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"Valerie Mayen has become the eleventh designer to leave Project Runway.  The 29-year-old from Cleveland, OH was eliminated from the Lifetime show on Thursday&amp;#039;s night&amp;#039;s episode following a challenge that saw the designers creating their own fabric.  &amp;quot;Being able to be here with people who inspire me and I can design with and work alongside, that never happens,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;Saying goodbye to them is the most difficult thing I think I have had to do.&amp;quot; The episode opened with Heidi teasing that she wanted the remaining seven designers to &amp;quot;start from scratch&amp;quot;. At the workroom they found computers loaded with pictures of themselves as children and Tim explained that they would be creating a textile design inspired by a moment from their past. The challenge prompted the designers to share stories about their families and childhood. Valerie was inspired by her dad and the blueprints he used to build their home; Michael D drew inspiration from a red string that he and his siblings wear on their wrist; Gretchen was influenced by her South West upbringing; and April wanted her fabric to represent her parents&amp;#039; divorce. Mondo designed a black plus sign on a purple background to represent his HIV Positive status. He said he had kept it to himself for ten years and hasn&amp;#039;t even told his parents. Christopher chose blue to represent his mom&amp;#039;s love of sapphire and grey to represent San Francisco, while Andy&amp;#039;s concept was &amp;quot;moments in time&amp;quot;. Later, the designers were surprised by visits from their moms. Gretchen was worried that her mom wouldn&amp;#039;t show up because she has to take care of her step-father and broke down when she did arrive. Michael D got a visit from his young son, while Christopher was reunited with his partner. The next day Andy said that seeing his mom had taken him &amp;quot;way off [his] game&amp;quot;. Mondo agreed that the visit was &amp;quot;distracting&amp;quot; because it had brought back memories. Heidi, Michael and Nina were joined by designer Rachel Roy for the runway. Heidi told the designers that fashion is &amp;quot;subjective&amp;quot; and the panel had &amp;quot;conflicting opinions&amp;quot; this week so they would talk to all the designers. Gretchen Heidi liked Gretchen&amp;#039;s sun bonnet-inspired halter and black satin skin tight pants; Michael loved the pants and compared them to Olivia Newton John, adding that the suede detail gave it an earthy touch, but he said he would have preferred the print to be varied in size; Nina liked the print but was disappointed because she wanted more from Gretchen; Rachel said it was &amp;quot;almost there&amp;quot; but she did like the earthiness. Michael D Michael said it looked like the model was wearing an old fashioned man&amp;#039;s tie cut up and draped around the top of her black strapless dress. Heidi didn&amp;#039;t mind that but would have styled the model differently, pointing out matching pumps to the piping color doesn&amp;#039;t work. Nina agreed and said he could have helped the outfit with the proper styling. Christopher Rachel didn&amp;#039;t see the water inspiration in the printed satin top and thought that the off-the-shoulder element seemed like an afterthought; Nina said it was good clothing but not necessarily fashion (and that applied to the other designers); Heidi said it was &amp;quot;nice, safe and boring&amp;quot;; Michael added it was like the outfit you would sell in the store rather than the runway version which should blow them away. Andy Rachel liked his grey bubbled print (to represent memory bubbles) but paired with a short black waistcoat and black shorts it was strange; Nina found the design and emotion of the outfit to be sad and called it &amp;quot;disappointing&amp;quot;. Andy then admitted that his mom&amp;#039;s visit had thrown him and he was scared to present his design because it is far away from who he is. Michael liked the print but was worried he had &amp;quot;dumbed down &amp;quot; and sent out a &amp;quot;banal outfit&amp;quot;. Heidi called it &amp;quot;unwearable&amp;quot;. April Michael said as soon as he saw the black and white dress he got the feeling of friction (inspired by April&amp;#039;s parents divorce); Nina called the print charming and loved the silhouette; Rachel called it her favorite print because it had a unique voice and loved the tree print running up the sleeve of the dress; Heidi said the &amp;quot;poufiness&amp;quot; of the skirt wasn&amp;#039;t flattering but the outfit was otherwise beautiful.  Valerie Heidi pointed out that the black plunging top and blueprint-inspired flapper skirt were similar to her design from the party challenge; Michael called her fabric choice odd for an layered outfit; Nina said the overall effect was very heavy; Rachel hadn&amp;#039;t seen the napkins before so that didn&amp;#039;t matter to her, but she found the blue underskirt messy. Mondo Nina said she wished she knew what the story was behind his positive sign high-waisted motif shorts, calling the outfit &amp;quot;fantastic&amp;quot;; Michael said there was a sharpness and he excelled at pattern mix (the shorts were matched with a black and white halter neck); Rachel pointed out that his print was perfect and the challenge was based on life and nobody&amp;#039;s life is perfect; Heidi called it well put-together in a kooky way; Nina added that it was editorial. Mondo then decided to share the story behind the pants. Mondo was named the winner. Andy and Valerie were named the bottom two. Heidi said that the judges liked Andy&amp;#039;s print but the overall look confused them, while Valerie&amp;#039;s outfit looked like two bad dresses sewn together, the print was sad and the design looked like a repetition of something she had produced before. Valerie was eliminated. &amp;quot;I was very proud of my garment,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;I made it well and I worked hard on it and it was what I wanted it to be. I know I honored my father.&amp;quot; Project Runway continues next Thursday at 9/8c on Lifetime &amp;gt; Click here to read our interview with Valerie "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/project-runway/news/a279662/eleventh-designer-exits-project-runway/>