‘Fashion Show’ Exit Interview: Laura Says Tulle Tiff Was A Result Of Editing

When designing for a new client, it’s important to know that client’s personal style. Especially when that client happens to be uber famous socialite, Tinsley Mortimer. On Thursday night’s episode of The Fashion Show, Laura’s inability to connect with Tinsley’s taste ultimately led to her demise. Well, that and the decision to use bright red tulle trim on a little black dress, despite her teammates pleas to the contrary. So just why did she decide to go with the tulle? And was she unjustly vilified by the rest of team tube skirt? The answers to those questions, below.

It looked liked Haven and your team fought you on the red tulle from the beginning, and then at the end you didn’t recall the criticism. Is that how it really happened? It was decidedly tricks of editing, but I can’t talk any more about it.

Do you not remember them criticizing the tulle? The discussion was not exactly that, no.

Are you frustrated by how you were portrayed? It’s just entertainment. I don’t backstab people. I don’t talk poorly about people. I guess you could say that’s not how I roll. I was reasonable, I wasn’t out of hand.

In your final confessional you said you didn’t ‘connect’ with Tinsley. Do you think that lack of connection ultimately hampered your ability to get through this challenge? Yes, enormously. In real life if you have a client you can research the client. But in the reality TV environment there’s no research or information, so that was really difficult. What I saw of her is what you saw of her on the episode. That’s all I’ve ever seen of her so it’s not very much information to go on.

Did other people seem to have more knowledge of her? Some people had really thorough knowledge of her. You can talk to people to a certain extent, but a couple of words don’t really do as much as pictures or research, like what is she into? What labels does she wear? It’s hard to get information when there’s not much description.

You think if you had more information you might have done something completely different? I probably would have scaled it back a bit and made it less formal. She seemed to be going for that jumper look. For any of my normal musician clients I wouldn’t be doing a jumper now. I would have done that a couple of seasons ago.

What do you think about the way Johnny talked to the judges last night? I don’t really know where he was coming from with that. I don’t know if he was just frustrated, or if he was trying to be dramatic and get attention. I don’t know what he was thinking to say that, but I guess compared to every other outrageous thing that was on the show I was surprised that Isaac reacted to it that much. He’s not the only person in the world to have said send me home.

What other outrageous things are you referring to? I don’t even know where to start.

That much drama was going on two episodes into it? Yeah. My stepmother made a comment yesterday: ‘if only reality TV shows played the whole entire taping, then we’d really see reality.’ I thought that was an interesting perspective because she watches tons of reality shows.

What was your impression of Merlin? I’m not a TV actor. I’m a designer. That’s what I do. Merlin seems to be some kind of hybrid of the two. But he’s really more of a TV actor. I don’t know. He’s a complex person. That’s all I can really say.

Do you think Johnny’s lack of sewing skills, his use of safety pins, and his attitude should have sent him packing instead of you? Clearly. But a product has to be made: a TV show. Not necessarily fashion.

Were you shocked by that decision? I think I was a little surprised by it. Even after it happened I was like ‘are they really doing this?’ I think a lot of other people were shocked by it as well, which sort of set the tone, like, is this about drama or is it about design? And that question got answered at that point. It’s sort of like a backwards rewards system.

What did you think of Kelly and Isaac? I worked with Isaac before. I think he’s a great designer. He has a great aesthetic. Everybody has a job to do and nobody is excluded from that. He’s alright, he had to do what he had to do.

Last week Jonny said he thought Kelly was a strange casting decision. Do you agree with that? I feel like it’s probably largely due to that Vogue photoshoot with the 12 or 13 black models last year. It’s sort of been in vogue to have African American, or just African models or spokespeople or celebrities, which is a positive trend. I feel like that decision might have gone along with that. I feel like for a show that’s completely mainstream, it’s probably a good idea to have a person there that doesn’t have that knowledge of fashion so she can point at Haven’s shirt and say ‘Is that supposed to be doing that? What is that about?’ Because its likely that there are a quite a few people watching who would think the same thing and articulate it the same way. So if you have all industry people, it could get too…we could bore the living daylights out of someone who isn’t into sewing. Overall it’s good that she was there.

Was it tough for you to cohabitate in such close quarters and live in bunk beds? When I don’t like people very much I don’t talk very much. I did a lot of not talking while I was on the show, which probably didn’t help me out that much. The bunk bed thing wasn’t so bad. There were a few people who came from an acting background and who would project their voices quite loudly. At one point I was having a normal conversation with someone standing next to me and there was no music on. I had to scream just so that person could hear me over other people’s voices. It was intensely loud all the time. That was really grating.

Was there anyone who you did make a connection with? Some people, yeah. No complaints about them at all. I got along with Angel and James Paul.

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

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