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WINDOW SHOPPING

This challenge was to design a day into evening outfit for the Banana Republic customer. Well-designed day into evening clothes are in high demand and for obvious reasons. There is a lot of product out in the retail sphere that professes to be transitive, but it really doesn't work well for that purpose. Ergo, the challenge! And our designers had to listen intently to Heidi and Banana Republic Head of Design Deborah Lloyd: "an outfit for the Banana Republic customer." Understand?

At their meeting with Deborah Lloyd, our designers were given the full run of the spring 2006 fabrics to from which to choose for their look. Curiously, far too many of them selected a navy charmeuse, at least in my opinion. Wendy won season one's Banana Republic challenge with the same fabric, so were their fabric decisions subliminally influenced?

Back in the workroom, the designers are disarmed to learn that they will be working in teams of two with equally shared team leadership, and they had 60 seconds to pair themselves up. They were to create one outfit per team, so they had to choose one of their two models to wear the look. Anxiety proliferated!

There's more. The teams and their models take a surprise field trip to a Banana Republic store in the Flatiron District. There the teams learn that they each have a storefront window to design and in which their model will serve as a living mannequin. And if that wasn't enough, Banana Republic customers have been invited to vote on their impression of the total impact of the display; specifically, how well each window and corresponding look on the model convey the day to evening theme. The design team that receives the highest number of votes will win the challenge. The losing design team will be determined on the runway.

Oh, and let's not forget the enormous scale of this win: the winning design will be put into production and sold in select Banana Republic stores and on-line.

ANDRAE AND DANIEL
Andrae and Daniel WIN, and deservedly so. They best understood the design challenge and the Banana Republic customer. Their dress for Rebecca looked modern and very sexy, and the addition of the cropped jacket for day was inspired, because it diminished the look's sexiness for the purpose of the workplace. Their window display was streamlined and to the point: two large clocks painted on the wall, one reading 9:00am and the other 9:00pm. Rebecca transitioned from one clock to the other, removing the jacket for 9:00pm. It was a slam-dunk. Congratulations guys!

DIANA AND MARLA
Diana and Marla are OUT. Given the work of the other teams, their elimination was inevitable, but their design was good, frankly, and Lesley worked it well. Yes, the suit was a bit flat and stale, but at least it was controlled, realistic, and relatively gimmick-free. My biggest objection was the condition of their design, which was all puckered and wrinkled, especially the skirt. (How about a steamer, ladies?) But their window installation was beyond beyond! A bookshelf and mounds of crumpled paper? It was clear that their objective was to resonate "office," but where is the transition to evening? Egads, this really didn't work.

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