Fifteen new designers arrive to kick off Season 3! *Bradley Baumkirchner, *Robert Best, *Laura Bennett, *Malan Breton, *Bonnie Dominguez, *Stacey Estrella, *Katherine Gerdes, *Kayne Gillaspie, *Uli Herzner, *Alison Kelly, *Angela Keslar, *Michael Knight, *Vincent Libretti, *Keith Michael, *Jeffrey Sebelia. After a champagne toast, the challenges begin. In the first challenge, the source for design is the contents of each designer's Atlas apartment. Designers are given 15 minutes to raid their apartments, and they really raid. They may only use the contents of their own apartment-but they may use any of it (and none of things they brought with them). This really comes back to bite them later - when they are tired and drained after their first real full day of grueling work on the first challenge - when they come back ready to crash and are reminded of what they did to their apartments earlier in the day.
Eager to give aspiring designers a chance to break into the notoriously difficult-to-crack fashion world, supermodel Heidi Klum will once again head a panel of industry luminaries, including top women's and men's wear designer Michael Kors and Elle Magazine fashion director Nina Garcia, who will serve as judges and industry mentors charged with selecting and molding the budding designers. There will also be guest judges each week based on the specific challenge. Timballoonn, Chair of the Parsons The New School For Design, will return to guide the contestants through each of their challenges.
The winning designer will walk away with $100,000 in seed money to help them launch their own line. The winner's designs will be featured in a spread in ELLE, photographed by the magazine's world-renowned Publication Director, Gilles Bensimon. They will also receive a mentorship from the Banana Republic Design Team.