Ode to Ra’mon (or, Where’s Nina? I’m bored.)

I can’t believe Ramon got Auf’d. I blame it on the fact that Nina seems to have disappeared. What happened to “Don’t Bore Nina!”? Given that the other creative spirits (Ari and Malvin) were given the boot in the first and second episodes, respectively, I guess I should be happy that Ra’mon stuck around so long. I was convinced that it would be Gordana and Louise in the bottom two, that Gordana would get through on based on her sewing skills the judges thought so highly of, and that Louise would go home on the account of the muddled creation she sent down the runway. I understand that Ra’mon’s outfit was a monstrosity, but vision and creativity used to count for something.

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Other people have noticed Nina’s – and Michael’s – absence as well. The SF Examiner asked “Where are Michael Kors and Nina Garcia?” and I found the answer from the LA Times. Apparently Nina cites that fact they essentially have day jobs to attend to. How come your day jobs never interfered during the previous 5 seasons of PR?

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In the course of trying to unearth the mystery of Nina’s disappearance from the judging panel, I came a cross a super juicy article in New York magazine detailing the feud between Nina Garcia and another Elle editor, Anne Slowey. How did I miss this when it came out a year ago? If only Nina had stayed, they might have been the Anna Wintour vs Grace Coddington for the next generation.