‘The Fashion Show’ Exit Interview: Angel’s B-Girl Fall

Urbandictionary.com defines a B-girl as “a break-girl, the female version of b-boy. aka. a female breaker (a ‘break-dancer’ WITH style).” Angel Chang was not equipped with this knowledge in last night’s Fashion Show challenge when designers were asked to create outfits based on high school social cliques. As a result, instead of body rocking on to the next episode, Angel fell flat. In an interview Friday, the 30-year-old discussed her experience on the show, her friendship with James-Paul, and who she thinks is the meanest designer of them all (no, it’s not Reco).

Do you know what a B-girl is now? I still don’t know! [laughs] It’s funny because people kept asking me while the show was happening, and even after it was over ‘what’s a B-girl?’ I don’t even think the judges, other than Kelly, knew. I thought it was like the girl version of break dancers form the 80s, or from Flashdance. I see like kids at NYU who wear a lot of fluorescent colors, it’s like an early 80s hip hop aesthetic, but I don’t feel like it’s hip hop. It came up on the show as this much larger genre, but not to me.

So do you think it’s more of a micro trend? Isaac said he thought it was a macro trend. For me, a B-girl is very micro.  Isaac is correct in calling hip-hop a macro trend, but the challenge assigned to me was to do a B-girl. Hip hop is pervasive, and of course we all know what that is. Had I been given a hip hop clique then my design would have been very different.

Kelly’s reaction was pretty severe. It seemed like she was really offended that you didn’t know what it meant. I don’t know why Kelly was so offended. Maybe that’s more of her turf. For me, the challenge was to be inspired by this high school clique, it wasn’t to create a look for someone who would actually wear it in that clique. That’s what it turned into, though. She was like ‘real people wouldn’t want to wear that because they’d be so offended.’ It was just like ‘wow, this wasn’t what the challenge was, you’re getting out of control.’

There’s been a lot of talk about Kelly’s role on the show, and whether or not she was a good choice as a judge. What do you think? I didn’t know who Kelly was before the show. I don’t listen to Destiny’s Child. My experience with her was just about her giving feedback to the designers. I mean, she’s pretty and she wears clothes well, but I’m not really sure why she was chosen for the show. Fern is amazing and Isaac has had so much experience. Maybe Kelly will surprise us and become a leading style icon after all of this.

What do you think of the comments about the pants? Are you happy with what you did? Would you have changed it? I would have done something sexier and easier; something really stupid and really easy. But stupid and easy is not what I enjoy doing. I thought the outfit was fine. The pants were like whatever. The emphasis wasn’t on the pants, it was on the jacket. I wanted to add more colors. I had this little stuffed animal lion on the show that was kind of like the Little People mascot. I wanted to copy that onto the jacket but we only had 12 hours. There wasn’t much I could do or work with.

Who are the Little People? In the first episode Reco called us the Little People. Our group kept winning all of the mini-challenges in the beginning and we were all shorter than him so he called us the little people.

At the end of the day, do you think you wanted it more than Johnny and he deserved to go home? He’d already told the judges to send him home once before, and then last night he echoed the same sentiments, saying he had clients at home waiting for him. He’d been in the bottom before and the other contestants thought he should have been eliminated early on. I think he stayed on because of his personality. This is a TV show, there’s a certain entertainment value in it. There’s a certain point when it’s no longer about design skills and it’s about how does this certain person play into the larger story? So that’s how I approached it.

Reco, for instance, has a wild personality but he also seems to have the skills to back it up. What was your reaction to him? Reco is great because if Reco hates you, you know he hates you. And if he likes you, you know he likes you. As a New Yorker, I really appreciate the honesty. In previous episodes he was allies with Haven and Johnny and all those people but then there was a certain point when he became closer with us, the Little People.

Sounds like a challenge about high school cliques was reflected in the designers on the show. Yeah, it was really weird. Everyone was so harsh, at least in this last episode. Even the judges were super harsh. I was shocked. It was a high school challenge and I think we all reverted to our high school ways.

You said Daniella was really mean. Why? Daniella is very young and very immature. She doesn’t have experience in the real world yet. Her ego hasn’t been bashed by anyone in the fashion industry. I felt like she was really mean for no reason. She’s a drama queen and she’s overemotional. She can be mean but she doesn’t have the substance to back it up.

James-Paul said he felt like you were the female version of him. What’s your relationship been like since the show? He’s in LA right now, although he’s based in London. We both have a similar European design sensibility, and he is someone I would find in the real world working in fashion. There’s this perception that people who work in fashion are really mean and evil and backstabbing, but I think the people who are really successful are really supportive and really nice and they get to the top because they are considerate and helpful and professional with each other. James-Paul fits into that category. After the show is over, we are going to work on a collaboration and create a sub-brand together.

Mens or womens? I don’t know, maybe both. We don’t know yet. It’ll be really exciting.

You were always making last minute adjustments/fixes down to the wire, like right before the fashion show wire. Was it just you, or was it everyone? And do you feel like they unfairly pinpointed you specifically? I leave things to the very last minute. I also have high expectations of myself and what I want to do. I just can’t possibly accomplish all of that within a limited time frame. They focused on me because I didn’t give up and I was always the one sewing a button on or making sure something was pinned right.

You said in your exit interview video that Merlin was an inspiration to you. I’m fascinated by him. In the beginning, Merlin and I connected. In the first mini-challenge I was the first person he chose to be part of his team. He and I understood each other. Then going into episodes 2, 3, and 4, we did not get along at all. Then, we started to respect each other again. It was a whole dramatic story. I think he’s extremely talented. He makes one-off clothes for ladies who lunch in the real world, and that’s why him and Reco do so well, because they’re used to making one outfit for someone. I think there are three different sides to Merlin that we see.

What are the three faces of Merlin? [laughs] Crazy Merlin, evil Merlin, and humble Merlin. I think we see all three facets of that in the competition.

If you could sum up your experience on this show in one word, what would it be? Overwhelming.

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