(S07E09) Collier Strong makes his seasonal 'Project Runway' appearance to pimp out the L'Oreal makeup. Luckily, we're finally at the halfway point with only eight designers left. I can finally distinguish between all the contestants. This week they were paired up and had to use the culture, architecture, and trends of an area in Manhattan to create a day and night look for only $300.

Chinatown - Anthony & Maya
East Village - Jay & Mila
Upper East Side - Amy & Jonathan
Harlem - Emilio & Seth Aaron

All of the places have very distinct aesthetics, yet somehow Amy & Jonathan manage to botch the idea of a high-class, pale color paired with black.

We start off with some difficulty between Jay and Mila. I don't really recall if the two had any really big blow-out in previous episodes, probably because we had to juggle 16 contestants. I never understood why contestants couldn't be as professional as those two and work on specific pieces. Also, I'm confused as to why Emilio is getting credit for pairing up the weaker/conflicted teams.

There is a positive of doing group challenges: the contestants have the ability to blend ideas. I've never been the biggest fans of Emilio or Seth Aaron, but Seth Aaron's color and Emilio's zippers were elements that worked really well, but were something out of the ordinary from their basic designs.

Of all the challenges, I'm really happy about the execution of the outfits from Chinatown. Like the elements challenge last week, the contestants took a chance and didn't go so heavily literal. Tim quickly shot down Maya's suggestion that the print Anthony chose was bad. It ended up being the big piece for the daywear look. Nine episodes in, Anthony hasn't grated and continues to churn out strong pieces; it's good to see that he has good team skills.

With Michael Kors missing from the judging panel this week, Francisco Costa from Calvin Klein sat in. Our guest judge was Molly Sims, though the connection between Molly and NYC wasn't there. When I think of Molly Sims, it's not automatically New York culture. As the models walked down, I liked the pattern on the jacket for Maya because the stripes didn't go in the same direction. I'm happy they didn't end up making the beige jacket. Ironically, the beige jacket would have been a better definition of Upper East Side. I was really distracted by Jay's model, Brittany, walking down with such jiggly breasts. It turns out that the pair of models made the horns with their hands on their own accord. Mila's outfit wasn't really evening, but the use of the red tights was a smart move.

The high scoring teams were Anthony & Maya (subtle interests, well made) and Emilio & Seth Aaron (both impeccable, sophisticated, Seth Aaron had a bit too much). The low scoring teams were Amy & Jonathan (not polished, eyesores, busy) and Jay & Mila (good evening look, poor day look, poorly made tank-top). The winners were Emilio & Seth Aaron, while Amy was eliminated.

I have a feeling that the hairy breast outfit last week did Amy in as the one-two punch. The real fact of the matter was that she was nowhere near the Upper East Side.

[Find clips and episodes of 'Project Runway' at SlashControl.]