The highlight is a jacket designed by Roy Riley for Squintwear. -Winston Sill photo
Alicia Roache, Staff Reporter
CARIBBEAN FASHIONWEEK has established itself as the premiere fashion event in the Caribbean. It promises worldwide exposure and development to designers who participate, as well providing a forum through which they can showcase and sell their designs. As such, many designers see the event as a viable and necessary part of their success.However, there are mixed reactions regarding whether or not the event is living up to its promise and potential.
This year, CFW had the largest contingent of designers in its four-year history. Over 50 designers from the Caribbean and around the region brought their designs to be showcased. Among them were celebrated designers Esau Meiling from Trinidad, Simon Foster and Peter Bowen from Barbados and guest designer Jessica Ogden.
Plagued by complaints from local and regional designers of the low buyer participation in previous years the event's organisers, Pulse, changed Fashionweek from November to June, to accommodate more buyers. According to reports from Pulse there were "close to 30 buyers representing more than 120 stores in Jamaica, the United States, St. Kitts, Belize, Guyana, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Barbados" in attendance.BUYER PRESENCE, BUSINESSFashionweek had all the makings of a spectacular event and for some it was. Pulse reports that there was "strong buyer presence and business" at CFW 2004. According to the report, Meiling, Pat Wright (Wright Style), Alan Rouse (Zero Gravity) and Bill Edwards were some of the designers who recorded "significant sales and success with press".
Rouse sold more than 950
garments.In CFW exit questionnaires completed by the designers, praises for the event flowed liberally. Henk and Judith Uitleroo of Atelier Dore dubbed Fashionweek "a great experience"; Barry Moncrieffe said "the organisation was excellent, the shows were better and CFW helps the creative juices flow"; Andy Niles from Barbados called it "excellent" and Bill Edwards, Jamaican designer, offered that "this event gives us great exposure, it is now up to designers to capitalise on this opportunity".
Additionally, Glenroy Marsh of D'Marsh and Loren Tulloch, both Jamaican designers, expressed satisfaction with how the event was produced. "I think it was pretty good. I like the aspect that there were more designers and new designers like myself," said Marsh. Tulloch, one of the designers who also reported some amount of sales, agreed that Fashionweek was "great". "For me personally everything was just great. I sold five pieces right after they were modelled. They were sold right off the models' backs," he said in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner.
However, not all the reviews were glowing. "Nobody is going to say that Fashionweek is not a good thing" said Simone 'SIIM' Clarke. "Every event has its positives and its negatives." SIIM listed "production, quality of the models, the space backstage" as aspects of the event that needed improvement. "These are not insurmountable issues. These are things that Pulse can work out over the years," she said.
SIIM explained that a number of the designers in a first-time meeting arrived at a number of things they thought "were good and were bad" and that this list was given to Pulse for future reference. "The overall comments were positive, but as with anything there were things that needed improvement," she said. Positive elements, she said, included the attitudes of the designers, media exposure, access to buyers and designer growth.
LACKING
Roy Riley of Squintwear was open in his estimation of what he found lacking in the event. For him, production was also a major deficiency of the event. "Fashionweek this year lacked the level of production that it had in previous years and lacked a production that an organisation such as Pulse is used to having," he said. Riley believed the US$1,500 to US$2,000 designers were charged was too costly, as was the J$2,000 it cost guests to view each show.
He commented that the runway was too small, the room too crammed and the backstage area inadequate for the preparation. Reports of the sweltering conditions backstage at CFW were indeed confirmed when the models walked down the runway, sometimes in sweat-tinged garments and moist make-up.However, perhaps the most telling aspect of the revelations on Fashionweek came from influential buyer Doug Saunders-Gardener of the Solomon Mines group of stores in the Bahamas. He believes that CFW has succeeded, but only in part. "I think this is the perfect avenue in which designers have to showcase their wares. Unfortunately it's not a buyer's forum as yet. But I think I've seen the talent, the time and the effort put in. I think we need to evolve into letting designers know what buyers look for because right now it's to show people. We all need to get practical in order to succeed in getting them out there in terms of buyers buying their wares to market," he said.
NOT PRACTICAL,
WEARABLE STUFF
,p>For this, however, Saunders-Gardener laid responsibility as much on the designers as on the organisers. "There are some items that are not practical, wearable stuff," he said. "Even though you may see a model wearing it, it's not wearable in terms of what a buyer would come here and buy. We need to redefine straw, we need to redefine burlap, we need to know how it's going to be laundered, because a store is not going to take on a product where it's going to be laundered and damaged that has to come back.
"Designers, he said, without hampering their creativity, need to have a clear idea of where they want their designs to go. "If I only want it as a one-of-a-kind, sure fine, haute couture, sure fine, but if you want it to be marketable to big department stores it has to be consistent with the practicality that we demand." he said. "They're just thinking 'OK, I'm going to CFW. I'm going to just showcase my creativity'. Now, is your creativity marketable in buying for boutiques or showrooms?"He posits further that "they (CFW) have succeeded in presenting designers; now they have to succeed in presenting designers from a buying perspective."But if what Riley says is true, that may not be so easy to do. Riley believes that the problem is a lot bigger than Pulse and CFW. According to Riley, "fashion relationships gone sour" have hampered the overall success of Fashionweek and of designers. According to Riley, designers' failure to capitalise on and honour former buying arrangements may have contributed to the industry's inability to attract major international buyers. He also believes that the supposed rift between major agencies, Pulse and Saint, has also hampered the industry's growth.
"This whole industry needs to be changed, but designers have to make the changes," he said.
