Fashion Caribbean praised
Local Vibes
August 6, 2004

Fashion Caribbean praised

Monique Tash, managing director of the Image Modelling Agency, has come in for high praises from a designer who took part in Tash’s fourth annual Fashion Caribbean.
Dawn Bacchus of Dawn’s Designer Collection out of Trinidad and Tobago, who has had her designs displayed at other shows including Caribbean Fashion week in Jamaica, congratulated Tash as she described Fashion Caribbean as a spectacular event. {{more}}
“I would like to congratulate Tash for having such a spectacular event and having the ability to bring all these designers together,” said Bacchus who thinks that the show is a major contribution to the fashion industry in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“Based on what I saw, it was of a very high quality and I think that people in the art-form like Monique should get more recognition and [be] given some kind of a national award for her contribution to the industry,” voiced the veteran Vincentian-born designer of 20 years.
Bacchus, who is also the public relations officer for the foundation for the Jamaica-based Caribbean Designers, which is currently working on getting regional designers to communicate, was attending Fashion Caribbean for the first time.
She spoke about her line even as she confessed that she was first inspired by Vincentian designer Patrice Reddock. Bacchus’ collection carried the theme, “Restoration of the human spirit”, and according to her, “sent a message”.
Her display on the catwalk started with white and ended with white. Explaining this, Bacchus said white represents the creation of the universe.
“When God created the universe, he created everything pure so the white represents the purity of man.
“After that, men fell away from God,” said Bacchus who went on to explain the use of the other colours in her clothing.
“The stripes, the green and white and brown and white represents the duality of the human soul; within us we have both good and evil and we are struggling to attain some level of perfection so the second aspect of the presentation showed the duality of good and evil,” explained Bacchus.
“The third aspect was the colour; I burst into all the colours of earth which include the rainbow, the sunset, the sunrise, the flowers and the trees.”
The designer said that the colour of the universe is the thing that gives us life.
“Creating this collection, I put my heart into it; you must feel something when you look at my collection,” said Bacchus who spoke about it having a spiritual message that speaks of brotherhood and oneness. She also describes her fashions as practical, wearable and timeless.
A number of persons at the show had remarked about some of the designs not being practical.
Bacchus, however, said that designers sometimes choose to express their creativity in different ways; ways she says are not always practical.
“Yes we want to have show stoppers and we want the crowd to scream but at the end of the day am I going to sell my clothing? The bottom line is where am I going to wear these things.”