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As someone (I think it was one of the models in the after-show) said, lots of the designers seemed talented in the early going of this “Project Runway” season. Now? Not so much. What’s gone wrong? Has stress gotten to them? Are the challenges just too boring to inspire creativity? Or were (as I feared at the time) some of those with interesting, if extreme, visions eliminated too early while people plodding along doing OK stuff stayed?

This week’s challenge, to design dresses inspired by places that inspired Michael Kors, was too vague to actually inspire much. How could someone who’s never been to Greece be genuinely inspired by a couple of pictures? Maybe a truly creative person would have imagined a fantasy Santa Fe or St. Tropez, but these folks mostly didn’t. The people who grabbed the simplest concepts — Irina’s Aspen, Gordana’s New York — wound up doing the best, but the aprez-ski ensemble Irina won with was really kind of ordinary, and only Gordana’s necklace was impressive. Cute Logan (who I’ve just about decided isn’t as talented as he is cute) floundered around on Hollywood, coming up with an outfit that could have been bought at Target. I honestly can’t remember Althea’s design at all, and Carol Hannah’s Palm Beach printed maxi-dress was so trite that you might have seen it on the summer clearance rack at T.j. Maxx. (I was disappointed in the judges for skimming over its familiarity. Hadn’t we even seen the braiding? Tim Gunn was right when he called it a cliche.)

In the bottom two, poor Christopher got picked on for a brown and blue Santa Fe skirt and blouse that really wasn’t so bad. Nicolas missed the boat badly on Greece, and Kors was funny wondering who’d walk into Mood fabrics, thinking of Greece, and pick the grey menswear fabric Nicolas chose for the trousers he made. As we suspected he would, Nicolas, who got tons of air time during the episode, was sent home, probably weeks after he should have gone. But now I’m wondering — which of these people can create a brilliant collection for Fashion Week? Anybody?

By the way, I’m not saying I’m not enjoying the season; I am. I’m just disappointed in what we’re seeing. If you have an argument for one of these designers being the next Michael Kors — or Chloe Dao — please make it now.