Stylista: Whisper Sweet Nothings (recap)

By: Jen Smith
Fancast.com

Last week on Stylista, a double elimination sent Devin and William packing, and no one really seems to care. Megan’s pissed at Kate for essentially “throwing her under the bus,” as they like to say. Does that phrase still count if what Kate said was true? Not sure. Danielle can’t believe she’s still in the competition. So far, she’s proved to be the most level-headed and sane person in the house. Get ready for that to change, kids. Danielle’s about to take a train to Crazy Town.

For their assistant task this week, everyone divides up into pairs. They’ll have to buy a travel gift for New York royalty, also known as some lady who owns a night club. Megan and Johanna pair up to buy a cashmere throw, but Anne Slowey complains that it’s not the thickest or softest cashmere around. There’s only so much a person can do with a mere $250. Kate and Dyshaun buy a beautiful vintage Chanel pin, but Anne doesn’t see the significance and worries that jewelry is too personal. Ashlie and Anne go way off course, putting together a goody bag full of travel essentials like Dramamine and Airborne. Anne’s observation was a good one—they spent 250 bucks on that? Obviously, Megan and Johanna won. Normally they’d get to choose teams, but this time there’s a twist. They’ll be rival team captains.

The editorial challenge this week was blatantly ripped of The Devil Wears Prada. Remember the scene where Anne Hathaway whispers the names of important people in the ear of Meryl Streep? That’s essentially what they’ll have to do. To be fair, it was fairly obvious this was being filmed just for the show and that Anne Slowey really did know everyone’s names. Also for the challenge, they’ll have to create a party page in the fashion insider section of the magazine, including exciting photos, fashion, and a theme. She reminds the contestants that a mistake could be disastrous. Spoiler alert: there were tons of mistakes made, and nothing disastrous went down. The world is still turning on its axis, leprosy hasn’t ravaged Manhattan, and neither of Kate’s fake boobs deflated.

Johanna ends up picking Kate to be on her team, apparently because Kate has a photographic memory. She also picks Danielle. That leaves Megan with Dyshan and Ashlie. Here’s the cherry on top: everyone gets to pick out clothes from the Elle closet to wear to the party! Everyone’s flipping out… except Danielle, who runs to the bathroom in a tizzy. She completely flips a lid, slamming doors and crying and whatnot, because she can’t possibly fit anything in the closet. First of all, it’s not that big of a deal. She could just war one of her own dresses and steal some awesome shoes and accessories. I guess she didn’t care about that. However, it didn’t help matters when Johanna and Kate complained about being too skinny to fit into any of the dresses. That was just cruel and insensitive. Johanna does have a funny moment when she asks Kate to not wear anything too slutty and that no one wants to see her “booby parade.” Word. Back home, Danielle begins a conversation about why the fashion industry is so closed minded toward fat chicks. Talk about awkward.

The next night, the big party has arrived. Everyone has supposedly studied their dossiers and are prepared to tell Anne who’s who. Supposedly. Team Johanna starts off well, but quickly starts to suck. It seems Danielle was too wrapped up in her own emotional drama, Kate was too busy staring at herself in the mirror, and Johanna was too sleep deprived. Team Megan ends up getting way more people’s names right. Not that it mattered, of course. It was all for show. That’s a realty show for ya. After the party, the teams book it back to Elle, where they have 90 minutes to put together their presentation. Team Johanna bickers a lot, and chooses an “Elite Street” theme, which basically sends out the message that all these people are better than you. Team Megan decides to highlight the trend of the night, which was leather, by going with a (H)elle’s Belles trend page. It’s actually quite clever. Damn.

In the judging room, Team Megan goes first. Anne worries that their layout doesn’t have an establishing shot, but thinks it’s a fun and interesting page. They were also scolded for having too much text and an incorrect spelling on someone’s s name. If you thought that was bad, you should have heard the review for Team Johanna. They were put through the ringer. Their pictures were unflattering, no one worked as a team, and they completely misidentified one of the people. Needless to say, Team Johanna lost this challenge. Kate was the first to be saved because she was the one who thought of the layout. Johanna’s criticized for having never been on a winning team, while Danielle is condemned for making crucial mistakes. Long story short, Danielle is sent home. Like a Christmas miracle, all the drama makers are still in the house. How the heck did that happen?