Mischa Barton: PR: Seth Aaron

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

PR: Seth Aaron

We're on Team S.A.

For all the talk of Mila being a bit narrow in her range (or Anthony, for that matter), the charge rarely gets laid at Seth Aaron's feet, even though it cannot be denied that he tends to return to the same tailored-jacket-with-broad-shoulders+skinny pants look over and over again.

Maybe it's because he still manages to be pretty insanely creative working within those boundaries.

And maybe it's because, as contestants go, he's a sweetheart.

Or wait. No, we've got it.

Model: Valeria Leonova

It's because he keeps turning out kickass looks.

Sure, this isn't flawless, and yes, he's working in the same silhouette again, but he does tend to bring an original style to each look.

That print is fabulous. Not any more sophisticated than most of the other prints, but it was graphic and fun and the colors were interesting. Look how beautifully he tailored it so as to make all the black lines line up at an angle. That's damn impressive.

LOVE the tie.

One thing Seth DEFINITELY has in common with many of his fellow contestants is that he just doesn't know when to stop designing. The jacket would have been better with a more conventional collar and not in that black and white check. There was already enough visual information in the look without that.

It's the pants, poodles. That's where he really loses us. They are JUST. SO. OVERDESIGNED. To the point where we have to remind ourselves that we actually like a lot of the design elements in the pants. We just think he shouldn't have used all of them at once. In fact, given the focus-pulling tendency of the jacket, we would have loved it if he'd just done a simple skinny black pant.

In the end, it's just hard for us to lob that "repetitive" charge at him with any gusto. He definitely has a distinct and relatively narrow point of view, but damn if he doesn't manage to keep churning out fantastic - and fantastically different - looks each time.

Tim Gunn's Workroom:

Extended Judging: