Retired in the United States, Gem Fraser has returned to her homeland after 38 years and she wants to offer Guyanese something different when it comes to designer clothing, jewellry, fabric bags, and scarves.
“I brought fabric and I thought that I would be able to teach women to sew. I was really concerned about so many women just having children and not doing anything. My goal was to give them a career, teach them to sew or cook,” she said, speaking of women in Mocha, the village where she started to teach at the age of 16.
“They were very, very good to me,” she said of the villagers and she revealed that they taught her a lot of new skills and exposed her to things she had never known.
But while she is happy to be back home, if she had her way, she would have come earlier to spend some time with her mother, who was murdered in 2017. Her mother, Constance Fraser, 87, and her cousin, Phyllis Caesar, 77, were found bound and gagged in their beds at their South Road and Albert Street house following a suspected robbery.
Fraser recalled that her family occupied that home for over 50 years and she knew everyone at the church her mother attended until she died and now that she has returned permanently, she still has friends there.
She has been working on renovating the family home, which is now occupied by her brother and his wife, who have also returned to Guyana. Fraser occupies an apartment she built downstairs, even as she hopes to complete her home in Mocha in the near future.
Elegant transformation
She had hoped to start giving back to Mocha as soon as she returned but hit a snag in completing her home in the village and even though she has barrels of material she wants to use in that venture she has to wait. In the interim, her sister encouraged her do “something” and suggested making jewellery. And because her sister already had a location on Water Street, she took up the offer and has since opened Elegant Transformation. She seems to be on the right path because almost all of the pieces, which included caftans, scarves, fabric bags, and tablecloths, which she showcased during a women’s empowerment programme organised by designer Sonia Noel last year, sold out, assuring her that there is a market for her pieces. While jewellery, scarves, tablecloths and bags will be on sale at the store, her outfits will be made to order. She just wants a few clients since “sewing is a job and I don’t need to be at a machine from morning ’til night. For me, sewing is like a blessing…” She said she sometimes sees it as a challenge that she has to surmount.
At the same time, the craft has become so easy that she can make a bag in 45 minutes.
Fraser’s desire to assist mothers, especially those who are single, came because she knows what it is to be a single parent. After a divorce, she recalled, it was “just me and my boys” and this was where all the craft she learnt in Guyana came in handy.
They did the “full works”, she said. They catered, made the cakes and also decorated and aided by the fact that she had the skills and “able-bodied young men” available to help, it became a family thing and a way to earn extra money. “My sons learnt to cook and today their wives are fascinated by it,” she said.
At the time, she worked as a certified nurse’s aide in Florida and simultaneously she “fell back” on working on weddings since she knew how to sew, make bouquets and even to decorate, all of which she had learned growing up in Guyana.
She recalled that she was the eldest of seven and her mom was always interested in learning new crafts. Her father insisted that as the eldest she also learn. Fraser could be considered a craftswoman in her own right. She listed the many crafts as bouquet making, hat making, crochet “every class my mom did, she was a housewife, and I had to tag along.” But while she learned them all, she chose the ones she eventually mastered, and dressmaking was one of them.
Something to do
While she lived in New York, she always made use of her dressmaking skills, because, according to her, “New Yorkers pay” and they are into owning custom-made outfits when attending functions. In California, where she also lived for a few years, she also sewed and it was there she was introduced to really expensive material and “it was a different world,” she said. While she enjoyed it, she eventually went back to New York.
In New York, she had five main clients and according to her she didn’t need more because they paid for what she made, no questions asked. It was a complete package as the outfits were sold with the jewellery and bags and all the client had to get was a pair of shoes.
Fraser said from the time she went to New York, she knew she would not live there once retired and even though over the years she learnt to love the bustling US state, she still wanted to resettle in good old Guyana.
“I have learnt to love New York and I will go and visit because it has something… I get my fix from it. You go and there is so much going on. You go and then you leave,” she said.
Now back in Guyana, she wants to give Guyanese something new and refreshing and for her it is not a “money-making something” per se but rather “just something to do.”
Looking at what is being offered in Guyana in the area of craft, Fraser said she is disappointed that in some respect it is the same that was offered 20 years ago.
So, she will start with Mocha and those who want to learn she would teach them, but they will have to contribute by purchasing the needed material.
Speaking of growing up in Guyana, Fraser described those days as the “best days in my life.” If it were up to her, the country would still be under British rule as she looks back on that period as a “different time” and one that she loved.
Her early days were spent in Port Mourant, Corentyne before the family moved to South Road, Georgetown. Looking back, she said she was very lucky especially for the fact that she had her mother for over 60 years.
She recalled that when her mother died, all seven of her children were overseas. She remembers the last conversation she had with her mother just before she died. “I am always happy that I spoke to her. We had a great conversation, because the next morning we got the message that she had died,” she said. She also fondly recalled that her mother, at that age, was still lucid and took care of herself so her death was unexpected as all of her children expected her to live much longer because of her family linage.
“But while her death horrible, at the same time if she had gotten ill and could not help herself, I don’t think she would have been able to manage that. Neither of the two them, I don’t think they would have managed it because they were very active and involved in the church and all of that,” Fraser noted.
