T&T Fashion Week wrap up

Fashion is in the air and blowing like a hurricane from south to north in the space of a fortnight!

Even though Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago wrapped up on June 2, there is still so much to show and tell from that long weekend of fabulous Caribbean fashion.

This is all the moreso because the folks at our new favourite fashion blog, CF Style have been working... hard! I am exhausted just looking at the amount of photo footage and interviews they got out of FWTT - it is an impressive show of dedication to Caribbean fashion.

Anyhow, here are a few of our picks from FWTT.



 

[caption id="attachment_1094" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="All photo credits: cfstyle.com"][/caption]




Loved these very feminine, frilled white dresses from Brown Sugar - they are absolutely perfect for summer and all the fabulous all-inclusives like Bliss, Beach House and Brian Lara's Crop-Over fete.

Well-known Carnival designer Sonia Mack also showed her collection and while many of the outfits were gorgeous, the collection on a whole was confusing and without focus. Fashion blog Step Up Trini Style blinded it, saying:

Honestly I think Ms. Mack needed to have decided what she wanted to make for fashion week: costumes or garments. (And then asked herself where on earth these garments were meant to be worn?) She landed somewhere squarely in between and the results were not impressive.
 

Ouch. But when you look at the pics you can see what she means. For instance, there was this cute little dress with a very on trend art print that was slightly tropical, paired with a Grace Kelly like scarf.




And there was even ... a wedding dress!




But there were also a few random Indian-inspired pieces like this.




And there were also some gorgeous, chiffon-y dresses like this flame red one.




Maybe Ms. Mack was trying to make a statement about the diversity of Trinidad & Tobago, hence all the different looks?

Or maybe she was trying to show her own diverse ability as a designer? Either way, it was not a coherent collection, though there were many individual hits.

 Claudia Pegus also came with a bang, after the trauma of her robbery at gun point just a week before FWTT started. She had said that the experience was going to change the tone of her collection and that she intended to make a statement about "youth, crime and ethnicity" and how trapped everyone feels by crime in T&T.

Did she? Well, see for yourself.

 




 




Damn, Claudia. Tell us how you really feel.

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Fashion Week T&T gets underway

So Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago is underway and so far the few reports we are getting in are mixed.

Basically in a nutshell - love the clothes, hate the congestion.

That has been the consensus from both Caribbean Fashion Style Journal and Judette Coward-Puglisi's 5 a.m. at Mango Media blogs.

The folks at CFStyle were not happy about some of the organisational glitches on the opening night - they had issues with getting accreditation, ticket-holders could not get into the event because it was full and the traffic scene outside of the Hyatt was federation, apparently.

For her part, Judette noted that the pre-event cocktail ceremony was in a too-small room, leading guests to feel 'claustrophobic' and designers were forced to stand because there was not enough seating.

However, both were agreed that the show itself - which is of course what it is all about - was sizzling.

CFStyle described it as a "tight and hitchless showing" while Judette declared that:


"[The] debut night of FWTT  was  so hot, it practically caused a  fire  with all the  Caribbean style,  fresh faces and  nubile bodies."


We have gotten a glimpse of some of the pics from CFStyle, including Heather Jones fantastic wedding collection and thus far we would have to agree. But what do you think?





























In other interesting tidbits from FWTT, soca star Machel Montano and reigning Miss T&T Universe Anya Ayoung-Chee will make their designing debuts tonight and tomorrow night respectively. Machel's line is called Boi Boi and Anya's is called Pilar, in honour of her brother who died in a traffic accident two years ago.

Designer Claudia Pegus made changes to her ready to wear line CPFS which she was bringing back after a 6 year break. Initially, the line was to be called Illusions, in reference to the idea that Pegus' reputation as a couturier has obscured the fact that she also does ready to wear.


"It was supposed to be fun and beautiful and light," she told 5 a.m.


However, after her harrowing robbery last Friday, the tone of the line has become much darker and is titled Trapped instead.


"After the incident, I felt (and still feel) emotionally drained and as I resumed work the pieces in the collection began to take a different form. On hearing the news of what happened, many people called to commiserate. As we spoke I began to realise how many of my friends and even acquaintances had been direct victims of crime. Many are living in fear. It's like we all feel trapped. The well to do and the middle class are trapped, no matter how high the wall or strong the burglar proof. Perhaps even the bandits are trapped in their ignorance and their environment. But mostly I felt that my sense of safety and my well being had been ripped away."

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Trini fashion doyenne Claudia Pegus mugged

Shocking and yet not shocking news out of Trinidad this weekend just past, islandistas.

I know you all know of Claudia Pegus, the Trinidadian designer and one of the grand dames of Caribbean fashion.




On Friday night, she and her assistants were held up at gunpoint in her atelier in Trinidad (not in Barbados, as the Observer's Tatler column claimed) and robbed as they were preparing for Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago which starts on Friday.

Over on Mango Media Caribbean's 5 a.m. blog, they have the (pretty harrowing) details.

An employee uses the security peephole and sees two young ladies. He thinks they are models. He cracks open the door, the women push their way in along with a man who ferociously brandishes a gun.

"All yuh better have **###*** money here tonight or ah go kill someone, if ah eh get no money ah taking someone to the ATM an doh mess with me because ah eh playing. One of of de three of alyuh gehing kill tonight. Only two leaving here alive so doh try nothing stupid cause ah go blow everybody head out... ah eh fraid to kill... ah kill plenty man already and ah eh fraid to kill ah woman, I real feeling to ##**## shoot someone here tonight!"


He points the gun to Ms Pegus' head with one hand and pushes and shoves her and the employee into the back room where another worker waits.

Jeez... nah.

 How 'sweet, sweet TnT' getting so dread in the last few years? I can't get it understand. All that oil money, free education, dollar for dollar uni education and still so much robbing and kidnapping. It ent like Trinidad poor. I really don't get it.

Fortunately, if you can find anything fortunate out of this, no-one was killed. They took Pegus from room to room at gunpoint and made her point out valuables, which they then stole in a quarter hour robbing spree.

Pegus said:

"I started praying. For sure I felt I would die and in that moment I asked God that if it was to happen then let it be one bullet, let it be quick and let it be me alone."

However, Pegus has said she will still make her showing at FWTT this weekend and use it to make a strong statement about "crime, youth and ethnicity."

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Caribbean Fashion Week 2008

(photo credit: David X Prutting/Patrick McMullan via NY Times The Moment)




Models backstage at CFW 08 in Heather Jones designs



Alright, alright I know I'm a liiikkle late but fear not, I was never going to forget the full-on islandista fabulosity that is Caribbean Fashion Week every year.

As usual Kingsley Cooper and the Pulse crew did it how we only do it. There was an array of gorgeous models in various hues of brown, with bodies that look like them nyam some food rather than the anorexic Eastern Euro-chic of every other catwalk- this is no doubt the only Fashion Week in the world where black models have no problem getting a bligh.

No less than the NY Times' The Moment blog noted the difference between CFW and the rest:


C.F.W. is a rarity in that it shows no signs of androgyny. Yanking up their bold Yardmanstyle t-shirts, the Jamaican male models flashed physiques that caused mass hysteria in the audience. And the heavenly bodies of the vari-hued Nubian catwalk beauties appeared to be silicone-free.


The androgyny-freeness was not just evident in the models but in the collections. The designs and colours were so distinctively Caribbean and yet not in a cliched way. There was rich, lush colour evocative of and appropriate to a true flamboyant tree-blooming, mango-filled Caribbean summer as seen in Heather Jones' designs up above and in the juicy orange skirts of Claudia Pegus dresses seen below.






 There were edgy, sexy rudegal-influenced designs from Born As Ragamuffin as seen below at right.





 There were celebs in the front row from islandista actress Nia Long and fellow actress Vanessa Williams and rapper Eve who also showcased her Fetish clothing line.



Clearly an event for islandistas! More pics of our picks below.



I love, love, love this fluffy, beribboned confection from Zadd & Eastman. Ribbons (ribboning?) were a theme in several of their designs as seen in this column dress below worn by fast-rising Barbadian model Tenille Stoute.





(photo credit: Ryan Lue-Clarke via Popstyle Jamaica)

Gorgeous splashes of colour came from one of Trinidad's grand dames of fashion, Meiling, as seen above.

For more photos check out Popstyle Jamaica which has tons of photos and coverage from CFW 08.

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