Today I am writing to you from Miami Beach in Barbados. I decided to take a much-needed break from Guyana. At times, I believe it’s necessary to take occasional breaks from your surroundings to grow and learn by interacting with a new environment in order to advance your thinking patterns. I mean this really how change comes about right?
Like Guyana, Barbados doesn’t have a locally developed fashion industry but it has a thriving international fashion atmosphere. There is a host of wealthy travellers who are willingly to spend. This is the case for most Caribbean tourist destinations such as Aruba, St Maarten, St Lucia etc. We see the fancy marble floored boutiques and European brands in these countries but never the promotion of the local arts. Except for in the souvenir shopping areas.
Fashion throughout the Caribbean is not seen as a commercial industry. It is seen as entertainment. As international brands such as MAC, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton and others continue to spread their wings onto our shores it provides employment for the locals, but it also subtracts from the regional fashion industry growing and getting past its infancy stage.
The funny thing about fashion now is that because of social media and this guilty pleasure we call the internet we are connected with and controlled by what’s trending. Where other international fashion and beauty retailers have carved and settled into their places in the global fashion industry we are miles and miles behind. We are not trending and I’m not sure if it’s going to ever happen.
I feel like I’m writing continuously about how far behind we are. But the truth is that with the constant invasion of foreign fashion businesses into the Caribbean market, we not only put pressure on our regional artists but we also forsake the potential of international growth in our local creative industry. Where countries in Europe and North America have invested in education surrounding the arts and fashion, we in the Caribbean have done the bare minimum in seeing it through.
Back to this travelling thing though; it is quite arrogant of me to speak in such a manner not knowing if you have been exposed. I’m always baffled when Caribbean people say they want to do better; they want to be part of the ‘Global Fashion Industry’ but yet they won’t petition and set a real standard for what they want to achieve. Maybe this dream of being part of it is all just a myth and a fake fantasy. Maybe we need more exposure to see what it really takes. I couldn’t help but imagine how worthwhile and profitable it would be to sell and market regional fashion to tourists from all over the world. We may not be able to afford adverting in Vogue but we certainly do have a lot of their readers in this part of world, vacationing and indulging in luxury activities. Our governments can surely invest in sectors of the creative arts. But who wants to take us seriously anyway? UTT doesn’t have an appropriate skill set among its lecturers for its Fashion Design programme and investors are still disturbed by our yearly tie-dye collections. I really shouldn’t be too mad at the fact that international brands continue to bury the regional retail market, after all we still see a little growth with the shop jobs they provide to the locals. I hope you can smell my sarcastic utterly fed up thoughts.
On the other hand all this international brand growth has got its perks with globalization and all. We can now have our MAC make-up tested instead of shade guessing and enjoy the benefits of buying cheap airport beach fashion. Havaianas for everyone. Guess there is 
always a silver lining behind every cloud.
Our local industries can’t progress unless we as people can envision a more long-term strategic growth plan.
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