Hey Guys, I am finally back in Guyana after a 50-day detox situation.
If you are an avid fashion follower coming back into ‘Guyana’s Fashion Industry’ is always a bit depressing. We don’t have Avant-garde fashion editorials to wow us nor do we have a multitude of local fashion websites that speak the local consumer’s language. You are always left to go seek foreign-based fashion designers and websites for inspiration.
So trust me when I say coming back to Guyana after so many fashion events is always a bit depressing. That Look Boutique released these photographs that created somewhat of a stir earlier in the week.
If you ask me I think they are incomparable to anything that I have ever seen coming from a Guyanese boutique. Some people were annoyed because the model’s lips may have looked like kissable whiteout and her poses were far from typical but I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
If I were to be the judge, I would say that we have become too comfortable with just being average in Guyana. Whenever something new and different comes along, we look first to see who else around us is wearing it in order to mentally accept it. It’s a tad annoying, but I also think this issue stems from a lack of fashion education.
There are several things I love about the editorial that other boutiques seem to lack; in any case only a few even do fashion editorials. Some of the reasons I like That Look’s editorial are:
- Race: Race is always an issue when it comes to fashion ads in Guyana. Like it or not East Indians and Portuguese models dominate the fashion ads in Guyana. I guess they are just mimicking the international fashion scene, but it’s truly disgusting from this point of view. Some stores do add the token black girl in their ads and marketing campaigns but you can see right through them. Beauty in the 21st century does not mean straight hair and light skin. It is time to remove the perception that lighter toned women are superior beauty figures. I like the fact that the boutique was brave enough to use a new and fresh face.
This is a step in the right direction to help girls of similar skin tones recognize and feel comfortable in their own skin and also maybe act as a deterrent from using bleaching creams.
- Fashion photography and aesthetic: I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of the poses in store look books from local boutiques. This one gave a futuristic ladylike vibe. I love the lip colours used and the way in which the model naturally nestles herself in the environment. The outfits and the backgrounds were strategically managed to exude this strong woman feel.
Some say it’s too much and it looks weird but I just think we have been too exposed to a stereotyped beauty standard. I also feel that because we have lacked local inspiration from the arts and fashion, people don’t feel too comfortable coming out of 
the socially acceptable dressing formalities. If you aren’t aware of the model Grace Jones or Designer Jeremy Scott you will never understand an aesthetic like this.
We will never have an Anna Dello Russo, who wears weird edible looking clothes that we would only dream of, or a Chiara Ferragni rocking blue lipstick in the summer but at least we have these photos from That Look Boutique that will encourage us to feel free in our own skin. The entire look book is available on That Look’s Facebook page and on my website www.online-runway.com during the course of next week. Write to me at ashma-john@online-runway.com let me know your thoughts.
(Photos by Raul Couchman; Model Kimberly Niles; Makeup Artist Anika London; Styled by Chelesia Wyatt of That Look Boutique)
