Rami, Rami, Rami. What can we say? He's a great designer, but we fear he may have a bit of the Midde Eastern Male Syndrome. Now, here's a disclaimer: we love many of our Middle Eastern brothers, and fathers and grandfathers and cousins and uncles and other numerous relatives and friends, but our experience in this area-- and we have a lot-- backs us up on the following claim. Have you, fellow wayward Middle Easterners, ever been in a situation in which you are a part of a household which has been invited somewhere, and there is a male family member involved-- particularly, at the helm? Well, then you are familiar with this syndrome, in which the male figure begins exclaiming about thirty minutes before it is actually necessary to leave the house, "Yalla , we're going to be late!" Now, some of us WMEGs of the lady-gendered variety have many things to do before presenting ourselves to others (and especially to other Middle Easterners), including hairstyle, impeccible outfitting, perfect eyeliner, and removal of all excess body hair. As you know, this takes time-- you may know it as being on Arab/Persian/Armenian/etc. Time. Thus, it is never possible to leave for an event any earlier than ten minutes after the scheduled time of departure -- all the while being verbally hassled by the aforementioned male(s) regarding tardiness, leading to his eventual exasperation and decision to wait in the car while muttering to himself and anyone within earshot, listening to Abdel Halim on full blast, and frantically manipulating his worry beads. That, my friends, is a symptom of Middle Eastern Male Syndrome, and while it is generally harmless (as many of our lovely men are), it is there. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about!
Anyway, we're thinking that perhaps Rami showed a little of that this week. The challenge: work in teams of two to create an avant-garde look based on the model's hairstyle (and later, to create a ready-to-wear look that echoes the previous in sensibility). Now, we know working in teams can be the kiss of death even for the most talented on this show, and while Rami runs circles around Sweet P as a designer (though we have been known to be fond of her, with the tattoos and the biker past and the baffling name), we thought perhaps he was a bit heavy-handed with the leadership. His ideas were great, as always, but we couldn't help but think that, hey, some of Sweet P's were good too: we personally LOVED the bustle idea! There are never enough bustles on the runway! That would have made for something a little more edgy. And the ready-to-wear dress she made (below) was really quite lovely. Perhaps if Rami sat down, listened to some Fairuz, and played with his worry beads, he would have seen the situation with a little more clarity and realized that, even though she is a crazy ol' wh
ite lady (and we say this fondly), maybe she just needed to do things on Crazy Ol' White Lady Time, and things would have been cool. Like when your carful of family members gets to your host's house and you realize you aren't really that late because there is ALWAYS some other family who suffers even worse from time issues and gets there like two hours late. You know?Well in this week's challenge that was Kit and Ricky. We'll be damned if Ricky isn't the luckiest hambal on this show. We're not sure how he ends up surviving each week, with the crying and complaining and the not-very-interesting designs, but he does. He's like a cockroach! Anyway, we were very sad to see Kit go, because she has consistently been our next favorite after Rami, and she's done some beautiful stuff. We would have loved to see her compete in the finale. Unfortunately this week's design was not one of her best pieces, though the idea sounded really cool. The winning Team Fierce-- Chris and Christian-- totally deserved it, if nothing but for the total outrageousness of the piece, and the ready-to-wear was very cute. Although that coat made by the Sullen Sisters (Victorya and Jillian) was, admittedly, quite ferocious... check it all out for yourselves here.
Oh, Rami. We are very, very glad you didn't leave this week, because it would have been completely unfair, and we know you have a whole lot of gorgeousness in store for us-- a look at your website promises that. But maybe a little compromise isn't always so bad, aiwa? At least next time, consider the bustle! And, um, less draping. We love you, bro.
Peace out, readers. xo
