D'Angel and Beenie Man at British Link-Up show at La Roose, Port Henderson Road, St. Catherine.

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

On Saturday night, the ladies especially graced the strip of red carpet that led from near the ticket window outside La Roose, Port Henderson Road, Portmore, to the entrance and then under red, white and blue balloons into the main party area for 'British Link-Up: The Rebirth' night with fab fashion.

And with blazers or, for a few, full suits, the men were not to be outdone in the clothing department.

Red in various sizes and cuts was high on the ladies' colour charts,. One young lass wore a strip around her very slender ribcage and, as daylight would reveal when the party went into sunlight hours, sagging chest, a frilly strip around her waist passing for a skirt, the entire package balancing on red stilettos.

Then there was a red full-length number that touched the tarmac as the wearer went across the road from the venue and back in the course of a telephone conversation, entertainer D'Angel topping off the red numbers with a pants suit with a number that had one leg as a thigh-hugging number and the other touching her heels, reddened lips moving as she chewed on gum.

One crew of four had enough frills to dress all the windows of all the apartments in Oaklands, while another swept the asphalt outside La Roose with the lower portion of her floral number.

Fleshy fashion

Except for the plunging necklines, there was very little in the way of fleshy fashion, the 'Slammers' promotional girls, the name of the product jiggling on the back of their derrire rider shorts as they walked en masse out of La Roose, red fishnet stockings doing more to highlight than conceal the flesh underneath.

A walk through 'British Link-Up: The Rebirth' saw women mostly in various full-length numbers being the subject of multiple video cameras; a look from above, especially after daylight came up, showed multiple hair colours, as wigs and extensions topped off many an outfit.

With the blazers more or less standard, male fashion standouts included one portly gentleman whose shiny shirt was seen from a long way off as he shimmered his way up towards the venue, a long tie from the same material hanging below belt level.

An older gentleman in a black suit was in true British fashion, with ruffles of white cloth across his chest, while a young man's gold suit glowed in the morning sun, a yellow shirt underneath helping to bring out the colour.

Standout for the night

And a standout for the night was a green hat perched nattily on an Afro, the wearer of both decked out in green and white stripes from the collar of his jacket to where the bottom of his pants fell to his white shoes.

Heels and snazzy outfits and all, the women danced merrily to the music, the party building up from 3:30 a.m. when Natural Black was singing of those Far From Reality and at 5:00 a.m. many people were still paying to walk the red carpet to Mavado's Real McKoy. Stone Love, Sky Juice, Swam King, Tony Matterhorn and Lord Gellys among those providing the music, with gangster tunes from Mavado dominating in terms of response and the slated anthem for the night, Bounty Killer intoning 'Killer still deh ya' getting repeated airplay.

And in a brief performance segment, cut short as a party fan made his way on stage and requested that the live selections be continued, Beenie Man showed his colours in a red suit around the colours of the British flag, the full red, blue and white interior revealed as he stripped it off in the early morning sun.

Some of the fashions that the ladies displayed at the 'British Link-Up' show. - Photos by Nathaniel Stewart