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For someone who learned to sew just a few months before appearing on Project Runway, Anya Ayoung-Chee (pictured far left) certainly left her mark on the competition. It was revealed in Thursday's Project Runway finale that the former Miss Trinidad and Tobago (and Miss Universe 2008 contestant) had put her newfound talent to good use, sewing up a season 9 victory.
The final mission of the ninth season was for each of the show's final four contestants -- Ayoung-Chee, Viktor Luna, Joshua McKinley and Kimberly Goldson -- to take $9,000 and five weeks to create a collection to be showcased at New York's Fashion Week. Ayoung-Chee, 30, emerged the victor, after the judges described her collection of Caribbean-inspired fashions as sexy but limited.
In the penultimate episode, Ayoung-Chee, McKinley and Goldson were all asked to refine their collections before presenting them at the Lincoln Center. And, while Ayoung-Chee's modifications paid off, she said on the finale that support from host Heidi Klum was "almost 100 percent" responsible for her victory.
The Trinidad and Tobago native also believes that her fellow contestants helped her along the way. In an interview with The Huffington Post, the ever-modest Ayoung-Chee said that she learned that there was more to be gained from sharing than withholding on the show.
"(Project Runway) definitely showed me personally that there's so much more to be gained from sharing," she explains. "We all did that throughout the entire time. I thought it was so much more enjoyable and so much more came out of it for all of us. I guess there was a point toward the end when we all started to feel more conscious of wanting to win and that changed it a little bit, but it wasn't quite as drastic as it seemed. It served me better just in terms of generally enjoying the process to be more open and more giving the entire time."
A reality show where contestants are generous with one another? Madness!
