Teaching had always been on Donette Brottherson’s mind so it was no wonder she was in the profession for 12 years but what came as a big surprise was her quitting the classroom and taking up what many felt was just a hobby, designing.
It has only been a few months since Donette took what some have described as a ‘’bold move” to make a designing a full-time career but she knows it is one she will not regret. Already, she has gone places and done things she never did in the 12 years she has been teaching nursery school children.
The switching of careers, as she describes it, does not mean that Donette did not love teaching or the little children she dealt with. Rather she feels that designing is her calling and something she must do.
The Scene caught up with the new designer last week as she was busy preparing to be part of Carifesta X, through activities planned by renowned designer Sonia Noel. For the regional cultural fiesta, Donette plans to launch a line called ‘Through the fire’, inspired by some “personal things I have been going through recently and ones that I have been able to overcome.” But she also tells us that the designs will be colourful and “fiery”.
Sonia Noel has been very instrumental to where Donette is today as she who gave her a real taste of the fashion world last year assisting with the mega Guyana Fashion Week. Since then Sonia has been working with her and Donette says she sees the Barbados-based fashion designer as her inspiration.
But let’s rewind to the years when Donette was known as ‘Miss Donette’ — her students still call her that now if they see her — it was only in April that she quit the job she had been doing for 12 years. Donette began teaching at the tender age of 17 and a few years later, she became a trained teacher after completing training at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE). She recalls that as a child she always wanted to be the teacher, whenever “we played school” and always longed to one day stand in front of a classroom of children.
While designing was not something she had always done, it may have been always just below the surface. Being a nursery school teacher meant that every Friday she did art with the students “and during those sessions my artistic skills came to the front”. She realised that she might have a knack for designing when she was asked time and again to design costumes and she even surprised herself with the quality of her work.
During that period, she tried her hands at interior decorating, making curtains, cushions, tablecloths and the like. But she only made these, and still does, for her personal use.
One summer she decided to do a course at the Burrowes School of Arts and later expanded to a full-time course in painting and tie-dying among others. After graduating from the art school, Donette says, she thought about designing but she knew she had to work along with someone already in the field.
It was at this point that Sonia Noel entered her life, through the assistance of her mentor Barbara Peterkin, who introduced them. Working along with Sonia during the fashion week production is an experience she says she will never forget and the encouragement she received from Sonia propelled her into designing a few pieces.
“I couldn’t really draw so 1 had to explain to the seamstress what 1 really wanted and 1 could not sew either. But when Sonia came back into the country and saw the pieces she was very impressed and that motivated me.“
Today she can sew, even though she would have to hire a seamstress if she wants to prepare for a fashion show, and she can also draw her designs.
Last December, she launched her first pieces at Sonia‘s ‘Style Mission’ held at the Umana Yana. Because she did not want to do the “regular stuff that everyone was doing”, Donette says, she decided to us macrame-hand woven designs, which originated from the indigenous peoples, and which she incorporated into the fabric of the designs. Buttons were also used to add some more flair to the designs.
After that experience, Donette says, she knew she wanted to take designing to another level but was not ready to quit her job as a teacher. It was after a trip overseas in February that she realised she could not continue as both jobs were demanding a lot of her time. Designing, she found, is very time consuming and after she launched her second line under the theme the ‘Fun side of me’ at the Glamorous Show, also held by Sonia Noel, she knew she had to make a decision. And so last April she walked out of the classroom for the last time.
“It was a really tough decision to make because I knew one day I had to give it up but never thought it would have been so soon. It is really hard for me right now. But 1 love what 1 am doing.“ She says some people thought she was crazy to give up a sure salary at the end of the month for the unknown. But she says it is all about making a sacrifice and she knows in the long run it will payoff.
Donette has since launched her company, DonJ’s. She has big plans for the future and has a marketing agent who is now about to create her very own website from which persons can purchase her designs.
She feels that to make it really big and for her to have a lucrative venture she will have to leave the country and is working on that. She, like many other designers, says most of her sales have been overseas as the locals do not want to pay the prices quoted. She will soon be launching her men’s line and promises that the designs will be top class. Her long-term goal is have her own boutique — this may become a reality in another few months — and sell retail as well as wholesale.
(samantha_alleyene2000@yahoo.com)
