The Brown & White

"One of you will be in, and the other will be out," Heidi Klum said on Lifetime's Project Runway on Jan. 21. Pamela Ptak, a designer and local teacher from Bucks County, stood on the runway in front of the judges with fellow contestant Jesus Estrada of Mexico.

"Pamela, your dress was not at all flattering, and we're questioning your taste level and ability to be fashion forward," Klum said while the show's trademark drums played in the background. "Jesus, you missed the point of the challenge completely."

The drums crescendoed and the tension of the moment increased while the camera flashed rapidly back and forth between the two designers left standing.

"Jesus, you're in. I'm sorry, Pamela, that means you're out."

Ptak got the "auf Wiedersehen" from Klum, but she said that wouldn't stop her from creating and designing women's fashion in the Lehigh Valley.

"I'm never going to stop designing, and I'm a teacher at a college so I will keep teaching," she said in her teary exit interview.

As a teacher at the Baum School of Art in Allentown, Ptak said her students were constantly telling her she should go on the show.

"My students started bugging me saying 'You've got to go on!' and I would say 'Yeah, yeah do your homework,'" she said in a phone interview.

Eventually her schedule allowed for her to come on the popular fashion show where designers compete in various challenges for a chance to show their collections at fashion week in New York City.

Ptak tried out three times for Project Runway and almost made it on the second season when she got an incredible comment from Tim Gunn, the designers' sort-of guidance counselor and fashion consultant.

"He said my collection was on the cusp of something big and that it was among the finest work he had ever seen," Ptak said. "He said I had perfect skill and hadn't seen perfect skill in the other contestants."

Ptak said at the time, she didn't realize how much a compliment like that meant coming from someone as skilled as Gunn. "By the time I faced the facts of what he said, weeks had passed."

The only thing Ptak did to prepare for the typically outlandish challenges on Project Runway was to study her husband's clothing. She knew that if she had to do menswear, she had to know the logistics of men's garments. So on the day of her departure for New York, she turned her husband's pants inside out and studied the construction of his dress shirts.

Ptak was more concerned with preparing spiritually. "I follow Baha'i writing and behavior, which shows the way your character should be, and I didn't want to misbehave, especially for my students."

The stress and pressure, like in the minutes before runway shows on Project Runway, usually brings out the worst in people, but Ptak was determined and prepared to not let that happen to her.

"I didn't want to trip myself up and get envious or jealous or have angry and negative thoughts," she said. "You trip yourself up by behaving in an unacceptable way. I also didn't want to damage my own heart and soul by doing that."

Ptak said she was surprised and impressed by the level of competition from the other designers on the program, in fact, Ptak couldn't say a bad thing about her competitors.

"There was a high caliber of skills from the others. From what I had seen [in previous seasons], I expected a lower caliber of competitors," she said. "There were a number of talented people, and I admired the way people did things and their view points."

In her exit interview, Ptak said she truly loved every other designer on the show. "I fall in love with people very easily, and all these people in the competition, I'm proud to know were my friends."

In last week's episodes, the designers were asked to prove the phrase, "she is so beautiful, she would even look good in a potato sack," and create a dress worthy of wearing to an industry party.

So off to the farm they went where they met their models who were already dressed in burlap sacks.

They were given various embellishments, such as ribbons and buttons, to accent their designs. And since the models were the clients in this challenge, the designers had to appease their tastes as well as stick to their own style.

Ptak worked with her model, Sarah Bell, to create a dyed-blue corset dress that looked like faded blue jeans.

On the runway, the judges criticized the garment, saying it was not sophisticated enough and made the model look bigger than she was. Bell even implied she would not be comfortable wearing it to an industy event.

In deliberation, Klum and the other judges, Michael Kors, Nina Garcia and guest judge Lauren Hutton, agreed Ptak's dye-job was impeccable and the dress was well made, yet it did not flatter the model's body.

Although she did not make it to fashion week, Ptak used Project Runway to launch her name and line into the national spotlight. She said the show gave her an opportunity to put a voice to the clothing, something that isn't possible when sending a look book to a clothing store or meeting with store owners for five or ten minutes.

People have shown an increase in interest of her clothing line since her appearance onthe show, she said. Newspapers and magazines everywhere from Allentown to Boston have been contacting her for interviews, she added.

An assortment of separates and dresses from her spring/summer 2010 collection will be available at Loose Threads on Fourth Street in Bethlehem in the coming weeks.

Tops will be on sale starting at just under $100, and skirts range from $300 to $400, depending on lining, the fabric and intricacy. She said these price points are comparable to items already on sale at Loose Threads.

Ptak's business is located in the Lehigh Valley, rather than in New York City, like so many other designers, because she said she likes the sense of community. "There is something extraordinary and wholesome about this area. I love the nature, and there are good people that are down to earth," she said.

She also feels a sense of commitment to the businesses in the Lehigh Valley that rely on her. "I want to make sure I keep some of these wonderful people in jobs because if I left, some of these factories could go under."

Ptak didn't tell any of her friends or students she would be appearing on Project Runway. "I told them I was on a religious retreat in Idaho," she said. She continued to keep her secret until she came home from New York. "One of my friends was furious when she found out I was on Project Runway and didn't tell her," Ptak said. "I waited until time told them," she said. "Once Project Runway announced the contestants, I sent out a message."

Ptak watched the first episode of the season in a room full of friends, including Marla Duran, a designer from the second season of Project Runway and a Lehigh Valley local.

"We have a Project Runway club now!" Ptak said, laughing.

She said she was surprised by how natural it was to watch herself on TV. "The weird thing is that I thought it would be bizarre, but it was comfortable to be on TV," she said. "I think I could get used to this."

Before becoming a fashion designer, Ptak was an art director in the advertising world.

"It is kind of a bummer that I put [designing] on the shelf for so long, but I don't think things happen by mistake," she said. "Now, it's great because I'm good doing ads, and my brand is now founded in good sound thinking of ad theory. I know how to market my brand."

She said she didn't go on the show to pretend to be a designer; she was there to make a brand. "I want to be the next CoCo Chanel," she said. "I used to not think I could get that, but oh no, I'm going to get that!"

Project Runway airs on Lifetime on Thursday nights at 10 p.m.