With Eman­ci­pa­tion Day just be­ing cel­e­brat­ed, I de­light­ed in wit­ness­ing the ar­ray of Afro­cen­tric fash­ion which con­sumed our soirees and cock­tail func­tions. In­deed, it is an au­to­graph­ic spec­tac­u­lar sol­i­dar­i­ty of style with re­spect to ac­knowl­edg­ing our African her­itage but more than that, it sig­nals the in­flu­ence of not on­ly con­ti­nen­tal African style, the world over, but an ap­pre­ci­a­tion of an emerg­ing Afro-Caribbean style.

One such pur­vey­or of this cel­e­bra­to­ry mu­ta­tion in re­gion­al style is Ju­lia Clarke who has al­ways ex­pressed what might be con­sid­ered an avant-garde sense of style. She has con­sis­tent­ly pushed the en­ve­lope in terms of her in­di­vid­u­al­is­tic in­ter­pre­ta­tion of fash­ion, mak­ing out­stand­ing state­ment pieces, ever since she be­gan craft­ing ap­par­el. She says that her pop­u­lar­i­ty grew by don­ning her­self with her well-de­signed looks and as a re­sult, peren­ni­al re­quests for du­pli­cates grew in­to a busi­ness.

Apt­ly brand­ed Ma­hogany Stuff, Ju­lia her­self cuts fine style with her vel­vet black skin en­veloped in her sig­na­ture cou­ture. Her love of the di­ver­si­ty of life’s prospects fu­els her pas­sion to be cre­ative and trans­pos­es it­self to her fetish with mix­ing prints. Her de­sign phi­los­o­phy caters to out­side-the-box fash­ion­istas who wish to spark “you-look-amaz­ing” con­ver­sa­tions and leave last­ing im­pres­sions, in terms of cre­at­ing in­deli­ble im­pact.

As a de­sign­er, she al­lows her ar­ti­sanal na­ture to guide her in her ac­ces­so­ry-mak­ing and em­bell­ish­ments which smack of trib­al adorn­ment, in its com­po­si­tion and aes­thet­ic. Her sil­hou­ettes re­sem­ble tra­di­tion­al African looks but have evolved to as­sume a Caribbean iden­ti­ty. I rel­ish the unique con­struc­tion de­tails she em­ploys to come up with an idio­syn­crat­ic stamp that is all hers. Kaf­tans which have an added flair, Iros or wrap skirts with her Ma­hogany Stuff touch, Bubas or blous­es and Ipeles or shawls in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to her de­signs with her Caribbean adap­ta­tion make her brand a com­ing-of-age trend­set­ter on the lo­cal Eman­ci­pa­tion scene.

Ma­hogany Stuff is a re­fresh­ing blend of in­ven­tive prints, in­no­v­a­tive cuts, in­ge­nious no­tions ap­plied, in­ven­tive en­sem­bles and in­ter­est­ing sep­a­rates com­pris­ing a new Trin­bag­on­ian Neo African ap­peal.

This evening, at the Gov­ern­ment Cam­pus Plaza Au­di­to­ri­um, Ma­hogany Stuff will be fea­tured at a fash­ion show fundrais­er pro­duced by Lons Fash­ions in sup­port of the In­spired Minds In­sti­tute.

Make­up & Styling - Richard Young

Pho­tos - As­tro Stu­dios

Mod­el - Jean­ice Brig­gs

Fash­ion - Ma­hogany Stuff (Ju­lia Clarke)