Oh no she didn't! Yes, she did. Zulema, since she won the challenge, has the option of choosing a new model. She decides to have a "walk-off" among Tarah, Danyelle, and Shannon. She chooses Tarah, which means that Nick gets Rachael (the model that Zulema is ditching).
The challenge is to find inspiration from the streets of New York, photograph it, then base a design on the photographed inspiration. Tim Gunn tells everyone that their designs of late have been crappy and they need to make it work. Nick, who is devastated at losing Tarah as his model, contemplates throwing in the towel until Daniel gives him a pep talk.
Jay McCarroll is the guest judge, and really puts the hurt on several designers in the talkback. In the end, Daniel (whose inspiration is an orchid from Michael Kors's office) pulled out his third win. Zulema, fresh off of her win in the last challenge, is sent packing.
Previously: the designers created a figure-skating costume for Sasha Cohen. Tim Gunn advised Santino to be a little more diplomatic with the judges. Zulema won the challenge, while Emmett was sent home. Only seven designers left!
Morning at the Atlas apartments, Zulema, with a towel tied on her head, tells us that she did not sleep well the night before. Then, we see the same interview from last week where she says she was happy to win, but it was not that big of a deal because she needed to look to the future. Newsflash, Zulema: winning the challenges actually secures your future. It's not like you get the option of going on a booze cruise when you win a challenge and run the risk of being trashed for the challenge. I don't get why winning a challenge could be a distraction. I mean, if you are so dumb as to sit around basking in the victory of your skating outfit when they've asked you to design some eveningwear or something, you've got greater problems than focus. Zulema always has this sort of one-up, scolding tone. She said she was really poor when she was kid, so I guess I can understand her being a little insecure in the fashion world. It's a world where wealthy refinement and access are major parts of success, and as one of seven or however many children were in Zulema's family, she probably didn't get to experience a lot of either of those things as a youngster. Not to mention that I think the other kids got the self-awareness in the family. My point is, Zulema never really does anything annoying, she just sounds annoying. That doesn't seem like enough of a reason for me to dislike her as much as I do from time to time, this being one of those times. But then I see her putting a little Cascade in the dishwasher and, for some reason, I kind of don't hate her as much. And she's wearing a muu-muu.
In the boys' apartment, Santino is eating his breakfast off a paper plate. Bravo, give the people some china. Adding to the humiliation of his paper-plated meal, Santino interviews that his design for the challenge was "pretty ridiculous and horrible." Furthermore, he adds that, for this challenge, he is not going to make anything "over-the-top." He is "going to do [his] best." What's happening here? Did he just sound perfectly reasonable -- nay, sympathetic? I feel inclined to credit it to a little editing voodoo, but I'm going to take the bait (however mixed my whole mess of a metaphor is becoming) and say that I think we're seeing a little Santino turnaround.
At Parsons, Heidi greets everyone. Until now, I've liked all of her maternity clothes. I'm not into this dress, though. It's a sleeveless black turtleneck dress with gray trim. Not loving that. She tells them that this challenge will be about "inspiration," which she brackets in air apostrophes. Maybe they do it differently in Germany. Of course, with the ridiculous length of some of my sentences (not to mention my own "use" of the language), perhaps I shouldn't be pointing fingers at anyone's grammar and punctuation. Heidi tells them that they will go to Michael Kors's office for a little inspiration pow-wow.
But first, the model-choosing must commence. Rachael and Shannon enter the runway. Zulema tells Heidi that she wants to change models, so she would like to see all of the models on the runway. Ooh. Ouch. Okay, so she doesn't want Rachael, and she's not sure which girl she does want. That can't feel good. When we hear the news, Rachael kind of snaps her head towards Heidi. Good show of not looking embarrassed. We see a shot of Nick sending a sheepish smile to (I'm assuming) Rachael.
When all of the girls are on the runway, Heidi asks Zulema with whom she would like to switch Rachael. Hmm. That's not what I assumed would happen. I thought that if your model was taken from you by the winner of a challenge, you would then get your choice of the two models. I guess the winner of the challenge is the only person with any power during the model-choosing.
So, Zulema…I'm going to quote her: "I would like to have like to have a walk-off between [sic] the following three models: Danyelle, Tarah, and Shannon." So, Danyelle, revealing that she and Andrae are twin souls, dramatically shuts her eyes and kind of purses her lips like she is suppressing a whimper when her name is called. Tarah just kind of shoots a look in Nick's direction. Shannon (Emmett's model), with a raised eyebrow and just a hint of a smirk, looks like she's thinking, "Yeah, here you are. Nursing school's not looking so fucking bad now, is it, Shannon? You, a grown woman, are standing here barefoot in a negligee and some woman with massive sunglasses on, inside a black room -- I mean, sure, there are some lights, but, really, drop the fucking glasses, woman -- this woman is asking you to show her that you can walk. Walking, also known as 'that thing you've been doing since you were a year old.'" Okay, I maybe read a little into that look, but it resembled something like that.
Andrae completes his transformation into Edvard Munch's The Scream.
Daniel, in an interview, with widened eyes and a smile in his voice, says, "It's a mutherfucking walk-off." Nick, in his interview, says that this seems like something Zulema would do. Daniel says, "Once we realized that it was gonna happen, you could just like feel the tension between [sic] all of us." An "among," anyone?
The girls walk. They all seem fine. We hear a voice-over from Santino, who remarks that, until now, all of the challenge-winning designers had been loyal to their models. Zulema, in a voice-over, justifies her walk-off by explaining that she had not had time to study the other models. This way, with all of them in the same outfit, their movement would be easier to judge. She chooses Tarah. Rachael looks really dejected. Both Tarah and Nick seem fairly crushed. Nick interviews that he wanted to vomit when he heard Zulema choose Tarah. He also says that he thinks Zulema had planned on choosing Tarah, and the walk-off was just an over-dramatic formality. Per Nick, Rachael kept staring at him like, "I can't believe this bitch did this."
Zulema says, "I changed models because my model cannot walk." Nice. She's worked with the girl for seven challenges (during one of which she totally bared the poor girl's tootie) and she doesn't even show her the respect of calling her by her name (italicized to emphasize that calling someone by their fucking name isn't, even then, that much of a show of respect). She also says that she "can't be concerned with Nick." Like it's the most obvious thing in the world, she says that he should win this challenge and take Tarah back for the challenge. Problem solved! Move over, Jimmy Carter, there's a new peacemaker in town! At this point, I realize I should probably just delete the first, like, five paragraphs of this recap, since now Zulema has just done several shitty things. But instead, I'm gonna chalk it all up to people change, live and learn, once bitten/twice shy, stiff upper lip, and the like. She's a jerk. How can she say that with a straight face? It has taken her seven challenges to finally win, and she barely squeaked by in several of those. So, don't act like winning a challenge is something you just decide to do. Also, you did something a little mean -- just own it. Taking someone's model is not the end of the world, but Zulema acting like it's commonplace is almost enraging.
After the drama, Shannon is sent home. Hope you get overtime for the walk-off. So long!
Heidi sends everyone to Michael Kors' office. Michael greets everyone and takes them into a boardroom, where he begins to talk about inspiration. He says that some people are abstract in their inspiration, while others are more specific. He says that his inspiration is Doris Duke. He invokes, for the first time in humanity perhaps, the phrase "Hawaiiana in the '40s." Then he shows fabrics and patterns that were a product of his inspiration. He says it's "all about how to take that first picture, that idea of Doris Duke, and how do you turn it into a whole collection?" He then gives them all their own Olympus digital cameras. As he hands them out, he demonstrates that he knows all of their names, which, frankly, surprises me. Michael tells them that they will have an hour to walk around New York taking pictures. From their pictures, they will have to choose one as inspiration for their challenge. They will then create a garment based on the inspirational photo. So, basically, we're going to see seven garments based on inspiration that can be found within an hour's-walking-distance radius of Michael Kors' office? Seems a little forced, but I get it. All of the designers seem excited. Michael dismisses them.
Photo-taking montage begins. Nick says that he is glad that he is not with Santino, because he knows "he is going ca-ray-zee." When then see Santino running around taking pictures. He tells one guy that his red turban is a "great color." He interviews that this is "a cool way to begin a design challenge." He seems fairly inspired.
There's a shot of Daniel lying on the ground, under some sort of archway, taking a picture of the archway. Chloe takes some pictures of bubbles. She interviews that she didn't "want to mess with people," so she mostly took pictures of buildings. She likes "lines and stuff." Kara says that she took pictures of "Danger" and "Post No Bills" signs because it reminded her of the "restrictions of this crazy place." Speaking of forced, I'm interested to see how she is inspired to create a garment based on a "Post No Bills" sign. Zulema takes a picture of a lady wearing traditional African clothing. I take it that this would be an instance of "specific" inspiration. Basing a garment on a garment seems fairly specific to me.
Chloe mentions to Nick that he's not taking any photos. Then we see an interview where he admits to being crushed that Tarah was taken from him. He adds that he is inspired by his models, which I recall him saying early on in the season. He also says something about Zulema "causing tension" by stealing Tarah from him. Hey, Nick? ADAPT.
Earlier, when Santino was being interviewed, we saw some of his photos, one of which was a photo of a photo of a woman flipping the bird from her car. It was probably being sold on the sidewalk. Well, when Andrae sees Santino's photo for the first time, he says, "Somebody's flipping you off? How'd you get that?" And Santino doesn't correct him. I kind of love that. I mean, in the picture that Santino took, you can see the glare from the sun on the glass of the framed photo. And we only saw it for a moment. I can't imagine how obvious it would be if we actually got to stare at it. I really am beginning to love Andrae. He's ridiculous.
The designers go back to Parsons and print out their photos with a printer containing photo-print-quality paper. This is technology that I find really cool. Everyone is looking for the one photo that will be their inspiration. Santino decides to use a photo of graffiti on a black surface.
Daniel decides to use a photo of an orchid in a vase that was in Michael Kors's office. This will make the hepatitis he just got from lying on the New York City pavement totally unworthwhile.
Andrae chose a photo of "some dirty water in a gutter" as his inspiration. Doesn't that sound like criticism that Anne Slowey might use for a design? He says that he likes the way light reflected in the water. "I always like to take something that's humble or lowly or ugly and apply, like, the big charm gun to it and make it pretty." All the mannequins heard was "gun." They're freaked, as well they should be.
Oh my God. Nick is still whining about the model thing. He can't find his inspiration. Because, apparently, he plans on working with only one model for his entire freaking career. Diversify!
Here comes Tim Gunn. He asks everyone to listen to him. Then he says, rather incredibly, "I care very deeply about each and every one of you." Now, I believe that Tim cares about fashion and wants people to make great things, but…I find it hard to believe that he's sitting around caring deeply about Zulema. Or Santino. Or, bless his heart, even Andrae. Anyway, he continues. He tells them that, in his opinion, the work for the last several challenges has been "quite lackluster." It's time to "wake up."
Then Tim lists problems. He goes through everyone. He tells Daniel that he is always very exciting in the design stages, but it seems that he loses momentum. He tells Chloe that he's afraid the judges are going to consider her "one-note." I'm impressed that Chloe just hears what he's saying and doesn't register any resentment at all. That's hard. I mean, Daniel got a big compliment at the beginning of his criticism, so it was easy for him. Chloe was a even better sport about it, though. With much emphasis, Tim tells Zulema to "take risks." Zulema does the opposite of Chloe and says that her problems are really about "time management," not taking risks. Tim shuts her down with a mighty "The judges don't care. They accept the time constraints." Tim's been to more rodeos than all y'all combined, lady! Who are you trying to fool? Apparently us, because Zulema interviews that "whatever [she] did before, it has to be two times better." I just find so much of what she says to be bullshit. Not that she's being entirely literal when she says that, but would you ever qualify a creative design as being "two times better" than another one of their designs? Okay, I'm going to back away -- I think I'm taking some of her statements a little too seriously.
He reminds Kara that she is the only remaining designer who has not won a challenge. Wow, that's pretty amazing that so many people have won challenges. He adds that she shouldn't be designing clothes that look "like we could buy it on Madison Avenue." That's the ouchiest thing he's said so far. He tells Santino that he is in "serious jeopardy." Santino interviews quite earnestly that he takes Tim's comments very seriously. Tim groups Andrae and Nick and says, "Be more ambitious." Easy enough. Oh no, Nick is all, "What is he talking about? I have been ambitious! I think it was more of a slap." What a damn sad sack that boy is during this challenge. He continues, saying that Tim's comment was some sort of "last straw" and now he's "over" the show and wants to leave. No, it's not just you, gentle reader. We all missed something. We all missed Nick getting even remotely close to whatever this "over the show" crap he's talking about. Methinks somebody's Aunt Flo is in town for a visit. When Tim concludes, telling them that it's time to shop for supplies, Nick can barely muster the energy to make sure that his polo collar is still fully erect. This is a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown, folks.
On the way to Mood, we hear an interview from him of the positive perspective -- one Daniel Vosovic, who says that Tim gave them a wake-up call. Daniel feels that he can do "so much more." At Mood, Daniel shows Tim his orchid picture and says his inspiration is "Japanese sleekness." Tim is buying.
Santino interviews that he is looking for something very pretty. He gets assistance from a Mood employee who leads him to, I swear to God, the same EXACT fabric that Austin Scarlett used for the dreaded Nancy O'Dell's Grammy dress. This is a valuable lesson -- watch your television! More specifically, it's good to bone up on a TV show when you get cast on a new season of said TV show. Right? It's like the girl in college who played the cello and acted like it was some fucking badge of honor that she didn't know what Family Ties was. I hate her.
Tim asks Zulema about her design, and she starts talking about her "time management issues." I'm sure that if I had started the supermarket challenge with the first seasonites, I still wouldn't be finished with my design made entirely of frozen blintzes (patent pending), but…just do it, Zulema. If Nick should "just" win this challenge to get Tarah back, you should "just" manage your damn time. As she is showing Tim her fabric, she says, "I don't work with darks." Shit, for a second I thought I was back in Alabama. That would be a pretty unsavory statement in most circumstances. Why does she always talk like that? "I don't work with sequin." I bet she always says, "That's a nice pant."
Nick asks Tim for some advice. He's not sure what would look best on a blonde model, which gives him a chance to tell Tim how Zulema done him wrong. When Tim hears that Rachael is Nick's model, in a display both uncharacteristic and seemingly ill-suited to his personality, he totally defames the poor girl. He says, "She's like an elongated marshmallow." She has "Gumby legs" and she's "such a stiff walker." Now, she may actually be all of those things, but they're talking about her like she's not a person. As a writer for Television Without Pity, I'm probably one of the last people who should condemn others for shit-talking, but…ouch.
Back at Parsons, everyone gets to work to the distressing strains of chime-y music from The Omen. Wait, we're the only ones who hear that. Daniel interviews that Nick was "worn down" by the walk-off. Why am I laughing? He says that he has a close relationship with Nick. We see Daniel approach Nick in the workroom. Nick says several times that he's "done" and ready to go home. Daniel finally says, "Shut up. Go home because you deserve to go home, not because of some technical detail." Nick cryptically says that he's distressed about other things as well. Before Daniel leaves, he asks Nick to make sure that he's thinking "big picture." And Nick has apparently applied booty-simulating padding to his dress form. The legend lives on. The girl does not have a big ass! It's not a pretty ass, but it's not big. Nick interviews that Daniel "snapped" him back and "read" him. He's going to keep on trying. I can't help but wonder, even though Santino has performed so miserably as of late, if Nick is feeling a little intimidated by Santino's talent. Nick has a more composed talent, while Santino is all crazy Van Gogh ripping his ear off and shit. The difficult artiste is often appreciated more than the practical or "pretty" creator, so I can understand Nick feeling a little stressed by that. Of course, that's a conflict of my own imagining, so it could be bullshit. It's worth a thought, though, I think.
At their dinner break, we see Zulema sitting by herself as the others are eating. She interviews that it feels like they are all in kindergarten. "They're talking to you, but they're always looking at you like, 'I'm watching you. I'm trying to see what's going on with you because you're shysty,' and I'm not shysty." Wow, am I the only kindergartner who wasn't quite so sociologically developed? I was thinking things more like, "I like balloons." Or, "You smell like pee." Then Zulema says that if she wins again, she'll change models again. It's not personal, rather "just business." Again, I call bullshit on Zulema. She's trying to downplay what she did. It was totally within her rights to do it, but she doesn't really want to own it. Instead of admitting that it was a singularly damaging act, she wants to play it off like an extended strategy and Nick was just a casualty of the strategy. Commercials.
We return to Santino's imitation of Tim Gunn. "Daniel, I think what you've created is delicious. Designers, rock the casbah." Daniel says that, whenever he's feeling down, he asks Santino to "do" Tim. "Designers, up until now, you've all fucking sucked. However, go out there and kick butt." Then, as the clever sound of a record skidding is heard, Tim walks into the workroom. Everyone is cringing because Tim really almost heard them making fun of him. Andrae hides behind his dress form and holds his bald head like fucking Blossom clutching one of her sunflower hats and whispers, "That was close."
Nick describes his design to Tim. Tim continues his ripping on poor Rachael and tells Nick to make sure that she "walks this incredibly well." He sounds disgusted as he's saying this, and makes another mention of Rachael being stiff.
He tells Andrae to be more ambitious. Apparently his design doesn't look much like gutter water. Who knew that would ever be a bad thing?
Kara is wrapping a yum-yum yellow and black striped sash around her dress, which is supposed to represent the whole "Danger" thing that she's trying to sell. Tim tells her that she might not want to be so literal-minded. Kara interviews that she, as suspected, doesn't know what the hell she's doing. Then Tim channels Solomon and tells Kara that, in fashion, there's a fine line between being witty and being funny. "Very few people can achieve the wit as opposed to its being a joke." That seems like a subtle way of telling her that she's silly and stupid. Kara gets it.
Blah blah, time management, I'm Zulema and I'm so perfect that I don't know how to be imperfect. That's exactly how perfect I am. Oh wait, she's not done. She tells Tim that she feels like she takes a lot of risks, but since Tim told her to take more risks, she's paralyzed or something. "Had Tim not said, 'Take more risks,' I would have just made something." Oh God.
Tim tells Daniel that his design is "stunning." Daniel says that he is suffering from the "Santino Effect" and can't stop adding things to his design. Tim, who -- I'm not sure, but I think -- doesn't see Santino, says, "Don't get seduced by the Santino Effect or we'll all crash and burn." When he sees Santino, he says, "I meant that only in the nicest way." Santino is pretty good-natured about it.
Work, mice! They scramble. Daniel says it's "the Ironman Triathlon of fashion." Near midnight, Zulema says that she doesn't have anything. "I'll figure something out. I always do. Whether I'll like it is the big question." A bigger question than "Will the judges like it?" We'll see, Big Talker.
That night, at the boys' apartment, Nick says that he will not be fucked with. We see Zulema kind of moping around.
The morning, Kara wakes Zulema up. We hear Zulema utter the most ridiculous quotation of the series: "I mean, anyone who says they're not here to win should go home now, because they've already lost." What THE FUCK is she talking about? Really, just look at the sentence. Think about it. Is she talking about the people who are just shooting for the final three? Because Wendy Pepper did that (forgive me for mentioning her yet again. I know it's annoying, but she's a freaking template! Give me a break!) and she, uh, made it to the final three. I think maybe Zulema needs to take some yoga or some shit and chill out and just do her thing, instead of talking all of the time. On a lighter note, in the boys' apartment, Santino says, "Ready, guys?" Andrae, dead calm, says, "Yeah, we've been ready." Santino replies, "Oh, such a little bitch." I really love all of those guys being together.
At Parsons, Tim tells everyone that they have an hour to get their models fitted and made up. We see Zulema dressing Tarah. She tells Tarah that she still has to do "some sewing." Tarah interviews (you heard me correctly -- a model interviews) that she did not like Zulema's design. She says that Zulema had to sew it onto her and kept poking her with pins and needles. "It was horrible."
Rachael breaks my heart and says, "I'm gonna model extra-hard. Not to prove Zulema wrong. Just to be able to stay with Nick, because Nick is my favorite." Nick coaches her walk, which goes surprisingly well. Nick interviews that Rachael is his "new muse." Tarah is looking at them and, if there's a God, there will be a catfight. Well, I guess there's not a God, because they don't fight. At least your Sundays are free now. Enjoy your brunch! When Zulema isn't looking, Tarah runs to Nick and pouts that she's not working with him.
The designers are telling the make-up artists what they want for their models. Kara just says, "Danger. No trespassing," like that means a fucking thing. Tim has a problem getting everyone to the runway. "If you stay here, you self-eliminate," he finally says.
On the runway, Heidi greets everyone. The judges today are Michael Kors, Nina Garcia, and, holla!, Jay McCarroll. The show begins. First up is Andrae's design. It's a lovely shimmering gray/silver gown. Along the bodice is beading that really does resemble his inspiration photo. Also, it fits the model beautifully. Andrae interviews that he feels he was ambitious. He's happy with his design.
is Kara's design. It's a sleeveless black tube dress with that yellow and black striped sash running diagonally along the bodice. Yawn. She says that she really feels like she brought forth her meaningless "Danger. No trespassing" bullshit.
Here's Santino's gown. It's a lot like some of his other designs. High-waisted, with lots of bunching. I see the graffiti influence, though it's hard to get Austin Scarlett's dress out of my mind. Santino thinks that finding the fabric that he used was "a stroke of good luck."
Here's Daniel's idea. It really looks like an orchid in a vase. The top is a lovely organza fabric in a champagne shade. It's bunched at the waist, then blouses over the bust. It cinches again at the neck, and the collar kind of "blooms." The skirt is a green tweed and really beautifully fitted. I like that it's kind of literal both visually and texturally, but also is transformative. It's about making a flower look human, rather than vice versa. Daniel is happy with it.
Here comes Chloe's design. Her inspiration was a building in New York with turquoise and silver panels all along it. My friend Susan used to temp in that building. I'm wondering if Chloe chose that photo as her inspiration just so she could use blue and black shades again. The dress is strapless. Right below the bust are alternating silver and blue ribbons wrapping around her waist. There are vertical pleats above and below the ribbons.
Here comes Rachael in Nick's design. Like Nick says, she "glided" down the runway. Seriously, she does a really lovely job. I'm wondering if the designers need to do a little more to motivate their models, because I kind of feel like walking like we're seeing right now might change the competition. The design itself? Not really loving it. It's a black-and-white two-piece. The top is black-and-white striped and is tight on her waist. It is draped asymmetrically across the bust, with a shimmering pendant at the center of the bust. There's a small train to the top. The skirt is black and fish-tailed. Nick's inspiration was a black-and-white fabric with some sort of cross on it.
Zulema's design is . It's orange and…it's an orange dress. It's a lot like the Banana Republic dress that she did. The skirt of the dress is a transparent fabric. Zulema says that she likes Tarah modeling her clothing. To her credit, Tarah still works that runway even though she doesn't want to wear Zulema's design.
The designers are called onstage. Everyone is going to remain on the runway for the judging. The models return. Nina says that she likes Daniel's design. Michael likes it too. Jay says that he wanted Chloe's design to be more geometric. She says that she would have liked that too, but she didn't have time. Then, we see footage of Jay's Chrysler Building dress. Jay's all, "Don't give me that." Nina, however, says that she likes the dress.
Kara explains the "Danger. No trespassing" idea in an incredibly verbose manner. Jay tells her that it's "big talk" but "the talk doesn't match the dress." Kara disagrees and says, "I think simplicity has its voice…and I think this speaks volumes." Michael basically says that Donna Karan does New York iconography a lot better than Kara. However, I could see Barbra Streisand sporting a look that says, "Danger. No trespassing." So, maybe they have something in common.
Andrae, scaring me for a moment because he takes a big breath like he was going to start crying again, says that he wanted to create something beautiful from something ugly. Jay says that he thinks it's the "most inspired." Michael thinks it's "pretty great-looking." Heidi points out that Andrae's dress looks very expensive and was made for only $100.
Nick describes his dress as "Paris Hilton in Greece, strolling with her Greek boyfriend, down the beaches of Mykonos." Jay says, "Once again -- big story." Heidi says she remembers him having his own stories, and he says, "No, that was Austin." Then, he quite accurately mocks Austin's description of his swimsuit design. Michael likes Nick's top, but is equally confused by the Mykonos reference.
Zulema says she tried to mix traditional African dress with "Western cut." Nina says that this is that the third time that Zulema has presented an unfinished garment. She also remarks that some of the other designers have "exceptional presentation." Michael pulls out a tired analogy, saying the dress is "like the trashy debutante in town with the red dress and her mother's a bad home sewer." That actually seems fairly unique. Like, when are debutantes trashy? And when do they wear red (looks orange to me) dresses? And when would a debutante's mother sew this red dress? Moving on, Zulema tries to blame the dress on Tim by saying that he told her to take risks. "Tim did not make this dress," replies Nina.
Santino explains her dress. Jay points out that Santino used the same fabric as Austin last year. He adds the skirt is "massivo." Heidi says she feels like "a big butt is hiding underneath that thing." Michael thinks some women might like that. He also says "hats off" to Santino for trying to rein himself in for this challenge. The judges leave the runway.
Heidi likes Chloe's dress. Michael describes Kara's dress as "a tube dress with a piece of tape wrapped around it." Nina found Nick's design "not memorable." They hate Zulema's execution of her design. Jay loves Andrae. They all like his dress. Nina reminds everyone that it looks expensive. Heidi says, "I prefer Dan." Nina thinks it's sophisticated. Michael says he is a "full Dan fan." His design was "unexpected" and "changed the silhouette." Nina feels that Santino's design looked unfinished. Heidi gives him credit for not going crazy with the graffiti theme, but Nina points out that a lot of people have been inspired by graffiti.
The designers return to the runway. Chloe is "in." Nick is "in." Daniel is the winner of the challenge! Michael tells him that his design was "chic, sophisticated." Andrae is "in." Santino is "in." Heidi tells Zulema that her design was "unfinished and uninspired." She tells Kara that "your dress should speak more than you do." Praise Jesus, that's the truth. Kara is "in." Zulema makes a complicated face that is either a stifled cry, or she's really pissed.
Backstage, she acts like everything is fine. She interviews that she has made some friends. She interviews that "any mistake can cost you." She seems to be handling the end of her time there like a good sport.