I love the fact that Val walks to the beat of her own drum. The industry needs individuality and creativity...badly. Figure is so boring and so bland that a little spice will do it some good.
Unfortunately, the construction and basic design of the suit was poor. The cut itself already set off a blocky look to her physique. With her conditioning missing the mark for this show, she desperately needed a suit that would have accentuated her strengths and hidden her flaws. This suit did the opposite. I think the butterfly idea is excellent; with richer and cooler colors (more in the green family rather than the brown and red family), the suit might have really popped on the stage. In my mind, brown is a huge no no for the stage, simply because of the tanning products. Add to that her hair color and make up selection, and she needs more vibrant colors to provide contrast.
The detail work in the fabric and the rhinestones/sequins also added to that blocky appearance. The butterfly is too wide, the sequins draw the eye to the wrong areas, and the overall design is distracting. There is a way to do this...just not the way Val did.
I think she is an utterly gorgeous woman. I know she was made fun of by other competitors for her unique style of posing, but I originally loved it. What else can you do on that stage when you have only four military-style poses with which to work? How else do you get known, talked about, remembered?
I just wish she would have brought the conditioning that earned her a pro card. That combined with better-constructed suits would have propelled her into the top three, in my opinion.
Then again, it's interesting to note that the most entertaining discussion regarding figure is Val's suits and posing.
