This Car­ni­val sea­son, Car­ni­val Is Fash­ion 2 makes his­to­ry as it takes cen­tre stage at the icon­ic Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah Grand­stand, re­defin­ing ac­cess to one of the Caribbean’s most revered cul­tur­al plat­forms.

Car­ni­val Is Fash­ion 2 is a show­case where tra­di­tion meets in­no­va­tion, mas meets cou­ture, and Car­ni­val is seen through a new lens set on the Sa­van­nah Stage, to­day. Tra­di­tion­al­ly re­served for mas­quer­aders, pan play­ers, so­ca artistes and ca­lyp­so­ni­ans, the Grand­stand stage now opens to fash­ion in a bold, im­mer­sive show­case that in­vites au­di­ences to ex­pe­ri­ence Car­ni­val from a new van­tage point, not as com­peti­tors, but as par­tic­i­pants in an ex­hil­a­rat­ing fash­ion spec­ta­cle wo­ven in­to the heart of the fes­ti­val. Con­cep­tu­alised and cre­ative­ly di­rect­ed by Richard Young, Car­ni­val Is Fash­ion 2 po­si­tions fash­ion as a cen­tral pil­lar of the Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence, us­ing the sea­son’s nat­ur­al ex­hi­bi­tion­ism to in­tro­duce the world to a dis­tinc­tive fes­ti­val style born in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

It is a clear de­c­la­ra­tion that Car­ni­val is not on­ly a move­ment, mu­sic and mas­quer­ade. Car­ni­val is fash­ion, and fash­ion is cul­ture. The trail­blaz­ing pro­duc­tion fea­tures 12 lead­ing de­sign­ers, whose col­lec­tions un­fold in dy­nam­ic di­a­logue with so­ca artistes, pul­sat­ing so­ca, and tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters. These icon­ic fig­ures are re-imag­ined as liv­ing mas­cots of style, af­firm­ing that mas­quer­ade and cou­ture be­long side by side in this for­mi­da­ble Car­ni­val space.

The de­sign­ers on show are Zadd & East­man, The Cloth, Di­anne Hunt and Ten­nessee Ram­nar­i­nesingh. In­dige­nous Phi­los­o­phy by Do­minique La Roche, Shaun Grif­fith Perez Re­sort, SM WARN­ER... art with at­ti­tude, Yesa De­signs, Eliz­a­beth Lu­cas, Matk East­man, DAWW Cre­ations, Lost Tribe and April Walk­er.

“Get­ting fash­ion on­to the Car­ni­val stage gives our cre­ative ex­cel­lence le­git­i­ma­cy,” says Young. “It tells our peo­ple and the world that our de­sign­ers are world-class and that sup­port­ing lo­cal fash­ion is a pow­er­ful cul­tur­al state­ment.”

Style in Car­ni­val Is Fash­ion 2 ex­tends be­yond cloth­ing to in­clude move­ment, per­for­mance, beau­ty, mu­sic and au­di­ence en­gage­ment, trans­form­ing the show­case in­to a liv­ing Caribbean style man­i­festo.

Al­so sched­uled to take the Grand­stand stage are Patrice Roberts, Na­dia Bat­son, Nailah Black­man and DJ Ana.