Bringing fresh air to fashion

Designer Diane Hunt plans a regional fashion week in May — Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago — under a large tent

  • Photograph courtesy Radical Designs/Richard Cook

Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago (FWTT)

Trinidadian designer and businesswoman Diane Hunt is planning to spend six nights in a tent in late May—but not because she’s going camping in the bush.

The tent is going to be in the Queen’s Park Savannah, in the middle of Port of Spain, and it will be the venue for Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago (FWTT).

Hunt, the creative spirit behind the Radical Designs chain of fashion stores, did a successful trial run, on a smaller scale, last year. “So I decided to go for it again this year and ask some of the most talented designers in the Caribbean to join me.”

She was inspired by attending this year’s London Fashion Week. “There was so much going on in London one couldn’t help but get in the swing of things. The fashion on show is just incredible. The visit made me realise that we (designers) should and could be doing more. I want everyone to join me in this.”

She and a team of professionals are planning shows by different designers each day. Each night patrons will be able to see a new collection of the most stimulating Caribbean designs. One evening will feature a show under the title “Caribbean Spirit,” another “Conscious Fashion” and a third “Fresh.”

But the highlights will be collections from “The Icons,” top Caribbean designers who have already proved themselves.

“Allies”—designers from elsewhere in the region—will also be included. And Hunt intends to incorporate appearances by talented Caribbean musicians, displays of art, and prize-winning Carnival costumes, in addition to the fashion collections.

But that’s as far as she’ll go when it comes to revealing her plans.

Hunt believes Fashion Week will bring to the region a chance for many professionals in the industry to bring out their newest and most dramatic ideas. A fashion week doesn’t only inspire designers to reach greater heights: it also involves hairdressers, make-up artists working along with cosmetic producers, advertising agents, public relations practitioners, photographers, newspaper and magazine writers and editors, and accessory manufacturers, as well as models, many of whom have been discovered and brought out specifically for occasions such as this.

She feels very strongly that this is one of the routes fashion producers and their aficionados must take if the Caribbean is to make a serious attempt at developing a regional fashion market.

For more information: www.fwtt.org

 

Funding provided by the 11th EDF Regional Private Sector Development Programme Direct Support Grants Programme.
The views expressed on this website are those of the the authors and do not reflect those of the Direct Support Grants Programme.

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