In honor of tonight’s finale of Project Runway season 8, we feature Season 6 alum Althea Harper‘s latest collection for Spring-Summer 2011. Harper, who narrowly lost the win to designer Irina Shabeyeva, showed a much matured and polished version of her reality TV self at a presentation during New York Fashion Week in September.

Harper’s SS11 collection is characterized by modern feminity in a palette conducive to easy intergration into your current wardrobe. Learn more about the designer on her website. Click photo below for larger views.

When I saw the excessive, lopsided, and over-sized cuffs on the Viktor & Rolf runway they struck a chord somewhere deep in my nostalgia centers, and I started craving candy corn and Treehouse of Horror episodes (might be the weather, too). Then it hit me: “It’s tucked into my socks!” The wonky collars and cuffs look strikingly like the failed Gorden Gartrell knock-off made by Denise Huxtable for her younger brother Theo on a 1984 episode of “The Cosby Show.” A classic moment of an epic series. Watch the episode below.

I love that the resolution of the story is that Theo’s friends prefer the artsy, avant garde appeal of his homemade shirt over the flash of the designer label. Hopefully, though, they grew up to fuse that perspective with an appreciate for quality materials and craftsmanship. Amsterdam-based label Viktor & Rolf is the embodiment of this ideal and while there are wild looks in the Spring 2011 collection that indulge the artistic urges of designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, there are also several very smart, buyable pieces that even a safe fashion-lover might try.

photos: Viciously Sweet, YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW