Project Runway Season 22 Finale Recap: Jude Mikulencak Wins

“Project Runway” Season 22 began with the largest group of designers in the show’s history, but Episode 10 brings the competition down to its final four. Anna Molinari, Jude Mikulencak and Bi Pham had already secured their places in the finale after the bridal challenge, while one question remained unanswered: who would receive the surprise fourth spot?

The finale quickly provides the answer before turning its attention to the last and most important runway of the season. By the end of the night, one designer’s command of tailoring proves enough to take the title.

Related: How Did Joseph McRae Make the Project Runway Season 22 Finale? His Comeback Explained

Joseph McRae Gets the Fourth Finale Spot

Episode 9 appeared to end Joseph McRae’s second “Project Runway” run alongside Bryan Barrientos and Naheim Muhammad. Anna had won the bridal challenge, while Jude and Bi joined her as confirmed finalists.

Heidi Klum then revealed one final twist. The judges had decided that three finalists were not enough and would advance one additional designer, although the episode ended before revealing the name. At the beginning of the finale, Joseph is announced as that fourth designer.

That gives Season 22 a final group of Anna, Jude, Bi and Joseph, with each designer now getting the opportunity to make the strongest possible case for the championship through a complete capsule collection.

The Final Four Get One Week and $7,500

There is no ordinary one or two-day challenge waiting for the finalists.

Instead, each designer receives a $7,500 budget and one week to create a capsule collection that represents who they are as a designer. The assignment is broad by “Project Runway” standards, which means there is nowhere to hide behind a particularly favorable challenge theme. Their collections need to communicate an individual point of view.

Christian Siriano brings the finalists to his atelier and studio as they prepare for the final stretch. As usual, his role is less about telling them exactly what to make and more about questioning whether their ideas are ambitious enough for a finale. The designers also receive some familiar help.

Jeffrey Kelly Abess returns to assist Anna, while recently eliminated Naheim works with Jude. Bao Tranchi joins Bi, and Aaron Potts comes back to work with Joseph.

For the eliminated designers, it is a return to the workroom without the pressure of being judged. For the finalists, however, having another set of experienced hands becomes particularly important with four collections needing to come together in just seven days.

The Designers Race to Finish Their Finale Collections

A week sounds generous compared with the accelerated challenges that defined much of Season 22, but the scale of the assignment quickly consumes that extra time.

As runway day arrives, several finalists are still making adjustments while their models head into hair and makeup. The collections need to look finished not only as individual garments but as complete statements once several looks appear together.

The finale judging panel brings back Heidi Klum, Law Roach and Nina Garcia, while Italian designer and Roberto Cavalli creative director Fausto Puglisi joins them as the special guest judge.

Before their models walk, the finalists are given the opportunity to introduce their collections and put their work into context. From there, there is nothing left to explain. The clothes have to make the final argument.

Jude’s Tailoring Impresses Law Roach

Jude’s collection continues the design language that carried him deep into the competition.

Law is particularly enthusiastic about his tailoring, praising the level of construction and finish that has become one of Jude’s most recognizable strengths. His finale does not rely on abandoning that identity in search of an unexpected last-minute transformation.

Heidi, however, wants more risk from him. While she recognizes the quality of the clothes, she wishes Jude had pushed further into something stranger or more surprising.

It is an important criticism because the finale is supposed to represent the biggest expression of each designer’s ideas. Jude’s challenge is not whether the clothes are well made. It is whether precision alone is enough to defeat three designers making very different statements.

Anna’s Garbage-Bag Look Divides the Panel

Anna enters the finale with considerable momentum after winning the bridal challenge, and her final collection continues her willingness to approach materials and fashion from an unconventional angle.

One of the collection’s most memorable pieces is made entirely from garbage bags.

Most of the panel responds positively to Anna’s work, but Heidi again finds herself less convinced than some of the other judges. Her issue is not that Anna lacks ideas. Instead, she questions whether all of those ideas come together as one cohesive collection.

That distinction becomes important. A finale collection can contain individually impressive garments and still feel less successful if the looks do not clearly belong in the same world.

Bi Has a Major Miss but Recovers With the Rest of His Collection

Bi’s finale receives one of the night’s harshest individual critiques.

His white dress is described as a “disaster,” making it the clearest weak point among his final looks. The criticism is significant because there are fewer garments in a capsule collection for a designer to hide behind. One serious misfire takes up a larger share of the overall presentation.

The response to the rest of Bi’s work is considerably warmer, however. The judges applaud his other pieces, keeping him very much in the conversation despite the troublesome white dress.

Bi therefore finishes the competition in a position that reflects much of his season: capable of producing work the judges find exciting, but not without occasional risks that fail to land.

Law Roach and Heidi Klum Disagree on Joseph’s Collection

Joseph’s final collection produces perhaps the clearest split among the judges. Heidi responds positively to the boldness of his work. Joseph has never been afraid of committing fully to an idea, and his finale once again gives the panel plenty to discuss. Law is far less impressed.

Rather than sharing Heidi’s enthusiasm, he tears into Joseph’s collection, leaving Joseph without the kind of broad agreement that would make a finale victory easier to justify.

Considering Joseph only learned at the start of the episode that he would be competing in the final four, reaching this runway still represents a major turnaround from his previous “Project Runway” experience. But the divided feedback makes the title increasingly difficult to predict in his favor.

Jude Mikulencak Wins Project Runway Season 22

After all four designers receive their critiques, the judges deliberate one final time.

Anna brought experimentation and a memorable unconventional-material moment. Bi recovered from a major problem with his white dress to earn praise elsewhere. Joseph presented the boldest version of his aesthetic, even if Law strongly rejected it.

Jude, meanwhile, delivered the collection that most successfully reinforced the technical strengths the judges had recognized throughout the competition.

When the four finalists return to the runway, Heidi announces the result: Jude Mikulencak is the winner of “Project Runway” Season 22.

The victory earns Jude the season’s $200,000 cash prize, an opportunity to be featured in “Elle,” mentorship through the Council of Fashion Designers of America and professional representation intended to help him move his brand forward.

Season 22 repeatedly challenged Jude to prove that controlled tailoring could be more than technical competence. The finale answers that question. Heidi may have wanted him to push further outside his established vocabulary, but the overall collection still gives the judges enough confidence to award him the season.

After starting among 22 designers, Jude finishes as the last one standing.