In the first episode of the 12th season of Lifetime’s Project Runway, the contestants have a mysterious rendezvous on airplane park, leaving the designers to ask why the heck they were in airplane park. Finally, they are met by head judge Heidi Klum and mentor Tim Gunn to brief them on the challenge. But, of course, it wouldn’t be Project Runway without a little twist. Heidi announces that there are only 15 out of 16 designers standing in front of her before she tells them about a fan judge to bring back a former designer: Kate from Season 11, Valerie from Season 8 and Ra’mon from Season 6.

The designer arrives on a plane, and the designers see Kate’s smiling face. On her season, the designers had to compete in teams, and she expressed how thankful she was to be back, especially since she would not have to compromise with team members. Along with Kate, Heidi introduces a sign language interpreter for designer Justin who is deaf. After announcing a prize package of over a half a million dollars, Heidi says, ‘The sky’s the limit” as a plane begins dropping actual humans. I guess you could call it “skydiving.”

As the skydivers lander, Heidi tells the designers that they are carrying their materials for the infamous “Unconventional Challenge.” Yep, it’s the parachutes. Nice synthetic fiber parachutes with bright neon colors reminiscent of the 80s. The designers make a mad dash, or a clumsy trip like Kate, to snatch up the parachute of their choice.

Meanwhile, scenes of the designers during interviews began playing in order to introduce the cast. We’ve got Angela, who wanted to be a rock star growing up, but somehow translated her love for the music into her fashion. There’s the bowtied and bearded Bradon who revealed he was previously a modern dancer for ten years. Miranda, the modern day Rosie the Riveter. Tattooed, pierced and leathered up Helen Castillo who claims her designs looked the polar opposite of her appearance. And the peculiar Timothy who makes “sustainable art” in order to remain eco-friendly. And apparently, Miranda and Timothy know each other as they are both form Milwaukee. There’s an unfriendly, competitive vibe that Miranda gives off to Timothy as she says that he has a “bit of an ego.”

Next, Alexander is introduced as he dons a fiery red pompadour and experience working on Broadway shows like Lion King, Wicked and Mary Poppins. Then there’s Sandro with a thick Russian accent who offers jokes in the work room: “Do you guys want some water? Okay, go to the kitchen for it.” But during lunch, Sandro raises some eyebrows when he tells one of the designers, Alexandria, to be more humble after she expresses her desire to win.

After some of the designers are introduced, Tim comes to tell them about the new challenge budget different from the previous seasons in which the designers have to manage their own spending for the entire season, rather than for each individual challenge. On top of that, the designers can use black and white nylon enhancements, but the primary source of fabric has to come from the parachute.

Tim’s Critique
Like every episode of Project Runway ever, Tim makes his rounds to each designer, offering his desirable advice. I mean, he is Tim Gunn after all. First, he meets with Alexandria and compliments her use of color blocking. He moves on to Kate and tells her how much he loves the translucency of her yellow dress, and calls Bradon’s design “James Bond-ish.” Moving on to Timothy, he admires his use of innovation with burning the fabric as well as his concepts and backstories. However, he’s not too happy with Timothy’s competition, Miranda, who decides to use 85 percent of the black fabric, causing Tim to lift his eyebrow. Like Miranda, Helen sways from the challenge rules and gets a scolding from Tim. He moves on to Kahindo, dissing her pleats and calling them messy, but praising Sue’s design, calling it a “knockout.”

Model Fitting
During the model fitting, Timothy takes his model Natacia to practice bizarre choreography for the runway in order to make it a “performance.” At one point, he tells her to “awkwardly sniff her armpits.” That’s what every model wants to hear, right? During Timothy’s spastic movements, his model asks, “Do you think I should just walk normally?” to which he replies, “Umm. No.” To make her even more uncomfortable, he asks the hair stylist to unplug all heat products and refuses to put make up on her face, causing a teary reaction from her.

The Runway
On the first runway show of the season, Heidi introduces celebrity judge, Kate Bosworth, esteemed designer Zac Posen and Marie Claire editor Nina Garcia, and tells the designer that Tim Gunn will be joining the shows, but only for the “Tim Gunn Rescue.” He will not be able to judge the outfits, but if he disagrees with a judge after an elimination, he can bring back that eliminated designer, but only one time during the entire season.

The show starts off with Sue’s outfit, a combination of red, purple and orange summery gown with intricate ruching on the sides. Bradon presents a blue gown complete with cording and a white-to-pink ombre effect in the back of the dress. Next, Jeremy’s design is like parachute pants, almost literally, but in a chic way with zipper pockets. Kahindo design consists of a purple top with a purple and pink pleated skirt. A very short bathing suit with a wild jacket, Sandro’s design raises some eyebrows from the designers and judges as the model’s private parts make a surprise appearance. Helen’s designed consisted of mainly the white fabric with a multicolored architectural pattern. Alexandria presents a very sleek design with black, colorblocked sides, almost similar to Karen’s designs that incorporates a blue chevron pattern with an all-black back.

Timothy’s model goes against his wishes of performing his zany choreography as she wears his design of a yellow and white tatter-y dress. Justin’s design is a hipster-like dress, mainly all pink with black and grey inserts near the neckline. Also following the hipster trend was Kate with a short, yellow dress.
Angela’s design consisted of a loosely fitted blue and pink dress with a navy hood, while Alexander’s design created a diamond effect with color blocking. Dom presented a black athletic jacket with blue pleating on the arms and a pink diagonal skirt, and Ken’s design showed off a bright orange dress with red detailing on the neckline. The show ended with Miranda’s almost all-black dress with inserts of red and pink from the parachute.

Judge’s Deliberation
After the eclectic runway show full of chopped up, beautiful parachutes, Heidi announced the designers with highest and lowest scores: Angela, Sue, Miranda, Bradon, Sandro and Timothy.

Timothy’s Design: Nina called it muddled while Zac said it looked like he found his model in the woods. Heidi questioned his choices in not using the hair and make up team. Zac calls out his hypocrisy of being sustainable when he burned synthetic fibers.

Sue’s Design: Heidi loved her ombre effect, and Zack pointed out the sculptural quality of the dress, calling it exciting.

Miranda’s Design: Nina loved the silhouette and styling, but said it’s disappointing that it was not all parachute material. Kate claimed she would happily wear the design, and Zac followed, saying it was the most polished piece, but Heidi had a huge problem with Miranda not following the challenge rules.

Angela’s Design: Nina critiqued the designs odd proportions, calling it a disposable poncho. Even though he liked the graphic breakup, Zac said the design was not chic.

Bradon’s Design: Heidi gushed over the dress, saying it looked really expensive. Kate called it a beautiful and an incredibly thought out design. Zac was excited over the movement of the dress, while Nina liked the dramatics and fragility of the design.

Sandro’s Design: Zac said the model looked like a “slutty cat toy,” and Heidi called it a disaster. Nina said the energy should have been invested in designing the piece, not choosing the accessories

In this season, during the judge’s private deliberation, Tim comes back with all six designs so the judges can get a closer look.

Results
After discussing the dresses further, Heidi asks the designers to come back out, revealing the bottom: Miranda, Timothy, Angela and Sandro. The top: Bradon and Sue.

Bradon is announced the winner of the challenge and is granted immunity for the next challenge. Heidi gives Miranda a warning, but gives her safety, and surprisingly, gives Sandro safety.

In the bottom two, Timothy and Angela said before her, giving Timothy safety while eliminating Angela.

Join us for next week’s Project Runway!