The third and final face-off in the Scion hosted, Cliché sponsored Fashion Feud came to a close Wednesday night at First Ave’s 7th Street Entry with fashion-fav, Laura Fulk walking away with the grand prize – 1000 smackers. For those unfamiliar with the premise, Fashion Feud is an improv design challenge matching local designers against each other – think a Project Runway redux. The designers have one hour to design a garment on stage and (like old school competitions) audience plaudits decide the winner.

The finals placed the winner of the first Fashion Feud series, Laura Fulk, head-to-head with the winner of the second challenge, Jenny Carle of Jenny Carle Designs. Though the feud took a bit longer than expected to start (apparently we were delayed by some VIPs who texted they were stuck in traffic – who are these people who can postpone a party via text, and why I am not one of them) but things finally got on their way around 8:30 PM. After a winning coin toss, Fulk chose her bag of random raw clothing material including fabric from Mood (yes, the same NY-based fabric wholesale store from Project Runway) and a few accessories. The fabrics – which Fulk would later describe as “crazy”- were vibrant, to say the least. Taking one look at the textiles (one a pink and orange floral print and the other a light blue aquatic bubble pattern), I had to wonder what garment could possibly be thrown together from this pair. Though beautiful as separates, the two fabrics weren’t exactly complimentary patterns. The remaining bag Carle was left with contained a solid ocean blue cloth and a red, black and white checkered print with delicate flowers, a bag perhaps more suited to Laura Fulk’s taste, and from her reaction, an opinion obviously shared by Fulk herself. None the less, the New York MC from Scion set the clock for one hour and the designers began fevorishly cutting and pinning on the Entry’s stage.

Waiting around for an hour might sound boring – especially for a girl with an smidgen of ADD – but in reality the excitement in the club air paired with mingling with friends and a few fashion-conscious authorities – among which were Vita.mn fashion writer, Jahna Peloquin, and recent Voltage designers, Ivan Idland and Carmichael Claith – not to mention sips on cocktails, made the hour breeze by. Also on deck, helping models Maggie and Katie transform into runway-worthy models, were hair and make-up stylists from the Audacia Styling team, Andy and Tiffany, whose meticulous attention to aesthetic detail was another treat to watch.

Halfway through the competition, the clock was stopped so the designers could explain their creative vision to the audience – i.e those who hadn’t gone out to smoke or left to grab a burger across the street. Carle described her concept as a 50′s-inspired sweetheart jumpsuit, while Fulk left us with an ambiguous “avant-garde” label for her design.

In the end, Fulk’s garment was a flamboyantly abstract mix of both fabrics sown together with a large, rope-like stitch (true to her avant-garde description) and Carle’s “sweetheart” suit was a blue tube top dress with a decorative flower. While both outfits were relatively well constructed given the alloted time, Carle’s decision to stick largely with the solid print, shirking most of the bold print from the other pattern except for the flower cutout, was played too safely, something that just can’t be done when going against a competitor who consistently pushes the envelope.

It’s hard to say whether Carle had much of a chance regardless of the outfit she whipped up. While Carle is an obviously talented and respected local designer, like EJ touched upon in his summary post, the crowd was strongly biased toward Fulk’s from the beginning. After all, her success hosting the independent fashion show, “Suffocate,” was the most hyped about runway show during MNfashion Week (apart from Voltage) and she’s developed quite a local fanbase since then. With an almost deafening roar of approval, Fulk’s garment won as crowd favorite by a landslide. But luckily, despite any evening bias, before leaving the stage the contenders still managed to maintain professional civility and hug it out. Because when it comes down to it, all’s fair in love and fashion.

Congrats Laura! We can’t wait to see more.

Photos by James Kamrowski, jameskamrowski@gmail.com