The Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of T&T (ES­CTT) boasts of the largest Pan-African Fes­ti­val out­side of the con­ti­nent of Africa and kicks off its 31st year of cel­e­bra­tions with the fash­ion ex­trav­a­gan­za, Ewa Afri­ka …. Sanko­fa Style at the Queen’s Hall to­day from 4 pm. The event is be­ing di­rect­ed by cel­e­brat­ed re­gion­al pro­duc­tion de­sign­er Richard Young.

Young posits that “this fash­ion ex­po­si­tion is a the­atri­cal spec­tac­u­lar.” It will be fea­tur­ing not on­ly 24 of the coun­try’s lead­ing de­sign­ers but high­lights lu­mi­nary tal­ents–Vaugh­nette Big­ford, Char­maine Ford, Kyle Her­nadez, Abeo Jack­son, Con­rad Par­ris, Caribbean Steel­pan Con­nex­tion, and Wasafoli Per­form­ing com­pa­ny.

Ac­cord­ing to Za­kiya Uzoma-Wada­da of ES­CTT, last year the peo­ple of T&T were in­vit­ed to a Nu­bian Re­nais­sance, and “this year we em­brace our past, as we look to­ward the fu­ture, so get ready for Ewa Afri­ka 2 … Sanko­fa Style!”

De­sign­ers on the line­up in­clude The Cloth, Heather Jones, Zadd and East­man, Lisa Faye, Don­na Dove, Shaun Grif­fith Perez, DAWW Cre­ations, Di­ane Carl­ton Caribbean, Na­bal­lah Chi, In­dige­nous De­signs by Do­minique La Roche, Shel­don Warn­er, Deron Attzs, Cour­nelius Hec­tor, An­tho­ny Redd, Mark East­man, Athali­ah Samuel, Dar­i­anne Phillips, Eliz­a­beth Fran­cis, Car­men Mer­rique, Kadi­ja Dy­er, Nu­bian Ex­pe­ri­ence, Xoana De­signs and Ak­i­lah Jaramo­ji.

The event is a cor­nu­copia of African and Afro­cen­tric fash­ions. Al­so be­ing fea­tured are Ghana­ian de­sign­ers Fausti­na An­song and Josephine Hay­ford with lead­ing Caribbean de­sign­ers, Guyana’s style maven, So­nia Noel, and Do­mini­can-born An­tigua-based uber-cre­ative Mi­ran­da Ask­ie.