Sadeke Brooks, Gleaner Writer

Lyons in a knitted number, displaying the national colours.

Miss Jamaica World 2008 Brittany Lyons will be dressed exclusively by local designers from the Jamaica Fashion and Apparel Cluster for this year's Miss World 2008.

For her four-week stay in South Africa ahead of the final show, which will be held at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 13, Lyons will wear 32 pieces made by local designers from the Jamaica Fashion and Apparel Cluster.

The designers are Julan, Shades of Africa, Yola Gray, Keneea Linton, T&T Fashions, Poshe, So-Anns, Blaazin Designs, Akira Lyn and Heather Laine. while the sole accessories provider is Cinderella Hats.

Eu Financing

The cluster, which was started in January, is an initiative financed by the European Union and the Jamaican Government. It facilitates the growth and development of new and existing micro, small and medium enterprises in the fashion industry. There are 70 members.

"She is gonna take Jamaican designs overseas and promote them to the rest of the world. That's a great thing," said Kamau Janai, public relations and resource officer for the cluster.

Facilitator for the cluster, Glenda Dennis, said the organisation gives marketing and promotion to the designers. She said the fact that Lyons will wear the designers' pieces in South Africa is also contributing to the country as a whole.

"For the designers this represents an access to greater recognition and credibility, which will impact positively on their sales and an opportunity to contribute to and benefit from the deepening of brand Jamaica internationally," Dennis told The Sunday Gleaner.

primary designers

One of the primary designers in the project, Keneea Linton, agreed that this initiative is something good for Jamaican designers.

"For us (designers) it's just a sense of pride to know that we are dressing the person who will represent the country," she told The Sunday Gleaner.

Linton also believes this is beneficial to Lyons. "It helps in how she (Lyons) is viewed and dressed. She has a more diverse wardrobe collection that will represent the Jamaican culture," she said. "It was only suitable that Jamaican designers contribute these pieces."

Elegance is written all over this outfit.

Lyons' crowning glory is not left out.- Photos by Winston Sill, Freelance Photographer

The long of it ...

... The short of it.

It's shiny, it's short, she's sweet.