But instead of taking the ramp herself, she and another international model, Millen Magese, are showcasing the "fiercest" girls they could find in Tanzania.
The imposing 2m-tall Nigerian-born Ayinde had other models and staff at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosebank, northern Johannesburg, staring yesterday. She waltzed into the venue for fashion week wearing a fur jacket, bought at a thrift store in New York, over a flowing olive dress, stockings and sky-high heels.
It might have been because of her statuesque frame, but they probably recognised her from the series of supermodel Tyra Banks's reality show currently on air on the Vuzu channel.
Ayinde, who infamously lost her temper with a fellow hopeful on the show (her excessive use of the word "stupid" is still talked about), said the show was an over-the-top depiction of what goes on backstage at international fashion shows.
"America's Next Top Model was 'modelling 101' because I didn't have any modelling or fashion background, really.
"But don't get it twisted. It's a TV show and people need to understand that it's pseudo-reality. It's not real life."
The confident "chicka" who sat in the hotel foyer yesterday admitted that she had found it difficult making her way into the fashion industry (the Top Model judges have said her relaxed nature does not convince them she wants to win keenly enough).
She said: "The fashion industry has proven to be a challenge for me because I was a straight-A scholarship student. I know I'm smart and can articulate my [views] to get what it is I want in life. But in this industry it's not about being smart. You have to pay your dues, honey."
Ayinde said she had envisaged being a doctor and a businesswoman, before the modelling bug bit.
She graduated from New Jersey's William Paterson University three years ago, majoring in biology, with a double minor in chemistry and African-American Caribbean studies.
Many an internationally succesful African model, including Magese, Ajuma Nasenyana and Teyona Anderson, have used South Africa as a stepping stone, and Ayinde said that was one of the reasons they were the Tanzanian International Fashion Exposé to SA Fashion Week on Sunday.
It is her first visit.
"I think South Africa is a huge platform for all of Africa. It's the first fashion hub on the continent, so why not display [talent] here? This will be a great way to show that Africa, as a diaspora, is filled with so much talent and creativity."
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