Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago: Rea McNamara picks from the Front Row

The audience was tense with anticipation: the Haute Caribbean grand dame was running late, and a lull loomed after local soca star Swappi cut his performance due to mic problems. The drama heightens when two beefy shirtless male models finally stride out in military garrison caps, followed by high fashion with just the right masquerade excess. (I fell for the popped collar and styled sky-high bouffant hair that went with a sleeveless iridescent taffeta cocktail frock in flashy coral and jade.) “I wanted to show the influence of Carnival on couture,” Pegus said afterwards. “And what we can bring to the international table with a Caribbean look.”

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Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago 2010

Anya Ayoung Chee

Millhouse

The Cloth

Meiling

Rea McNamara picks from the Front Row

In its third year, Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago  — a sold-out, must-see rivaling Caribbean Fashion Week  — strutted out over 50 local and regional collections that organizers catch-phrased “cosquelle couture”, reclaiming that old Côté ci Côté la “to dress outrageously mismatched” definition. But the 125 foot runway — whether on the sandy beaches of Tobago’s Pigeon Point or at the posh Hyatt Regency Trinidad — was world class. Consider this my front row wave of the flag to the new style order.

Check out all of Rea McNamara’s picks
Anya Ayoung Chee
Millhouse
The Cloth
Meiling
Claudia Pegus

Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago: Rea McNamara picks from the Front Row

Full disclosure: I have a particular fondness for this minimalist (I grew up coveting my mom’s 1970s vintage pieces!). Even though this Caribbean Junya Watanabe is known for a steadfast noir day-to-night uniform, this season she’s gone self-referential, designing a black organdy collection recalling the subtle folds of Japanese origami volumes in its construction. (She concedes, “the drama of the collars is probably subconsciously Caribbean mas.”)

Photography courtesy of Meiling
www.meilinginc.com/

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Anya Ayoung Chee
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The Cloth

Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago 2010: Rea McNamara picks from the Front Row

After Claudia closes the shows, The Cloth’s Robert Young and I ride the elevator up to my suite with buyer Ingrid Laballe. I had pulled pieces for a shoot, so Robert’s iconic appliquéd designs were left on a rolling rack in my room. Laballe flicks hangers, eyeing orders for her Pointe-à-Pitre-based Kod, one of the top Caribbean fashion boutiks. “I like this very much,” she tells Young of his patchwork ‘WORKER’ nehru denim jackets, harkening to his political roots as a former trade unionist’s son.The colourful lady pom-pom shorts however, “will need to be bigger. You know how my customers are a little older.” The request is softened by Laballe’s smile; a deal is made, hinting a good future for Trini 2 de Bone chic.

Photography Kerron Riley

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Anya Ayoung Chee

Millhouse

Meiling

Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago: Rea McNamara’s picks from the Front Row

As Trinidad & Tobago’s lone menswear label, Millhouse seemed set on sartorializing the anti-hero assassin in 1973′s The Day of the Jackal. It was a crisp early ’70s throwback: square-finished lapels on fitted khaki suits with graphic black and white neck scarves. But designer Gregory Mills (who founded the ten- year-old label with his wife Coline Baptiste-Mills) cites the Trini saga boy comeback as another inspiration. “Downtown, you’d see a real hub of these guys dressing the finest. They’d stand at the corner in three piece suits with ruffle shirts,” recalls Mills. “We’ve been trying to recapture that era.”

Photography Kerron Riley

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Meiling

Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago: Rea McNamara picks from the Front Row

“The structured part of the uniform is very post-colonial,” the former Miss Trinidad & Tobago Universe says of a schoolgirl kilt with sexy black and gold lace peaking out of the folds. The designer is behind the upstart Pilar label.  I grew fond of its debut last season, remixing the Bobo Shanti rastafari culture’s boho African print and brightly coloured robes. It was interesting to see Meiling’s protégé go further on the subcultural mining, this time finding inspiration in island uniformity.

Photography Kerron Riley

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Millhouse

The Cloth

Meiling