The Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of Trinidad and To­ba­go(ES­CTT) out­did it­self this year with their an­nu­al Eman­ci­pa­tion fash­ion show. The ES­CTT pref­aced the Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tion for 2022 with this out­stand­ing trib­ute to Afro­cen­tric fash­ion cre­atives in ho­n­our of their 30th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions, hav­ing been in­au­gu­rat­ed by the leg­endary Win­nie Man­dela, un­der the theme Trans­for­ma­tion and Re­silience.

With a changed venue, Queen’s Hall Gar­den The­atre, and un­der the cre­ative di­rec­tion of re­gion­al­ly renowned fash­ion im­pre­sario, Richard Young, the event was a mas­ter­ful in­te­gra­tion of fash­ion and per­form­ing tal­ent. With a cast of over fifty mod­els show­cas­ing the work of twen­ty fash­ion de­sign­ers, pa­trons were treat­ed to a mélange of style brands cel­e­brat­ing African and African-Caribbean style.

Af­ter a two year hia­tus, the an­nu­al event re­turned with gus­to, open­ing up the fash­ion show cir­cuit with mag­nif­i­cence and glo­ry. With a re­brand­ed con­cept, Ewa Afri­ka – A Nu­bian Re­nais­sance, Young craft­ed a sto­ry uti­liz­ing his two Gri­ots, Abeo Jack­son and Con­rad Par­ris, to weave a nar­ra­tive of lib­er­a­tion and iden­ti­ty brand­ing while cel­e­brat­ing our cre­ative en­tre­pre­neur­ship through per­for­mance lu­mi­nar­ies - Vaugh­nette Big­ford, Xavier Ed­wardz, Stacey Sobers, Za­kiya Gill and Wasafoli Trinidad and To­ba­go - and a mul­ti-di­men­sion­al cadre of pro­lif­ic de­sign­ers - Zadd and East­man, The Cloth, Lisa Faye, DAWW Cre­ations, Shaun Grif­fith Perez, Der­ron Attzs, Ak­i­lah Jew­el­ry, Na­bal­lah Chi, Mark East­man, Do­minique La Roche, Har­vey Robert­son, Eu­phor­ic De­signs, Xoana De­signs, The Nu­bian Ex­pe­ri­ence, Chris­tique Cloth­ing. Athali­ah Samuel and two Ghana­ian de­sign­ers- Hay­Looks De­signs and Charis­ma De­signs. Cli­max­ing the first scene in a tit­u­lar dance ‘bring down the pow­er’ was an en­thralling pas de deux by LaShaun Prescott and De­on Bap­tiste.

Ewa Afri­ka - A Nu­bian Re­nais­sance was staged un­der the dis­tin­guished pa­tron­age of Sen­a­tor, the Ho­n­ourable Ran­dall Mitchell, Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts. This fash­ion pro­duc­tion is part of the largest pan-African fes­ti­val out­side of the con­ti­nent of Africa and sig­nals an im­pact­ful con­tri­bu­tion to the glob­al style trade­marks, with di­verse in­spi­ra­tions and eth­nic in­flu­ences tak­ing on Nu­bian con­text, uni­ver­sal­ly.