For the first time, I didn’t watch one second of Project Runway this past season. I guess I was just over it; the Seth Aaron season broke me.
Besides, reading the recaps at Project Rungay is far more entertaining.
It looks like I got out just in time. Season 8’s winner Gretchen Jones caused quite a ruckus. Tim Gunn was verklempt. Heidi Klum even showed her support for fellow contestant Mondo Guerra by wearing a sort-of-goofy-but-sort-of-fun bubbly dress designed by him.
Gretchen spoke to Marie Claire about the season and her win.
“I’m the bitch!” she laughs. It’s a perception she’s ready to disprove — and have a little fun with. “I got an evil purple lipstick,” she notes of a rare stray from her signature reddish-orange lipcolor. “And I’ve started wearing heels. I’m 5’11” and already considered a bitch — I may as well take it up a notch!”
The 28-year-old’s ability to laugh at herself seems out of step with the serious, all-knowing competitor seen on Project Runway‘s eighth season. “All of my sarcasm got stripped away on the show,” she says. Still, the striking designer from Portland, Oregon, takes responsibility for what did make it on air. “I have a strong voice, and I communicate my tastes in a manner that you either like or don’t,” she admits. “But there’s a difference between critique and taste. My tastes aren’t for everybody — that’s what fashion is.” Fair enough. Yet for many, such rationale does nothing to lessen the sting of Jones’ triumph over crowd favorite Mondo Guerra. Both designers presented strong finale collections — strong enough to split the judges straight down the middle.
…”My next moves have to be about creating my own character rather than the character I played on the show….The only adjective for a go-getter woman seems to be bitch. You get categorized so quickly, and it’s hard to strip away.”
[Marie Claire, print edition, January 2011]
Gretchen has a point that “bitch” is the go-to term for an aggressive woman, but it’s annoying when aggressive women use that as an excuse to be bitches.
The clothes Gretchen and model Millana Snow are wearing in the Marie Claire photo spread, designed by Gretchen, are neither goofy nor fun, but just plain fug.
I got Marie Claire in the mail this weekend and not having seen this season, I was surprised at how boring and repetitive her designs were!!
Being a a bitch is one thing but the expression on the gals face in the second pic tells me Gretchen’s probing left hand is being somewhat aggressive.
HA. Love the crazy-eyes that the Raisin has on the 2nd to last photo. She looks coked out of her mind. (which I hope she isn’t).
I really tried to watch PR last season but I had no interest. I think I am done.
“Gretchen has a point that “bitch” is the go-to term for an aggressive woman, but it’s annoying when aggressive women use that as an excuse to be bitches”
High five, sammie. This woman was an insufferable, nose-in-the-air bitch during the entire season, from day friggin one. And I am so sick of hearing these reality tv people complaining, saying they got the “bitch edit”. They can’t edit you into saying the things that come directly out of your mouth.
And then she had the nerve to put out a hideous collection that looked like an endless stream of poo brown curtains and baby vomit carpets.
Now she’s going to pretend that she got shafted and that she has a “strong voice”. There are plenty of women in this world who have strong voices and don’t stoop to insulting or ridiculing their peers as she did on the show.
i dont mind her. People are acting like Mondo was some sort of design god. He wouldnt have lasted in other seasons.
Gretchen genuflected to the Bitch Queen Project Runway Judge Michael Kors indicating her willingness to be a servile stitch bitch for him, but after this dullsville spread in Marie Claire I think not. Look for her to drop off the radar very very quickly.
“Gretchen has a point that “bitch” is the go-to term for an aggressive woman, but it’s annoying when aggressive women use that as an excuse to be bitches.”
THANK YOU!! It’s not being a “strong woman” when you call a fellow contestant an “idiot savant….or just an idiot.”
TEAM MONDO
28??
That was some rough time passage. Maybe someone should tell her “bitch is the most aging attitude”.
Her stuff looks like it would be rejected by Walmart as too staid.
Oooo, I feel like I’m being bitchy; nah, just aggressively expressing myself.;-)
Who does she think is going to buy her shit designs? Ten will get you twenty they will all end up on the remainder rack at K-Mart.
Went to college with her. Shes not a “i speak my mind, and woe is me Im called a bitch”. shes just a bitch. period.
I couldn’t believe that she won over Mondo. Her collection SUCKED. It was a stupid move on PR’s part.
She is TWENTY EIGHT?! No freaking way. I’m 28 & I look about 17 compared to her! Yikes!
She is 28?! The how come she looks so much like Iggy Pop in the last pic?
She hasn’t seen 28 in 15 years. PLease.
Raisin’s head looks four times larger than hers in that photo??
FrankenGretch, she forgot to add she has a big ego and a superiority attitude. I loved it when Tim called her out on it that one episode. Mondo was robbed. Her collections are boring, drab and monotone.
I watched season 8 again last weekend (I’m recovering from surgery and my options for entertainment are limited, considering the drugs I’m on and the fact that I can’t do anything). I picked up a big thing I didn’t really get so well before:
Heidi is no longer a force on PR. It is Nina and then michael who are the ones in charge. Even Tim Gunn, a couple of times in the workroom, admonished a designer to basically edit for what Nina and michael want to see.
At the finale, it was two judges against two judges, yet the Nina-michael syndicate had final word.
I don’t know if the coronation of Nina and michael as the controlling force at PR is official, but it’s sure not worth watching Season 9 for.
All of a sudden, with Nina and Michael in charge, PR is no longer about “fashion forward” but is now “what you can pull off the rack at Macy’s.”
Hell, I don’t need to go through Nina and michael’s vanity display to look for trends if i can go to a department store and see the same thing I’d see on PR.
Gretchen, Nina and michael can say what they want…but dishwater-gray hand-knit granny-panties will NEVER be something “every woman will want to wear.”
Let’s see how many of the GJ fetish-wear granny-panty designs go trotting down NYC streets this spring.