Fashion design is one of the liveliest industries in today’s Caribbean: in most of the islands you can find young designers and fashion houses producing exciting and original clothes.
These pages feature just three young operations from Barbados. Sandbox Designs was started about 18 months ago by Vicki Pierce and Erica Weatherhead, and produces hand-painted swimwear and beachwear. They produce a new collection every year, the current one inspired by shells and the sea; the swimwear is in cotton spandex and the beach wear in 100% cotton.
Inter Island Connections is another new business, run by Karin Truedsson and Claire Worme and trading under the brand name Dingolay. They specialise in sportswear, and produce all sorts of unusual ideas, working in various textures of cotton Iycra and knits; they export to St Maarten, Anguilla, Antigua and Grenada.
Colette Lowe of NEVA produces free-flowing garments suitable for casual or semiformal wear, especially ethnic prints in basic earth tones. Her clothes are made strictly to order.
Photography: Steve Cohn Make-up: Noelle Attaway
Models: Luna Brandford, Sherrylene Hall
Location: Vacluse Sugar Factory, Barbados
