The state of fashion

Designer Robert Young says a local fashion industry cannot be fully realised until consumers understand the importance of buying “home.” “What industry?” he questioned when asked his views on the state of the fashion industry in T&T. “We are not at the stage where we can call this an industry. It is more like small Maroon villages.” He said “creatives” in T&T were outside of the economy and governments had not made any direct investments in creativity. “In addition, we are trying to make clothes in a world where there are large brands, and the population leans toward buying from them,” Young said. “An industry is a big organised thing. We are small. We can’t produce hundreds of thousands of garments. When we make things, it is at a high cost and raw materials are imported, and then we have a lot to do to make the fabric desirable,” he said. Young said it was significant that names like Meiling and Heather Jones are visible considering the tendency by locals to buy foreign clothing. Young described the 1980s as a time when local clothes were in demand. “There was a ban on imported clothes in the 80s so people would come for designs and everybody would go out and be wearing something different.”

 

Meanwhile, director of the Fashion Association of T&T (FATT) Anthony Rahael is adamant that there is indeed a fashion industry in T&T. “There is a fast-growing industry, and it has been growing even faster since Anya Ayoung-Chee won Project Runway. “There has been a tremendous increase in support,” Rahael said. He highlighted that the first class of designers had graduated from the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s (UTT) Caribbean Academy of Fashion and Design. “That means over 30 new designers and recently attended a presentation incubators and clusters for the fashion industry. Things are happening,” Rahael said. He said FATT supported the design programme at UTT and added that a few of the graduates would be allowed to show their lines during fashion week. “Of course we will carefully select the designs through a screening committee because they must be of a certain quality,” said Rahael. Veteran designer Meiling was hesitant about commenting on the state of the fashion industry. “The Government has just started paying attention and are now putting things in place,” she said.