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This week on The Face, soon after the elimination of Allison Milar, Anne V (Anne Vyalitsyna) and Naomi Campbell give Lydia Hearst an earful about her mentoring (or lack of) skills. Lydia doesn’t take the bait to go off in order to defend herself, but rather, take her two girls, Amanda Gullickson and Rachel (Ray) Clanton back to their room to talk as to why they have yet to win a challenge.
Meanwhile the other girls from voice how it’s time for the models of Team Anne V to go down so that either Team Lydia or Team Naomi can get a chance to rock out their next modeling challenge.
Posing Like a Man: RuPaul Gives Tips in New Challenge
Nigel Barker, I think has one of the BEST jobs as host of The Face. In Wednesday night’s episode, “Just One of the Boys”, Nigel informs the continuing models that their next challenge would be that for American Elle Magazine’s online Fashion Bible. The campaign would consist of the models reverting themselves into men, where they would model their new look with their super model coaches in a three part love story. The love story would be judged by Creative Director of Elle, Joe Zee, who explained that he was looking for the models to be able to convey sensuality and mystery within the campaign.
THE FACE — “Just One of the Boys” – Episode 206 — Pictured: Team Lydia practicing for the challenge with guest mentor RuPaul — (Photo by: Steve Fenn/Oxygen)
Nigel listed off the Top Three Elements that Joe and he would be looking for in order to win the campaign challenge:
- Story telling: The campaign must show how each three pictures tell the passionate love story
- Connection: The teams must have a connection with each other and their coaches in the three pictures
- Believability: Each model must make those seeing the pictures in the campaign believe that they are men
The guest mentor that would help the ladies dive into their boy counterparts was none-other-than RuPaul Charles, best known for his LOGO Network television show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. He shared how important it was to truly commit and channel themselves into their androgyny side. The ladies were taken to the styling area, where they would be transformed by The International Fashion House of J. Linberg.
The challenge winner from the viral campaign, Sharon Gallardo, got a bit frustrated with her team member, Khadisha Gaye, when she tried offering her tips on how to show her strong ¾ side when photographed with Anne. While that was going on, one of my favorite models in the competition, Afiya Bennett voiced her concerns on not being able to channel her tough side. In the past, she was critiqued on being too strong in her campaigns, but now that she was needing to be this way, she found it hard to do.
I thought it was classic when RuPaul, just as he does on his show, came to the models to see how their progress was so far before the big challenge. It was pure “Drag Queen critique fashion, and his banter with the ladies was pretty entertaining.
Lastly, I don’t know what it is about Team Lydia but they seem to be trying too hard to the point where it comes off forced. That was the case for me when seeing Ray trying her hardest to transform herself during the rehearsals. I really like Ray, so I was hoping she’d pull it out come time for the actual photographing of the challenge.
Campaign Time: Naomi Campbell’s Team Pull Out All the Stops
I am going to say this: it’s about time that Naomi and her ladies started to pull themselves out of that losing streak that they had. I simply loved their campaign. I was very worried about Felisa Wiley, the sweet faced beauty, because she seemed to have struggled through several of the previous challenges. She did a great job in terms in giving masculine facial expressions. Same could be said about Afiya; she stood out the most for me. Neither model fell in the background of Naomi, who is one of the fiercest models in the business.
I don’t know what happened to Team Anne V. A part of me wondered if the girls automatically assumed that they had the competition in the bag because they won three times in a row, or if there was something that they were afraid to show in front of the cameras. I fully agreed with Naomi and Lydia when they mentioned to each other that it wasn’t Tiana Zarlin that was the most noticed, but rather Sharon, who was slowly edging her out. As for Khadisha, she doing such a great job away from the cameras, but once they started, she just fell flat.
Lydia, in my most humble opinion, needs to stop being so soft spoken with her girls. Unlike Naomi, who demands focus and attention to what’s expected, or even Anne, who has a similar but firm demeanor, Lydia is sugary sweet to her girls. The girls tried their hardest but Ray was not showing a masculine look in her three part campaign with Amanda and Lydia. Amanda, on the other hand, did a great job channeling being a man, but her hard features took away from the campaign some.
After the photo shoot, it was time for Joe to determine whose campaign shined. He shared his thoughts on Team Lydia, stating that the first picture started off with a great story but that Amanda’s scowl was more of the clichéd look of how men should look like. I completely disagreed with Joe saying that Ray stood out to him. She stood out for all the wrong reasons. She looked like a feminine Ray in the campaign shots that were taken.
Team Naomi wowed Joe for all the right reasons. He thought their campaign was one of the best that told the three part love story, even though he was not a fan of their final photograph featuring Felisa ready to club Naomi over the head. Anne V’s team, on the other hand just fell short of what Joe was looking for in the campaign. He pointed out that when looking at their second picture of their love story, Anne was more focused on rather than her girls.
After deliberating on the campaigns with Nigel, Joe shared that the team that delivered all three key factors in the Elle campaign was that of Team Naomi.
Elimination Time: One Model Throws a Mentor Under the Bus
THE FACE — “Just One of the Boys” Episode 206 — Pictured: Team Naomi practicing with their mentor — (Photo by: Steve Fenn/Oxygen)
A heartbroken Anne expressed her disappointment about Tiana and Khadisha’s performance. She couldn’t understand how Khadisha could do so well in rehearsal but fall flat the minute the she was in front of the cameras. Meanwhile, back in her room with her girls, Lydia shared the feedback that Joe gave her about their campaign. She told Amanda that she would be the one that would have to fight for Naomi to keep. Anne, too, told Khadisha that she was going into the elimination room to fight for her spot to remain in the competition.
Naomi wanted to know why she should keep either one of them. Amanda gave her solid reasons as to why she should stay. I felt that she was right in saying that she has tried the most in toning down her sexy side in recent campaigns. My heart broke though for Khadisha, who couldn’t give valid reasons for Naomi to keep her. I also agreed that she slowly dwindled down in the competition; not being able to show her strengths before the cameras.
I thought it was a bit shady for Amanda, when asked by Naomi if she thought Lydia lacked a fierce determination to win as a mentor and if she wanted to be on a different team, she said an immediate yes. Looking forward to how that little scenario will go down come next week when Naomi fills Lydia in on what went on in the elimination room (and trust me, Naomi’s not about to let that topic go by).
In the end, Naomi had no choice but to send Khadisha home. Naomi, who liked Khadisha from day one in the competition, made the young woman promise to continue to do her best out there once she headed back home.
Next Wednesday on The Face
Next Wednesday’s episode, “Male Bonding” the models will be challenged to work with hot male models in a sexy lingerie campaign for designers Fleur du Mal. Also featured in the upcoming episode, Naomi gives Lydia some words of advice on how to stop being the sweet mentor in order to get the girls to step up to the plate.
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