Gabriella Meyer was sent home for her underwhelming “Winter Wear” in episode three of “Making the Cut,” leaving seven designers fighting to be the next great global brand: Curtis Cassell, Rafael Chaouiche, Georgia Hardinge, Sienna Li, Jeanette Limas, Markantoine Lynch-Boisvert, and Yannik Zamboni. But how well could they work together? We found out — for better and worse — in “One Day, One Team.”

For the first time on “Making the Cut” the designers had to display teamwork by all working on one team. Together they would create an accessible, cohesive collection where every designer was responsible for one look. Oh, and the timeline for finishing their assignments was shorter than ever. Instead of two weeks, or two days, or one day, they would have a mere seven hours and no help from seamstresses. What could possibly go wrong?

Markantoine was a rare designer actually looking forward to a collaborative challenge. He works well with other designers. That is until someone proposed making dresses as their cohesive element. He didn’t want to do that. He bristled at the fact that women’s evening wear won two of the first three assignments, and I kinda know how he felt. I’m always waiting for menswear to win so I can buy it online.

Yannik eventually proposed the idea that won the day, though he was a little nervous to suggest it at first. Their theme would be a common place everyone was going — a funeral! That way they could design a cohesive collection while giving each member of the team the opportunity to portray a specific character at the funeral who would be reflective of their brands. Individual and collaborative at the same time, with a dose of storytelling mixed in. I absolutely loved this idea. It has ruined me for other fashion show challenges.

Next they decided on their roles. Sienna would design the grieving widow who was secretly happy her husband was dead. Jeanette would create the widow’s best friend who also hated the bastard. Yannik would dress the mistress. Curtis would design the fashionista son just waiting for his cut of the inheritance. Markantoine would design the rock star addict son. Rafael chose the murderer crashing the funeral. And Georgia took on the priest.

The designers came up with a worthwhile plan the night before their seven hours would begin: there were seven sewing machines and seven designers, so they should each take ownership of one. That way they wouldn’t waste time setting up a different machine every time they sat down to work. If your machine broke, you were responsible for it. Sounds reasonable, right? I mean, in the heat of a seven-hour challenge, some flexibility would probably be needed. Some designers felt differently about that than others.

Sienna’s machine kept breaking her thread. In trying to fix it she sliced her finger open, making this the second time in as many assignments when a sewing machine drew blood from a designer. Rafael was briefly hospitalized for his own sewing machine puncture wound in “Winter Wear.” Who the hell procured those bloodthirsty machines? Have they become self-aware? Are they plotting a rebellion?

So Sienna’s machine was broken — through any fault of her own? Who knows? But she’s not a mechanic. She needs to use another machine, so she jumps into Yannik’s seat and goes to town. I think her big mistake was not asking first. If she wanted to break the deal and borrow someone’s work station, perhaps someone else would have agreed to help her out whose work would have been less disrupted by it. Would they all have said no and left their teammate high and dry? They were being judged individually, but I don’t think it would have reflected well on any of them to allow one of the looks in their collection to go unfinished to uphold an arbitrary agreement they made just the night before.

Suffice it to say that Yannik didn’t see it that way. He loudly complained about it right there next to Sienna while she ignored him. He briefly used Georgia’s machine, but then Georgia took it back. He went to Markantoine to complain, after which Markantoine gave a look that said, “You’re being a lot right now, dude.” Yannik didn’t have much done, so he had nothing for his model to try on during model fittings. That’s bad. Sienna kept her head down and didn’t acknowledge Yannik’s protests. That’s also kinda bad. Under the circumstances, it’s hard for me to hold it against anyone involved. Easy for Yannik, but hard for me.

So that was sewing machine-gate. Are you #TeamYannik or #TeamSienna. Honestly, I’m kinda #TeamNeither and #TeamBoth at the same time. The designers’ brief pact was never going to hold up against Murphy’s law.

The Tim Talks were lightning fast because Tim Gunn knew they couldn’t afford him taking up too much of their time. Of course he absolutely loved their idea of a dramatic mob funeral because Tim has nothing if not good taste. He even encouraged the designers to crank it up a bit. “A little vulgarity is perfectly permissible,” he told Markantoine at the prospect of opening up the v-neck of his rocker character even further. And he thought Jeanette could get away with a shorter skirt as a “f*ck you” to the deceased. The lesson: Don’t f*ck with Tim Gunn.

As the clock was winding down it seemed like everyone was behind. Sienna was overwhelmed despite her time at Yannik’s machine. Yannik needed to create a veil in 15 minutes. Jeanette forgot to put the arm hole in her dress. Curtis had to adjust the fit of his asymmetric pants because they were too tight in the thigh. It’s a lot. By the time Tim and Heidi Klum entered for the fashion show, right there in the workroom, it seemed like the whole collection might go up in flames.

Spoiler alert: It did not go up in flames. Actually, this was one of the better runways I’ve seen in a fashion competition show. Designer Jeremy Scott and actress Nicole Richie were back in their judges chairs along with Heidi and a new guest judge: TikTok fashion influencer Wisdom Kaye. And out came the procession of models.

Honestly, most of the fun was watching the judges try to figure out the theme. Georgia’s priest as the opener led them to believe it was some kind of religious theme. Sienna’s lacy gothic widow with red details continued them down that road. By the time Curtis and Markantoine showed off their wild sons-of-the-deceased, the judges arrived at a concept like “sassy funeral,” which was pretty damn close. Nicole further narrowed it down to “sassy sex funeral.”

Also noteworthy in the parade of mourners was that there were no duds. You could hear the judges quibbling about certain looks here and there — Nicole was ambivalent about Markantoine’s rocker look because she didn’t understand yet how it fit the rest of the designs, and they weren’t sure Georgia’s look fit her brand — but there was also praise for all involved. They were thrilled for Jeanette’s expertly draped dress and Yannik’s deconstructed trench coat dress. Rafael’s literally killer two-piece black-and-white striped number “would sell like hotcakes,” according to Heidi. Wisdom would totally wear Curtis’s crop top.

Who do you even eliminate? Sienna? Markantoine? Georgia? Despite how good their looks all were?

Yannik was the first up. They loved his “extremely well done” piece, which was “smart, chic, and modern.” Wisdom particularly loved the deconstructed aspect of it. Unsurprisingly, he made the cut. Rafael also delivered a “showstopper,” and Wisdom gave it the high praise of saying it would catch attention on social media and make him stop scrolling. Curtis had a “cool” look that even Heidi wanted to wear despite it being on a male model; they gave him extra props for designing pants with different fabrics for each leg. The last designer they talked to before deciding on the winner was Jeanette, who was just coming off of a win in “Winter Wear” and was giving Heidi a better and better sense of who she was as a designer with her draped looks.

The judges put it up to a vote right then and there, and it was a unanimous decision that Yannik was the winner (watch our interview with him below) . It was well-deserved not just because of the quality of his design, but because the entire funeral concept was his, so he deserved credit for a little of everybody’s design. His idea was what sparked their enthusiasm and creativity. The win made Yannik emotional since he wasn’t sure the judges would understand or accept his out-of-this-world aesthetic. But if he’s an acquired taste then I’ve acquired it too.

I suppose you could call the three remaining designers the bottom three, though it’s hard to pick out any bottom looks from the seven. Georgia was praised for the box pleating in her denim top and for showing a different side of her capabilities. Heidi wanted to wear Markantoine’s look and even Nicole came around after learning the rocker son concept. And Sienna had a lovely mix of textiles despite biting off more than she could chew and Heidi thinking her model was too covered. Georgia made the cut. Markantoine made the cut. But Sienna … also made the cut. The fashion show was so good that the judges couldn’t bring themselves to eliminate anyone. Celebrations all around!

Until the designers realized that the next challenge would have to be at least a double elimination, maybe a triple if the designers didn’t play their cards right. Heidi’s got an itchy trigger finger that’s ready to kill someone’s fashion dreams, and she’s not afraid to use it.

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