TT designers shine at CFW

Pulse Global presented the 18th instalment of Caribbean Fashion Week (CFW), in Kingston Jamaica, which this year featured and celebrated the very best of African and Caribbean fashion.

This year Caribbean Fashion Week welcomed TT’s fashion designers Claudia Pegus, Meiling, Anthony Reid, Heather Jones and Robert Young of The Cloth – as they wowed the large crowds at Villa Ronai in the rain forests of Stony Hill. A media release said the TT fashion contingent's creations lit up the runway last month as Pulse International models Alicia Burke, Oraine Barrett, Zoe Griffith, Miqueal Williams and Shalisha Stewart wore their pieces with style.

Caribbean designs included resort wear, as CFW nodded to the region’s largest tourist market, from which the region is poised to reap significant benefit from this industry, since the Caribbean is considered by the international fashion community a natural location for resort fashion, as highlighted by Italian Vogue.

As part of the celebrations, CFW featured a series of events, including a welcome reception hosted by the Nigerian High Commission, a business of fashion brunch, and two fashion showcase nights.

CFW also saw a contingent of designers from Africa which saw Africa’s top designers – the likes of Mia Atafo, Tokyo James and Ituen Basi – displaying their work on the CFW runway.

CFW designers have been featured internationally in Vogue, the Associated Press, the Independent, Fashion TV Paris, the New York Times, i-D, the BBC and a host of other media around the world. The event has received a number of awards and has been recognised by British Vogue as an important new development in world fashion.

Lisa Marie Daniel, general manager of FashionTT – the state agency with the mandate to stimulate and facilitate the business development and export activity of the fashion industry in TT, said she was elated to hear of the positive response received by local designers displaying at CFW in Jamaica.

“We at FashionTT are always happy to get feedback of the great works our local designers are accomplishing locally, regionally and internationally. With our value chain investment programme, which is currently in its third cohort, we aim to help develop upcoming designer’s business and brand so they can have the same opportunities and exposure such as Caribbean Fashion Week.”