Kimya, Shelly for Fashion Caribbean

A graduate of the Barbados Community College, with an Associate Degree in Fashion Design, Kimya Glasgow has been designing clothes ever since she can remember. “It was one of my many creative outlets that grew into a passion.” {{more}}
She opened her design business on a part-time basis in 1995, designing and making clothes for her friends and family. She then officially launched her clothing label, Kimya Glasgow Designs, in 2001 when she returned to St. Vincent after some years of living and working abroad. She has been selling her clothes through Images Boutique, which she opened with friend and Image Modelling Agency manager Monique Tash.
She has been a consultant with Image Modelling Agency since 1996 and has been the choreographer for Fashion Caribbean from its inception.
Last year she proudly represented St. Vincent & the Grenadines at Caribbean Fashion Week in Jamaica. Kimya’s collection, inspired by pre and post-revolutionary Cuba, received rave reviews from attendees. She also received kudos from the regional press, including the Barbados Nation and the Jamaica Gleaner, and British magazine Bolz has expressed interest in doing a feature on her work. She was also contacted by Aminah Benjamin, a New York stylist and events planner who has worked with 50 Cent, Jay Z and many up-coming hip-hop artistes.
When asked the highlight of her fashion career Kimya humorously cites the day that a friend told her she could be found through the well known search engine Googles. “It was a very surreal moment for me but it was also incredibly exciting.”
Her collection this year is based on themes from the novel The Wide Sargasso Sea by Dominican Jean Rhys.
For the next year Kimya plans to focus on expanding her manufacturing business, as she feels she has a tremendous amount of work to do to reach her goal of regional export. “People from around the region have bought my clothes but it is on a small scale. It is time to go to the next level”, she says. “It is also important to me to support Fashion Caribbean as I feel its growth can help to build the local fashion and clothing manufacturing industry. It will also bring some needed respect to Vincentian designers among their colleagues in the region and in our own country.”

Shelline Williams
on Fashion Design

“I didn’t always have a love for fashion or designing but I grew up in a family of seamstresses. I first got interested in desgining when I realized there were lots of different styles that I wanted to try but couldn’t find and even if I did, I couldn’t afford. I love fashion because it is so diverse. I like the way you can use it to portray how you feel or where you’re from, or what you represent. I don’t consider myself a designer (as yet!). I haven’t done anything to claim that status. One day I would like to attend a designing school and enhance whatever skills I have, but for now I’m just testing the waters and learning the ropes.”
Williams will appear at “The 4th Annual Fashion Caribbean”. In 2002, she had a few pieces appear on the “Fashion Caribbean” stage. The other Vincentian designers to grace the Fashion Caribbean stage on the 31st July 2004 include Kimon Baptiste, a Fashion Caribbean veteran as well as Nina Solomon of the Clothesline.