–Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

Dis Is We Style–a vi­brant cel­e­bra­tion of the dis­tinc­tive style and cre­ativ­i­ty flour­ish­ing with­in T&T’s fash­ion in­dus­try–has touched down! Card­ed to take place over the course of a week at the end of May 2024, this fash­ion ex­trav­a­gan­za will show­case an ar­ray of ap­peal­ing events, in­clud­ing mes­meris­ing run­way shows, cap­ti­vat­ing ex­hi­bi­tions, en­light­en­ing work­shops, and much more.

Tourism Trinidad Lim­it­ed was thrilled to an­nounce the launch of this fash­ion fes­ti­val at a venue renowned for its role in pro­mot­ing and pre­serv­ing the arts and cul­ture of T&T, Queen’s Hall. The launch, host­ed by cre­ative di­rec­tor Richard Young, co­in­cid­ed with the cal­en­dar date for next year and was done so that peo­ple could ‘Save The Date’ and plan be­yond the Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions.

Car­la Cu­pid, the CEO of Tourism Trinidad Lim­it­ed, speak­ing at the launch, ex­pressed en­thu­si­asm, say­ing, “In keep­ing with our mantra that Trinidad is al­ways in Sea­son, we are fi­nal­ly mak­ing this a firmer re­al­i­ty with our fes­ti­vals sched­ule. We are tru­ly thrilled to un­veil this re­mark­able event which ex­em­pli­fies the tal­ent and in­ge­nu­ity of our lo­cal fash­ion in­dus­try.

“Our tal­ents are world-class, and we need to start cre­at­ing space lo­cal­ly to in­vite the world to come and en­joy it. This fes­ti­val stands as a tes­ta­ment to the un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment and pas­sion of our home-grown de­sign­ers, and we take im­mense pride in sup­port­ing their en­deav­ours. This all fits in­to TTL’s strate­gic fes­ti­val plans which will see per­sons now hav­ing op­tions be­yond the Mas for fes­ti­vals held over sev­er­al days which in­clude mu­sic, culi­nary and, of course, fash­ion.”

These sen­ti­ments were echoed by Ms Si­mone Thorne-Mo­ra Quinones, the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary at the Min­istry of Tourism Cul­ture and the Arts. She em­pha­sised the sig­nif­i­cance of the fash­ion fes­ti­val, say­ing, “This launch rep­re­sents a piv­otal mo­ment for our na­tion, as it will high­light our dis­tinct cul­ture and bound­less cre­ativ­i­ty. We are proud to lend our sup­port to this event and ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pate its con­tin­ued suc­cess.”

The fes­ti­val will fea­ture a stel­lar line-up of T&T’s lead­ing cre­ators and many more. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, de­sign­ers from around the globe will al­so be show­cased, adding a tru­ly glob­al flair to the fes­tiv­i­ties.

“Vi­brant, cre­ative, and in­no­v­a­tive, this is what comes to mind when one con­tem­plates the di­verse ar­ray of of­fer­ings in Trinidad’s tourism sec­tor and our lo­cal fash­ion in­dus­try,” Aisha Stew­art, Project Lead for the Glob­al Val­ue Chain(GVC) Project, Fash­ionTT shared.

“It is with great plea­sure that Fash­ionTT takes part in the un­veil­ing of this re­mark­able ini­tia­tive, cel­e­brat­ing and em­pha­sis­ing the in­her­ent har­monies be­tween fash­ion and fes­ti­val tourism. We take pride in show­cas­ing the ex­cep­tion­al crafts­man­ship of the GVC de­sign­ers, a group of 11 in­di­vid­u­als poised to ex­hib­it their tal­ents on the glob­al stage. Un­der the guid­ance of Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Lisa Marie Daniel, Fash­ionTT spear­heads two teams of de­sign­ers, who will em­bark on sep­a­rate trade mis­sions to New York and the Unit­ed King­dom in June and Ju­ly 2023 re­spec­tive­ly.”