Sean Nero

T&T's Anya Ay­oung-Chee, win­ner of Project Run­way 2011, will present her win­ning col­lec­tion at the fourth an­nu­al Ocean Style Fash­ion Show­case sched­uled to take place in Mon­tego Bay, Ja­maica, to­day. She will share the spot­light with her men­tor Meil­ing, as well as oth­er pre­sent­ing cou­turi­ers at the in­vi­ta­tion-on­ly event sched­uled to take place at the ATL Au­to­mo­tive Show­room in Mon­tego Bay. Or­gan­ised by T&T busi­ness­man and Ocean Style Mag­a­zine ed­i­tor-in-chief Dou­glas Gor­don, the styl­ish af­fair will form part of an ex­clu­sive three-part week­end of ac­tiv­i­ties from Fri­day through Sun­day, with the theme: Fash­ion, Lux­u­ry, Fun.

Held in as­so­ci­a­tion with Land Rover and Range Rover, Ap­ple­ton Es­tate Ja­maica Rum and San­dals Re­sorts, it will be at­tend­ed by celebri­ties in­clud­ing for­mer NBA su­per­star John Sal­ley, track ath­lete Dono­van Bai­ley, as well as ac­tors An­tho­ny An­der­son, Quin­ton Aaron and Rock­mond Dun­bar, who have con­firmed their at­ten­dance at the Ocean Style event. "I am so thrilled to be at­tend­ing this year's fash­ion show­case in stun­ning Mon­tego Bay," said Ay­oung-Chee, in an e-mail re­sponse to the T&T Guardian. "I can­not wait to see what Ocean Style has in store for this high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed week­end. Not to men­tion I get to re­turn to one of my favourite places in the world...Ja­maica." Gor­don, the vi­sion­ary be­hind Ocean Style Mag­a­zine and tele­vi­sion se­ries Trail Blaz­ers, ex­pressed his de­light that Ay­oung-Chee ac­cept­ed his in­vi­ta­tion to present her cre­ations at the Fash­ion Show­case.

With re­spect to her suc­cess on the Life­time re­al­i­ty se­ries, he said: "It is just re­ward and recog­ni­tion for her tal­ent and per­for­mance over the course of the Project Run­way Sea­son. "Even more re­mark­able is the mes­sage it sends about de­ter­mi­na­tion, per­se­ver­ance and fo­cus in mov­ing past chal­lenges and de­trac­tors. Anya's vic­to­ry is some­thing the en­tire Caribbean has em­braced and that in it­self is awe­some," he said. Ja­maica's San­dra Kennedy will show­case her beau­ti­ful sea-is­land cot­ton re­sort col­lec­tion at the fash­ion show, while Sophia Max-Brown will out­fit the men in Hugh Boss and Calvin Klein fin­ery car­ried in her Kingston bou­tique for the event in which Caribbean Air­lines along with Just Bet, Cin­na­mon Hill, JS­Barkats, Trail­blaz­ers, CVM TV, Ja­maica Ob­serv­er, and eZines are al­so part­ners.

In­ter­na­tion­al de­sign­ers pre­sent­ing at the event in­clude Herve Leg­er, Elie Saab, Emilio Puc­ci, March­esa, Rober­to Cav­al­li, Blue­ma­rine, Reem Acra and Car­los Miele. Shoes for the event will be sup­plied by Ed­mun­do Castil­lo. But be­fore they get down to the busi­ness of fash­ion Ay­oung-Chee and Meil­ing are like­ly to hob­nob with A-lis­ters at a wel­come beach par­ty at San­dals Cay. At­ten­tion will turn to a celebri­ty golf tour­na­ment to be played at the famed Cin­na­mon Hill golf course the fol­low­ing day, where Olympic Cham­pi­on Dono­van Bai­ley and his team will seek to re­tain their ti­tle.

The Mon­tego Bay Cham­ber of Com­merce and Ocean Style have sweet­ened the win­nings for this event, how­ev­er. Apart from the US$1 mil­lion for the hole in one, golfers with their "A" game can al­so take away a Land Rover LR2 and an Au­di A1. Once again, pro­ceeds from the golf tour­na­ment will go to­wards a Style Schol­ar­ship Fund es­tab­lished by the Mon­tego Bay Cham­ber of Com­merce and Ocean Style, de­signed to as­sist Caribbean stu­dents pur­su­ing de­grees in fash­ion or the arts in North Amer­i­ca.