Photos of Project Runway's Pamela Ptak

Pamela Ptak is one of the contestants on Project Runway. (MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO)

Pamela Ptak is still glowing from the praise of fashion guru Tim Gunn.

Gunn, during a casting session for the Lifetime TV show ' 'Project Runway,'' called her clothing ''among the most beautifully constructed clothes I've ever seen.''

''It was amazing,'' said the fashion teacher at Allentown's Baum School of Art. ''My skill was at the level he was describing. But I thought, 'Oh my God, you said it on the record.'''

Ptak, who lives outside Riegelsville in Durham Township, was chosen for the popular reality show and tonight begins her quest to win $100,000 and a spread in a fashion magazine. She will compete against 15 other designers on the show. The seventh season starts at 10 p.m.

Ptak tried unsuccessfully two previous years to get on ''Project Runway.'' She was picked from thousands of designers for this year's show, hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum and featuring fashion consultant Gunn.

Gunn, whose ''Make it work!'' has become a catchphrase for the show, was just as nice as he seems on the show, Ptak said.

''Tim's like the special uncle who's nice to everyone, but even more so,'' she said. ''He really is that intellectual and charming. He's a pretty darn cool guy.''

At 47, Ptak is this season's oldest contestant. Half of this season's 16 contestants are in their 20s.

It is the second time a designer from the Lehigh Valley has been featured on the show. Bethlehem designer Marla Duran was a contestant in the second season in 2006 and was the sixth to be eliminated. Ptak and Duran have become friends, and will watch tonight's episode together.

Born in Pittsfield, Mass., Ptak studied at Pratt Institute in New York and worked as an art director for advertising agencies before returning to fashion. She started her own line of clothing in 2001.

Ptak, whose name is pronounced using all the letters, designs women's separates and dresses for her ready-to-wear line ''Pamela Ptak,'' and custom couture dresses and gowns under the label ''Ptak Couture.''

She teaches fashion design courses at Drexel University in Philadelphia and has been teaching at Baum for five years.

Ptak promises the audiences will hear her trademark exclamation phrase ''Holy Moley,'' which she picked up from watching ' 'Batman'' as a child and hanging around with her husband, Scott Hanna, a comic book artist.

Hanna is thrilled that his wife has found her calling.

''I'm so excited and proud of her,'' he said. ''I've seen her transform over the years and her quality keeps getting better. It's so cool that everything's coming together and this will show off to the world the talent I've always known she has.''

Ptak describes her fashions as clothes that make a woman comfortable as well as beautiful. Her designs are architectural with clean lines and geometric shapes. She thinks of clothing as wearable sculpture.

''My designs are intellectual,'' she said. ''They are a little surprising, showcasing parts of the anatomy with cutouts and the suggestion of movement.''

Rose Ackerman, Baum School director of development, owns clothes made by Ptak.

''They are sewn beautifully inside and outside,'' Ackerman said. ''She certainly has a passion for fashion. I think her designs are good enough to win -- but you never know what the judges are looking for.''

Ptak auditioned for the show's fifth season at the urging of her fashion students and interns.

To be a really great teacher, you don't just say things, you have to do them,'' she said. ''I always do things I believe in.''

For her first audition in 2007, Ptak took a lot of her couture designs, thinking that was the future direction of her business. But instead the judges preferred her skirts and knitwear.

She nearly made it on the show the following year for Season 6 and got to meet Gunn.

She was confident when she auditioned for the seventh season last spring.

''I was thoroughly convinced I'd made it,'' she said. Nevertheless, she screamed with joy when she got the call telling her she was on the show.

Ptak, who signed a confidentiality agreement with Lifetime, can't reveal many details about her time on ''Project Runway'' until after the shows air.

''I was surprised at the incredible strengths of some people,'' she said. ''They were very diverse. I liked them all.''

She studied the previous seasons' DVDs before the competition, trying to ''inventively guess'' what kind of challenges she might face. Competitors have had to create clothing using only plants and flowers, and to design a costume for a female wrestler. ''It makes your brain start thinking differently,'' she said.

Ptak is excited about seeing how the show portrays her.

''Cameras were always around and you started forgetting they were there,'' she said. ''Who knows what they caught on camera -- hopefully nothing too outrageous. There's a bit of 'I Love Lucy' in me. But you have to not care if the world sees your quirky, interesting self.''

Former ''Project Runway'' contestant Duran chatted over the Internet with Ptak, and the two designers decided to get together to watch the show.

''It's like being a member of a club,'' Duran said. ''You don't know what it's like until you've been there.''

Duran said the show benefited her business, which she runs out of a boutique in south Bethlehem.

''Women around the country wear my clothes,'' Duran said. ''People recognize me when I travel and ask me about it all the time.''

Duran said it's ''completely fun to have someone else from the area on the show. It says something for what's going on in the Lehigh Valley.''

Ptak agrees.

''The Lehigh Valley could be a fashion center again, like it was in the heyday of Hess's [department store],'' she said.

kathy.lauer@mcall.com