Laura Kathleen Planck lost her bid to have her spring 2012 collection shown on Thursday's "Project Runway" Season 9 finale, but she did produce a final collection for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York.

She says that her collection is better because she lost.

See her entire collection here.

Planck produced a decoy collection for the live Sept. 9 runway presentation. Because fashion week happened while the show was only halfway through its season, everyone still competing on the program at the time had to produce a line for fashion week in order to prevent a spoiler. Planck was eliminated Oct. 13, one challenge away from the finale.

She mined her battered emotional state for inspiration. All of her 10 looks incorporated bold yet delicate jewelry (armor-inspired pieces); some of them were even used as part of her fabric. The jewelry was co-designed and produced by Scarlett Garnet Jewelry, a Missouri-based design duo — Katie Miller of St. Louis and Garnet Griebel of Kansas City.

Planck said her collection was inspired by the battles of a modern-day woman fighting to stay strong in her career and her love life. "She can love and get scars and be hurt, (and) her guard might go up but it will always be let back down for love," she said from the runway when she introduced her collection in September.

You've said this experience made you a stronger designer, right?

I think it expanded my brain and the materials (I work with), and it definitely strengthened me. If there's one thing "Project Runway" did, it made me more certain of who I am as a designer, and it made me stick to my guns.

How are you responding to everyone's very candid opinions of you (on blogs and social media)?

For the final collection I was really pleased to hear what everyone had to say, but there definitely are those blogs out there and (more so) commentators on the blog that are attacking your character and even the way you style your hair, so if you read them you know what you're in for. If you're going to do reality TV you've got to be ready for it.

You're teaching high school sewing again at Lift for Life Academy. How do you explain Anya (Ayoung-Chee) to your students? She had four months of training, never formally studied design, and made it to the finale? Are your students saying, "What am I going to school for?"

They had questions, and I said that Anya will be the first one to admit that she's not great at sewing. Anya has a great sense of design — design is something that I think you're born with and something that's a natural talent — and I think Anya really has that. So I try to relate it to business. You need money to start a business whether that comes from investors or what-have-you and the less you know, the more people you have to pay. I let them know that (school) makes them a better business person, although it doesn't necessarily make them a better designer. But being a better business person is key to success unless you have tons of money.

What's been the oddest interaction with people (fans) here in St. Louis?

Well, it's not one interaction. The only odd thing is like when people just scream my name and then they don't say anything else. So it's like what do I say when they do that?

Are they yelling this from a passing car on the street or at the mall?

It could be anywhere. They'll be like "Laura!" And then they'll just stand there and look at me for a while. And I'm like, "Hi ... um ... how are you?" But if anybody has any questions and I've got the time, I absolutely will answer the question because St. Louis is so dear to me. I so appreciate all of the support.

The majority of people I talked to after the runway finale said yours was one of their top three. (Find photos of her collection and video of her runway show at stltoday.com/stylefile.) If you hadn't been eliminated, you've said that you're not sure you would have made that collection. Why?

There was a part of me that the whole Nina thing started getting into my head, and I'd like to think that I could have been so free like I was, but I think every choice I would have made would have been like what would Nina (Garcia, a judge) think. But this time, you know, I didn't think about anybody but myself, and it was really refreshing. It felt so effortless, and I don't know if it would have felt that way (if I had been eligible for the grand prize).

Do you really think Nina had it in for you?

I would like to think that, more so, Nina really wanted to push me to do my best. By no means do I think that Nina wanted to be mean to me or had something against me. From what I heard from her in the end, I think that she was really proud of where I had gotten, and I totally would attribute some of that (progress) to Nina and her critiques ... and all the judges. All their input and critiques only helped me.

Listen to our interview with Planck at stltoday.com/stylefile