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"So, it&amp;#039;s all come down to this. We&amp;#039;re at the end of the first season - it&amp;#039;s time for the Fashion Star finale! And with such a great prize on the line - a collection in Saks, Macy&amp;#039;s and H&amp;amp;M worth $6m - who&amp;#039;ll be crowned the winner? After last week&amp;#039;s cull, only three designers remain - Kara Laricks, Nzimiro Oputa and Ronnie Escalante. Of course, mentors Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie and John Varvatos are back, but as always the real people to impress are the buyers - Caprice Willard (Macy&amp;#039;s), Terron Schaefer (Saks Fifth Avenue) and Nicole Christie (H&amp;amp;M). The pressure&amp;#039;s on, too, as each designer has to create three looks for each store. That&amp;#039;s nine looks in total! We&amp;#039;d better get cracking (after a runway for Jessica&amp;#039;s spring collection - &amp;quot;I feel like I&amp;#039;m flying right now!&amp;quot;)  H&amp;amp;M First up is H&amp;amp;M, and so Nicole Christie&amp;#039;s the one to impress. She explains that she wants someone with a &amp;quot;unique viewpoint&amp;quot; who designs &amp;quot;ahead of the trend&amp;quot;, but keeps the customer in mind.  She says Kara has a &amp;quot;really unique perspective&amp;quot;, but needs to focus it into something that will sell to H&amp;amp;M&amp;#039;s customers. Nzimiro is a &amp;quot;really creative designer&amp;quot;, but his clothes aren&amp;#039;t always &amp;quot;executed as well as they could be&amp;quot;. As for Ronnie, Nicole praises his &amp;quot;progress&amp;quot;; she&amp;#039;s not sure whether he&amp;#039;s got enough versatility, so she&amp;#039;s looking forward to seeing what he can do outside of evening wear. Ronnie agrees that he started &amp;quot;pretty rough&amp;quot; in the competition, but his near-elimination was a wakeup call for him. So he decides to create a suit, jumpsuit and cocktail dress for H&amp;amp;M. Jessica thinks it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;chic&amp;quot;, while John praises his choice of print. In fact, John&amp;#039;s looking forward to seeing Ronnie take things further. Elsewhere, Kara&amp;#039;s choice of color impresses Nicole, but the designer admits that she&amp;#039;s nervous about delivering trendy clothing that works in H&amp;amp;M, while still keeping it &amp;quot;Kara&amp;quot;. As for Nzimiro, a member of his team warns his boxers are showing through some of his pants (&amp;quot;I think that&amp;#039;s sexy!&amp;quot; he jokes.) But Nzimiro&amp;#039;s more worried about taking a risk - as well as two menswear pieces, he&amp;#039;s making some womenswear (&amp;quot;the feminine version of me&amp;quot;). Well, let&amp;#039;s see if it pays off...  After some flirting (tsk tsk), Nicole Richie admits that she was nervous about Nzimiro&amp;#039;s decision to do a women&amp;#039;s piece... but he proved her wrong, and she says it was his strongest piece! She praises him for doing his homework and researching the H&amp;amp;M customer, too.  Meanwhile, John gushes over Kara&amp;#039;s dress and choice of color, though he admits that though he liked her suit, it might be tough to sell the crotch - &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s nothing wrong with a bit of crotch, John,&amp;quot; Elle replies. Elsewhere, Jessica likes Ronnie&amp;#039;s pieces - &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t know any girl who wouldn&amp;#039;t want to wear the dress&amp;quot; - but suggests that he should have used more color. But it&amp;#039;s time to turn to Nicole Christie, to find out her verdicts: Kara: Nicole says Kara&amp;#039;s taken all the feedback she&amp;#039;s given her in the past and chose commercial colors. She loves the &amp;quot;new rendition of the circle print&amp;quot; on her dress and says her collection is cohesive and high fashion but commercial. She admits that the drop crotch might be a bit difficult for the H&amp;amp;M customer, though. Nzimiro: Nicole says his lady&amp;#039;s outfit blew her socks off! She congratulates him for showing range and says he should be &amp;quot;so proud&amp;quot;. She says the collection belonged on the runway and &amp;quot;felt like spring&amp;quot;. Ronnie: Nicole&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;very happy&amp;quot; to see Ronnie&amp;#039;s collection, but agrees with the mentors - she would have liked to have seen more color. But she adds that she could definitely see his clothes in H&amp;amp;M. Saks Fifth Avenue Nzimiro&amp;#039;s nervous after meeting Terron last week... and hearing that he didn&amp;#039;t like many of his clothes! For his part, Terron says Nzimiro has talent but needs a lot of editing - there are &amp;quot;too many bells and whistles&amp;quot; on his garments. Nzimiro eventually settles on a &amp;quot;beach to boardwalk&amp;quot; collection and hoping that it&amp;#039;s enough...  Kara&amp;#039;s feeling much more confident - as Nzimiro says, Terron&amp;#039;s basically &amp;quot;in love&amp;quot; with her! &amp;quot;Terron is my man,&amp;quot; Kara agrees. And the mentors all suggest that selling to Saks is the &amp;quot;easiest one&amp;quot; for Kara. Nicole admits that Kara stands out for her - &amp;quot;She has become a very, very strong designer&amp;quot; - and she loves the pants Kara is designing.  Ronnie, though, is also feeling concerned - he&amp;#039;s got to &amp;quot;dig deep&amp;quot; as he hasn&amp;#039;t sold anything to Saks. Terron admits that he doesn&amp;#039;t think Ronnie&amp;#039;s shown his full potential yet, and Ronnie&amp;#039;s busy focusing on making his dress look &amp;quot;perfect&amp;quot;. But let&amp;#039;s see what the mentors think after the showcase! Well, Nicole loves Ronnie&amp;#039;s white suit - &amp;quot;bow chicka wow-wow&amp;quot; - and says that she thinks this was his best showcase yet as he &amp;quot;let loose&amp;quot; and showed America who he is. &amp;quot;I just can&amp;#039;t get enough of you!&amp;quot; she adds. Elsewhere, John&amp;#039;s in love with Kara&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;frigging gorgeous&amp;quot; dress, and though he thinks one of her tops was &amp;quot;a little Halloween&amp;quot;, he&amp;#039;s reluctant to mention it because her other pieces were so strong and beautiful. And Jessica says Nzimiro &amp;quot;nailed it&amp;quot;, saying that he knows &amp;quot;what a man is about&amp;quot; and threatening to fight over him with Nicole. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re going to be ripping out each other&amp;#039;s hair extensions,&amp;quot; Nicole agrees. But Nzimiro&amp;#039;s not worried: &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s enough for two.&amp;quot; Time for Terron to have his say... Kara: Terron says he knew he should keep his eye on Kara from the moment they met, and says she really understands his aesthetic. He does agree with John that her top was a little too orange, but he says the evening dress was &amp;quot;stellar&amp;quot; and adds: &amp;quot;You are absolutely a leader - you are not a follower.&amp;quot; Nzimiro: Terron thinks Nzimiro did a &amp;quot;fantastic job&amp;quot; and pulled back on the bells and whistles. He says it is the &amp;quot;perfect wardrobe&amp;quot; for a beach weekend, adding: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;ve come a long way.&amp;quot; Ronnie: Terron says Ronnie&amp;#039;s looks were &amp;quot;strong&amp;quot;, but he doesn&amp;#039;t understand how it&amp;#039;s a capsule collection. Still, Ronnie stands up for himself and his designs, impressing Nicole Christie: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a different perspective that we didn&amp;#039;t expect. You should feel really proud of where you are, standing here tonight.&amp;quot;  Macy&amp;#039;s Caprice says that as &amp;quot;America&amp;#039;s department store&amp;quot;, Macy&amp;#039;s is looking for different looks for customers from all walks of life. She says Kara is on a roll, but she&amp;#039;s not sure whether she has enough of a broad range. Kara seems to agree - she really wants to make something &amp;quot;real women want&amp;quot;. But she&amp;#039;s not sure whether her dress is right, and she admits that she&amp;#039;s nervous since she&amp;#039;s less commercial than Nzimiro and Ronnie. Caprice wants to see what Ronnie can design outside eveningwear, and luckily that&amp;#039;s what he&amp;#039;s planning to show! Elsewhere, Caprice believes in Nzimiro, who takes advice from the mentors about one of his designs. Jessica&amp;#039;s certainly &amp;quot;all fired up&amp;quot; for Nzimiro, but he admits that there&amp;#039;s a lot of pressure since Macy&amp;#039;s reminds him of his childhood, when he couldn&amp;#039;t afford anything from the store. The problem is that one of Nzimiro&amp;#039;s team members failed to put pockets on some of his pants (and he asks her to calm down when she gets upset: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not healthy, you know it&amp;#039;s not, so don&amp;#039;t act like that.&amp;quot; But let&amp;#039;s see what happens... Well, John says that Nzimiro is his &amp;quot;brother from another mother&amp;quot; and says he plugged right into Macy&amp;#039;s customers. He says he &amp;quot;really hit a home run&amp;quot;, adding: &amp;quot;Thank God we have you here.&amp;quot; Nicole agrees, pointing out that his collection is so obviously designed by him.  Kara&amp;#039;s fabric goes down well with Nicole, and then Jessica says she &amp;quot;never disappoints&amp;quot;. She adds that she always wishes she had come up with Kara&amp;#039;s garments, and though she admits that the designs are &amp;quot;kind of out-there&amp;quot;, she urges American women to &amp;quot;step outside the box&amp;quot; and wear Kara&amp;#039;s clothes. Meanwhile, John says Ronnie is the &amp;quot;dark horse&amp;quot; of the competition. He admits that one of his dresses was &amp;quot;a little unbalanced&amp;quot; but also says that his suit was &amp;quot;fantastic&amp;quot;. Time for Caprice to have her say! Kara: Caprice says the collection &amp;quot;absolutely&amp;quot; has a place in Macy&amp;#039;s, and picks out Kara&amp;#039;s suit and blouse for special praise, pointing out that all of the pieces involved are multifunctional. The only question is whether Kara&amp;#039;s designs are accessible enough for American women. Nzimiro: Caprice admits that she was concerned about whether Nzimiro understood the Macy&amp;#039;s customer... not anymore! She says he &amp;quot;absolutely nailed it&amp;quot; and says every single look would serve a Macy&amp;#039;s customer. But she&amp;#039;d maybe like more structured pieces. Ronnie: Caprice says Ronnie stayed true to himself, but still incorporated everything they talked about, and she was &amp;quot;pleasantly surprised&amp;quot; at his &amp;quot;phenomenal&amp;quot; suit designing! She says the suit was wearable and sexy, while she thinks his dress could be a signature piece for him. The only concern is that every item is a standalone piece - could it work as a collection?  Who&amp;#039;s going to win? So that&amp;#039;s it - the designers have done all they can do, and now they just have to wait for the buyers and mentors to deliberate. As they talk, it seems there are positives and negatives for each, but who&amp;#039;ll be crowned the winner? Elle calls the trio back onto the stage to find out... First, though, the mentors have some last words for the contestants - John says all of the contestants (including the eliminees) have been &amp;quot;fantastic&amp;quot;, adding: &amp;quot;We haven&amp;#039;t heard the last of any of you, that&amp;#039;s for sure.&amp;quot; Nicole points out that by selling to the three retailers, the designers have done something she, Jessica and John have not (&amp;quot;I have such a deep amount respect for all three of you&amp;quot;). And Jessica gets teary as she says they&amp;#039;re all &amp;quot;unbelievable&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;inspire [her] to be better&amp;quot;. But this is it - the winning moment! Simultaneously, the buyers reveal their winner - KARA! As streamers explode and lights flash all over the place (and Kara&amp;#039;s family members hug and cheer in the audience), Kara admits that she feels &amp;quot;so overwhelmed&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t know what to say,&amp;quot; she admits. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m so thrilled I have the opportunity to keep going, to continue designing. This is just fantastic, this is so thrilling - this is my dream come true.&amp;quot; &amp;gt; Fashion Star first winner is named "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/fashion-star/news/a381912/fashion-star-season-finale-recap-this-is-my-dream-come-true/>