Where is airing: Lifetime
For what age: 10+
How many episodes in 3 season: 14 episodes
Fifteen new designers arrive to kick off Season 3! *Bradley Baumkirchner, *Robert Best, *Laura Bennett, *Malan Breton, *Bonnie Dominguez, *Stacey Estrella, *Katherine Gerdes, *Kayne Gillaspie, *Uli Herzner, *Alison Kelly, *Angela Keslar, *Michael Knight, *Vincent Libretti, *Keith Michael, *Jeffrey Sebelia. After a champagne toast, the challenges begin. In the first challenge, the source for design is the contents of each designer's Atlas apartment. Designers are given 15 minutes to raid their apartments, and they really raid. They may only use the contents of their own apartment-but they may use any of it (and none of things they brought with them). This really comes back to bite them later - when they are tired and drained after their first real full day of grueling work on the first challenge - when they come back ready to crash and are reminded of what they did to their apartments earlier in the day.
The designers second challenge takes place this week and it is to create a dress for an "American Beauty". The designers will be competing to be able to design a dress that Miss USA, Tara Conner, will wear in the next Miss Universe pageant. After letting the designers know what she wants and more importantly needs, they each get the change to pitch their ideas and sketches to Conner. Seven designs are chosen and the finalists that prepared them get to chose a team make from the remaining seven designers to create the garments. Although two people worked on every dress there will be only one winner and one person who is out.
The thirteen remaining designers were presented with their next challenge - Designing an outfit based on one of fashions hottest accessories. The find out the next morning that it's a dog. Not only did they have to design a women's wear outfit inspired by the dog, they had to design a complementary outfit for their dog.
This weeks challenge will require the designers to create a three piece look for INC, a large brand sold at Macy's. Designers are given 30 minutes to sketch and to prepare a presentation that will give the INC the information they need to pick 4 of the designers to serve as team leaders. Once the leaders have been chosen they have 15 minutes to meet with their earns, 100$ in their budget to buy materials and 2 days to complete the task. The winning design will be put into production and sold in Macy's largest stores nationwide, the outfit is shown in a Macy's window display for the designers to view and find out who won. The episode was also filled with a lot of drama when it turned out that one of the designers had broken several rules.
This challenge starts with a major switch - the models will choose the designers. This weeks challenge will find the designers taking fashion icons that have helped shape the world of fashion over the last century and giving her a more modern look. Pictures of 10 fashion setters - from Twiggy to Cher to Jackie O. - are sitting in the work room where the models will select an icon for their designer. The key word is modernize, not replicate or make their design retro. The winner of this challenge will win a Tresemme photo shoot for his/her model, wearing the designer's outfit, to be published in an upcoming issue of ELLE magazine.
Heidi warns the designers that the upcoming challenges are going to be much tougher than the previous ones. Her prevision proves to be true the following day when they are taken to a warehouse of recyclables. Here, Tim explains, the designers will collect all the materials needed to make their outfits. They will also be allowed to go to an art store for paint and other supplies necessary for embellishments. This challenge is all about innovation and creativity.
The challenge this week is to create a look for an everyday woman. However, the designers learn that this challenge will be more personal than they had expected, as each of their mothers or sisters join Heidi on the stage instead of the normal models. Each designer then chooses a "model" to design for, quite apprehensive about the non-prototypical appearance of said "models". Each designer will have to try to keep a balance between what his "model" wants and what his own style preferences are.
Heidi vaguely informs the designers that they will be designing for a hip international jet-setter. Their grand speculations are squashed when Tim tells them they will be designing, as well as modeling, outfits for themselves. Each outfit should be a reflection of the designer's true look while also being able to withstand traveling. In order to test the durability, the designers are flown to a surprise location.
While in Paris, Catherine explains that the remaining six designers must create couture gowns. Many difficulties surface as the challenge progresses. Material is quite expensive, so the designers must be careful with their budget. Also, because couture outfits include a lot of difficult hand-sewn touches, the task will be very time-consuming. The designers will also have to refit their outfits for their New York models. It will be up to the designers to overcome these hindrances and wow the judges.
In a surprise twist, the five remaining designers are joined by two previously-outcast designers. If one of the two wins, he is allowed to remain in the game. They all must create a cocktail dress using only black and white fabrics, and they must use both colors. However, every bit of purchased fabric must be incorporated into the outfit so that there is none left over. The judges will be looking at the design and silhouette of each dress.
Nina explains to the final four the importance of fashion editorials and then gives them their next challenge. The designers are to create, quite freely, an outfit of their choice. The outfits must convey their personal points of view. They are each given a sheet on which they must write three words that describe what they're about as designers and that will be represented by their completed outfits. The difficulty in this challenge is managing to impress the judges with something unexpected while still remaining true to oneself as a designer.
The cast of Season 3 reunites to recap all the gripes, drama and other shenanigans which were only seen by those behind the scenes. One of the designers wins the first ever "Fan Favorite" award, along with a check for ,000. Apparently, even if you don't make it to the final runway show at Bryant Park for Olympus Fashion Week, it still pays to be a personality on the show!
Contrary to the title of the show this episode follows the final 4 contestants as they prepare their garments for the Bryant Park fashion show. Tim travels around the country to visit the homes of the contestants as they are working on their collections and gives out advise and supportive criticism. As the designers come back together in New York to prepare for the fashion show, doubts are raised when a few of the designers wonder how much personal work was put into some of the other garments, worried they had outside help, which is against the rules.
Now we finally get to see all of the final collections from the designers and also find out who the judges will choose as the winner of Project Runway Season Three!
