Kini Zamora on a roll with second 'Project Runway' win

Lifetime photos
Kini Zamora shows his American Girl design on the runway.

‘PROJECT RUNWAY’ SEASON 13
Episode 9: American Girl Doll

This week, the “Project Runway” designers meet up at Manhattan’s American Girl store where each is matched with an American Girl doll and the child model carrying the doll.

Hawaii designer Kini Zamora is lucky because his doll Samantha’s back story is that of an orphan who is adopted into a wealthy household, offering plenty of potential to showcase his upscale couture style.

Right away, he starts working on a houndstooth coat of bouclé fabric, and white dress. Mentor Tim Gunn worries that the two together look “too mature” for a little girl, and while Kini says he doesn’t do “flirty,” he changes course, using the red check fabric provided by American Girl.

Even though he’s designing for a girl, he can’t give up his structured aesthetic.

Working quickly as usual, the time he is done, he has created a coat dress, top and skirt. Later, when Amanda Valentine finishes early, leaving her time to handstitch details, she notes of the relaxed feeling, “This is what Kini must feel like every week.”

During a break, the designers talk about their own experience with dolls. This is how we learn of the evolution of Kini’s hairstyle. He said he played with troll dolls and their hair, and revealed that is the inspiration behind his tuft of blond hair!

Troll dolls were fads that emerged in the early 1960s, and again in the 1970s through ’90s.

The judges are won over by Kini’s pieces which are appropriate for his poor little rich girl doll, who he imagined as having no one to play with but she does have a credit card. Designer Zac Posen describes the ensemble as “Chanel meets Vivienne Westwood,” and guest judge Elizabeth Moss of AMC’s “Mad Men” asks whether American Girl will be recreating the pieces for 31-year-olds.

He is the hands down winner and says he’s happy to be on a roll that may lead to another win, and another until he wins the entire season.

And Sandhya Garg finally gets offed for a look the judges describe as a Teletubbie onesie.

This is the look that gets Sandhya Garg sent home.

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Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.