Every week on the Bravo network, fans of fashion and drama tune into popular reality show “Project Runway.” As supermodel and host Heidi Klum says “auf wiedersehen” to a designer each week, the models stand by wearing the designs with a chance to be auf'd as well.

Klum reminds the models each week that this is also a competition for them -- with a spread in Elle magazine as their prize. In this third season, Milwaukee native Clarissa Anderson has made it through to the final round.

Fashion Week has already passed, but Wednesday night part two of the “Project Runway” finale airs. Designer Michael Knight chose Anderson as his model for the last two challenges which has led to her walking the Bryant Park runway during Fashion Week. The 21-year-old Anderson says she loved it.

“I had so much fun. I’m just really thankful to Michael. I made it that far because of him,” she said. “I got to go to Fashion Week, I got to go to the biggest venue, the biggest runway, the biggest tent (and) one of the biggest weeks for fashion.”

Anderson’s time on the “Runway” began after a casting call in New York, where she moved to get into the modeling business. Taping for the show began in May and lasted through June, plus Fashion Week. She said that the filming was time intensive, leaving little time to do anything else.

“I was able to do little things like showroom modeling,” said Anderson. “I was so busy with the show that I wasn’t really able to get other jobs through my agency because anything I did book I couldn’t do because we were probably filming that day.”

Filming required early mornings and late nights.

“We’re talking like every other day, sometimes two days in a row, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., there all day. (For) the models, there’s this room we called ‘Solitary Confinement,” said Anderson. “We get there and had to sit in this room. It was sometimes for one hour sometimes for two.”

Anderson said the only time that she wasn’t sitting with other models was when they were being fitted or in hair and makeup. With only the other models for company, Anderson said she made a few friends, but there was one model that she could live without.

“I made friends with some girls, but there was one girl in particular that means well, but she could be very annoying,” said Anderson. “And spending 15 hours a day with her was sometimes fine, I got through it, but some days it was, 'Oh my god I can’t sit in same room with her.'”

Anderson said the models were well-fed, but that that’s where the perks stoped.

“Being a model, you’re used to being paid a pretty decent amount of money for whatever job you’re doing, but ‘Project Runway’ was not paid and that’s something a lot of people don’t know,” she said. “We did not get anything; 13 hours a day, nothing.”

She said the free meals helped her because food is expensive in New York, but she was struggling.

“Just doing (‘Project Runway’) and not being able to do other jobs while doing that was hard for me,” said Anderson. “I had to beg parents for money because I simply had no income at all. They say, it’s good exposure and everyone’s going to see you; just think of all the jobs you’ll get. I haven’t gotten many jobs because of it -- like none.”

But she said that the overall experience was worth it. However, she didn’t really get to hobnob with Klum -- other than seeing her on the runway.

“The most we ever saw her, besides the runway, was backstage getting ready to do the runway show. She’d pretty much just say hi.”

But she did get to experience the designers’ mentor, Tim Gunn, who is such a fan favorite that his role in the show has grown from season to season.

“That guy is a trip. Love that guy. I’ve never met anyone like him. When they called him a human dictionary, that is correct,” Anderson said.  “And the thing that made me smile (was) getting to hear him saying ‘carry on’ or ‘make it work’ in person.”

The runway portion of the show -- where the judges rate the fashion the designers produced -- is a major part of “Project Runway.”

“First couple times, I was nervous walking on the runway. When you walk there’s no music and that stage is hollow. It’s ‘boom boom boom’ walking down the runway. That’s all you hear. They add music in later,” said Anderson. “When the judges were bashing what I was wearing, you could probably see the look on my face getting really scared. It wasn’t really me being judged, it was more the designers being judged. I still got nervous because I was dependent on whether or not my designer stuck around. I had a good chance of going home.”

Anderson was primarily paired with designer Angela Keslar, which did almost get her eliminated prior to Fashion Week. Keslar was eliminated in episode eight -- “High Flying Fashion” -- only to be brought back in episode 10 -- “Black and White Challenge.” Episode 11 marked the switch of models with Knight choosing Anderson.

“I really like Angela as a person. She was one of the most real people, she had a good heart. Being from the Midwest and moving out to New York you can spot that really fast,” Anderson said. “Everything I wore that she made for me I did like. The last thing I had to wear for the ‘Black and White Challenge,’ I wasn’t in love with it but didn’t absolutely hate it.”

Out of all the pieces she had to wear, Anderson said it was a tie between the Audrey Hepburn dress Keslar designed and the dress she wore in Knight’s Fashion Week collection. As for her least favorite, there was no contest.

“The Recycling Challenge, not that I didn’t think the dress was cute,” she said. “It was almost like cardboard, I couldn’t sit down for like four hours straight in stilettos.”

Anderson also experienced the television drama firsthand that threw fans into a frenzy. She said the Keith controversy -- which found the first “Runway” contestant ever being asked to leave the show -- was too early to affect her, but for the little time she knew him, she wasn’t sad to see him go.

“He was arrogant. The first day, sitting in hair in makeup, he walks in and says, ‘I have the best model, oh my God just look at her… the best.' I was just looking at him thinking, 'Shut up, like if you think you have the best model keep it to yourself,'" she said. “There are other people sitting here. He’s very arrogant and I didn’t mind seeing him go. I don’t have to listen to him being in love with himself and his model.”

Another controversy had to do with her designer, Kesler, and one of the final four designers, Jeffrey Sebelia, but she never saw it in person.

“Jeffrey and Angela are completely opposite people. I never saw how mean he was until I saw it on TV. I experienced it with everyone else in America,” Anderson said. “Angela told me they didn’t get along, but didn’t have enough time to explain with me why. Jeffrey was nice to me.”

But said she’s waiting to see what happens in the end, especially with Sebelia’s newest controversy with accusations of outsourced sewing.

“I really don’t know what’s going to happen with that. I did see his clothes up close and I agree with Laura (Bennett),” said Anderson. “I’m not saying he had outside help, maybe he had sewing classes in between. The pants looked like he bought them from the store, impeccable.”

However, she and the public know that he showed at Bryant Park. No one but those involved with the show know whether or not his collection counted and was judged, or if he was Bravo’s decoy to hide final results.

But as the rest of the public is waiting for the final results -- which Anderson says she can’t share because of her contract -- she’s waiting to come home. She sid the last time she was in Milwaukee was at Easter and she cannot wait to be back.