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After the Challenge Announcement at "Travel Town", we all went to Mood Fabrics Los Angeles...














Under The Gunn Workroom, back at FIDM:










The Following Day, Runway:





Time for the "Under The Gunn" Inside Dish:






Stephanie Ohnmacht: Stephanie had a difficult time finding herself--design-wise--in this episode. She is not an "Avant-Garde" designer and therefore she struggled a bit. I liked her idea but I wanted her to exaggerate everything about it; put tulle inside those billowy sleeves to "puff" them up (she didn't) and take this to another level. I did like the silhouette and especially how she used some of the "Steampunk"-like metal details which she glued onto the top/shoulder section of her look. The entire design was very "Karl Lagerfeld/Chanel" and I appreciated that.




Oscar Garcia-Lopez: Oscar went all-out, as usual. His look was like a "Steampunk Saloon Girl Couture". I loved this look in that it was a complete design, very thought-out and very well made.  When I visited him, he wanted to do a "She begins with a big ball gown and then she takes the overskirt off and she's got a cocktail dress on". It was looking a bit too gimmicky...




Oscar Revolution: Oscar also spray-painted "Revolution" on the skirt (pic above). Tim Gunn and I both told him that this would not be a needed addition to his design. Lucky for us, Oscar listens and he is AMAZING at knowing how to take our critiques and then "adjusting".








Natalia Fedner: Natalia rocked it out of the "Steampunk" park with  this design of hers. I was so proud. She wanted to devise a pulley system using things she had received from our time at Griffith Park's "Travel Town". It was INGENIOUS! Natalia's design merged all the elements that make Steampunk wonderful; it was Victoriana, it was mechanism-fab; it was futuristic...All of it!




Steampunk-ed: When her model stopped in front of the judges and began her lifting-up of the design, it was like "done and done"; we all gasped, the judges and production people were like "Oh No She Didn't!" and we all clapped!








My winner was Natalia, even though she did not win this challenge, I as a mentor, was VERY proud of her.

Time for "Nick's Looks"--my weekly blog on my Mentor fashion. For this past week's Episode 6--we visited the beautiful Getty Villa/J. Paul Getty Museum in Pacific Palisades, where the designers had a challenge to create looks inspired by the Getty Villa and new film "Pompeii". On the morning of this episode, of course we had no idea where we were going, we were only told the night before that the Challenge introduction would not be at FIDM but instead "off site". We drove and drove until we arrived at the Getty Villa. It was a very windy and slightly cold (for Southern California standards) morning--as you can see from our coats/jackets above.




Thurston Nick III: I wore a vintage navy blue double breasted jacket I found in a thrift store ages ago, a Zara blue striped dress shirt with white French cuffs and collar, jeans, a Robert Talbott orange printed silk scarf and my Marc Jacobs cuff links. It was my "Thurston Howell III of Gilligan's Island" look, or at least that's how I made fun of myself. I should have also brought a swimsuit to go into that pool--but I'm sure I might have gotten kicked off the premises, only to be "black-listed" from the Getty Villa!




Twinsies: When we arrived at the Getty Villa, and waited and waited to begin filming, I noticed that two of the "Project Runway: Under The Gunn" designers--Sam Donovan (left) and Shan Keith Oliver (right) were almost identically dressed: khaki pants and jean jacket. I had to capture a pic of them! We asked them if they had planned this, and according to them, they had not (yeah right!).



The Following Day/Runway Day:










For judging/runway day, I wore an ASOS wine colored suit, Topman skinny tie, a scarf I made out of silk fabric that I had (from my dress line)...




Zara patent leather shoes and my favorite accessory, very colorful polka dot printed Jay McCarroll (Project Runway Season 1 Winner) socks!




Finally, for some "direct to camera" interviews, I wore a lime green sweater from Canadian brand Joe Fresh, a dark blue jacket from British designer Hardy Amies that once belonged to my uncle, and a red and green bow tie from Countess Mara. 

On this week's episode of Lifetime Network's "Under The Gunn"--the challenge was to design a red carpet-worthy look based on "Hollywood Glamour". I gave some "Inside Dish" on the episode in my "Nick's Take" HERE. This post is about the fashion that I--as well as my fellow mentors--wore for that episode. For the first part of the episode, I donned a denim and satin lapel jacket from Zara, light purple dress shirt from H & M, purple skinny trousers from Topman, an Hermes silk pocket hankie and yes, my YSL "Johnny" boots.










"Under The Gunn" Side Tracked--during the filming of this episode--on THE SAME DAY!--I had an appearance scheduled at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising/FIDM in Downtown L.A. for an "Open House"--when students and their parents visit the campus to get to know a little more about the college...




FIDM Los Angeles Open House November 2013--As you can see, I am wearing the same outfit that I wore on this last episode of "Under The Gunn", and that is because I was filming the entire "Hollywood Tour Bus" portion the morning of my MC'ing appearance at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising/FIDM.











I literally drove from Hollywood Blvd., (after our "Under The Gunn Hollywood Tour") to Downtown L.A. to make my scheduled appearance. Besides hosting an Alunni Panel Discussion, I also did a "Dad Fashion Show" plus took a bunch of photos with the attendees. And the whole time, I couldn't say ANYTHING about what I was filming. You can read my Recap of the FIDM Los Angeles Open House HERE.



The following day of filming "Under the Gunn"...


Mentors at FIDM/Grand Hope Park--(left to right) Anya Ayoung-Chee, Nick Verreos and Mondo Guerra. The following day, I wore a wine-red velvet tuxedo blazer from H & M, Topman shiny skinny trousers and...








Mentor Mondo Guerra was in his Shorty-Shorts Tuxedo-esque Ensemble...

I was really excited about this challenge, as a mentor. And after coming off the "designer picking process" and feeling a bit rejected, I was excited because I thought "this was right up my alley". In retrospect, my "Hands On" approach was probably me over-compensating and trying to prove to my designers (and myself) that I was a worthy mentor. And, I also should have known, that the minute I said that "I have this 'in the bag'" on camera is the minute I was going to be in trouble!







Let's get to my inside dish "Nick's Take" on the Episode...

As I said before, this was THE FIRST "actual"
challenge-- not only for the designers but for us the Mentors. This
was going to be a test of sorts on how I should mentor for the first
time. Since I had no other guide on what I should do--mentoring-wise--I
went to my "Instructor Nick" mode when I taught at FIDM in my draping,
sewing, sketching and pattern classes. This began right away during the
bus ride when the designers were given their "sketching time".







HANDS OFF, NICK!: Instead of letting them just sketch alone on
their own, I sat by them and began giving them suggestions and in fact
sketching for them. Now, some of the designers did ask me for
suggestions, since they knew I had knowledge in this "department" of red
carpet dressing. In hindsight, now I realize I should have just let
them figure it out on their own and I shouldn't have been so hand's on.
Then, after the sketching and designers went fabric shopping, I
made my visit to the workroom--along with Tim--and my "hand's on/Instructor Nick"
approach unfortunately continued. This was primarily focused on two of
my designers--Natalia and Stephanie. They were the only ones asking me
questions, asking for my help, etc., and I LOVED giving them my help
(Oscar and Isabelle were on  their own and self-sufficient, for the most part).








It all came to a crescendo when...Natalia had run out into the workroom hallway/lounge area asking me for help with her gown pattern and I found myself ON THE FLOOR truing her pattern/fixing a seam line. Tim, then ran to us and began (correctly so) yelling at me wondering WHAT THE HECK I was doing??!! It was not until then that a BIG ROCK hit me: What the heck was I doing??!! I completely lost myself in going back to being "Instructor Nick" and forgotten that these designers were NOT my students and realized that none of the other mentors were sketching and/or making patterns/draping for their designers and more importantly Tim would NEVER do any of those things either (Stupid me!). It was too late for me to realize that this manner of "mentoring" was not the right way and if it wasn't for Tim, I might have just kept on doing it (Thank You Tim). Again, I really thought I was helping my designers, but I wasn't.



Watch Tim tell me "HANDS OFF!" HERE...



The Runway:



















Isabelle Donola: Isabelle created a very fitted dress from a golden hued silk shantung. The dress featured a draped cowl front and mesh-like back.

Inside Dish--Isabelle had originally made the dress to be LONG but it ended up being TOO SHORT, she then added a piece at the bottom hem (to make it floor length). When I saw what she had done, I told her that the judges might see that and notice it as a mistake. I suggested that she should do away with that piece and just make the dress "tea-length"--below-the-knee cocktail. And she did, and I think the look was quite chic.




Natalia Fedner: Natalia's gown was of silk charmeuse--a fabric Natalia said she loved using in her own line and that it's one of her "signatures". The gown was one shoulder with gold straps.

Inside Dish: This is the dress that I was ON THE FLOOR trying to help Natalia with. Originally, however, this gown was going to have those gold straps and a gold piece in the front but both Tim and I suggested that under the time constraints, this might be too much work for her. She therefore kept it simple and made it a clean one shoulder plain front with asymmetrical side pleating.




Oscar Garcia-Lopez: I loved Oscar's hunter green gown. This was perfectly made and VERY red carpet. I thought that he would be on top.

Inside Dish: Oscar was done waaaaay before any of the other designers. In fact he had so much time, he began cleaning and sweeping the workroom as a result (bless his heart!). Also, this gown was going to have a keyhole front opening AND he wanted to add a BIG BOW at the back--right on her bootie, as well as give her a TURBAN and long gloves. Not kidding. I suggested that it might be "too mucheey" and to keep it simple. He did and it looked gorgeous.




Stephanie Ohnmacht: Stephanie created a strapless dress with this green taffeta.

Inside Dish: Two things happened to Stephanie that weren't good: her fabric choice and the fact that I tried to help. The concept of the design and dress was sweet--she was going for a dress for the young "Hollywood" girl but it ended up looking prom-a-licious. She wanted to do some interesting diagonal draping and make the dress not have side seams yet still achieve a fuller shape. And even with my "Too Hands-On" help (which didn't really help) the dress looked tortured. Seeing the dress on the runway really also brought it home to me to try and stay HANDS OFF. I was sure that my Stephanie would be going home. But she didn't! (thank goodness).




Out: Who did go home was Camilla Castillo. I actually LIKED this dress; it was simple, modern and a little bit "Raf Simons for Dior". I even liked the origami-like folding in the back. The dress, however, was a little too see-through in the front and the fabric was wrinkled. Camilla also made lots of excuses on the runway/judging which I think the judges did not like. She went home.




The Best: (left to right) Designers Blake Smith (Anya's designer) and Sam Donovan (Mondo's) were the two best looks and rightly so. I loved these two designs and for being such polar opposites of what could be deemed as a "red carpet" look. One was a beautifully constructed va-va-voom of a gown (Blake's) and Sam's was a young, directional-looking jumpsuit for an up-and-coming Hollywood ingenue "It" girl. Sam won and Congrats to him!



Click HERE to watch Tim's take on the Episode and talk about my TOO HANDS ON approach (Oyyy Vey!)