Does anyone else get the feeling the producers are *really* the ones picking the winners and losers?

On this week's episode of Project Runway, the designers had a dream challenge. Design a look that compliments diamond jewellery collectively worth over $30 million. Wowza! They've certainly amped up their sponsorship this year! How funny was it to see the designers faces when they saw the security guards on the runway? They reasonably assumed that the men were their models and maybe they were designing uniforms...until they saw the real guns.

It reminded me of the Philip Treacy challenge in which they had to make outfits to show off outrageous hats. Like that challenge, I expected a lot of simple, slinky dresses walking down the runway, showing off but not distracting from all the sparkles.

But the reaction I was most excited to see was of course Timothy's. We know two things about Timothy so far: One, he claims to be all about "sustainable eco-conscious wear." And two, he has no idea what that means. Again he did not disappoint.

There are a lot of very good reasons to be uncomfortable with diamonds. Remember Blood Diamond? What about the fact that they represent a socioeconomic divide between the haves and have-nots? What about the fact that we mine the earth just to get rocks that take millions of years to form and mostly just use them for decoration? But no. Timothy didn't think of any of that.

His objection? "We have to pick the prettiest diamond. And that's very superficial."

Oh. My. God.

His campaign of cluelessness continued when the designers got to Mood. He gleefully and self-righteously made a production of going through the "garbage" but then changed that to the "remnants" and then just picked fabric that had been dropped off by another design house (Zac Posen apparently!). So I'm not sure how much "upcycling" that really is. Tim tried to direct him to the organics section, but he wasn't interested. He seemed to think that if the fabric was "pre-owned" it was more eco-friendly than if it was not, regardless of what kind of fabric it was. But as Mila Hermanovski points out, half of Mood is "pre-owned." Design houses drop fabrics off ALL THE TIME, so you'll find things there that say "Marc Jacobs," "Vera Wang," etc. But still he managed to find the ugliest blue velvet (sorry Zac) and pair it with what looked like lining material. It was odious.

Oh and he used makeup on his model. Because it's easy to change your convictions on a dime when you're making them up as you go.

But Timothy's wasn't the only ugly, ill-fitting dress on the runway. Jeremy's looked like a dirty feather duster. Karen's looked like it was made by a twelve-year old. Helen's sad brown dress made the model look like she had no chest (that poor model! she was Timothy's shoeless, product-less model last week). And Alexander's, though well made, looked like a Golden Girl Gone Wild.

With all these candidates for last place, how the heck did Kahindo go home? Her dress was (mostly) finished, (mostly) well-made, and maybe a little boring. In other words it was middle-of-the-road, safe. IT WAS THE VERY DEFINITION OF SAFE. Why wasn't it, in fact, safe from elimination?

I suspect it was Kahindo rather than her dress that got eliminated. Sandro and Timothy make good TV and I think it'll be a long time before we see the end of them, at least if the producers have anything to say about it (which of course they do...besides Heidi IS one of the producers). And Helen had a full-blown panic attack on camera so I wasn't surprised they decided to keep her. I personally would have loved to see more of Kahindo and I was disappointed to see her go, especially when she didn't have the worst dress (or even the most boring, I think).

As for the winner, Kate? I don't want to talk about it. I'm just trying to ignore her so she'll go away. So far it's not working.

8 Reasons To Be Excited About the New Season of Project Runway

1. It's Project Runway, bitches! Project Runway has always been my favourite reality competition show by far, and after 11 regular seasons, several different "all-star" seasons, numerous spinoffs, a network shift and a few cast changes, it's still as great as it ever was. I love the format, I love Heidi and Tim, and I love that we get to see talented professionals make things that we can see and judge from home. I also love cooking competition shows but unfortunately you can't smell and taste the food through the TV so it's a little harder to judge. But we can all see the clothes and decide for ourselves if they're fugly.

2. Anonymous runway shows. This is very smart. I like that the judges are going to see and rate the clothes first before they know who did what, presumably to reduce their natural bias for or against certain designers. Having said that, I wonder how long it'll be before they all can spot whose design is whose. Not long, I suspect. Plus I bet there will be at least one designer who gets negative feedback if the judges can't immediately spot which design is theirs after a certain point. In the end it may not make a huge difference in the judging, but I think it may make the designers feel like they're on a more even playing field.

3. Tim gets to sit with the judges! It's about time. I understand why it's important for the role of mentor and the role of judge to be separate. There have been other fashion competition shows in which that is not the case, and it usually gets messy. As Tim has said, it's important that the clothes are judged based on the product, not the process. At the same time, it's nice that Tim can be there to bring perspective when needed. And he gets a veto card! I'll be so interested to see when he'll use it!

4. The judges get to see the top and bottom looks UP CLOSE. OMG this could be a game changer (forgive the overused phrase). I only wish that Ramon had been the designer voted back in so he could try to pass off something like his green neoprene monstrosity as a finished look. As Tim Gunn has openly said, that would NOT have held up to close scrutiny!

5. Designers get to decide their own budgets. Oh boy. How is this going to work exactly? Instead of a set budget for each challenge, the designers will be given a GoBank account with $4000 and a debit card. Every time they go to Mood, they will have to decide how much of that budget they are going to spend. Spend too much and they may run out of money before the end of the season (that MUST happen to at least on designer, right?). Spend too little and they may have trouble competing with the other looks. What do do? Also, will they be able to retain scraps from one challenge to the next, using leftover zippers and fabrics in future challenges? My guess is no, but it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. And what happens in team challenges?

6. Zac Posen. I know this is actually his second season as a full-time judge but it took me a while to warm up to him. It's not that I don't like him (LOVE HIM ACTUALLY!) but I was sure I would miss Michael Kors. Turns out I don't miss him all that much. While it's fun to have the eccentrically mean judge, which is what Kors had become, the truth is that all of the judges can be mean at times, and Heidi at least is no stranger to the eccentric turn of phrase. So it's still a very entertaining panel to watch. But Zac's criticism seems nicer and more constructive, which makes it all the more satisfying when he calls a designer out on their $#!@.

7. Timothy Westbrook and his smuggy interpretation of "sustainability." Why is this a good thing, you may ask? Surely the 24-year-old Milwaukee designer who "identifies as a sustainability focused fibre artist" but then is giddy over the prospect of burning nylon parachute material, which releases toxic fumes into the environment, is too much of an idiot to be tolerated? And a smug idiot at that! Yes, that's true. But I think this smugiot will be very fun to watch simply because every single person on the show seems to know more about sustainability than he does, which will cause no end of opportunities to laugh at him.

He seems to think that sustainable fashion refers to only using found or recycled materials (actually that's called upcycling or trashion) or not using any electricity, makeup or hair products. Of course, he doesn't seem to know WHICH of these beauty products may be bad for the environment and which ones would be gentler alternatives, nor does he seem interested in finding out. He also seems to have no concept of the impact of the manufacturing process on the environment, which is the main focus of the sustainable design movement. The chemicals involved in making synthetic fabrics (or glittery shoes), for instance, or the pesticides involved in growing non-organic cotton. Or the worldwide impact of the fashion industry on the working conditions of factory workers or cotton farmers. These are the sort of global concerns that designers like Stella McCartney think about. Not things like using a wood burning stove to make a dress so you don't have to use electricity.

Like I said, he's a smugiot. But I can't wait to make fun of him some more! I hope Zac Posen yells at him in every challenge!

8. Holy prizes, Batman! The fact that this season boasts the biggest prize package to date may not make much of a difference to me as a viewer, but it should make the designers that much more competitive. Also, some of the perks that come from having a TONNE of heavy duty sponsors are pretty spectacular, like next week's $30 MILLION WORTH OF DIAMONDS ON THE RUNWAY. OMG I can't wait!

So what am I NOT so psyched about? In a word, Kate. I'm no fan of the "second chance bonus designer" idea to start with, because I think it weakens the integrity of the entire show. I hate when competitions that are supposed to be based on merit and how people perform in each individual challenge then turn around and say, "Just kidding! These people will get a second chance. Or a third. Or a fan vote comeback. Or an all-star season. Or a just-because-we-said-so bonus chance. Just these people though, not everyone." Because then it's no longer a competition based on merit. It's based on merit UNLESS the producers really like you and find ways to bring you back no matter what. I hate it. (Well, except the all-star season. I can live with that. But still, how MANY seasons can we have of that and still call them "All-Stars"?)

But even if I didn't hate the concept, I'd still hate Kate. She's unlikable. REALLY unlikable, and not even in a "fun to hate" kind of way. She's not a Disney villain. She's more like that bratty, bitchy girl you're forced to sit next to in high school even though you can't stand her. And since she's from Season 11, it feels like we JUST got rid of her and now she's back. It's like finding out that the bitchy girl from high school is now your sister-in-law. Ugh. I can't wait until Heidi divorces her (OMG I'm sorry for making a Heidi divorce joke. TOO SOON!).