On Wednesday night, one of our favorite shows made its return to the fold. Project Runway 4 got ‘auf’ and running. We’re still a-twitter thinking about it. The lovely Heidi Klum, aka Mrs. Seal, and the equally lovely Tim Gunn, new CCO (chief creative officer) at Liz Claiborne and style guru extraordinaire, greeted the finalists at Bryant Park. There, the designers were given the challenge of creating a signature piece that tells the panel who they are. They had ten minutes to choose fabric from three tents.

When all was said and done, the designers took everything but one piece of fur. Yes, they even grabbed the tents. Elisa Jimenez stood out for rubbing some chiffon into the grass for a natural stain. The other designers called her out for being weird. Even stranger was Elisa’s draping method. She used herself as the form and sewed herself into the concoction.

When Tim questions Elisa’s choice of adding a voluminous fabric train to the back of her dress, she brushed it off saying something about needing to be true to her artistic vision. After he departed, she went to sleep, completely content with her ‘finished’ product. During the runway show, the model tripped on the garment. Heidi commented to the panel that the dress looked like the model was ‘pooping out fabric.’

It came as no real surprise to anyone except perhaps Elisa when she landed in the bottom three along with Simone LeBlanc and lingerie specialist Ricky Lizalde. Simone’s attempt to modernize vintage clothing fell short because the construction was poor as were some of her fabric decisions. World-renowned designer, Monique Lhullier, who was a guest judge with Klum, Nina Garcia and Michael Kors, felt that her jacket was ugly but still better than what lay beneath. Ouch!

Lizalde, who has an impressive resume, having worked with the lines of Valentino, Oscar de La Renta and Vera Wang, played it safe. He created a baby doll with a simple silhouette which ‘bored’ the judges.

At the top of the heap was Rami Kashou. The 31 year old native of Ramallah in the West Bank has dressed an impressive list of celebs including Jessica Alba, Fergie, Tyra Banks and Lindsay Lohan. His feminine, goddess-inspired design was head and shoulders above the competition. We predict big things for Rami in this competition and out of it. He’s supremely talented even if the judges didn’t love the flower at the top of his dress. If that was ‘MOB’ (mother of the bride), we’d still take it any day.

Despite that little glitch, the panel gave him the win and immunity for the next round. Yippee!

Victorya Hong put together a beautiful and flirty spin on the little, black dress complete with metallic bow and sexy, garter-inspired sleeves. Despite the fact that her model couldn’t hail a cab in the dress, the judges gave her high marks, realizing that women will go to great lengths, including decreased mobility, for a beautiful frock.

Finally, the youngest designer in the bunch, 21 year old Christian Siriano, who had an internship during design school with none other than Vivienne Westwood, delivered a knockout look with his textured take on school girl chic. We didn’t love it as much as the judges; however, we realize and respect Christian’s talent if not his aesthetic. The technical difficulty in the pieces was above and beyond what most of the other designers put out. He also promises to be one of the cattier contestants this season so we hope they keep him around for a long time.

In the end, Elisa’s kookiness was not enough to send her home. Simone’s poorly constructed garment was too much for the judge’s to overlook. The beautiful lady who studied at Paris’ Parsons School of Design and runs her own company, TS Bloom, a clothing line using “organic, sustainable and end of run production fabrics,” still has plenty to show the world.

Runway’s off to a fabulous start!