We’ve almost reached the end of our reality television journey. This week saw the designers enter their New York Fashion Week determining challenge, by way of international travel (well, for most of them). To make their one-last-chance-to-impress outfits the judges sent off the designers off to a European country to find inspiration with their assigned seamsters in tow.

Daniel and Amanda jetted off to Berlin; Patricia and Kate hit Paris, Layana and Samantha went to beautiful Barcelona, while Stanley and Richard hit jolly old England. While they ran around cobblestone streets and under iconic architecture, poor Michelle went…nowhere. The judges said her last minute stay of execution meant no extra ticket and she needed to find her inspiration in the city around her. 

And I gotta say, the results were impressive. Stanley’s monastic gown and cap were stunning, Daniel’s edgy Berlin look was cool, Michelle’s structured take on old and new New York looked impossibly chic…and then there were the others. Layana’s take on Barcelona didn’t represent anything about how stylish and young the people strolling down Las Ramblas, and Patricia’s avant garde take on Paris didn’t full realize. 

In no surprise (at least to me), the judges easily passed through Stanley, Daniel, and Michelle while we waited with baited breath for the final slot. In the end, they decided Patricia might potentially do something more intriguing, and pushed Layana to grow a little more as a designer.

That means this week we can see Tim Gunn here in Portland to do his home visit to check on Michelle’s collection. She says, “It was so exciting having Tim in my neck of the woods, in my creative environment. Being in NYC was like being in his house, now I get to show him mine."

 We can’t wait to see that. Tune in tonight for Portland, Gunn style.