Seeing clothing by Trinidadian fashion designer Meiling gracing the pages of Harper’s Bazaar US this week served as a gentle reminder of the soulfulness that is the Caribbean aesthetic. It also served as a reminder of how anti-Caribbean and unsupportive we can be of our own products until they gain the attention and acceptance of western media, particularly where fashion and beauty standards are concerned.
I have followed Meiling’s work for years. I am always stunned by the simple extravagance of her pieces and unlike a lot of the fast fashion that I own and her garments are made to last. They are functional and made for the lives of West Indian women.
Who could blame anyone for not fully embracing a Caribbean aesthetic though? We have always been steadily and consistently reeled into wearing things that former colonial rule deem to be acceptable. Many government offices still have in place archaic dress code rules at their entrances with security personnel who are always prepared to hand us a good ‘jug’. So for formal attire, we deem three-piece suits, blazers, sometimes stockings even as presentable. We deem a replication of western fashion to be suitable even though our climate is so drastically different.
Our overzealous attraction to and consumption of foreign goods is only a tiny inkling of how well our minds have been influenced to help shape our notions of superiority. It will take more than Sandra Granger sporting her countless sleeveless dresses in all colours and definitely more than seeing Shala Monroque in Harper’s Bazaar wearing a frock suitable for Caribbean weather for us to even start to realize how we have been influenced.
Perhaps we have to leave for a bit to find out how lucky we are to live in such good weather. Perhaps we have to leave so we can appreciate the freeness that comes with not having layers and layers of clothing and the expense that comes with dressing for four seasons. Perhaps it is not until then that we can get to know ourselves and interrogate the motivations of desires. It is probably only then we can tap into what it means to develop an aesthetic that we can associate with our home like the way the iconic yellow, red and green holed-out vests scream Jamaica from a distance.
This seems to have been the case with Saint-Lucian born Monroque, former editor of Garage Magazine and personal muse and consultant to Miuccia Prada, who wore Meiling’s dress for her Harper’s Bazaar interview. In the interview, Monroque stated that now she only ever wears bathing-suit tops with cut-off shorts or leggings.
“I got rid of a lot; it was bogging me down,” she said. And when she does dress up, she insists on comfortable footwear. “I never wear heels anymore, and I don’t miss them,” she said. “Most of the time, I’m without shoes, and putting [heels] on now, I’m like, Why did women ever do that to themselves?”
Monroque, who left her jet-setting fashion life due to depression and to care for her brother after he had an accident in Saint Lucia, had become exhausted from the constant jet setting. She left it all behind in 2014 and now leads a simpler life. Perhaps it will take something life altering to help us pause and reflect on the way we present ourselves and why.
