On the universal language of fashion - Project Runway Korea S1E10

Sometimes I hate my own ability to procrastinate. When things aren't seriously urgent, most of the time I'll be happy to just lean back and do fuck all. Of course, that comes back to bite me in the ass most of the time, like today, when despite a seriously shitty mood I have to stick around school to finish up my construction assignment. Could've done it yesterday, but nooo. So now I'm here, taking a break, angrily eating pears, cursing my own laziness. Can't wait to graduate. I'm so sick of all this shit.

 In other news Hemingway's return trip magically changed dates again, which although it was only 24 hours, just annoyed the absolute hell out of me. Not just for it constantly getting moved back, but because I never fucking know. Can't plan a damn thing. So now I'm listening to energetic k-pop and trying to motivate myself to just power through, but the weather's wonderful and I feel like I'm a sweatshop worker chained to this stupid computer and AutoCAD. I just don't have the time, patience or energy to deal with stuff outside of school right now. Or inside, come to think of it.
It's final collection time! Expectations are running high. The fun thing about all three is that they're strong contenders in their own right. Any one of the three could bring it home in terms of idea. So much rides on styling and general cohesion at this level. So without further ado, let's move on to our final three.

Starting at third place, Hye-jung.

Hye-jung's collection seemed inspired by Art Nouveau (which is funny, seeing as her clothes came out looking distinctly more 30's-ish), bringing a soft and feminine touch to her collection.

Sweet, girly...

...and nothing out of the ordinary.

Lots of flowing looks, keeping in line with most of what Hye-jung's done before. It's not bad, but it didn't have much of a knock-out effect.

I have slight issues with proportion as well here.

It 's cute, but I didn' t see it winning.

The nod to the 30's became a bit more of a head-butt to me. The 30's is one of my favourite decades of fashion, but looking at Hye-jung's collection I felt like a lot of her pieces looked more like something that belonged on a movie set. There were plenty of individual interesting pieces (like the brown jacket, I loved that), but all in all I'm a little unsure on the cohesion aspect of it all. I also found some of the proportions slightly problematic, a bit too many ruffles for my taste, personally. It's a collection that would probably appeal to someone like Nina Garcia.

Moving on to our runner up... ...Yong-seop! Yay!

Yong-seop's collection was pretty cool. It even caught my fancy when Korean Tim Gunn visited his studio. I wish I had a space that big and my own crew. Shit's just not fair!

I 'm insanely jealous of his studio and his helpers. Gimme!

I like his nature-inspired ideas though, and the sketching looks really awesome. The materials, the colours and the dip-dye looks really interesting too.

Plant women coming your way.

I fell in love with Yong-seop a little when he was consoling Hye-jung in her pre-runway hissy fit that turned into holy crap medical emergency! To be honest, I'd probably react the same way if I were showing at Fashion Week (either that, or I'd be shaking in a corner somewhere with the worst panic attack of my life). When she came back from the hospital she looked like shit, poor thing. And I couldn't help but go "aww" when he teared up while addressing the crowd. Too sweet.

Sci-fi flower girls.

That last gown was just amazing.

The collection started out almost TRON-like, with that white suit. The lines are interesting, the play on proportion is cool and - oh my god, that dark red-ish purple-ish dark leather jacket is divine. I want it! Yong-seop's use of colour in general is pretty damn amazing. The dip-dye really worked to his advantage, and the pieces look fresh and young. That last dress looked like a watercolour painting in motion while walking. So interesting. But as much as I liked the individual pieces in the collection, I'm not really sure on the cohesion here either. Still, a lot of work went into all of this and he was a worthy runner-up for sure.

Which brings us to...

YAY! Woo-kyung won! I was psyched from the start when they visited her apartment in New York, which is tiny, like just a bed and a sewing machine. Even her nightstand was a box of sewing utensils. Somehow that's kinda the way I see my life for the foreseeable future when I move out of this sweet thing I've got going on with Pony and G. Anywho, the ideas behind her collection look pretty neat, kinda boxy and androgynous which is always cool.

Geometrical and totally high fashion.

I love the androgyny.

 I love her sketches, they're so cool.

A lot of surprisingly wearable looks for something so edgy.

A lot of surprisingly wearable looks for something so edgy.

Flapper fashion is something I'm kinda into right now, with the flat-chested boy-ish ideal, and the fact that Woo-kyung's working it into her collection makes me kinda excited. Using traditionally feminine materials such as ribbon to make clothes that appear more masculine is pretty neat. And aww, when she teared up too while presenting her collection, it was just the saddest thing ever. Poor baby.

...which a lot of people thought was creepy as fuck.

I like the Alexander McQueen big lips-thing she did too. One could argue that it was a bit of a knock-off, but this show came out 2009 and the Alexander McQueen collection that used makeup like that was a F/W 2009/2010-look, so it's hard to say it was a complete rip-off (although I doubt Alexander McQueen stole the idea from an unknown Korean designer. Ah well). I think it adds to the collection without in any way feeling like a cheap copy. She has such an interesting point of view - going with all one shade of pink (and pretty much all one materiaI) was a hugegamble that ended up really paying off in terms of effect. One can discuss how wearable it is as a collection, but a lot of the individual items were surprisingly versatile-looking. All in all it's fresh and new, and very well put-together. Really interesting, really cool and really different.

With this first season of Project Runway Korea over, I'm really excited to see if they manage to keep the show as vibrant as it's been. It's been such a welcome alternative to the tired old Project Runway, and the thought of another 3 seasons (and an All stars in the making!) to sink my teeth into makes me go "yay!" and wish that I didn't have this stupid assignment to finish tonight. Ah well, can't have it all. It's time to wrap myself up in knits and spend the night courting concrete pillars and beams. Oh the joys of architect school.