Local fashion, very much like T&T Carnival, is awash with colour. The same way international travellers flock to this twin-island republic for its beauty and pageantry during the national festival, arguably the world's biggest street party, it is felt that fashion could have a similar impact and Anthony Rahael, chairman of the Fashion Week T&T (FWTT), agrees. He said: "The world is looking at us for that Caribbean flavour. When you hear about T&T, you think Carnival, you think colour. So you want that as part of your design. You want to be a little different to the outside designers. You want to have that Caribbean flavour." But this country's desire to develop a well constituted fashion industry cannot be realised without Government as a key collaborator with practitioners, he said. But that's not all. He wants Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to become an endorsee of indigenous fashion, in an effort to get the local business community to sign their brands to a wide range of fashion-forward productions, setting the tone for a much needed buy-local culture.He said: "Without Government involvement, the industry can't succeed. We need funding. FWTT struggles to get sponsors. We are growing. We have not reached the maturity stage where we can stand on our own. So we need the Government there to help us grow. We won't always need them, but for the growing part of it, we need Government funding to help put on these shows."
While his quest was to get the State, as well as private enterprise to recognise fashion as a viable commodity, Rahael said fashion houses had their work cut out, too, as it related to bolstering confidence among would-be investors. Fashion designers, he said, who don't have the required business acumen needed to delegate that aspect of their business to qualified executives. For more than two decades Rahael has been a champion of small business entrepreneurship in T&T. Apart from his role as head of FWTT, he's the chief executive officer of the RHL Group of Companies-a family-owned and operated enterprise. He cited that many entrepreneurs lacked the cash management know-how. This, he said, could turn out to be the death of their commercial efforts. "When they bring in a dollar, they have to be able to understand how to manage it and not go and buy rims for their cars. Unfortunately, I have seen that over and over again. The answer is not (to) give (small traders) them more money. The answer is to teach them to manage the money that they have," said Rahael. He added: "What I noticed is the previous Fashion Week board had a lot of bright people, mainly designers. What was missing was a little bit of business focus. The fashion community has to realise that it (fashion) has to have a business element to it, because without that business element, they can't pay their bills." With the firm belief that no limit of fertile talent existed in T&T, he cited that converting those gifts into economical results remains the challenge. "That's why I'm glad that this new board (FWTT) has a diverse set of skills. So I'm hoping that we can help the fashion industry and partner with some of the government agencies," he said.
Mentoring programmes
The desire of the FWTT board to establish a financially viable sector was not being tackled in a singular manner, however, Rahael said. He stressed that the vision was to grow the entire fashion industry: the model, designer, tailor and seamstress, hairstylist, and jewelry designer. "It's a humongous task," he admitted. Nurturing fashion students at the Caribbean Academy of Fashion Design (CAFD) at the University of T&T, through a mentorship programme was high on FWTT's list of priorities, too. Meanwhile, Rahael and the FWTT team wanted to allay fears among creators as it relates to accessing fabric in the quantities and of the quality they would need, but at fairly economical rates. He made the comment with the hope of putting to rest the perception that T&T could not develop a thriving fashion industry without a parallel garment manufacturing sector, as was the case during this country's golden era of fashion. He said no longer were special licences and foreign exchange approvals needed when making this type of purchase and that modern couriers such as Fedex had freight solutions that could aid designers. "We live in a global village. We no longer have to make everything here to make the fashion industry a viable industry. You could easily import fabrics out of China, US, France (and) Italy; anywhere in the world now. So, it is not absolutely necessary for us to create all the fabric here. What is necessary (is) for our people to use the talents they have to create the designs. To me, that's where it starts," Rahael said.
Private sector confidence
In assessing the way forward for the local fashion sphere, Rahael said it was critical for the private sector to not only have confidence in the creators of fashion, but see its value in branding T&T. "As far as private enterprise is concerned, I don't think, as yet, they see the value of the fashion industry. I don't think they see the value and benefits that they can get from participating in Fashion Week. "The benefits that a corporation can get from being involved in Fashion Week are tremendous, from the advertising and public relations. FWTT was still growing and the business community has adopted a wait and see approach. We will be loyal to the companies that come on board now to help us grow".