The Prequel

Slowly mimicking the movements of a lazy walrus burrowing deep into the folds of the Arctic ice and tugging at the sumptuous, warm and plump 15-tog duck feathered down duvet, the alarm clock suddenly shrieks, piercing the eerie silence enveloping the room. With eyelids heavily sleep laden, groggily and hesitantly shrugging the cover down, the lingering cold floating above the head jolts the soul alive, reminding the pertinacious mind that it’s just another cold winter’s day in England.

Slowly tugging the New Zealand merino wool collar into place, wrapping the newest fashion find, a tiger print cashmere scarf around my neck, I step out into the cold and briskly morning. With the soles of my feet encased in Giuseppe Zanotti soft calfskin boots and fiercely protected from the harsh and unwelcoming dull grey slab that slowly meets and greets every pound of my striding heeled walk. Earphones in position, cold numbing hand poised above the iPod dial, the index finger jots the chosen selection and in the same breath allowing the musical notes to filter out from the earphones, in sunny waves traveling up the ear canal causing the mind to spread the hands and leh go…..

Time-travelling on the soca future riddim, I am transported to the streets of the Caribbean. In a whisk of a glance, I am amassed by beauty, swathed in vibrant palettes of infused colourful prints floating past my subconscious stance, leaving billowing wafts of silk draped around. Everywhere and all around me are forms, models, shapes, styles and mannerisms all converging into a timeless ongoing fashion parade. With intrinsic tastes influenced by the rich culture, there are no rules here, barring and obscuring the lines of adornment, shape and creativity, size zero is a farce here, putting Rachel Price the entertainer out of work. This is the Caribbean, where moulds of fashion are timelessly broken. This is timeless authentic island fashion, where the curtain never fails to come down, always enthralling spectators milling about.

The heavy Freemason’s Hall doors, hiding the echoing walls of masonic secrets have long since closed to the invited few elite. The long train of classy cars advertising various fashion couture houses, have soon departed the streets of the capital en route to their temporary residential places, the car show rooms. The gaunt, depraved models with lingering and smouldering lifeless eyes juxtaposed upon couture gowns, daintily wobbling on ankles since ebbed down from the mountainous heels have long since taken to the skies en route another modelling job. Across the streets of the city west bound, the doors of the Trinidad & Tobago High Commission along with the Jamaican High Commission have long since waved their fellow home designers farewell and resumed diplomatic duties after successfully showcasing emerging designers at the recently held London Fashion Week.

Darcel M de Vlugt

Not content with producing the intoxicating and euphoric laced soca music, the Antilles region is also famed for its fashion footprint bestowed upon the world through history, carnival and vibrant culture. The 21^st century has already witnessed many well-known fashion designers springing from the Caribbean. At the London Fashion week, three talented T&T designers: Darcel de Vlugt Editor of CFstyle.com with a sophisticated world vision, Lisa See Tai, co-designer of the Anya Ayoung Chee’s 2011 spring/summer collection and Mark Eastman culturally driven, showed fashionistas how it was done on the streets of Trinidad & Tobago. Celebrating the amazing influence that the Windrush generation had on the British fashion industry, young Jamaican designers, Franz Christie an enterprising young designer, siblings Duane and Teasea Bennett who showcased extraordinary jewellery from their Kingston-based workshop, Lisa Aris of designer label Neahlis who has Tyra Banks as a fan and artist/fashion designer Glenroy Smith who created amazing artful fashion pieces under his Zaid Fashan label, showed what else the land of wood and water could produce besides reggae music.

This is the latest generation of aspiring and budding designers taking the fashion world by storm and showing the world that Caribbean fashion in its sassiness and with a tinge of urban edge cannot be ignored, more especially alongside the recently paraded elaborately designed mas band costumes continuing to spread the message on the movement of this budding industry and artistic colourful Caribbean culture.

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Undeterred by the lack of artisanship, inspired by the Bajan singer, Rihanna’s spring debut -Rihanna for River Island Limited collection and just knowing that the Caribbean scene in the UK is awash with vibrancy, style, laced with elegance, sophistication, glamour and oozes pure sexiness, in the culmination of the greatest show on earth T&T Carnival and the International Fashion Week, here is our fashion teaser, presenting our own UKSS Runaway stage……

Did you know that from the cobbled streets of Paris, strewn with well-known fashion couture houses, lies a piece of history that inspired traditional dress in the Caribbean….? Well who says the Islands don’t have a bonafide style contrived from the French….

Part II: The History of Traditional Caribbean Dress

It has to be noted that not all Caribbean islands practice wearing traditional dress and whilst some may have adopted this historically or through other islands, traditional dress still remains an important historical element witnessed through heritage days, festivals and carnivals. Read More