She didn’t make it to episode three, but Pamela Ptak is confident that her favorite designer had His hand in it, and that He knows what He’s doing.

Ptak, a devout Baha’i living in Pennsylvania, was eliminated last week from Project Runway, a show that airs Thursday nights on Lifetime Television where promising designers compete to launch their careers in fashion design.

She told the producers that God was her favorite designer and Ptak works hard to create clothing her Creator would be proud of.

On her website she described her vision as being, “about stripping away the unnecessary and supporting an attempt by the modern woman to live in harmony with the energy of others around her while still maintaining a uniqueness, a distinctiveness.”

“What I’m trying to do is meld her internal with her external,” she said, adding that her clothing is meant to hide what a women wants to keep hidden, yet still have a sense of sexiness about it.

Ptak, a 47-year-old teacher at Philadelphia’s Drexel University, said she deserved to be ousted from the show because she created an outfit that wasn’t in line with her ideas. At her model’s request, Ptak created a strapless; bare-shoulders dress that was short and tight, which the judges said made the athletic model look fat.

“To fulfill her order, I literally walked away from my vision and you should never do that as a designer,” she said. “It was not truly me, and for that I should have been kicked off.”

But one can’t help but ask if Ptak’s kind demeanor was also a factor in her elimination. Many TV viewers want to see catty contestants who aren’t afraid to wage war against their competitors. Backbiting is forbidden in the Baha’i Faith and Ptak refused to speak ill of anyone on the show.

She holds Abdu’l-Baha’s words close to her heart, “O beloved of the Lord! If any soul speak ill of an absent one, the only result will clearly be this: he will dampen the zeal of the friends and tend to make them indifferent. For backbiting is divisive, it is the leading cause among the friends of a disposition to withdraw. If any individual should speak ill of one who is absent, it is incumbent on his hearers, in a spiritual and friendly manner, to stop him, and say in effect: would this detraction serve any useful purpose? . . . On the contrary, it would make the dust to settle so thickly on the heart that the ears would hear no more, and the eyes would no longer behold the light of truth.”

“It’s funny,” Ptak said. “When others are aware you don’t play the game that way, sometimes the other competitors tone themselves down.”

Such a poised competition may not have been on the menu. You can read more from Beliefnet about Ptak and speculations on why she may have been voted off the show.

Ptak said she’s become friends with most of the people still competing on Project Runway and hopes she was an example of a spiritually-centered life for them and the show's viewers.

“One thing I love about the Baha’i Faith is that it doesn’t bash you with its high standards,” she said. “If you choose not to live to that great standard you create your own results…to have a beautiful life takes attention.”

Like the clothing she meticulously designs, Ptak tries to pay careful attention to her faith – praying even when she feels she’s too tired to and never being cutthroat.

Ptak said being on the show has opened many doors for her fashion career. Her clothing line is now being represented to buyers in the fashion industry by “Showroom New York” and she’s been invited to show her collection at “Coterie”, an upcoming New York City tradeshow.

“I believe God’s will provided me a moment to be noticed by the media, and pulled me away before I could do any harm to myself or be harmed by anyone else,” she said. “I’m very thrilled with the way it turned out.”

Ptak is married to renowned comic book illustrator Scott Hanna & lives in Bucks County, Penn. The “tag line” for her clothing line sums up what she is attempting to do. “Wear your life brilliantly. – Pamela Ptak ™”   

Story by Tracy Simmons