One half of Linden’s famous designing duo downed her sketch pad and tape measure and stepped from behind the curtains to stitch up the Miss Linden Town Week title and crown last Saturday.
It would have helped no doubt that Nikisha Telford did it wearing a Climax gown.
Nadine and Nikisha Telford and their fashion label Climax shot to fame in 2007 when they were adjudged ‘Best New Designers’ at the inaugural Guyana Fashion Weekend. Since their début, they have had their pieces featured in Shabeau magazine and at several events.
Nikisha, the younger of the two, told The Scene that she entered the Miss Linden Town Week pageant because she wanted to add a graceful touch to her career as a fashion designer. “I had had the unique opportunity to review quite a number of things. She said she could now look at pageantry with new eyes and at how she can encapsulate it with fashion.
She noted the difference between the two related fields, stressing that catwalk fashion was up-tempo and not that graceful, “so I really had to tone myself down to get in touch with pageantry. It was a lot of work but I enjoyed every step.”
Despite having grown used to public appearances, facing to an audience and a panel of judges at the intelligence segment was challenging, she said.
In her three-minute presentation on the community she represented –Silvertown – Nikisha, in poetic fashion, spoke confidently about the background of the community and the potential that exists for development there. According to her, midway through she realized that she was going to surpass her allotted time and was able to skilfully cut her presentation short without anyone noticing.
For her the night was exhausting because of the limited time between segments. “As soon as we were off the stage we had to go get into some different outfit. We were all in heels for the entire night,” she said. Most memorable for her was when the final five were selected to face the big deciding question. “I was just praying for the questions to be asked so I could have gotten out of those heels.” But that was not to be.
Each judge had formulated a question which was placed in a bag and each of the five finalists had to pull one. Nikisha’s question was: “If in another lifetime you were to be a bird, would you rather be a dove, a pigeon or an eagle and why?”
Nikisha said she thought the question was a beautiful one. “I loved the question because it wasn’t an everyday question that you expected to hear and I could have related to it. I chose the eagle. I know it is a very determined bird and that is how I see myself – determined to accomplish whatever I set out to do.”
Nikisha plans to devote energy and time to promoting the community of Silvertown. Through the Telford fashion line she will be promoting a number of events to raise funds to better preserve the lone national monument situated there — ‘The Old Water Wheel’. She has plans to have the area fenced, the monument repainted and an information board planted giving facts about the monument.
And letting the cat out of the bag, she revealed: “Most persons don’t know, but very soon the Telford sisters and Climax would be leaving the shores of Guyana.” She said she and her sister intend to advance in the fashion industry and as such would be pursuing studies to achieve this.
She said she had not yet heard from the promoters of the Miss Linden Town Week pageant with regard to her reign but “if I don’t hear from them pretty soon I would go ahead and make all necessary arrangements to ensure that my short reign is a well spent one and that I do something that would be memorable.” (Cathy Wilson)
