Diana
Diana Eng Age: 22 Hometown: Jacksonville, FL Education: Rhode Island School of Design Biography: Diana Eng strives to integrate fashion and technology. She hopes to make the fashion-minded more interested in the research process and the scientific-minded more interested in fashion as a form of self-expression. Diana is currently co-creating an online show called "SWITCHit.tv," a do-it-yourself fashion website designed to switch girls onto technology by teaching them how to make accessories and apparel with embedded electronics from everyday supplies. Eng holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Rhode Island School of Design in apparel design. She has also researched biomimetics at the University of Bath in England and has collaborated with MIT on the "Seamless" fashion show. Eng is a repeat guest lecturer at the Florida Teachers Council of Mathematics Annual Conference on the use of visual aids and hands-on models including origami and spirolaterals as teaching tools. Her work has been featured in outlets such as ID Magazine and the Boston Globe.

Tim's Take: Episode 1 Diana is our self-described "science and math nerd." I responded well to her top, the best aspect of which was a coral-like panel from the top of the bust-line to high on the neck. Her skirt was another matter: a double-layer that could be transformed, through the utilization of magnets, into a single layer with wing-like panels in the back. "It's a concept," she said to me. Really? A concept or a gimmick? And the magnets failed. "They reversed polarity," she said. Oh dear. Diana was derailed by science run afoul. Lucky for her, she's still IN. Auction Bid : $ 150.00

Tim's Take: Episode 2 Diana dressed in something that she had once worn to a prom, but was that her dress or her coat? I never figured it out. In any case, the taupe coat morphed into a skirt and the red dress was transformed into a hip-length top. Both were asymmetrical and both had a lot going on, especially the top. I'm beginning to better understand Diana, but that understanding merely leads me to believe that she subscribes to the notion that "more is more." That could spell trouble. Auction Bid : $ 140.00

Tim's Take: Episode 3 Diana won me over with this challenge. She solved the design brief very effectively, and she used a fabulously seductive fabric for just the right purpose. By that, I mean that her novelty textile a red-late-60s-Rudy-Gernreich-pop-kind-of-design could have been used as a gimmick (my fear while at MOOD), but instead it was used for an elegant and sophisticated teen fashion. Bravo, Diana! Auction Bid : $ 320.00

Tim's Take: Episode 4 TEAM DIANA Team Diana includes Guadalupe and Marla. I could understand why Heidi chose Diana to be a team leader. The design sketches for her "Goddess" collection were balletic: diaphanous creations with long flowing trails of fabric that I imagined being worn by Isadora Duncan. However, that great set-up quickly devolved: the water sprites and fairies frolicking in the moonlight ended up looking like tramps in a brothel. I didnit know what to make of the collection. To me it was vulgar, plain and simple. And one of the models, Cara, had to be talked into wearing her designated garment. I had to remind myself that Guadalupe and Marla were responsible for executing their leader's vision, because I desperately wanted them to steer Diana out of her gimmick zone. Yes, her work could be considered conceptual (she should be so lucky!), but it gets bogged down in details that donit advance the plot: gimmicks. I was relieved and surprised when Team Diana was still IN.

I don't like Diana's style at all. All of her designs have "holey" embellishments and many of them have weird thin strips of fabric holding the design together. It looks like something someone threw out after it started falling apart. Kind of like garbage bin couture. She needs to get a job in science and forget about fashion. :roll: