Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

As we ap­proach the pres­i­den­tial in­au­gu­ra­tion 2023 that takes place to­mor­row, WE puts the spot­light on our lo­cal fash­ion in­dus­try. For those who have made the list of in­vi­tees for this spe­cial na­tion­al event and for oth­ers who may be prepar­ing to at­tend oth­er im­por­tant func­tions, you know that look­ing your best when you step out is para­mount. You should al­ways strive for a good bal­ance be­tween be­ing at­trac­tive, clas­sic and pow­er­ful.

WE sug­gests that for every event you may have to at­tend, do not just con­sid­er lo­cal, but make the con­scious de­ci­sion to sup­port our de­sign­ers!

The wealth of tal­ent that our beau­ti­ful coun­try has pro­duced ex­tends over gen­er­a­tions and hemi­spheres. Sup­port­ing lo­cal fash­ion is not just a de­sign op­tion, it is an eco­nom­ic de­ci­sion with mul­ti­ple lay­ers of ben­e­fits. As you sup­port a lo­cal fash­ion en­tre­pre­neur, you re­alise the op­por­tu­ni­ty of sup­port­ing some­one you may know, while cu­rat­ing your own sense of style, and di­rect­ly rein­vig­o­rat­ing our na­tion­al econ­o­my in do­ing so.

WE sought col­lab­o­ra­tive in­puts from Lisa-Marie Daniel, a strate­gic in­no­va­tor dri­ving the fash­ion econ­o­my in her ca­pac­i­ty as gen­er­al man­ag­er of Fash­ionTT. She shares, “It is im­por­tant to note that not on­ly are you sup­port­ing en­tre­pre­neurs with­in the fash­ion sec­tor in pur­chas­ing their prod­ucts but that you are al­so play­ing a key role in dri­ving the eco­nom­ic growth of the lo­cal econ­o­my by dri­ving wealth and open­ing up em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties lo­cal­ly. Mi­cro and SME busi­ness­es are known glob­al­ly to be the key eco­nom­ic dri­vers in in­no­va­tion and di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion.”

She said from the renowned vet­er­ans such Prof An­drew Ram­roop, Clau­dia Pe­gus, Pe­ter Elias, Meil­ing, The Cloth and Heather Jones to the young and amaz­ing trail­blaz­ers Charu Lochan Dass, Ecliff Elie, Stacey Ben­jamin (Di­ane Carl­ton Caribbean), Ne­ha Ka­ri­na, J An­qelique, An­drew John Smith from To­ba­go, The Hide­out Cloth­ing, Shiv­onne Subero and many oth­ers, “there is so much rich­ness in the aes­thet­ic with­in this sec­tor cater­ing for all fash­ion needs, that there is no need to buy over­seas when it is all made here in T&T.”

Fash­ion Triv­ia: Did you know?

Our de­signs are worn not on­ly by lo­cals but glob­al­ly ac­cept­ed by in­ter­na­tion­al celebri­ties as well. Many may not be aware, but at the fa­mous Princess Di­ana’s Panora­ma in­ter­view in 1995 on BBC, she wore a jack­et tai­lored by T&T’s finest, An­dre Ram­roop, OBE. In a re­cent in­ter­view, Ram­roop shared, “I be­gan work­ing on Lon­don’s Sav­ile Row at the age of 17 af­ter leav­ing Trinidad and have since cre­at­ed suits for the likes of ac­tor Samuel L Jack­son and the Princess of Wales.”

Fash­ion Meta­verse

As tech­nol­o­gy pro­gressed, so did Fash­ionTT, con­tin­u­ous­ly op­ti­mis­ing and stay­ing abreast of all in­no­v­a­tive op­por­tu­ni­ties avail­able. Lisa-Marie Daniel said that in part­ner­ship with ex­porTT with the sup­port of project con­sul­tant Car­di­nal Ser­vices LLC, they launched an im­mer­sive and dy­nam­ic “Fash­ion Meta­verse” to dri­ve en­gage­ment and com­merce with in­ter­na­tion­al buy­ers and con­sumers for the top ex­port-ready de­sign­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“With­in this Meta­verse, each com­pa­ny has a cus­tomised ex­hi­bi­tion booth show­cas­ing their in­di­vid­ual prod­uct of­fer­ings. This glob­al project is on­go­ing and in 2023, we will be em­bark­ing on In-Mar­ket Trade Mis­sions with­in the Unit­ed States and the Unit­ed King­dom to en­gage in face-to-face meet­ings with buy­ers and key clien­tele to build in­dus­try link­ages to dri­ve sales gen­er­a­tion, ex­port and in­flux of for­eign ex­change with­in the sec­tor.

Mile­stone Achieve­ments

An­oth­er mile­stone achieve­ment for the in­dus­try was at­tained with the open­ing of the MADE868, a state-of-the-art Fash­ion Pro­duc­tion Fa­cil­i­ty. This ini­tia­tive led by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTT) with the sup­port of Fash­ionTT caters to the pro­duc­tion needs of all fash­ion com­pa­nies.

“An­nu­al­ly, un­der the am­bit of the an­nu­al Val­ue Chain In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (VCIP), we col­lab­o­rate with in ex­cess of 170 en­tre­pre­neurs to de­vel­op and strength­en busi­ness skills, acu­men, process­es and pro­ce­dures for the pur­pose of boost­ing rev­enues, ex­ports and job em­ploy­ment which will all serve as dri­vers in build­ing the in­dus­try’s re­silience.

“We have ex­e­cut­ed this ini­tia­tive along­side pro­fes­sors from the Fash­ion In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy, NY; the Arthur Lok Jack School of Glob­al Busi­ness; the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and key busi­ness ad­vis­ers from the Na­tion­al En­tre­pre­neur­ial De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny.

“The VCIP con­sists of men­tor­ships which are specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored to each com­pa­ny’s busi­ness de­vel­op­men­tal needs. En­ter­pris­es work­ing along­side Fash­ionTT have in­creased their rev­enues by as much as 135 per cent and have been pen­e­trat­ing new glob­al mar­kets such as France, Fi­ji, Oman, Switzer­land, and the British Vir­gin Is­lands to name a few.”

Lisa-Marie ad­mits that de­spite these as­tound­ing gains, our lo­cal fash­ion de­sign­ers as­sert their de­sire for more lo­cal sup­port from na­tion­als. She would like to see the in­dus­try recog­nised more by lo­cals, where­by every­one buys lo­cal and has an ap­pre­ci­a­tion for our tal­ent and cul­ture.

Lisa-Marie wants our in­dus­try to stand out and be known on a vast re­gion­al and glob­al scale for our unique and beau­ti­ful aes­thet­ic which comes with pre­mi­um qual­i­ty and to en­sure our in­dus­try mean­ing­ful­ly con­tributes to our coun­try’s wealth and GDP.

WE spoke to our lead­ing fash­ion de­sign­ers

to get their top style ad­vice:

1) Self-con­fi­dence is the most fash­ion­able ac­ces­so­ry you can wear.

2) What may work for one woman may not work for an­oth­er. Know your­self. Know your strengths.

3) Be aware of what cut, colour and style al­low you to em­brace your best self. On­ly you will know this, but these per­son­al choic­es de­vel­op over time by en­gag­ing dif­fer­ent styles.

4) In­vest in qual­i­ty. In the long run, it will be less cost­ly than in­fe­ri­or qual­i­ty. Keep in mind that qual­i­ty adds val­ue to the fin­ished look.

5) Less is more. Take a last look in the mir­ror be­fore step­ping out. De­vel­op an hon­est re­la­tion­ship with a full-length mir­ror. It will al­ways guide you in the right di­rec­tion.

Most im­por­tant­ly, in­ter­nalise that there is a huge dif­fer­ence be­tween style and fash­ion. Fash­ion changes, but style en­dures!

“In your sil­hou­ettes, you should al­ways strive for a good bal­ance be­tween be­ing at­trac­tive, clas­sic and pow­er­ful,” shared Lisa-Marie.