FashionTT helps designers go global with their brands

Trinidad and Tobago fashion is part of a wider trademark Caribbean style that is gaining traction on the global market, especially with the launch of TT Fashion Company’s (FashionTT) global value chain tier.

The tier features 11 top designers – Meiling, Ecliff Elie, J'Angelique, The Hideout Clothing, Heather Jones, Charu Lochan Dass, Neha Karina, Claudia Pegus, 1ndividual Aesthetic, Genesis Swimwear, and The Cloth.

“They are our front-liners in branding our style and presenting it to the world to create an appetite for our alternate style choices and set ablaze a firestorm for local and progressively regional consumption, with a target on international niche markets," FashionTT’s general manager Lisa-Marie Daniel said. She described the launch as a milestone event for the local fashion industry.

The tier is part of FashionTT's value chain investment programme ­– a strategic plan that allows local fashion companies to be assessed by an independent international panel, and placed into one of four levels.

These are:

1. The global value chain support programme (GVC).

2. Non-global value chain support programme.

3. Incubator programme for new/young high potential companies or partnerships.

4. Firms that are earmarked for future support.

Stylist and creative designer Richard Young said TT is ready to claim its place alongside other leading style epithets of the world.

“The Caribbean aesthetic is identifiable, singular, recognisable, empirical and above all alluring and marketable. We are aligning with international trend forecasts to spell out our fashion-forward, globally relevant and sustainably innovative value so as to be measured on the barometer of investment-ready, competitive 'slow fashion', just as well as being branded as high calibre, commercially viable, feel-good fashion… The belief that positivity is needed more today than ever and that solidarity in Caribbean design thinking can impact global style and qualify the capacity of its potential," Young said.

FashionTT has engaged in an immersive marketing campaign, in partnership with international embassies and high commissions to showcase GVC’s top export-ready fashion companies in bolstering global trade and entering untapped markets.

“Through this mindful fashion promoting, positivity and giving-back-to-community ideals are articulated and these uplifting values can ignite a brand-identity awareness, in anticipation of the lifting of social restrictions, when a heightened desire for feel-good fashion would be welcomed with open arms. This campaign is in keeping with unearthing secrets that are taken for granted about the beauty of the creative industry of the region.

“Our designers are well equipped to capitalise on this venture and we are indeed excited to work alongside them in this journey," Daniel said.

Young said because the people of TT are fashionable by nature, feel-good philosophies always apply to whatever they wear. He said fashion is transforming lives because people want to wear their beliefs.

“So brands like The 1ndividual Aesthetic and the Cloth who wear their hearts on their sleeves, fit into the universal paradigm of value-added personal expression.”

Young also praised Genesis Swimwear: "This online boutique is indeed cutting edge and mirrors the evolution and the transition into the e-commerce world to which we must all be attracted."

He said the concept that “style endures but fashion changes,” as espoused by style matriarch, Coco Chanel, attests to the individualism and personal stories captured by modern fashion and its market value.

The feel-good GVC campaign aims to position local trendsetters and visionaries where their advocacy can be bought into.

"It is our duty to sensationalise the storytelling and advance the originality of their craft so as to merchandise their novel brands and prompt sales," Young explained.

"This feel-good sensibility is the craze, universally. Our designers' portfolios are already replete with captions of the multifaceted nature of our Caribbean mosaic.”