Fashion designer Debra Allen, determined to make a name for herself in Guyana, launched out into the deep with an explosive fashion display at the Upscale Restaurant on June 29, featuring seductive lingerie and nightwear, which were the talk of the town.
At the same time, she also launched her fashion agency, through which she seeks to inspire women and open a professional means by which models can present themselves.
Since her debut in 2004, she has designed and presented in Barbados and Saint Lucia and will be an apprentice later this year in a Trinidadian Fashion Show.
Born in the Pomeroon River, and subsequently having lived in Berbice and then Linden all before her fifth birthday, she has been a nomad almost from birth. The places she has lived and visited inspire her work and she said Linden holds a special place in her heart because of her grandmother whom she revered as pure inspiration. “My grandmother was always a strong woman; she was visually impaired but never let her spirits down. She would sew clothes for her children and do the most unbelievable things,” Debra said.
She grew up with three brothers and four sisters and described herself as the bully since she was the eldest and very strong willed.
She stated that in the eyes of her siblings she was very affirmative.
Changes in the Guyana economy when she was a teenager, she said, caused her parents to work harder to provide for their family. They moved about frequently as a result. While all of this was happening Debra had to be the one to baby sit her younger siblings and she said this was the reason for her not completing secondary and any tertiary education.
This did not stop her. She subsequently moved to Barbados where she taught herself the art of fashion designing and fabric painting. She said that Barbados was ideal for exposure and a lot of her talent grew there.
“There is uniqueness about my designs. I don’t like copies so I try to be as a different as possible but I still try to be in the particular fashion era. When it comes to my mind and my work I describe myself as very provocative, a little bit perverted but I try to stay in the boundaries – I would be very daring as a fashion designer,” she said.
Debra always had a sense of creativity and seeing her blind grandmother sewing was all the push she needed to aspire towards fashion designing. Her grandmother’s message was basically, “Anything is possible if you work hard enough.” So Debra made up her mind to be the best.
In 2005, she felt she “wanted to have something that says I’m there as a fashion designer”, so she set out to do to do just that.
From then to now, she sewed for many designers and had numerous clients.
Speaking about her fashion and modelling agency ASX Modele’s Fashion Agency, Debra said the reason she created it is to groom professional models to work with her. She has very high standards when it comes to her work and bad experiences with unprofessional models in the past has cost her some shows.
“I am very particular, extremely so… Before [a model] gets on with a show she needs to have a high class level. It must be very well organised for my designs to be part of the show, she said “As much as I’m a business person I am also a humanitarian. What I do is to give my models holistic training from physical to mind-set to social graces and basic etiquette; [how to] be comfortable in a social setting. [It] helps them to grow faster and interact with people to motivate them.”
Debra said she is a spiritual being and her Creator within is her biggest push. She also shared with us that she is a nature loving ‘freak’ who can just look at a mango tree and be inspired by all the shades of colours in that one setting.
Her biggest accomplishment to date: herself. “Simply because of how much I have grown. In my opinion I have come from leaps and bounds. From where I was—being a very angry child—to where I’m at now is a vast difference. I had to work on me to get to this point, to the point where nothing offends me.” Her strong motivation led her to audition for the GT&T Jingle and Song Competition where she was successful. “Belief is different to knowing, once you go forward with 100% knowing that you would get through, then you will!”
Debra Allen is one fashion designer who does not target a single market because, as she said, “I love challenges because they allow you to grow as a person, and because of that there is not one person I would target.”
Debra said that in the next five years, she will be working towards having several branches of her fashion agency across the Caribbean Islands. She will be going to Trinidad & Tobago in November to be an apprentice for Simon Ali, one of the best fashion designers in the region.
Debra also has on the cards, the launch of an event-planning company.
Her artistic imagination does not just stop at fashion, she is also a poet and a writer who is in the process of writing her first book based on her life — the successes of a strong business woman.
Her message is to accept adversity and learn from the experience.
Her aim is to show people what she is capable of and help them in the process. She said when it comes to helping people she is selfless, that is why she plans to work on projects to give the youths of Guyana exposure to the fashion Industry and the international stage.
