On Ju­ly 13, fash­ion de­sign­er Daron­té Guade­loupe un­veiled his lat­est mas­ter­piece, Feel­ings: The Col­lec­tion, dur­ing an in­ti­mate run­way show that cap­ti­vat­ed a hand­picked au­di­ence of fash­ion con­nois­seurs. The night was one of raw emo­tion, bold artistry, and un­for­get­table style—a cel­e­bra­tion not just of fash­ion, but of mem­o­ry, mean­ing, and the en­dur­ing pow­er of self-ex­pres­sion.

Mod­els glid­ed down the run­way in el­e­gant, so­phis­ti­cat­ed en­sem­bles, each metic­u­lous­ly craft­ed to trans­form every woman—re­gard­less of size or height—in­to roy­al­ty. The pieces ra­di­at­ed a sense of time­less beau­ty, craft­ed not for trends, but for lega­cy.

“I’m not a de­sign­er of cur­rent trends,” Guade­loupe said. “Rather, I am a time­less de­sign­er. My aim is to cre­ate cloth­ing that stands the test of time, with a touch of so­phis­ti­ca­tion that my clients love. In essence, I con­sid­er my­self an old soul.”

Guade­loupe, who was born in T&T, raised in Lon­don and is now based in San Fer­nan­do, be­gan his cre­ative jour­ney be­gan ear­ly.

“I’ve been de­sign­ing for as long as I can re­mem­ber,” he said. “My pas­sion for fash­ion start­ed at age eight. I used to make news­pa­per clothes and even al­tered my aunt’s bed­sheets—turn­ing them in­to the mas­ter­pieces I en­vi­sioned in my mind.”

But Feel­ings: The Col­lec­tion wasn’t just a dis­play of aes­thet­ic bril­liance—it was deeply per­son­al. The de­sign­er re­vealed that the col­lec­tion was in­spired by the late Don­na De Gale, a cel­e­brat­ed mod­el from House of Jaqui and a close friend.

“The sto­ry be­hind this col­lec­tion is one of el­e­gance,” he said. “I was feel­ing nos­tal­gic, think­ing of Don­na—how she car­ried my de­signs with such grace. This was the first time I’ve done a show with­out her, and yet, her pres­ence was strong­ly felt through­out the night.”

The col­lec­tion it­self show­cased nat­ur­al fi­bres and lux­u­ri­ous fab­rics such as linen, silk, lace, chif­fon, and bridal satin, along­side hand-paint­ed el­e­ments us­ing im­port­ed fab­ric paints. The re­sult was a fu­sion of fash­ion and art, cap­tur­ing Guade­loupe’s dy­nam­ic cre­ative vi­sion.

“My ide­al client is any woman who isn’t afraid to be her best, bold self,” he ex­plained. “The woman who de­sires to look fab­u­lous and dares to step out of her com­fort zone in the name of fash­ion.”

That ethos has been at the core of his ca­reer. Ini­tial­ly de­sign­ing pri­mar­i­ly for full-fig­ured women, Guade­loupe has since evolved his brand to cater to women of all body types—a shift he sees as both nat­ur­al and di­vine­ly guid­ed.

Quot­ing scrip­ture, he re­flect­ed on his spir­i­tu­al roots: “Ex­cept the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.

“I didn’t ful­ly un­der­stand that verse when I was younger,” he ad­mit­ted. “But now, it makes per­fect sense. Every­thing about this jour­ney—from de­sign to des­tiny—has been or­dered.”

With Feel­ings: The Col­lec­tion, Daron­té Guade­loupe has once again proven him­self not on­ly as a de­sign­er of gar­ments, but as a de­sign­er of ex­pe­ri­ences—el­e­vat­ing fash­ion in­to some­thing time­less, per­son­al, and pro­found­ly felt.