When we last saw our Final 3 - Althea, Carol Hannah, and Irina - Carol Hannah was puking her guts out, and the other two designers were at least sympathetic to her plight. That really does suck for CH, to be this close to living a dream and to spend most of the time hurling into a toilet bowl. But she sucked it up as best she could and soldiered on.

The F3 and their eliminated-designer assistants (Logan, Christopher, and Gordana, respectively) returned to the workroom to try to wrap up their collections, and Irina at the very least had a LOT of work left to be done. Carol Hannah had a mini-breakdown in the middle of the room, leading Christopher to make it all about him, as usual, saying "I'm happy to be there." Jesus Christ, dude. Try sympathy with your chinstrap!

Then the designers got their make-up and hair consults, and we saw a bit of those bizarre felt helmets that Irina created for her collection, but still no explanation as to what the hell they're doing there. Then, model fittings, and only Carol Hannah seemed to be happy with how things were showing on her models. Interesting note: Amanda, Kayne's model from S3, was in CH's collection. I can't decide if her dedication to the show is cute or desperate. (I'm leaning toward desperate.)

Tim came by to look at the designers' "surprise" 13th looks, and Irina's was a short black dress with these very structural shapes worked in, with a leather top. It reminded me somewhat of the work that Leanne did in Season 5, but seeing as this was likely filmed not long after Leanne's season wrapped, I can't imagine that was an influence. Althea's outfit did nothing for me. It had a black leather jacket with these huge 80s shoulderpads. Carol Hannah's final look was a very simple,off-the-shoulder draped blue gown. Pretty, but like most of her stuff, not terribly original. Where's the point of view?

There was a small dust-up when Tim pointed out that Althea's make-up concept was awfully similar to Irina's. Althea broke down a little, and cried to Tim that she felt overwhelmed. I cannot imagine the stress on these people, and it must be infuriating for Althea to constantly be called a copycat next to Irina. I don't believe she's intentionally, or even subconsciously copying her competitor. I really don't. But you can also see how the show would make some issue of it for maximum drama.

Day of the final runway show: the girls had to get up at an unholy hour, and then headed to Bryant Park. Carol Hannah looked a mess in a ridiculous blue gown with a gigantic ruffly sleeve, worn over black tights (TIGHTS ARE NOT PANTS), and she couldn't even bother to do something with her hair. She seems like a sweet girl, but this was her coming-out party to the fashion world. At least try to look presentable. Tim seemed way more stressed than usual, going so far as to yell, "Designers, I am about to lose it!" because when the designers were supposed to be in line up, he said maybe 10 percent of the models were even in their looks. You guys, we nearly saw the Gunn go off. I haven't seem him that annoyed ever, not during the Keith cheating scandal of S3 or the Johnny lying BS earlier this season.

Heidi came out in a snazzy, but poorly fit bright pink suit, and introduced Michael and Nina, plus guest judge Suzy Menkes, fashion editor for the International Herald Tribune. So they went with an actual fashion expert instead of a flaky celebrity. I wonder if that had anything to do with the Jennifer Lopez no-show a few seasons ago?

Althea was up first, and once again explained her sci-fi inspiration. I loved the first look, a huge grey knit coat with long droopy sleeves. I ended up liking the 13th look a lot more than I thought I would. I think her collection looked so much better on TV than it did on the internet, where I saw it months ago. I liked almost all the pieces that came down the runway. And Top Model Jaslene was in there! I think her final gown was a real missed opportunity. It was just a simple, slinky, skintight bronze-colored dress - where was the wow factor? Although I think that's true for most of her line. Interesting pieces, and a cool first look, but the rest was somewhat staid.

Carol Hanah was up next, with a much more flowy, girly collection. It was all very pretty, but I don't think it was terribly sophisticated. One look made her model look downright pregnant, while another reminded me of the work of Wendy Pepper, and that is not a compliment. That said, I did enjoy the inverted triangle tulle skirt. The final gown was very elaborate, with a lovely ruffled base. But I didn't see anything unifying in the collection. If you told me those were all of the looks she'd created for the competition entire, I would have totally believed you.

Irina was last, with her New York-inspired collection that was about "comforting and shielding yourself." The shielding aspect was key here; much of her stuff looked like armor, but in an interesting, fashion-forward way that achieved that goal much more clearly than Jillian's similarly themed collection did in S4. Loved her knit work, also really liked the fur piece that Tim hated. There was a clear point of view here, a vision, a unifying theme, and some very cool work. She had this one pair of pants that was shredded or looped, or something. I don't know. I'd never seen anything like it. Her final gown was a showstopper, for sure, but maybe not in a good way. It was that monstrous mound of black fabric she showed us last episode, and while it must have taken a ton of work, it also looked like it required a lot of work to walk. The model plodded down the runway like she was pulling an ice wagon. Not an ounce of grace to her, and I think a good chunk of the problem was the heavy, heavy dress itself.

Post-show reactions from the audience: the eliminated designers from the season seemed pretty evenly split, with Nicolas surprising coming in on the side of Carol Hannah, which was the safest, least interesting of the three for me. Strange for Captain Edgy. A couple actual fashion designers suggested that this crop was the strongest the show has ever produced. Um, no. These guys were good - I liked Althea and Carol Hannah's more than I thought I would, after seeing them online so long ago - but there's no way these guys top the Rami/Jillian/Christian trifecta from S4, and I think even S3's group may have been stronger (especially if you ignore the implosion that was Mychael Knight's disaster collection). Personally, I have to give the win to Irina. Her stuff just looked intricate, smart, and cool.

Judging: Michael Kors dinged Irina for her "warrior woman" concept, pointing out that it's been around a while. Nina really liked the t-shirts she used (I did too). Michael was impressed with all of the work she put into accessories (the hats, still unexplained; the bags, etc.). Nina was disappointed by all the black. Carol Hannah explained that she wanted to play with volume and draping. Heidi loved the 13th look, and was surprised that Carol Hannah just winged it. Heidi brought up the fact that the line lacked any kind of cohesive thread. Michael liked the mix of tailoring and draping. Althea's sci-fi take was embraced by Michael, mostly because she went with sportswear. Nina liked the small splashes of color in her line. The guest judge didn't get the connection between the knitwear and the future. I didn't have that problem at all; I thought those pieces looked very futuristic. Nina felt that the final three pieces of her collection didn't look like they fit with the rest. I would agree with that.

Carol Hannah was the first out, mostly because of the lack of connective thread. I think that's right. Again, really pretty clothes that women would want to wear. But it was not a cohesive collection. That left Irina vs. Althea, the obvious Final 2 since I'd say about mid-season. And the winner was: Irina! The right choice; Heidi had a me worried for a second when she lambasted her for the lack of color in her almost all-black collection.

It's interesting; I think Irina's a total bitch, but she kicked ass in the competition, at least in the second half of it. I was rooting for Althea going into the finals, but there's no doubt that Irina had the stronger overall collection. She took second place well, and hey, the girl is 23. And she's shown at Bryant Park. And everybody knows who she is. She's going to do fine.

So Season 7 starts on January 14! Holy shit! I didn't even know they were filming! So we've got basically a month off. I certainly hope S7 is better than this one. S6 started out strong, and we got a very talented winner, but I thought the middle half of the season was a total mess, with many questionable decisions. (Shirin, Epperson, and a couple others should have gone much farther; Christopher and Logan should have been out weeks earlier, and are in my opinion the least talented designers to ever make a Final 6 on this show, and I'm even including Season 1 in that statement.) I also hope the show returns to New York, because I never felt that the California vibe worked for this season at all.