Not many are aware that the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) actually has a fashion school attached to it. It is poorly marketed to the wider Caribbean and its thesis show doesn’t receive too much regional press coverage either.
While Trinidad isn’t necessarily a fashion capital, it has a lot of potential to become the ‘Paris’ of the Caribbean and the establishment of the Caribbean Academy of Fashion and Design (CAFD) was the first step in this direction.
However, over recent years, its credibility and prestige have been at stake after the founding lecturers left following budget cutbacks. This saw the academy committing the most obnoxious fashion sin in recent time: it allowed past students with no particular experience to lecture. This altered its cachet forever and essentially stagnated creativity whilst cramping the flow of credible effective knowledge transfer.
Recently graduated students teaching new students in any fashion school is unheard of; in most cases graduated students act as teaching assistants to senior industry professionals. The result of this defect is that the university is currently experiencing a lack of international fashion knowledge. This lack has turned itself into monotonous collections, in my eyes, at Thesis Shows. We saw a lot of similarity and not too much distant electric variances among the thesis collections which in turn added to the stigmatized image of fashion in the Caribbean.
I spent five days in Port-of-Spain just last week to review this year’s thesis displays at the university and the final show at the National Academy of the Performing Arts. What I felt and experienced was the reality of the fashion industry when value is extracted: a bubble. It was such an ironic experience because the thesis show was named ‘Metamorphosis – Transforming the Face of Caribbean Fashion’ and the majority of show was a far cry from fashion metamorphosis. What it actually represented was a further grave-digging experience.
I started to question whether a whole fashion school was even necessary to put out about three to five potential stars. Can an industry really be built only off of three industry specific courses for fashion?
The two main stars that came from ‘CAFD at UTT’ can’t even be claimed wholly as products of the institution because of the amount external influences and teaching outside of CAFD at UTT. There was a huge difference between those who had been exposed to knowledge external of UTT and those who were not. For instance, the Student of the Year Kaleen Sanios, interned with knitwear designer Aisling Camps. Sheneice James who debuted a stellar collection also happened to do a short course at the world renowned fashion school Central Saint Martins. The difference between their work and others was like chalk to cheese.
Here are a few of the collections and aesthetics that I believe can be developed to stand on a global marketplace:
Kraken by Kaleen Sanios
A sporty minimal aesthetic that promotes the less is more mantra. A concept that seems to be spreading like wildfire. Women want to be functional in their clothes, they want more out of their pieces and they want their pieces to have long lives in their closets. Neutral colours; standard easy colours are Kaleen’s thing. The brand is stylishly utilitarian. However, for Kraken to stand on the international stage she will have to incorporate some sort of ethical framework into the brand to add value since it’s such a tampered with aesthetic. Kaleen won the Student of the year award and scored full marks on my assessment sheet for her design space presentation.
Chaos Theory by Sheneice James
A beautiful, well-constructed fashion chaos in every sense. Sheneice plastered flower-like cut outs on slouchy t-shirts, incorporated carpet-looking jackets and paired sheer paneled pants with flower paper crop tops. It was a crazy, funky perfect artistic representation of what is current; a beautiful hot mess. The collection isn’t necessarily anything you would see as practical. It was more a form of art. I believe this is what a lot of students missed. Their work wasn’t independent enough and didn’t necessarily contribute to the art of fashion. This is what the world is missing at large. Clothes with a difference and meaning.
Whilst these two collections were the most holistic and powerful in my eye, there were a few designers that had a strong sense of the business side fashion for a Trinidadian market and thought of market gaps that they can fill. Once they work on their collection editing and tailoring I think their brands will be extremely successful and profitable.
Anna Gervais – This designer challenged traditional bridal wear and moved it away from the typical exaggerated frock situation. Anything that goes against the traditional look gets my vote. I love difference. The Caribbean at large is also home to thousands of destination weddings.
Renee Williams – This collection was geared more towards the carnival wardrobe like culture that Trinidad has developed. I could see this brand tapping into a dancehall aesthetic later on. It had an extremely Caribbean pop culture take to it.
Neha Dawar -This designer challenged the traditional sari and shalwar culture. Using materials that are similar, she challenged the ‘traditional Indian girl look’ whilst still allowing it to be appropriate and relevant to Indian culture and everyday wear.
Paulene Dennis – I found this collection to be extremely poor. However, I was glad that someone realized the potential and need for designer plus sized clothes in the Caribbean. This designer needs to do more research on the growing market however. I think out of all the others, once she works on her aesthetic she will be able to climb through the industry the easiest and the fastest because the niche is so young and hungry.
Nyla Benny- An artist in every sense. Her collection needs much more tightening in terms of garment construction and editing and this, to me, is why she missed being in the top spot. However, she is a creatively sound person. She has good ideas but needs to strongly mentored.
A more in-depth review will be published on my blog soon.
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