Miles Siggins does not have an easy job. As the American Idol stylist, he shops with the contestants and gives them advice, but can't make any final sartorial decisions. In other words, he may think a certain ponytailed mohawk might ruin an otherwise stylish outfit, but he can't officially nix any misguided 17-year-old's choices. As part of a new, weekly check-in with Siggins about all things Idol fashion, we chatted with the super-stylist about Melinda's neck, Sanjaya's hair, and why looking like Justin Timberlake is bad in the long run.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let's start with Gina, who just got kicked off this week. I had issues with her past couple of dresses — one too short; another too tight; another, as my colleague Mike Slezak called it, ''a brown ye-olde-times apron over a gray potato sack and jeans.'' Did you like the short dresses because they were a far cry from the mall-rat faux-rocker looks she was sporting early on?
MILES SIGGINS: It was a process. She wore a dress in one of the Hollywood weeks and she looked great. Then she wore a dress during the competition and Simon hated it and said she had to dress like a rocker. I'm sorry she got voted off. She was one of the few personalities on the show. It's a strange year. They're not fantastically charismatic.

I know what you're saying. Melinda, for example, is a brilliant singer, but sometimes I feel like she dresses like a paralegal.
The thing with Melinda is she doesn't have much of a neck at all. And what neck she does have disappears when she puts heavy things on her shoulders. The reason to put her in dresses is to give her a bit more of a shape. I thought Tuesday's dress was great. The hairdresser was going to get a bit carried away with big hair but I said, "This has to be sleek hair to go with a modern dress."

I agree that she looked good. Where was that dress from?
It was made for her by a designer named Dina Bar-El. She did a lot of Katharine McPhee's dresses last season. Dina made it in literally three days. Melinda was in the car on the way back holding the thing, going, ''Oh my gosh. This was made for me.'' She's a very genuine person. She has the tendency to be very, very shy and pull her shoulders up, though, which gives her less of a neck.

So I'm gathering she's aware of having no neck?
Yes. And the whole shrinking-violet thing as well. She's really trying to get over it. She's phenomenal and she's getting there. And she's open to new ideas. Before Idol, she hadn't worn a dress in five years.

NEXT: The key to styling Haley? ''We had to get her out of pageant outfits...''