The fash­ion in­dus­try is to­day mourn­ing the death of in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed lo­cal fash­ion pho­tog­ra­ph­er Calvin French.

De­tails sur­round­ing his death were yet to be re­leased up to press time last evening, but T&T Guardian un­der­stands that French, who passed away around 4.45 pm, was ail­ing for some time and was hos­pi­talised in a pri­vate in­sti­tu­tion up un­til his pass­ing.

The news of his death quick­ly spread across so­cial me­dia.

One close col­league de­scribed French as a good friend and men­tor.

“Calvin French was my in­spi­ra­tion, sup­port­er, break­through male mod­el, ex­cep­tion­al agent, agency own­er and tal­ent­ed pho­tog­ra­ph­er. Calvin French touched so many lives world­wide. That big smile and his favourite line… ‘Oh Miss Thing!’

“He told it like he saw it, un­apolo­get­i­cal­ly, and forced you to grow. Even at my low­est Calvin helped me re­fo­cus, and press for­ward. He was an icon. I will miss his wis­dom, I will miss his in­fec­tious laugh, I will miss his “Yes dar­ling!” I will miss him dear­ly,” French’s friend said.

An­oth­er rem­i­nisced about meet­ing French in his 20s.

“My dear friend Calvin French has tran­si­tioned. He was known for his phe­nom­e­nal pho­tog­ra­phy, sharp tongue, and im­mense charm. I met Calvin in my 20s, and I con­sult­ed him on every ma­jor project I’ve done since then, his ad­vice was al­ways hon­est, and wise.”

On Oc­to­ber 5, 2017, French launched his You Mag­a­zine at VAS Lounge, Rust Street, St Clair. The aim of the dig­i­tal pub­li­ca­tion was to trans­late the iden­ti­ty and heart of the cul­tur­al and so­cial trend­set­ters of the Caribbean.

French ded­i­cat­ed it to bring to­geth­er the very best in Caribbean fash­ion, style, lifestyle and en­ter­tain­ment.

French al­so served as a di­rec­tor on Cre­ative TT and was in­stru­men­tal in bring­ing Vogue Italia to T&T.