and lilies and I would wear that skirt to death. Blondie’s dress is very light and pretty. Samantha’s dress looks stunning with leaves captured inside of metal. Layana’s dress is a gorgeous, dreamy vine-like netting with flowers interspersed. And, it’s all one cohesive collection.

Gee, I wonder which team wins? Oh right, it’s not a mystery at all, the Drea—wait, Heidi says there is no losing team, just a winning team and an almost winning team. What next? Participation Prizes?

For Dream Team, the judges liked everything. It was whimsical, amusing, and beautifully made. The team nominates TuTu, Matt and Blondie for the win. But the judges disagree and give the prize to Samantha for her clever and stylish metal mesh ensemble.

As for Keeping It Real, the judges eventually hone in on Crazy Cat Lady’s flower and metal clumpy sweater dress as not so nice. But when asked who should go home, the team piled on Amanda for her cruddy moss dress. Because his dress was unflattering, they send Crazy Cat Lady home. We will miss his irreverence, but his cat sweaters need him.

But wait, there’s more! Tim says that there’s still business to be taken care of, so the designers must meet him and Heidi on the runway. To be continued! And next week involves a country music star that nobody’s ever heard of because really, country music? And fashion?

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