Lynette Mangar’s love affair with fashion and fabrics goes back to her childhood days of fine clothing turned out by her seamstress mother out of silks, organza, chiffon, tulle and calico. As a child, she was used to dressing well, an experience that helped shape her contemporary affinity to the beauty of fine clothing.
Her North Road and Wellington streets establishment, Lynette Mangar’s Exclusive Collection, is as much a labour of love as it is a commercial pursuit. She talks less about the business side of the enterprise and more about the role it plays in satisfying a personal passion, conceding, in the process, that it has afforded her the luxury of marrying business with pleasure though never anticipating the volume of financial return associated with other less specialized business pursuits.
Frequent travel has afforded her insights into the fashion culture in a number of countries, India, Singapore, Dubai, the United States and the United Kingdom being among the places that her travels have taken her and from which she always returns with new, novel creations. She recalled that she would return home with unique creations which she shared with her circle of fashion-conscious friends. Over time, her eye for the unusual and the fashionable generated a level of demand that increasingly influenced her shopping during her trips abroad. In the process she has established valuable ties with manufacturers in other countries.
Over 20 years she has turned her passion into what, these days, is a commercial pursuit which, along with taking care of her family – she insists that cooking and attending to her home are routine and compulsory pursuits – have helped shaped her current life. In another life she had attended the University of Guyana where she had studied Spanish and Portuguese and worked both as a teacher and with what at the time was the Royal Bank of Canada.
The shop itself satisfies her desire for remaining connected with helping to influence contemporary trends in local fashion, mostly, though not exclusively, Asian fashion. Inside, it is intimate, attractive and packed with unique and eye-catching pieces; the glitz and glitter that characterize the Asian clothing culture leaving an indelible mark on the establishment. A section of the shop boasts a display of Asian jewellery.
Mangar says that her current pursuit coincides with an evolution in fashion that has increasingly attracted Guyanese to clothing that embraces ethnic and cultural heritage. “There is,” she says, “a greater keenness and a greater confidence in dress that says something about people’s culture and their heritage.” It is here, she believes, that her “exclusive creations” have made their greatest impact, her establishment having become sought after during the seasons in Indian celebrations, cultural events and weddings. Guyanese, she says, are, these days, keener to parade their heritage, to make statements about their identity through their clothing.
Inside the shop, she gestures to the pieces hanging from racks and rails, ranging from what she says are the more modest Asian outfits sourced from designers in one or another Asian country to the lavish ensembles created out of rich fabrics and elaborately decorated with Swarovski crystals—a range of cut crystal and related luxury products manufactured by Swarovski AG in Austria. She talks about these pieces with the passion of someone whose preoccupation is as much with influencing trends in fashion as it is with doing business.
Inside the Gizmos and Gadgets Complex that occupies a generous portion of the northernmost section of Wellington Street, Lynette Mangar’s Exclusive Creations appears settled. In 2007, during the Caribbean Cricket World Cup, she had located to the Princess Hotel. These days, she is, in a sense, at home at her current location, a small corner of the complex housing the Gizmos and Gadgets building from which her son Ravi operates his own much larger business. Two daughters have followed their mother into business as proprietors of Gourmet Delight and Rouge Beauty.
An as yet unfulfilled ambition is to play a role in localizing the skills that fashion the complex Asian creations which she imports. She explains that the craft of creating and decorating these ensembles has, up until now, proven to be beyond those local seamstresses whom she has sought to press into service. It is, she believes, less a matter of natural talent and more a matter of the skills associated with those creations having been carefully handed down from one generation of seamstresses to the next in their countries of origin. Still, she has not abandoned the idea. She is, she says, prepared to consider having persons sent directly to establishments in India to be taught the skills.
A keen advocate of more women becoming part of the Guyana business community, Mangar says that it is entirely possible for women to accomplish their intellectual pursuits, manage families and become successful entrepreneurs, all in one lifetime. “I believe that women can have it all,” she says, and the assertiveness and confidence in her tone persuades you that she insists on being taken seriously.
