As if we would ever get enough of new designers battling out to prove they are the best, last night officially kicked off Season 8 of Project Runway. With a whole new cast of designers all coming in with various personalities and experience levels, this was clearly going to be an interesting episode. After making all of their initial introductions to each other and jokingly taking stabs at one another, the designers along with their luggage were greeted by Tim and Heidi. Undeniably, they were about to be introduced to their first challenge. To begin, they were instructed to pull out one item from their luggage to incorporate into their first garment. The twist is that each designer had to pass that item to the right and each designer was then challenged to create an outfit from their neighbor’s personal garment. With only 5 hours to accomplish this challenge, off to Parsons they went.

As usual this new batch of designers is just as dramatic and emotional as their predeceasing cast. Luckily, Mood has gone mobile for this challenge and brought a healthy fabric assortment right to the designers at the Parsons design studio. With only 15 minutes to sketch, it was time to just jump right into the process, get their fabrics and “make it work.” As the designers were working, you couldn’t help but feel bad for Casanova as he watched Valerie tear into his brand new Dolce and Gabbana pants. It was truly painful. $1070 down the drain. Conversely, we don’t feel bad for Peach Carr as she complains about having to work with Michael Drummond’s dramatically pointed out “mystery colored scarf.”

As Tim makes his rounds to check the designer’s progress, he seems to be less and less impressed with their creations. In leau of the typical fanny pack, Tim did seem to be very intrigued with Jason’s ‘designer’ corset . Two cool points for Jason, until he attempted to explain his design; back at zero. When we finally get to Mondo, Tim just seems worried. Tim expressed, “I think you need to give this some youthfulness, it may be in the styling of it. It may be in your models hair and make-up, cause it’s looking a little matronly to me.” Guess there is really nothing else to say about that.

As the designers go into their 10-minute fitting with their models, and coincidentally their first meeting, we get to see who clicks and who just doesn’t. Jason seems to be having the most problems with his model, but not for the reasons one might think. As he so eloquently put “she’s pretty busty for a model, it’s a big fucking distraction, I’m not gonna lie. She has no bra on and she’s like mine.” Clearly his resume in the professional fashion world is starting with this show, but just to be safe we are suggesting that his model sleep with one eye open and check who might be lurking in corners. Just a friendly piece of advice since your designer has stalker tendencies.

As they approach the 45-minute mark till the runway, everyone is busy at work, just trying to “make it work.” (Thanks for this line Tim; we will forever incorporate it into our reviews.) Nevertheless, this round of designers seems to be much more detailed with hair and make-up at this stage of the game. They were borderline intrusive into the other creative areas, but when you know what you want, you know what you want. Well, everyone except Kristin who all of but forgot about her model getting only her hair done. Having forgot about make-up, she throws her model into the make-up chair in a quick last minute dash with these words of direction, “just umm bright, bold, red lip” and that’s all.

Greeted by a striking Heidi Klum in a black cocktail dress, the designers were increasingly nervous to see their designs grace the runway. After Heidi ran down the prizes, it was time to meet the judges for what be the first of an every episode occurrence. The judges include, designer Michael Kors, Fashion Director for Marie Claire magazine Nina Garcia, and celebrity guest judge actress Selma Blair.  As the models began to come down the runway, there are certainly mixed emotions quietly circulating  through the room. All of the designers seemed to feel confident about their designs, but as we know, the judges tend to have opinions all their own.

One thing that is always a problem for the judges is a poor hem and Mondo manage to have that problem a few times over.  Also Jason’s model coming down the runway with visible staples still in her dress, everyone was left speechless, and we literally wanted to help him pack his bags for his flight home. However, as up and down as some of the prior designs might have been, nothing could have prepared us for Casanova’s “creation” hitting the runway.

There was absolutely nothing, and believe me we tried, flattering or appealing about his garment. Taking into account, that globally there are different standards as to what is sexy and what is overly provocative, there is still nothing good we could find with his design. So much for saving the best for last; that was a sheer disappointment.

As this was the final challenge to be in the running for actually making it to the show, the designers that were all asked to step forward all were able to breathe a sy of relief as they were safe and will be in this seasons cast of project runway. The remaining designers clearly represented the best and the worst of the designs, or so we thought.  Unsurprisingly, Gretchen was unanimously named the clear winner of this challenge, rightfully so.

The last six designers on the stage represented the bottom five designs leaving all of the designers up for elimination.  Truly as harsh as the judge’s comments were on the remaining designers (Jason, Casanova, Ivy, April, McKell, Nicholas), they were dead on. Heidi even referred to McKell’s design as “butt ugly,” clearly no mixing of words there. However as expected, when they got the chance to comment on Casanova’s design, there was nothing good to say. In fact at one point Heidi had to have Nina translate for his full understanding.

The one to be eliminated was McKell. Although we don’t necessarily agree with the judge’s final selection, this season is off to a very exciting start. As the designers get situated and moved into their new digs, they only have more anxiety about the weeks and challenges to come.