SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

In a coun­try where di­verse cul­tures blend seam­less­ly, de­sign­er Ne­ha Ka­ri­na Dawar has cap­tured the essence of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mul­ti­cul­tur­al soul. She has made it her mis­sion to bridge cul­tures in style, craft­ing cou­ture that ho­n­ours tra­di­tion while em­brac­ing moder­ni­ty.

Amid this rich mo­sa­ic of tra­di­tions, Dawar’s name stands out for trans­form­ing her­itage in­to haute cou­ture. As the cre­ative di­rec­tor and founder of the Ne­ha Ka­ri­na brand, she has built her vi­sion firm­ly on the foun­da­tion of tra­di­tion.

Dawar ex­plained, “I was born and raised in T&T and grew up sur­round­ed by the colours, rhythms, and rit­u­als of both the Caribbean and my In­di­an an­ces­try. Hav­ing de­vel­oped a deep ap­pre­ci­a­tion for cul­ture and art, I pur­sued stud­ies in per­form­ing arts and mar­ket­ing. This in­spired me to trav­el to In­dia to for­mal­ly train in em­broi­dery, styling, colour the­o­ry, and brand de­vel­op­ment. My time in In­dia was trans­for­ma­tive.”

Im­mersed in the in­tri­cate artistry of In­di­an de­sign—from zar­dosi and mir­ror work to hand­loom weav­ing—Dawar en­vi­sioned a way to merge this cen­turies-old crafts­man­ship with the bold spir­it and cre­ativ­i­ty of the Caribbean. This vi­sion would even­tu­al­ly give birth to her pi­o­neer­ing fash­ion move­ment in T&T. In Ju­ly 2015, Dawar launched her la­bel, be­com­ing the first de­sign­er in T&T to lo­cal­ly man­u­fac­ture In­di­an cou­ture. What be­gan as a dream to re­con­nect with her roots soon blos­somed in­to a lux­u­ry brand syn­ony­mous with au­then­tic­i­ty, el­e­gance, and cul­tur­al pride.

“My de­but col­lec­tions in­tro­duced a new con­cept to the Caribbean: In­do-Caribbean cou­ture, com­bin­ing the grandeur of In­di­an bridal wear with the mod­ern flair of is­land fash­ion. Each piece was a sto­ry told through fab­ric: silks and chif­fons hand-em­broi­dered with jew­els, gold thread, and tra­di­tion­al mo­tifs—yet re-imag­ined with trop­i­cal tones and con­tem­po­rary sil­hou­ettes. By blend­ing Caribbean, In­di­an, and Mid­dle East­ern in­flu­ences, not on­ly did I cre­ate gar­ments, but ex­pe­ri­ences, ones that cel­e­brat­ed both her­itage and in­di­vid­u­al­i­ty.”

Dawar re­called her flag­ship mile­stone. “Poised at the Hilton Trinidad, the open­ing of the Ne­ha Ka­ri­na flag­ship store marked a mile­stone not on­ly for the de­sign­er but for lo­cal fash­ion as a whole. For the first time, clients could ex­pe­ri­ence In­di­an cou­ture de­signed and pro­duced en­tire­ly in T&T, a tes­ta­ment to lo­cal tal­ent, crafts­man­ship, and cul­tur­al in­no­va­tion. The store be­came more than a bou­tique. It be­came a cul­tur­al hub, at­tract­ing clients from across the Caribbean di­as­po­ra and be­yond.”

A model wears a rose quartz lehenga.

From bridal wear to ready-to-wear col­lec­tions, each cre­ation re­flect­ed what Dawar de­scribes as the Roy­al Look–”time­less, lux­u­ri­ous, and deeply root­ed in cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty”.

Dawar’s fash­ion of­fers style with soul. “What sets us apart is not just our aes­thet­ic but the phi­los­o­phy. For me, fash­ion is a medi­um of sto­ry­telling, a way to keep her­itage alive in a mod­ern world. Each de­sign car­ries an emo­tion, a piece of his­to­ry, and a mes­sage of pride.”

Fash­ion for Dawar is not just about beau­ty. “It’s about be­long­ing. It’s about re­mind­ing peo­ple, es­pe­cial­ly our In­do-Caribbean com­mu­ni­ty, that our cul­ture is some­thing to wear with ho­n­our,” she added.

Dawar said her work al­so cel­e­brates in­clu­siv­i­ty. “Many of my clients come from di­verse back­grounds, drawn to the artistry and mean­ing be­hind my cre­ations. Whether de­sign­ing for wed­dings, cul­tur­al events, or Car­ni­val Mon­day Wear, Ne­ha Ka­ri­na’s ap­proach re­mains the same—to craft pieces that em­pow­er in­di­vid­u­als to ex­press their roots bold­ly and beau­ti­ful­ly.”

Re­gard­ing cul­tur­al lega­cy, Dawar said over the past decade, her brand has evolved in­to a sym­bol of cul­tur­al so­phis­ti­ca­tion and self-ex­pres­sion, which rep­re­sents a gen­er­a­tion that proud­ly em­braces its In­di­an-Caribbean iden­ti­ty while shap­ing it anew for the mod­ern world.

Showing off an anarkali in gold and black.

Through fash­ion shows, cul­tur­al col­lab­o­ra­tions, and men­tor­ship, Dawar con­tin­ues to “in­spire young de­sign­ers to val­ue au­then­tic­i­ty over im­i­ta­tion”.

Dawar shared, “My de­signs have been fea­tured in nu­mer­ous re­gion­al show­cas­es, and my clien­tele ex­tends through­out the Caribbean and di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ties in North Amer­i­ca.”

Dawar’s fash­ion jour­ney mir­rors the re­cent Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions—a sto­ry of light, re­new­al, and the tri­umph of au­then­tic­i­ty.

“Just as deyas bright­en the dark­ness, my work il­lu­mi­nates a path for cul­tur­al pride and cre­ative evo­lu­tion,” she says.

In a world where fleet­ing trends of­ten over­shad­ow time­less tra­di­tions, Dawar’s de­signs stand as a ra­di­ant re­minder that cul­ture, when em­braced with love and in­no­va­tion, nev­er fades—it on­ly shines brighter.