Everyone is standing on the curb at the Atlas building when Heidi arrives. She welcomes everyone, informing them that they were chosen out of "hundreds" of applicants. Doesn't sound like such a feat when you put it that way. "Hundreds"? She gives them the keys and tells them that they will be meeting her later at Parsons School of Design.

The contestants go upstairs and ooh-an-ah over the place.

We are introduced to Alexandra Vidal, who is twenty-two and from Miami. She has kind of a Shakira vibe. The photos of her previous work are not that impressive; there's not a coherent thread uniting them. A couple of them have bodices and short skirts and one of them looks like it could have been lifted from the costumes from the "Father Figure" video. It has a short skirt as well, so maybe that's her thing -- short skirts. Dear Alexandra: Get a new thing. ["Well...Miami." -- Wing Chun] She tells us that people underestimate how smart she is. I'd like for her to know that people who talk about how smart they are underestimate how much respect for them is lost when they say that. Overall, she seems really cute, but maybe a little dim. I reserve the right to change that opinion.

Next we meet Kara Saun, who is thirty-seven, from Los Angeles, and winner of the best name contest. She's a costume designer. They show a couple of photos of people wearing her work, but they are odd choices. In one, all you see is a feather boa and a woman's head. In the other, I think it's Eddie Griffin from Deuce Bigolo: Male Gigolo wearing a suit with no shirt. For real. Leave those off of your résumé, Kara. Then, they show a couple of sketches of her gowns. They look lovely. She says that she designed for Queen Latifah. Kara says in an interview (in front of a couple of mannequins) that designing her own line has always been a dream of hers. The mannequins are freaking me out. From interview to interview, they move. It seems like they are sneaking up on the designers. By Episode 4, they're gonna kill somebody.

Starr is twenty-seven and from Charlotte, North Carolina. Apparently, she doesn't want anyone to know her last name. Maybe it is because she is a lawyer in a "prominent" law firm and doesn't want to risk future employment in case she doesn't win. Maybe she plans on getting crazy. She doesn't seem very crazy, though, and neither do her designs. She is wearing them in several photos. They are kind of cute -- jumpers and dresses with kind of an electrified 1940s look. Navy influences and full skirts. They actually look more like costumes than Kara Saun's work does. Starr tells us that she is, in fact, worried about what she has to lose in terms of her job at home. The mannequins don't seem to care much about her. Too skinny.