All On The Line: Between The Sheets

"Every time I go see her I want to bring a pillow with me because
I want to go to bed; she's that exhausting."

Meet Layla L'Obatti. God knows we don't want to.

Y'know something? This little lady is going to force us to break one of our own blogging rules. We'll toss around "She's a bitch" or "He's an asshole" when we think the reality show situation warrants it, but we try to be pretty clear that we're talking about the "character" being portrayed by a combination of editing, insane scenarios, exhaustion, and of course, attention-whoring. We've always maintained that we only know the version of the person given to us by the producers of the show and try to shy away from making declarations as to their true character.

To hell with that: she's a HORRIBLE person. Editing didn't do anything but cut her horribleness up into little segments.

Meet Josh Verluen: the illustration for the dictionary definition of "doormat."

We really, really tried to see things from her point of view. We watched the episode twice and spent quite a bit of time discussing it back and forth today. No matter how we look at it, she was egotistical, emotionally manipulative, narcissistic, condescending, and rude. We honestly can't remember the last time we disliked a reality show person as much as her.

Do you see them, darlings? The rows of tiny little flaming daggers shooting out of his eyes? No? Maybe you have to be gay. Trust us; that is gay fashion editor FURY on display right there. All the gays and models in a 3-mile radius just started whining and scratching at the floor.

Even if we try to look at it from the perspective of a designer fighting to be true to her aesthetic, it doesn't defend the way she treated Joe and the rudeness she showed to the buyers. There is nothing that excuses that sort of behavior. You signed up for the reality show, honey, and he put his neck out and set up a meeting for you. Even if you don't want to do ready-to-wear, you're on TV and you have an opportunity. Just hunker down and do it. You can go back to the non-selling pieces you prefer after the cameras are turned off.

And the really stupid thing was...

Joe wasn't asking her to do anything she wasn't already doing. Put a slip under that thing and you have a really cute going-out look.


That was Joe's whole freaking point. She was already designing a lot of pieces that had outside-the-bedroom appeal; he was only asking her to market one collection that way; not abandon her whole design philosophy. He was working within the boundaries of what she was already doing.

But she was so stubborn and her ego so large that she simply couldn't handle anyone else having opinions about her work. Good luck with that one, honey. We hope the boyfriend has a couple dozen more cars to sell off to fund your narcissism.

Oh, and by the way:

Your bras were horrible. Joe was right.

She was slightly more polite to the lineup of experts he put together on her behalf, but she still ignored almost everything they told her. It's really amazing to us. You have a failing business and hundreds of thousands of debt and you summarily ignore or piss off all these experts with tons of experience trying to help you out. Who does that?

SHE WOULDN'T EVEN USE THE JEWELRY HER BOYFRIEND PICKED. Why do that except to be a complete bitch? He's her partner and she wouldn't even let him have any input into her grand designs.

We can respect a designer standing on their principles and defending their aesthetic. We can't respect anyone who's rude and dismissive to people far more knowledgeable than she is and we can't defend any designer who just throws away opportunities for no other reason than stubbornness and ego.

But hey, maybe she was right in the long run. Let's see the collection she insisted was better than anyone else's ideas:





The front is fine but the lace panel in the back is pretty tacky.



Dental hygienist.



It's okay, but she was high on crack if she thought she could pass this off as a day look.



Poorly executed, unflattering and the shrug looks like it took 3 minutes to make.



The pockets look tacky, but it's cute enough overall. Still not a day look, though.



Just a flat out ugly garment with ugly styling.

The girl wouldn't even answer the question as to who her client is; probably the most basic question to ask a struggling designer. Just flat out refused to answer it to a buyer. What can you say about a person like that? And don't even get us started with the whole "You wouldn't say that to Marc Jacobs and Zac Posen" line because

a)That's not true; he would, and
b)Honey, YOU ARE NO MARC JACOBS.

We were happy to see that everyone involved maintained their standards in the face of such a difficult person. Had they ended the episode with "We'd love to work with her and buy her pieces," credibility would have gone right out the window. No, she got exactly what she deserved: no sale and the disdain of everyone watching the show who isn't related to her or friends with her already.

That poor sap of a boyfriend. Two hundred grand in debt and she wouldn't even use the jewelry he picked out. Buddy, you need to go in search of your testes.

[Screencaps: tomandlorenzo.com]


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Labels: All On The Line, Fashion, Joe Zee, Television