By ALEXANDRA GLEMBOCKI

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Somewhere between ice queen Heidi Klum doing spirit fingers and critic extraordinaire Tim Gunn robustly cheering, “This is my favorite season yet!” in the intro sequence, season 11 of Project Runway made it clear that things are going to be different this time around.

The big twist—all of the designers must work in teams the entire season. For those not well versed in the language of Project Runway, this means that mountains of drama will erupt between clashing alpha-fashionistas. The teams are, quite oppositely, called “Dream Team” and “Team Keep It Real.”

Aside from drama mongering, Project Runway is going to great lengths to make the cutthroat fashion competition seem more “fun.” This season offers a more diverse range of characters, including a 59-year-old morgue owner and a Native American woman with the birth name of Water Lily.

The entire series is very New York, and fittingly the first challenge required the teams to draw inspiration from the aesthetic of New York City for their garments.

Heidi Klum’s return to the show after Angela Lindvall’s stint last season is much welcome—Klum, while at times robotic, has an unprecedented amount of gravitas. Klum’s chummy chemistry with Tim Gunn is “aww”-inducing, and she has the superpower of striking fear into hearts of hopeful designers with a single stare. Viewers, transfixed, will undoubtedly be staring back.