Zamora’s athleisure look earns high marks

‘Project Runway All Stars’

Season 5

Episode 9 recap: “A Touch of Style”

At the start of Thursday’s episode, the designers headed out to Coney Island. They ended up at MCU Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, where host Alyssa Milano introduced her Touch line of apparel — created a decade ago after she attended a game and could not find anything cute to wear from the gift shop.

The designers were tasked with creating a garment befitting today’s athleisure trend of smart leisure apparel inspired by athletic apparel. The idea was that the wearer should be able to take the look from the stadium to a nice dinner afterward. They were promised the winning look will be modified and sold as part of the Touch line.

After shopping at Mood, many of the designers ended up with the same types of fabric in blue. Hawaii designer Kini Zamora and Sam Donovan, whose specialty is said to be athleisure apparel, picked with the same mesh fabric but came up with totally different looks.

Donovan created a dress in blue neoprene with a mesh overlay and a lace back, which mentor Zanna Roberts Rassi criticized for lack of cohesion.

Save for the fabric, there was nothing about the design to suggest “athleisure.” It was a cute dress with lace embellishment at the waistline and sleeves. In judging, he ended up in the bottom three for not meeting the challenge, yet ultimately was declared safe.

Dom Streater pulled together multiple types of fabric to create a convertible shift, with an illusion back and panel at the hem that can be snapped on and off depending on the weather or wearer’s activities. So clever. She and Zamora were placed on top.

In the end, Zamora was named the winner for separates of denim jeans, a simple red top and the piece de resistance, a long baseball-inspired jacket with a white mesh panel on one side for interest. For Milano, it was an easy sell for her line because fans of the game will understand the look.

Layana Aguilar was finally sent home after being in the bottom three many times.

New episodes of “Project Runway All Stars” air at 7 p.m. Thursdays on Lifetime. Look for recaps after the screenings at fashiontribe.staradvertiserblogs.com Opens in a new tab.