Hideout Clothing joins PoSFW

The Hideout Clothing (THC) will be one of 24 designers to feature at the second edition of the Port of Spain Fashion Week (PoSFW) from November 4-8. The week will feature a hybrid event of virtual and physical exhibitions, including webinars, and both virtual and in-person pop-up markets at the Hilton Trinidad & Conference Centre, St Ann's.

The THC brand by entrepreneur Sebastian Gibert and business partner Rashad Rodriguez is known for blurring the lines between runway fashion and urban street culture, said a media release.

"It's not Bermuda shorts and vests at all," Gibert said in the release.

"You don't have to be on a beach to get that Caribbean feel or to represent Caribbean culture. We represent the street side of Trinidad and Tobago.... It's translating to people outside of TT and they’re feeling it too," Gibert said at his store at Level 3 Long Circular Mall, St James. His first store was opened in 2012 and in 2015, THC became an official clothing line.

THC's showcase for PoSFW 2020 is themed Mystic Altitude and will take place in the Cadence of Caribbeanness showcase.

"This is the Fall collection we'll be showing. We based the collection on past successful pieces and reworked them to suit the time of the year. We tried to do a colour palette that will go into Fall, so nothing too bright or crazy – some blues, greys and black, a little hint of pink to make it pop."

With the covid19 pandemic having a challenging effect on fashion business, initially, projections for THC seemed bleak, the release said. Gibert and his team were expecting the worst for sales and had been preparing to push the brand with grassroots tactics of the early days of operations to make things work. However, the endurance of the THC brand held firm as a testimony to the positive effect of Caribbean fashion on a foreign market.

"Honestly, when the whole pandemic started, we thought we were going to get real licks, but we pushed ahead with a release we were supposed to do, that had now been delayed by two months. We sold out. We didn't expect that at all."

Gibert said 90 per cent of THC's customer base resides in the US and the brand primarily caters to male clientele. However, he was quick to include women in the brand, welcoming female shoppers with an eye for styling, should they feel comfortable with the aesthetic and have the vibe to pull off the unique look in their own feminine way.

He said the THC's brand is a little above the average street wear price in that market, with a quality of styled and designed clothing to make the combination attractive to that customer base.

"From a local perspective, people have less money, so high-ticket items will sell less and are selling less. If you have an affordably priced item that's nice and you can sell more of it, it will fly."

The main television and online PoSFW show will be a broadcast of two virtual fashion runways: Cadence of Caribbeanness – a Resort Designer showcase and Razzmatazz – an Emerging Designer showcase on November 7 and 8 respectively, directed by Selwyn Henry and produced by Lorraine O'Connor and Advanced Dynamics Ltd.

For more info: posfashionweek.com, @posfw on Instagram.com and @posfashionweek on Facebook.com, or posfashionweek@gmail.com.