SOME OF the best designers from the Caribbean and the rest of the world will be on show at Caribbean Fashionweek 2004.
According to a Pulse release, "more than 50 designers will be featured this year and about 30 collections will be shown on the runway". Among those 50 designers are first-timers Meiling, 'the pride of Trinidad'; Simon Foster, 'father of fashion' in Barbados; haute couture stylist Pauline Bellamy and the "highest ranked Caribbean designer in the world" (aside from Oscar De La Renta), Jessica Ogden.
Pulse reports that the London-based Ogden is rated among the 150 most important designers in the world in a book published by i-D magazine.
Repeat designers and 'CFW favourites' from the Caribbean will also be represented. Acclaimed Trinidadian designers Claudia Pegus, Robert Young and Heather Jones will be on show at the event; while Jamaica's contingent of top designers will be represented by 'style makers' Uzuri, Biggy, Siim, Pat Wright (Wright Style), Cooyah, Loran V, Mutamba, Moncrieffe and Bill Edwards.
New York-based Guyanese Roger Gary will again make an appearance, along with Corinne Baesberg from St. Lucia and Nefertari Caddle from Barbados.
Additionally designers from around the world, along with media representatives, stylists and fashionistas, will descend on the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel between June 10 and 13 to see what the best of the region's designers have to offer and mount a display of their own. From Francoise Jeaner out of Australia to Rafif from Africa and Mary Wilson from Britain, designers from the world's major fashion markets will get a chance to show and prove at Fashionweek.
They will be accompanied by new designers Sean Dixon, DiMarsh, Dawn Walder, Loren Tulloch and Viola Dixon from Jamaica.
Though the exhibition will be open to the public throughout the three-day event, the actual spectacle of Fashionweek will be reserved for invited guests. The public will, however, get to view the shows "via big screen broadcasts in public locations", according to the release.
