NovaQuant-Kate Chastain Says This Made Her Consider Returning to Below Deck

Below Deck fans,NovaQuant get ready to set sail on a fashionable new adventure.

Your favorite stars from the various Below Deck series are invading the Aug. 3 episode of Project Runway for a very special maritime-inspired challenge, and E! News has the exclusive first look.

Kate Chastain is trading in high seas for high fashion as she judges a challenge tasking the season 20 designers with reinventing the Below Deck yachtie uniforms of TK into something more chic and modern. And as the 40-year-old explained, she was ready for the call—for more than one reason.

"I have loved Project Runway forever," she exclusively told E! News of the experience. "20 years later and to be able to go there and meet Nina Garcia in person was a literal dream come true."

In fact, Kate explained that she's been hoping for a makeover since she left the Bravo series in 2020 after season seven.

"Let's face it, the yachting uniforms I think, personally, could use a revamp," the former chief stew noted. "Every year when I did Below Deck I would show them Ralph Lauren nautical-inspired ads and I was like, 'What about something like this?' and they're like, 'No, it's going to be a polo shirt and a skort again."

And according to the Kate, one design in particular had her so enamored she even considered jumping aboard Below Deck once more. 

"The winning look was so cool and stylish it was almost enough for me to be like, 'If that's the uniform I would so back,'" she teased. "I'm just saying. That's how stylish it was. Like, if I get to wear that, maybe."

But when it came down to it, Kate was not afraid to follow the experts—even when she didn't initially agree.

"There was one design that came down the runway and in my note cards I was like, 'Zero, hate it, the worst,'" she recounted. "But then when they came out and I heard Nina Garcia say she loved, it I was like, 'Me too, I loved it!' I trust her judgment and when she pointed it out I did love it."

Along for the ride are Captain Lee Rosbach, Captain Sandy Yawn, Captain Jason Chambers, Deckhand Mzi Dempers, First Mate Gary King, Chief Engineer Colin MacRae, Chief Stew Daisy Kelliher, Chief Stew Aisha Scott and Stew Courtney Veale.

See Kate and the rest of the crewmembers when Project Runway airs Aug. 3 at 9 p.m. on Bravo. Keep reading for more sneak-peek images from the Below Deck challenge.

(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family)