They’d have to be fools not to see it coming. Every season on Project Runway there’s at least one challenge where designers have to dress women who aren’t built like giraffes.

The dreaded real woman. Yet every season there’s a designer who claims something to the effect of, “I don’t make clothes for real women — my work is aspirational.”

Last night’s “Campbell’s Soup” challenge — where designers dressed heart disease survivors — didn’t bring out the total douche in any of the contenders, but one of the designers did call his model (who was maybe a size 6/8) “very full-figured,” and most contestants were generally freaking out, trying to “add height” to their ladies’ physiques.

Now I’m not going to get all sanctimonious about the blatant size-ism that runs like a poisonous river through the fashion industry (oops, too late), but I will say that it was appalling how amazingly off base some of the designers were in creating looks that flatter bigger women.

One seamster built a shiny white cropped jacket (??) to throw over a red dress, while another (that pretty little ingenue) created a frock with a two-toned bodice that made her “normal-sized” client look like a linebacker.

The winning designer, Nadine Jenkins, at least paid attention to proportion: creating a simple chiffon strapless sheath that moved like butter when sashaying down the runway. And she perhaps had the most non-model body to work with.

It all leads one to wonder: Are new designers in the industry in it to dress up Barbie dolls and say, “Look how pretty?” Or are they in it to make women feel gorgeous — and hopefully make heaps of money in the process?

Because when it comes making “real women” look stellar, they’re just going to have to “make it work, people.” That, or witness their biz sink faster than the Titanic.

Related Posts from The Spiel:

1. The Find: Project Runway In-a-Box
2. Project Runway’s L.A. Times Challenge
3. ‘Project Runway’ Vet Jeffrey Sebelia Gets a Job