JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Outfitting the professional woman

by

20100317

Shop­ping for styl­ish clothes can be a recipe for stress and headaches. But Keron James, 32 and his 30-year-old fi­anc� Joan­na Hospedales have come up a win­ning for­mu­la with J&K Sig­na­ture Styles. The se­cret in­gre­di­ents? Great cus­tomer ser­vice, a pleas­ant shop­ping ex­pe­ri­ence and com­fort­able, af­ford­able women's cloth­ing. The Tu­na­puna-born, Tacarigua-based co-own­ers in­sist that there's more to their cloth­ing store than meets the eye.

Born out of a need to "fill a void" in the lo­cal cloth­ing mar­ket as it re­lates to women's pro­fes­sion­al wear, J&K opened its doors in No­vem­ber and the feed­back, thus far, has been "ex­cep­tion­al." Sit­u­at­ed in the heart of the cap­i­tal city, at No 92 Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain, the store, which had been in the wood­works for about a year, has seen an in­flux of cu­ri­ous and sat­is­fied cus­tomers, and word is spread­ing fast.

"Our fo­cus is to pro­vide a nice en­vi­ron­ment and a great cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence. So far, peo­ple love the clothes," says James, a grad­u­ate of New Or­leans Loy­ola Uni­ver­si­ty School of Law. Cater­ing to sizes ze­ro and up, J&K has a cus­tomer base rang­ing from politi­cians to the woman on the street. Co-owned by James' younger broth­er Kofi, the store al­so of­fers women's hand­bags and ac­ces­sories to com­plete the pro­fes­sion­al look.

With a mind for busi­ness and an en­tre­pre­neur­ial spir­it, James, an en­ter­tain­ment lawyer who al­so co-man­ages his fam­i­ly busi­ness–Mil­len­ni­um Prop­er­ty Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd–is al­so known for his vo­cal skills in the R&B and groovy so­ca gen­res. Hospedales, a 2001 UWI grad­u­ate and for­mer mar­ket­ing man­ag­er at Re­pub­lic Bank, adds that spe­cial fe­male touch. Sat­is­fy­ing the cus­tomer, she says, is al­ways on the front burn­er.

"Peo­ple like the at­ten­tion they get and they're al­ways com­ing back. We place our cus­tomers' names on our data­base and we alert them when­ev­er we have a sale or new ar­rivals. We al­so have month­ly ac­tiv­i­ties ...There's al­ways some­thing spe­cial go­ing on." So, what's next for the en­gag­ing pair? "We do see a few ar­eas where we could ex­pand. It's been a re­al­ly good ex­pe­ri­ence and we just look for­ward to where we go from here."


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Isaiah Cumberbatch, better known as Rodey the Entertainer, is a popular comedian and performer.

Isaiah Cumberbatch, better known as Rodey the Entertainer, is a popular comedian and performer.

Percival Arthur Sukhbir

Isaiah Cumberbatch, better known as Rodey the Entertainer, is a popular comedian and performer.

Isaiah Cumberbatch, better known as Rodey the Entertainer, is a popular comedian and performer.

Percival Arthur Sukhbir

Rodey the Entertainer: A decade of laughter and love

Yesterday
Stephen Boodoo, a proud father of two daughters—seven-year-old Skylar and four-year-old Seanna—is a welding inspector from Penal. He shared, “Father’s Day means having two beautiful daughters and waking up every day to them saying, ‘Love you, Daddy.’” “Becoming a father changed my life in many ways. With fatherhood came greater responsibility—and even greater love. The best part of having two girls is the constant love and kisses I get every single day.”

Stephen Boodoo, a proud father of two daughters—seven-year-old Skylar and four-year-old Seanna—is a welding inspector from Penal. He shared, “Father’s Day means having two beautiful daughters and waking up every day to them saying, ‘Love you, Daddy.’” “Becoming a father changed my life in many ways. With fatherhood came greater responsibility—and even greater love. The best part of having two girls is the constant love and kisses I get every single day.”

RISHI RAGOONATH

Stephen Boodoo, a proud father of two daughters—seven-year-old Skylar and four-year-old Seanna—is a welding inspector from Penal. He shared, “Father’s Day means having two beautiful daughters and waking up every day to them saying, ‘Love you, Daddy.’” “Becoming a father changed my life in many ways. With fatherhood came greater responsibility—and even greater love. The best part of having two girls is the constant love and kisses I get every single day.”

Stephen Boodoo, a proud father of two daughters—seven-year-old Skylar and four-year-old Seanna—is a welding inspector from Penal. He shared, “Father’s Day means having two beautiful daughters and waking up every day to them saying, ‘Love you, Daddy.’” “Becoming a father changed my life in many ways. With fatherhood came greater responsibility—and even greater love. The best part of having two girls is the constant love and kisses I get every single day.”

RISHI RAGOONATH

Honouring our dads: Happy Father’s Day

Yesterday
Kent Western and his wife, Anna, with their sons, Talon, left, Axel, front, and Eric.

Kent Western and his wife, Anna, with their sons, Talon, left, Axel, front, and Eric.

Antony Scully

Kent Western and his wife, Anna, with their sons, Talon, left, Axel, front, and Eric.

Kent Western and his wife, Anna, with their sons, Talon, left, Axel, front, and Eric.

Antony Scully

TSTT CEO Kent Western raising men, leading with love and purpose

Yesterday
Caretakers and supervisors for the Credo Home for Boys, Alwin Hunte, left, and Makemba Whitley.

Caretakers and supervisors for the Credo Home for Boys, Alwin Hunte, left, and Makemba Whitley.

ROGER JACOB

Caretakers and supervisors for the Credo Home for Boys, Alwin Hunte, left, and Makemba Whitley.

Caretakers and supervisors for the Credo Home for Boys, Alwin Hunte, left, and Makemba Whitley.

ROGER JACOB

Fathers by choice: The men who raise forgotten boys

Yesterday