On Thursday, October 16, Kini Zamora will once again walk through the doors of his alma mater, Honolulu Community College, as an international superstar and the toast of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York, all because of his success on Project Runway.
The Honolulu CC Fashion Technology Program invites the public to join in celebrating Zamora’s journey. Zamora will share some of his looks that worked (and didn’t work) to get him picked for Project Runway, talk about his experience on the show and pose for photos with fans.
- WHAT: Kini Zamora Day
- WHEN: Thursday, October 16, 10 a.m.
- WHERE: Honolulu CC Building 27 Fashion Lab, room 203
Zamora “ambitious and humble” since his student days
Zamora first experienced the runway at the annual Honolulu Community College fashion show, where he graduated from the college’s Fashion Technology Program in 2005. His teachers remember him as being very quiet but determined.
“While a student, he was exactly the way he is on Project Runway—ambitious and humble,” says Honolulu CC fashion technology instructor Joy Nagaue.
“Kini was my student assistant for a time, and after school he would go to work to wrap roses with cellophane and ribbon for the peddlers who walked through the restaurants with their baskets, selling roses and lei,” she recalled of the hard-working Zamora.
“Over the years his design techniques improved and after six tries to get into show, he made it!
“Kini’s senior line was called Park Avenue Princess, and he still feels he designs for a Park Avenue princess,” says Nagaue. “Back then, he always kept busy sewing very large ballroom gowns and elaborate dresses.”
After watching the Project Runway finale at New York Fashion Week, Nagaue feels that Zamora is the best of the remaining contestants.
Making it work on Project Runway
With the skills he honed at Honolulu CC, Zamora went on to New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology before auditioning for Project Runway. Zamora competed with 15,000 designers six times to secure one of the 15 coveted spots on season 13. He has won several weekly challenges and only once fell below the top 3.
Now in its 13th season, the Lifetime TV show maintains a large viewership as fans tune in each week to watch contestants showcase their designs. The two-part finale of Project Runway airs October 23, 2014.
—By Kapiʻolani Ching
