Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Left: Top Model Carla Campbell wears a Keneea Linton gown. Right: Orane Barrett is casual and cool in Yardman Style

Caribbean Fashion Week ended on a note of colour, funk and fabulous fashion on Sunday night at the National Indoor Sports Centre.

Although the event started a bit late, it ran smoothly as the models strutted their stuff in a wide selection of creative piceces.

First up was designer Peter Elias from Trinidad and Tobago with his female collection.Elias’ collection had the island feel, with long often flowing dresses that were tied around the models. The designer utilised lots of beige, green, white and blue mixed on sheer material that floated around the models. On the other spectrum of fashion was Keneea Linton who has obviously grown into her own, using more diverse colours and designs since last year’s fashionweek.

Linton’s look appeals to a more funk driven younger audience with a lot of zebra prints combined with hot pinks in short shorts, skirts and dresses. Some dresses were ’80s styled such as pleated blue baby doll dresses, a Madonna style cupped breast top with a yellow skirt and some outfits were set for the high seas with blue deck shorts. Her last pieces shown were more mature with long dresses with sexy cuts at the top in orange, purple and green with yellow.

Nature designs

Luna Designs was all about nature. With mainly wrap skirts accompanied by brown bikini style tops, Luna Designs accessorised with a lot of shell and bead jewellery. Most of the designs were very light, cool and often lightly trimmed with bright colours such as purple and yellow which really set off the dresses and skirts.

Yardman offered up a pure casual look with mainly male fashion featuring hoodies, T-shirts and jeans with ‘Yardman’ and ‘Kingston’ written all over it. Young designer Gavin Douglas really impressed the crowd with European style couture. Douglas used a lot of unique and interesting colours such as mustard yellow, deep purples and peacock feathers on very metallic looking material. His designs looked very well fitted and well finished, with no visible defects.

Veteran designer Barry Moncrieffe featured a variety of cultures, such as African, Indian, Chinese and Caribbean themed outfits. With a few pieces in his classic black and white, Moncrieffe combined black and white stripes with polka dots in classy, long dresses.Other standouts were the use of a lot of African prints, Indian long beaded skirts and Chinese style button front tops. Bajan designer Wayne Smith also had an evening dress appeal with his ‘Island Spice’ collection.

Island Spice featured long dresses in green, leopard print and many more. Their blending of colours was very well done, making the garments interesting. The material was sheer and oftentimes sexy. One long purple dress had a very unique accessory, with a necklace made of purple orchids.

Francis Hendy brought 1950s and ’60s back to men’s wear. He utilised a lot pinstripes in pants and tops, as well as patterns. After a brief break, Pulse took a minute out to honour a pioneerof costume designs in Trinidad – Peter Minshall.

It was to Trinidad with designer Claudia Pegus. Fascinated by frills, Pegus’ shirts and skirts were often frilled, and very vibrant, a bit carnivalesque colour scheme. She used a lot of deep gold to give a Egyptian feel to some dresses, which had an overall fun feel. Bill Edwards was mainly back to the men, with very comfortable looking slacks and shirts with leafy patterns.

Ending with a flair that had audience standing and applauding were designs from Romanian Catalin Ebotezatu. Ebotezatu had very sexy glittery and featured filled evening gowns. His gowns were sheer in the right places exposing the models sexily and overall had a very exotic feel. From the dominatrix to harem-styled pieces, they flowed and shone.