The designers all seemed to agree that the competition is getting stiffer. Well, duh. But I will say that I think the field this time around is quite strong. There are six or eight designers that I could see making the F3. Last time I don't think we had three designers that belonged in the F3 (f'ing Kenley...). The challenge: the designers had to pick a film genre, and had to create a character and an outfit that exemplified that genre.

Irina, who I believe unfairly won the last challenge, got first choice. She picked Film Noir. Logan picked Action/Adventure, so did Carol Hannah. Ra'Mon went with Science Fiction. Louise picked Film Noir (duh). Althea picked Film Noir. Gordana did Period Piece. Nicolas selected Science Fiction. Christopher snagged Period Piece. And that left Shirin and Epperson stuck with Western. It was a one-day challenge, which seemed extreme for all the creative involved in this challenge.

During sketch time we discovered that Carol Hannah and Logan have the hots for one another, and that Ra'Mon of all people is a hardcore Trekkie. Who saw that one coming? Nicolas continued to talk his big game - again, he has never been in the Top 3, and has been in the bottom several times. Someone is delusional.

The designers really seemed to get into the character generation. Epperson found a romantic story for his Western woman. Nicolas had a crazy story about queens of the universe living on Orion's belt. Ra'Mon wanted to make a jumpsuit that depicted a human/alien hybrid. Poor Louise didn't really have a concept, and beyond that, someone stole her special bobbin.

During Tim's check-in, Gordana explained her 30's-inspired dress that I quite liked, and Irina totally spit venom about her in a confessional. I need to be clear on this: Irina is totally revealing herself to be a hateful bitch. I don't think she's all that talented, and I've loved almost everything Gordana has done so far. She and Nicolas are very clearly emerging as this season's villains (and oh, I cannot wait for the reunion and the cast's reactions to the constant nastiness that came out of both of their mouths in confessional). Christopher started off his explanation with "OK, so there's this vampire bride" - that's never good. Especially since he's got Period Piece. He was trying to do a Victorian dress, but it was almost totally bare on top. Hello. If a Victorian women exposed an ankle it was considered scandalous. That said, I'm not sure what vampire bride chic was at the turn of the 20th century, so maybe Christopher was really on the mark. (And maybe not. And by that I mean, definitely not.)

At model fitting Ra'Mon completely freaked out about his design, and started over from scratch. That's the second time he's done an 11th hour switcheroo, and that is a really dangerous game. He turned his jumpsuit into a dress made out of reptilian-looking material.

Runway: MORE GUEST JUDGES. What the fuck? John Varvatos was there, plus NotNina from Marie Claire, and a Hollywood costume designer. Irina's dress did look beautiful and intricate, with black silk intercut with panels of black netting on the sides and a white whispy coat. It screamed femme fatale. Carol Hannah's look was shiny black leather - it looked like something an extra would wear in that terrible Rosie O'Donnell bondage movie "Exit to Eden" (and yes, Rosie O'Donnell was in a bondage movie - yikes). Shirin's Western dress certainly fit her description of "saloon girl." Christopher's dress did not look period specific at all. It had some interesting details and some nice bunching around the waist, but if he was shooting for Victorian he was way off the mark. Nicolas's dress was all white with white brocade pattern and crazy spiky shoulder pads. Althea's film noir outfit had a weird hem, and where Irina's went with bad girl, hers seemed more bad-girl-pretending-to-be-a-victim. Ra'Mon's dress looked like it was shedding its skin. Which may be have been intentional with the lizard theme. Certainly it didn't look the least bit practical, or pretty. Louise's dress was completely forgettable. Little black flapper dress. She can knock those out in her sleep. Epperson's Western gown worked better on the dressform, I think. With the pants there were too many layers, and his model seemed to have a lot of trouble walking. Gordana's flapper outfit was totally fabulous, full-on "Gatsby." It was eye-popping in sparkling gold. Logan's leather catsuit was lackluster to me, like almost everything he's done.

The designers in the high/low categories were Gordana, Epperson, Ra'Mon, Louise, Christopher, and Nicolas. I'm honestly surprised Irina didn't end up in the top, but hey, she was overpraised last week. The judges questioned the specialness of Gordana's dress. I...am routinely confused by the judges' dismissal of her work. Can anyone help me on this? They said that they saw her craftsmanship, but not her point of view. Her challenge was period piece. She was supposed to stay within the constraints of an already-determined fashion movement. Mind-boggling. And also, her dress had less point of view than Logan's dull catsuit? Are you kidding me? The judges really seemed to love Nicolas's story, and responded well to his dress. I still didn't think it was all that special, although the neck piece had some interest.

Louise's story was way too complicated, and the judges felt her dress looked cheap. I would tend to agree, and I like Louise. Christopher's vampire bride story was also stupid; oh, these gays and their convoluted drama. The judges loved his dress. Am I living in crazytown?! It's supposed to be Victorian and her arms and back were mostly bare! AAAAH! The judges hated Ra'Mon's dress, which one called "shoddily made." Ouch. But accurate. They liked Epperson's dress, but I had an issue with the leather bustier and holster, which looked cheap to me, like the ones you'd expect with a fake gun set you buy for your kid.

So to recap: If the dresses actually looked like they could fit into an actual movie from that genre, they were generally not liked and deemed "uncreative." Meanwhile, dresses that would be totally out of place in, say, a Victorian or Western film were embraced. I think this challenge was poorly conceived.

Nicolas won the challenge. Great, now he'll never shut up. That left a Bottom 2 of Louise and Ra'Mon. Of the two, Louise was probably the most expendable. And yet Ra'Mon got cut. Oof. Kind of a surprising turn of events. Granted, his dress was pretty bad, but he had turned out so many other quality looks, I have to say I'm surprised. I mean, Logan is still in this. How is that possible?