Good grief

Wow. Just... wow. Or in the words of the Rickshaw Restaurant and Lounge marquee: "wow" (see the blog of unnecessary quotes). I heard all the arguments, and while I get where Nina and Michael were coming from, I just don't agree. I also advise you all to run to your favorite stores and stock up on the cute and complimentary because we are apparently in for a few years of terrible, awful sportswear (and just when I was getting excited for all those t-strap shoes and pencil skirts).

There were so many things wrong with this finale but the glaringly obvious was the inclusion of Jessica Simpson as guest judge. The woman has never been, nor ever will be, a fashion icon. Granted, I've seen a branded shoe or two of hers that I like, but only in that "here is a nice, basic black shoe" kind of way. She is the personification of mall chic, with a tragic habit of dressing to make herself appear bigger than she actually is. How do these traits suggest the last word on fashion? Answer: they don't. But thanks for sticking up for Mondo.

I think we can all agree that Andy's clothes were beautiful. I was surprised by how much I liked them, given his penchant for a little kookier, a lot more skin-baring designs. Sadly for him, this seemed to have killed him and I can't really blame the judges for it. While I liked them more than his normal stuff, he should have stayed truer to his kooky self.

Mondo, on the other hand, stayed too true to his vision. I don't disagree that he could stand some editing (those hair pieces were totally unnecessary, bordering on distracting), but I still feel he got robbed. Heidi was right to point out it felt like punishing him for continuing with a style they'd been praising him for all season. But I felt the nail in the coffin when Nina equated Mondo's collection to Seth Aaron's winning show last season. And there we have it. The judges didn't want to repeat themselves and so deemed Gretchen's easy breezy "sportswear" the look of our times. Which means Jon Stewart was wrong: these actually are end times.

So that's it. I don't even want to think about Gretchen's collection anymore, let alone write about it. And I definitely don't want to see it again. Ever. I'll be cancelling my fashion magazine subscriptions for a year or two and investigating other options for inspiration. Maybe I'll give Circus Monthly a try.

Kudos to Susan for taking the Vegas odds and winning this season's pool. Thanks to everyone for playing!