The end of Ari South’s appearance on “Project Runway All Stars” in 2013 was not the end of the drama in the designer’s life.

“It was like living through the pressure of a show that never stops,” she said during an interview at her home in Aiea. “I burned out many times, moments when I didn’t want to do anything.”

So, tired of the treadmill, she did what many an ambitious, hardworking professional would deem the unthinkable. At the height of a marketable moment, the 29-year-old stopped producing fashion collections and stopped participating in fashion shows, stepping out of the public eye for two years to refocus on herself.

“I was still designing for certain clients, but I went back to my roots, going back to the hula because that is something important to me, doing yoga, visiting Waianae a lot, where I grew up, all the things that make me happy that I wanted to reconnect with,” she said.

The self-imposed hiatus worked because South is a much calmer, relaxed person than she was two years ago. She’ll be joining three other “Project Runway” alumni for a fashion show that will be part of Susan G. Komen Hawaii’s fifth annual Pink Tie Ball fundraiser, honoring Dr. Angela Pratt, chairwoman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children and clinical assistant professor at the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine. Funds raised will help local hospitals and agencies that provide breast cancer education, exams and treatment. The event will start at 6 p.m. Friday at the Royal Hawaiian hotel.

Also to be featured will be fellow Hawaii designer Kini Zamora and his Season 13 cast members Sean Kelly and Alexander Knox. Six breast cancer survivors in their 20s through 70s will be among the models, and the designers will be donating outfits for a live auction.

South said she was excited to be involved with this cause. “Three of my cousins were diagnosed with breast cancer within months of each other, and I lost one of them last year.”

She said it was shocking because there had been no history of breast cancer in her family. “I also have friends who are fighting it now. It is affecting healthy women and at younger ages with no history of cancer in the family,” South said.

Kelly, who hails from New Zealand, was in town last fall to support Zamora during Honolulu Fashion Week, and while here he took in the Beautiful Survivors Fashion Show that featured 20 cancer survivors from Hawai‘i Pacific Health hospitals.

“It showed the power of fashion to make them a star,” Kelly said. “You would read the story being projected, ‘Cancer-free for 18 years,’ then see them on stage beaming, waving and feeling amazing. It was a really special show.

“I’ve done charity events before but this show was very moving; I got chills. So when Kini asked me if I wanted to get involved with this show in 2016, I said, ‘Of course.’”

Kelly will be showing designs from his fall 2016 collection that debuted last month at New York Fashion Week. In a departure from the clean minimalism he displayed on “Project Runway,” his latest collection is an experimental burst of color and textures.

In addition to coming together for a good cause, the designers simply enjoy staying in touch as an extended fashion ohana sharing similar trials and battle scars.

Kelly, who won Season 13 (with Zamora finishing third), spent the last year and a half designing his own collections, working as a design consultant and mostly getting to know production facilities and capabilities from L.A. to New York.

He had just graduated with a degree in fashion design from Massey University in New Zealand when he moved to New York in early 2014. He was toiling in retail for three months and still trying to find his bearings in the city when he applied for “Project Runway” on a whim and was selected.

“It’s been positive for me from the standpoint of publicity and having my name recognized, but the reality of starting a brand takes much more than that. The idea of ‘just add water’ and you have an instant designer isn’t really a thing. The industry doesn’t work like that.”

With an eye on longevity, he’s spent the past year designing collections that have shown in New Zealand and New York while learning the production aspects of building a brand.

“My plan right before getting on ‘Project Runway’ was to build a production network in New York. There are specific factories that are good at producing shirts, dresses, working with leather. It’s been a long learning curve while trying to keep myself relevant and producing work.”

For South, relevance has become increasingly personal as she has gone back to her roots for inspiration while preparing for a major brand relaunch this fall.

Her retreat also extended to the virtual world of social media, where “it’s so easy to get hung up on what everyone else is doing. It makes us put pressure on ourselves to one-up the people we see. It’s a terrible way to live,” she said.

“I just stepped back, kept to myself and did my own thing, and at first it was hard. I had to give myself permission, saying, ‘I worked this many hours, I deserve to take a one-hour break to do yoga.’ If we don’t make that time to connect with ourselves, it’s like we’re running on a hamster wheel. Now I feel reinvigorated, like when I first started designing.”