Project Runway All Stars premiered last night on Lifetime, and there were some new faces and some familiar ones. I totally miss Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, and that quiet yet bitchy Nina Garcia. A model I've never heard of (what?), Angela Lindvall, is now the host and the judges are people I'm not really familiar with, either, except for designer Isaac Mizrahi. The contestants, on the other hand, were like a little slice of home. Each of the 13 designers previously competed on a season of Project Runway and they're back for the ultimate title: Project Runway All Star winner.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? But the trophy won't be easy to get. After last night's episode, it seems we're gonna have a rough and tumble trip to the top. The challenge itself was classically ridiculous, but some of the contestants did not rise to the occasion and the judges made a big mistake.

Tonight was THE night! The Project Runway runway finale featuring the moment we've all been waiting for: New York Fashion Week and finding out who was crowned the winning designer of season 9. Four made it this far, to show at Fashion Week: Kimberly Goldson, Joshua McKinley, Anya Ay-Young Chee, and Viktor Luna. While the designers themselves claimed they believed that, at this point, it was "anyone's game," I'm not so sure.

The first half of the show was spent tidying up or completely overhauling their 10-piece collections, which was made a WHOLE lot easier once Tim gifted them with $500 to spend in 30 minutes at a last-ditch trip to Mood. Anya clearly had the most to gain from this, being that the judges were not so pleased with her mini collection. She also seemed to be the one who had been at the greatest risk of being out last week.

Tonight was the second to last episode of this season of Project Runway, or finale part one. That means we're down to the final four. Each had five weeks back at home to design 10 looks. They would then return to NYC and first show a "mini" version of their collection to the judges, because ultimately, only three are supposed to go on to Fashion Week.

With the designers at home, each got a special visit from Tim. There, we found out three out of the four -- Anya, Viktor, and Josh -- had something kinda major in common: They were hoping to accomplish something that would have made a relative proud.

Kimberly, who wanted to honor her mother, seemed to have a cohesive "Brooklyn Urbanite" style in mind. Anya, who spoke about her brother who had passed away, had absolutely NOTHING to show Tim but fabric, which may have a been a PR FAIL first. Viktor, also honoring his brother, had a very commercial-friendly, ready-to-wear collection inspired by photos from Guadalajara, Mexico. 

Well, this was it, people! On tonight's episode of Project Runway, the final five designers -- Anya, Josh M., Laura Kathleen, Viktor, and Kimberly -- were either in or OUT. Three would go on to New York Fashion Week ... and one or two would be "Auf wiedersehen!"-ed! Their final challenge: Find inspiration on Governor's Island, create three looks for $500, and surprise -- get help from an assistant aka one of the five most recently eliminated contestants who came BAAACK. Anya picked Bert, Josh picked Bryce, Kimberly picked Becky, Laura picked Anthony Ryan, and Viktor got Olivier (who said he felt like he was being forced to act as a "slave" ... wow.) 

As soon as they all got down to business in the work room, it was diva central! Josh's fangs were out, especially regarding Anya. Or Viktor who had a few choice words about her, as well.

Oooooh my goodness, there was a LOT going on during tonight's episode of Project Runway! It was almost as if they were purposely messing with the remaining six designers, because every other minute, TIm had to deliver news of a new wrench being thrown into the plan. But the basics remained the same: The designers were split into teams of two, were told to each create a high-fashion runway look inspired by an exotic bird (a raven, a parrot, and a cockatoo), but the hitch was that the teammates were competing not with, but against one another in a head-to-head challenge. The winning look would be featured in a L'Oreal Paris advertorial in Marie Claire, and the winner would get a $20K cash prize. Wuh-oh, you KNOW the claws were coming out! (Pun possibly intended.)

Tonight Project Runway took the contestants back to the '70s again, but this week, it was the sophisticated side of the era the judges wanted to see. So with $100 and the promise of the winning design being produced and sold on Piperlime.com, the contestants set out for Mood.

Then amidst all the hustle and bustle, we saw another Project Runway first -- Anya Ayoung-Chee lost her money. Store employees and fellow contestants helped her search for it to no avail, and she was left broke. Her only option was to collect leftover change from the others -- she got $11.50 in all -- and use plain old muslin at Parsons (which she compared to corn flakes -- bland). She was completely devastated.

Oh, MAN ... literally! This week, the remaining eight designers were faced with the challenge they thought they'd have to contend with last week but got out of: Designing menswear. But not just any menswear ... this week was all about rock 'n' roll chic, as we learned when Tim introduced the final eight to the up-and-coming '70-ish rock band from Canada called The Sheepdogs, who were chosen to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. The challenge: Create an image-conscious, stage-appropriate look for each one of the four MALE (dun dun daaah) members of the band.

They'd do this in two teams of four -- Team Harmony vs. Team Untitled. Wuh-oh!

On tonight's Project Runway, the designers had a serious reality check. Faced with the challenge of creating a design for a male client, most of them flipped out. "Men's wear?!" they screeched. Once all the slimmer guys had been chosen, Olivier practically had a meltdown about having to design for "FAT people?!" But then Heidi broke the news that nope, they wouldn't be designing for the men themselves. The men would be giving them the scoop on what their wives or girlfriends would want, and the designers would then create a garment for the men's significant others. The ladies would model the outfit to boot! "Wheeew, back to women's wear!!!" the designers gleefully sighed.

But, we soon learned why it's no WONDER we gals have such a complex about our body shapes and how we look in clothing. Designers are so trained and so coddled to create clothes that "work" only on waif-y twigs. They totally tweak out when faced with real women's figures!