SAN­DRA L BLOOD

The pro­duc­tion Min­neso­ta 10,000 Lakes Meets Trinidad Car­ni­val took New York Fash­ion Week (NYFW) 2025 by storm on Sep­tem­ber 13, when vi­brant Caribbean fash­ion house Mum & Me Pro­duc­tion (MMP) staged its sec­ond an­nu­al show­case. The event was host­ed by Fash­ion Life Tour (FTL).

MMP’s Tri­ni-Amer­i­can founders, Jolan­ta Kissoon Young and her moth­er Lau­ra Kissoon, based in St Paul, Min­neso­ta, USA, pre­sent­ed a daz­zling fu­sion of Mid­west seren­i­ty and Caribbean ex­u­ber­ance—a cre­ative space where the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er met the Caribbean Sea.

“It was a love let­ter to both our homes,” said Kissoon. “We blend­ed the peace­ful rhythm of Min­neso­ta’s lakes with the vi­brant heart­beat of Trinidad’s Car­ni­val. It was a cel­e­bra­tion of cul­tur­al du­al­i­ty and cre­ative free­dom—an elec­tri­fy­ing mix of Car­ni­val cou­ture and Min­neso­ta charm.”

The show opened with a soul-stir­ring steel­pan per­for­mance by MMP’s pan am­bas­sador, Earl Brooks Jr, ac­com­pa­nied by the flag-bear­ing Ex­ot­ic moko jumbies. His setlist flowed from T&T’s 2025 Road March hit Pardy by Machel Mon­tano, to the crowd-favourite Great­est Bend Over by Yung Bred­da, be­fore clos­ing with the clas­sic Pur­ple Rain by the late Min­neso­ta icon, Prince.

Cul­tur­al and na­tion­al sym­bols—from birds and flow­ers to flags, maps, and fes­ti­vals—took cen­tre stage.

“As pro­duc­ers, we are com­mit­ted to ho­n­our­ing her­itage while push­ing the bound­aries of fash­ion sto­ry­telling,” Kissoon added.

T&T’s spir­it came alive through mod­els Am­ber Ali­cia Creighton (na­tion­al flag), An­gi Za­kaszes­ka (Scar­let Ibis, the na­tion­al bird), and Jas­mine Lee (Car­ni­val mas­quer­ad­er). Min­neso­ta, mean­while, was rep­re­sent­ed by Lainey Donoghue (state flag), Sateesh (state bird, the loon), and Ja­son (Torch­light Pa­rade char­ac­ter).

A high­light of the evening was Gizele Tavares’ mov­ing trib­ute to both re­gions—a gown fea­tur­ing a world map that sym­bol­i­cal­ly traced the jour­ney from Min­neso­ta’s qui­et Lake Itas­ca, source of the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er, to its de­scent through Amer­i­ca and on­ward to the Caribbean Sea.

“It re­flect­ed the deep cur­rents of con­nec­tion be­tween our two homes,” ex­plained Kissoon.

Fol­low­ing their NYFW suc­cess, the Mum & Me Pro­duc­tion duo con­tin­ue to cham­pi­on Caribbean cre­ativ­i­ty on glob­al plat­forms. On Oc­to­ber 11, they host­ed a pop-up at the St Paul Art Crawl, of­fer­ing vis­i­tors a clos­er look at their evolv­ing blend of fash­ion, her­itage, and in­no­va­tion.