So I hate to admit it, but I was snagged by the reality TV bug. Now I don’t often watch TV that much but, it is nice to have stuff on in the background when working on things. I like the project type shows, not the catty shows. This week I marathoned two shows, Work of Art and Project Runway Canada.
Work of art is a new Bravo show, I watched the first episode when visiting my sister and was kinda disgusted by it. Granted I still think the idea of a competition show with art and art challenges is near impossible to judge and I do think that the artists were more judged on being “artsy” then producing art, but… I really liked a few of the contestants art when I caught a marathon near the end of the show. I loved the guy that won, Abdi Farah, and was rooting for him the whole time. His art most of the time grabbed me and mad me take notice. I hated the people who played at being the tortured artist. I could care less about those people, they really irritated me. One chick, Jamie Lynn, I wanted to strangle. She is not just “oh woe is me I’m an artist” but she also plays the victim. She wants to be the victim and she does nothing but manipulate. What irked me more, is how often she produced some moving work, though I must admit that I think more often then not it worked by accident. I must say the show ended up better then it’s beginning, but the idea of judging art like that, it baffles me.
Next up, Project Runway Canada. Now this again is something I saw in the beginning (of season 1) and had my criticisms. Love Iman, she is just plain awesome. Now the mentor, at first look all I could think was “Who’s the freak with the porno stash?” I must admit, at watching the last half of season 2 he is really good. Brian Baily isn’t Tim Gunn, but then, there is only one Gunn. Though I do think he is more of a mentor, and that is his job. I wanted to smack some of the contestants, when the experts or just the people judging your work tell you something is wrong, don’t fight with them. There is a lot of that, from people who go home of course :) Now there are my two faves Sunny and Jessica. Sunny is a happy Asian man with an epic mohawk and designs some amazing dresses that almost any woman would want to wear. Jessica is a BBW (Big Beautiful Woman) who is edgy but tasteful, in the shows I have seen she has made some really great dresses that could sometimes be considered art, and others something I would wear. Also thanks to looking up their names for this post I have now spoiled myself on the end of the show AND found out that the show is canceled, no season 3 is happening. Boo-Hiss! Jessica interests me a lot, she is a BBW who seems very confidant in herself and he skills. She is often being treated like trash by some of the other contestants, not all, but two who seem to have this attitude that because she is big she can’t design. It is never said, but the idea is clearly there, they say everything BUT we hate her cause she is fat. There is a huge stigma in the fashion world. I remember in one of the Project Runway shows the designers felt put upon and that it was a horrid task to design plus sized clothes for one challenge, and those women weren’t even that big. The idea of plus size models is also crazy since most plus sized models can still shop in regular stores, they rarely are 16 plus, and that is plus sized when it comes to shopping. When Milan made a rule that models had to fit into the lowest of the bmi (don’t get me started on how that is not the best scale) the fashion world had a fit! Karl Lagerfeld is known for being a fat hater. Look at designer clothes, or even trendy clothes, very rarely does that label go past 12. Most plus sized clothes are basic, and they are aimed at hiding the woman under clothing. Rather then, I don’t know, accentuating the good curves a woman has. Making well designed clothes in larger sizes doesn’t seem like such a hard concept to me, but to the people who run things, they seem to think it won’t sell or something. Now I am larger girl, but I am not so big that I can’t get clothes, even in my current small town. This designer Jessica I think would have trouble. She would have a hard time finding all those trendy edgy outfits she wears on the show around here. That to me is crazy, ESPECIALLY when I look around and see so many women bigger then the stores carry. I wonder, where do they shop? I used to work with a woman who was very large and wore nothing but leggings and size 40 tee shirts to work each day. Now this was an office manager, someone who should be dressing to match her job. She CLAIMED she was more comfortable like that. I know that was not the case, the case was she had no outlet to buy professional clothes, even if she could afford it (Psst Plus size clothes cost way more). I know the plus sized stores in the area, they didn’t carry her size. Not at all. Sure there is mail order, but when you are large ordering clothing is harder then ever, so what do you order? Elastic waisted pants and big baggy shirts. Pathetic. Now I know Jessica isn’t a plus sized designer, and that is not my point, even if I ranted off topic, my point is it is great to see a larger person on TV and have it be a positive image. So often the overweight person is the joke, not this girl. I love Sunny, and I love Jessica, and I am watching these reruns for them.
