Project Run-away

I know I rant and rave, I bitch and moan about All-things-fugly, but I cant help writing this post. I am an ardent follower of Project Runway and have followed it from the first season. I love the show, love the designers, their quirkiness, their shenanigans, and finally the creativity.
I couldnt resist writing a commentary once I saw tonite's episode. The four finalists are Chris March, Gillian, Rami and Christian. And everyone's been hailing this batch as the most talented of all the seasons. I beg to differ. All four of them are talented. Sure. If we were living 20 years ago, then they would be at the helm of some great fashion revolution. Unfortunately we are living now in 2008, and the whole 80's schtick is really getting to me.
The talented I-am-so-fierce Christian has designed one type of clothing only through the entire season. Every one of his 'fierce' designs through the season have the same nice-day-for-a-white-wedding twist. He always designs the punk rocker jacket with the shoulder pads, always the skinny pants. I mean, come on!! Am I the only one seeing this?
Rami, Rami, Rami. Please get over your grecian draping. Seriously, I dont know what Heidi Klum is applauding constantly. His clothes look dated. I wanted to scream loudly when I saw what he did to the poor 16 year old girl. Her prom dress I mean. Another asymmetric draping making the girl look like an old hag. And thing is, I seriously want to know who goes about wearing clothes like that. Enough already. ALL his clothes look like nice togas from the Roman era. The key word being ALL. And tonight's show with his three looks, I thought they looked extremely dated as well. I think fashion should be about reinvention, so use the concept in a new way. Why present the same old sh**.
Chris March. The over-the-top costume designer. I think the human hair attached to his final looks was the last straw. I dont think he gets it. As they were showing his collection to Tim Gunn, I saw some of the jackets. And I must say, that they were not just mediocre but scary as well. Something I would probably buy if I was living in some castle in Transylvania where no one from the outside world had visited in decades.

And finally Gillian. I must admit that I had serious trepidations when I saw her dress. She is seriously from Like-a-virgin-Madonna-Era. She has got this awful perm, wears ALL the 80s fashion and incessantly wears bright red lipstick, with and without gloss! But her clothes are a little better than the rest. She has some sense of style, proportion, edge and you could see her doing some wonderful things.
What scares me is this - the aforementioned designers are on the show. And I know a lot of people watch it. It scares me to think that people are going to start imitating these fashions in our everyday world. Already, I saw someone today on the streets of San Jose. I mean if it can get to suburbia, it can go anywhere!!
So, please, please people I am begging you to watch the show, and suffer from temporary aphasia, or please watch it for what it is. As entertainment, and not as a beacon to your sensibilities.

Heal the (tech) world!

"Heal the world, make it a better place for you and for me and for the entire human race" - MJ

Continuing in the grand tradition of ranting about the tech world, I have been meaning to write about this particular fauxpas for the last 7 years. Since I didn't have my venting board then, I am going to use this as my big vent out moment.

Years and years of in-breeding have led to the birth of the strong engineering gene. All my friends are engineers and all my friends friends are engineers and so on. Unfortunately, there is no way out of this vicious cycle. Inevitably we seem to feel comfortable with our own kind, and why not? We are simple, straightforward folk, where logic makes a ton of sense and all else seems less important.

Unfortunately, this was more true when I was back in graduate school. You don't have enough money to buy fancy clothing, enough food and have many comforts. We ran to all the uninteresting and interesting events as long as we could smell free pizza. Similarly, I found many of my guy friends, all collecting tons of hanes tshirts at company functions, whether it was to launch a new product or a symposium, or a career fair. Some of my nerdy friends where quite happy with the accomplishment. As my dear friend put it. He had done his years worth of shopping. A compulsive shopper like me, of course, squirmed at such statements. But I did my version of the flip when I found the ubiquitous presence of product and company tshirts at all events since I have started working. At the Christmas party, at the grocery store, at the gym, in Vegas(!) and I finally lost it, when someone wore it on a date.

My main complaint is that these tshirts are not cool, or hot, they invariably never really fit well. They never even look nice when they are worn as under shirts. The best place to where them is when you are out mowing your garden, or cleaning the house, or want to show your loyalty at a company event, or in the nights, when you are going to bed,(even then its a bit of a turn-off) and finally as a rag. Unless, companies start custom making these tshirts with more sense of style and precision, I beg of you to please heed to this blogger's words, and try and make this world a beautiful place.

Heal the world!

the tech woman and her rants

I found this while researching one of my blog entries. (believe me, I research).

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/12/tech_tshirts_ar.html

Enjoy!