Fashion designer Donna Ramsammy James last Sunday debuted her latest Shape2000 collection “Beginning” at her residence. The short and distinguished presentation saw over 20 garments modelled.
Speaking to this newspaper, Donna said, “It’s called ‘Beginning’ because in many ways it’s a beginning… We lost more than seventy percent of our display team to jobs overseas and the others are on travel duties right now so we only had four of the display teams that we’ve had for the last 20 years… Then we have new babies to the group so that’s also a beginning.”
According to the designer, the 2023 Beginning collection, which mostly saw the team “One Love” being displayed, was done with the hope that her birth country, Guyana, will finally start to be united; people will start to love each other and eradicate the division which currently exists. “A lot of the artwork represents ‘beginning’,” she added.
She said she also aims to expand the communication aspect of fashion, thus, letting her work speak for itself and for it to send a strong and powerful message to its wearers and also persons on the outside. She added that this collection sends the message “love is what the world is about so let fashion be the healing…”
Donna, who has held shows in and out of Guyana, noted that such shows are never cheap. She also stated that for many years, her fashion shows have helped to raise funds for local and international agencies such as cancer institutions and shelters, and even schools.
When asked about the process it takes to design and arrange the show, she responded that the most complicated and lengthy period would be the idea and then the designs. “It takes us like about a year because it goes from a concept to an idea, onto paper, onto fabric and then finishing that fabric, seeing if the vision and team come together and if it doesn’t, we can’t use some of the pieces and so we have to introduce new pieces,” she explained.
Some of the clothing which were designed by Donna and her assistant will be for sale from next Wednesday. Appointments can be made on telephone number 225-7134.
