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In last night’s episode of The Face, the show resumed with a confrontation from Naomi Campbell, when she challenged fellow modelling mentors, Anne V (Vyalitsyna) and Lydia Hearst for their decision to put up Khadisha and Nakisha for elimination. If you saw last week’s show, Naomi was fuming over the fact that her own girl, Kira unwittingly shared with teammate, Afiya that a model of color and who was not American could win the competition. Based off that tense evening, it was clear that Naomi felt that neither women should have been put up that night.
Latex, Heels and Tyson Beckford?
THE FACE — “Runway Dinner Party” Episode 203 — Pictured: (l-r) Executive Producer and Supermodel Coach Naomi Campbell alongside Host Nigel Barker and Guest Tyson Beckford — (Photo by: Tim Brown/Oxygen)
In the first individual competition of the night, host Nigel Barker (with his 007 of the fashion world finesse) welcomed hunky male supermodel, Tyson Beckford as judge for a competition that consisted of perfecting the perfect runway walk. I loved this challenge mainly because Nigel made it a toughie for the girls in the competition. When I say toughie, I mean, latex, super high heels and a high platform of stairs thrown in the mix. Tyson, along with Nigel, were looking for three key elements to achieve: poise, posture and pose. The girl that perfected all three would be the winner of the challenge and help give her team the upper hand when their group competition began.
Wearing latex skirts by Syren, leather corsets by The Stockroom, high heels by Ruthie Davis and couture head pieces by Eric Jarvis, the aspiring models had to do their best walk possible to feature their assemble. It was difficult to do because the latex skirts worn were super tight and constricting, making it hard for many to achieve their runway walk upon the staircase.
Watching the show, I can say that Kira, struggled the most. Her lack of self-confidence mixed with pure stiffness showed as she struggled to walk up the staircase. Second weakest? Ray. Her posture was off and she still struggles with having the best walk out of the rest of Team Lydia. The best out of the whole individual group was Anne V’s Tiana. She walked fluidly in the tight latex as if she had been doing it all of her modeling life. She won the competition for the team.
Kira the Defeatist
From the very first episode of The Face, Russian model Kira has been very outspoken. She was either ruffling the feathers of the very own team mates or she was placing blame on Naomi in not having the most time being shown ‘what to do’. Over time, it just seemed to look like she was giving up on herself, and it was hard to watch, or for that matter, listen to, when she continued to mope and struggle during the competition.
Runway ala Banquet Table
I’ve seen all kinds of modeling challenges thrown at models, but this group competition was epic on so many levels. For the group challenge, Nigel introduced fashion designer Pamella Roland, whose designer cocktail and long evening gowns would be featured in a runway competition. A runway competition that would be on a long banquet table that would be filled with wine glasses, candles, floral centerpieces and of course food. The competition would focus on the following three elements: runway walk, showcasing the dress, and confidence of the model.
Tiana, who won the individual competition earlier on, helped give Team Anne V the upper hand this time around, and it was much needed, due to the loss of two previous competitions to Team Naomi. They had the opportunity to select their Pamella Roland dresses; both cocktail and long evening gowns, ahead of the rest. Anne proved to be the most focused by having her girls wearing evening gowns that weren’t too long or too heavy in the dress’s train. Her coaching of the “kick and step” method was great to see.
Team Lydia did an overall good job, however, Amanda received frowns from the designer herself, when Pamella commented to Nigel that Amanda was way too sexy in both of her walks. I have to agree with her, because the whole blowing kisses was over the top and more designed for the models of Victoria’s Secret than for someone of high fashion. Ray, who struggled in the individual competition, struggled with her runway walk on the banquet table. You could see it all over her face as she slowly walked down the runway.
The team that was the most weak was Team Naomi. It wasn’t the whole group of girls that affected the team but possibly one or two that made things a tad rough. Kira, first off, needs to stop with the mini pity party when being given pointers by Naomi. Naomi isn’t there to feed her everything she needs to do verbatim, but is there to mentor and coach on how to correct things that needed to be corrected. She just sounded like a wounded bird and her attitude sabotaged her on the runway for both cocktail and long evening gown runway walks.
As for my girl, Afiya, she gets the medal for keeping her composure throughout her walk. She took out half the table in her long evening gown, dragging almost everything from wine glasses to knocking over the cake from off of the cake platter. As Afiya was walking down the banquet table, I didn’t know if Naomi was shedding tears from laughter or if they were tears of utter fear, but either way, that was a classic reaction to see on television.
THE FACE — “Runway Dinner Party” Episode 203 — Pictured: Supermodel Coach Anne V with her modeltestants — (Photo by: Steve Fenn/Oxygen)
In the end, it was all about Team Anne as Pamella announced that they achieved all three elements of the banquet runway competition. Tiana got the most praise from Pamella for her elegant walk and poise. Because Anne’s team won, Anne, for the first time, would have to go into the elimination room to check out who Naomi and Lydia chose to put up. I, like Naomi, already knew who would be her girl sent into the room, as for Lydia, it could have been either Amanda or Ray.
Elimination Leaves One Playing the Blame Game
As expected, Naomi and Lydia both chose correctly in who should be standing before Anne in the elimination room. Ray had the weakest walk and lack of posture in both of her runway walks and Kira simply shut down and fell apart on the runway with a bad walk, posture and confidence. When asked why each wanted to stay, Ray was the one that showed a great deal of passion and fight to be kept. She admitted that she should have been in the elimination room because of her poor performance but she also pointed out to Anne that she was determined to do better. Kira, unfortunately, did the very thing that Naomi warned her against doing: beg. During her talk with Anne, Kira once again placed blame on her poor performance on Naomi, stating that she was struggling in the competition because she felt that she wasn’t given more instructions on how to improve. Anne, however, was on point in letting Kira know that the coach’s jobs aren’t to hold their hand throughout the competitions, but rather mentor them.
In the end, Ray won another day in the competition and was sent back to Team Lydia. As for Kira, after learning her fate, she completely broke down in tears. I will admit, my heart broke for her, because I could see her slowly losing confidence. Her tears and heartbreak was so loud that Naomi, breaking the rules of entering the elimination room, went in to see what was going on. It was there where she consoled Kira and stressed that she couldn’t give up on herself.
Next Wednesday’s episode of The Face will of course start off with a bang, as Naomi once again confronts Anne in regards to her decision to send her girl home. Also on the show, we will see the models tackling on a competition where they have to perfect an ad campaign. Until next time, The Face viewers!
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