‘Project Runway’ Season 22 Episode 6 Live Recap: Who Was Eliminated?

Project Runway is back with a brand-new episode tonight, and the competition continues to heat up as designers vie for the ultimate grand prize. The winning designer from Season 22 will secure $200,000 cash, a spread in Elle magazine, mentorship with the Council of Fashion Designers of America and professional representation to launch their brand.

With so much on the line, host and judge Heidi Klum and fellow judge Law Roach continue to whittle down the competition, and today, Thursday, Aug. 13, the panel of celebrity judges will feature two special guests: supermodel Winnie Harlow and actor Nina Dobrev.

Keep reading to catch yourself up on everything that went down last week, as well as who was eliminated to start this week’s episode and more.

What happened last week on Project Runway?

Last week, the remaining nine designers were tasked with making garments out of paper towel. Given an hour to dye test the paper towels before getting started, mentor Christian Siriano then provided feedback throughout the design process, per usual.

And, as always, the episode was left on a cliffhanger. While Bi Pham and Bryan Barrientos were praised for having some of the best designs of the challenge, Elizabeth Shevelev, Anna Molinari and Bobby Diakonenkova found themselves in the bottom three.

Read the full Project Runway Season 22 Episode 5 recap here.

Who was eliminated to start this week’s episode?

As Episode 6 opened up following last week’s cliffhanger, Pham and Barrientos were deemed safe, but didn’t receive the highest marks on the week. Instead, Naheim Muhammad and Jeffrey Kelly Abess were named the top two designers of the challenge, with Muhammad being declared the winner. In addition to gaining immunity for the week, he went home with a $20,000 prize.

Unfortunately, after further deliberation, Shevelev was sent home.

What was this week’s challenge?

This week’s test will challenge the remaining eight designers to create a gown for Klum to wear to the world premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2. As fans may know, this event happened back on April 20, but Klum has not divulged the name of the designer she wore to the red carpet event at New York City’s Lincoln Center this spring in order to build some suspense.

Heidi Klum | Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images

Each designer was given a budget of $700 to shop for materials with before getting started on their designs. Costume designer Molly Rogers joined Siriano in providing feedback to the contestants as they got started in the workshop, with both professionals urging Joseph McRae and Muhammad to lean into Klum’s personal sense of style rather than their own aesthetics. The duo, however, applauded Diakonenkova for the green fabric she chose to incorporate into her gown.

*Spoiler alert: About 25 minutes into the episode, the sea foam green fabric seen above was revealed to be on Barrientos’s mannequin, so obviously we can deduce he is the winner of this week’s challenge. We’ll pretend we didn’t see this and play along for the remainder of the episode.

Meanwhile, Siriano revealed that not only will the winner this week get immunity, he or she will also get to select three rival designers to be up for elimination. As models arrived for their fittings and glam before hitting the runway, contestants continued to put their final touches on their creations.

Who won the challenge?

Barrientos, Pham and Abess were named the top three designers from this week’s challenge, with (surprise!) Barrientos coming out on top as the winner. Then, in fulfilling his duty to assemble the bottom three designers, Barrientos named Diakonenkova, Muhammad (who has immunity this week) and Jude Mikulencak.

Who was eliminated to end this week’s episode?

Diakonenkova was eliminated after this week’s challenge, with several of the judges calling out the uneven structure of her gown this week. However, the designer left with her head held high, sharing how proud she thinks her younger self would be of her accomplishment in the competition up to this point.

When is the next episode of Project Runway?

The next episode of Project Runway airs on Freeform on Thursday, Aug. 20, at 10 p.m. ET. Episodes are available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ the following day.