THE CLOTH est. 1986

The country was veering towards recession. I had a plan that I had nurtured ever since I was an eight year old child. I wanted to go to PRATT. My Auntie Maybelle had voyaged on a steamer to New York in the 1920'. She had prospered and owned a brownstone across from the school and I used to enjoy running up and down on the lawn when my parents and I visited her. For some reason I was affected by this environment and just decided very boldly that this was the place I wanted to go to school when I grew up. Despite my bold claim, when I left high school, I felt a bit intimidated by my dream and felt that I also wanted to see what was available at home. The John S Donaldson Technical Institute was the next step. I felt that as I was only seventeen, just leaving Trinidad and Tobago and going to New York was a dramatic move. I felt that the diploma offered by JSDTI would mature me and really prepare me for a degree in New York. It was a very sensible decision and although I veered away from my initial plan, the experiences I gained from staying in Trinidad was a good one. Of course it came with great concern from not only myself, but my parents. I didn't seem to be doing much of anything, apart from the occassional freelance job. I had more unemployed days than not. Then I met Robert Young. I had been doing portfolio work intended for PRATT and that led me down the path of drawing clothing. I had found a wonderful fashion model, line drawing book and I had begun to feverishly fill endless pages with drawing of all types of ideas for men, women and children. I sometimes painted them or added collages of cloth cut out over the drawing. So when Robert met me and mentioned that he was totally fed up with teaching at St.Joseph's Roman Catholic Secondary School and wanted one more person to join his fashion house, I said no. I don't think that I have any background in that. But I will show you what I have been working on

. He was definately appreciative and found me right for his vision. I also thought, perhaps PRATT could wait a little longer.

Designing the trademark

was one of the first things that I worked on. The name The Cloth clearly brought home the concept of reverence and the opulence of religious regalia. The goal was to create a symbol in the vein of a circular monogram and using lettering was ideal. The image presented here is a further iteration of The Cloth and not my actual trademark, however it is very close to the original.

Designing a Collection

Robert, Nathalie, Camille and I agreed to pool our resources to achieve our first fashion show. We needed a space to make our first collection possible and Robert’s mothers' house became the location. The downstairs working as our studio.

Nathalie had a sewing machine. Camille did painted and silkscreen slogans onto fabric and I had batik tools, my own dyes and endless drawings for possible options for the fabrics we could afford - cottons and cycling shorts material called spandex.

We were methodical with the limited time that we had, working night and day with little sleep to get it done.

  1. Set up a space to work.
  2. Make a calendar of expectations, costs and deadlines.
  3. Work on drawing up the collection and assign responsibilities.
  4. Pool our resources - delegate responsibilities.
  5. Get and find Models to walk the runway.

Robert’s brother Richard was pivotal here in helping us with models and we also sought people out at parties that we went to in our collection to advertise ourselves.

I am not in the photograph because I happened to have gone to the bathroom. ☹️

This is the ticket to another show done at Queens Hall.

———————-

We got lots of notice! As this front page shows.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where we begin: Stony Brook

Image
SPATIAL consciousness WHAT does SPACE * mean? * This Performance shows the labor of work. The viewer can see what physical effort looks like in a working day. Is it empty? What fills it? Sight….Sound…..is it Light?….is it Heavy? …how do you Define the spaces you enter? …. what do you look at or feel ? …How conscious are you about THE ROOM? Performing the STATE This is a larger statement. In Trinidad and Tobago ‘ the State ’ is the biggest vehicle of control. Our government is the major employer of its citizens. We observe what IS Performance within the State? Is it by rote? Is it conscious? Is it healthy? How do we as citizens support a LIVING Space? SOCIAL JUSTICE Aesthetics helps answer the question. - When we are all invested - and this must go beyond a salary, - it must go past herd thinking - when we think as a Group understanding that WE ALL MATTER, - we support the same Goals and Intentions - there is Fairness and Equity - then and only then can we feel SEEN HEARD RESPECTED. T...
Read more

The MerMade Shopp -

Image
The MerMade Shopp  After I completed my degree at PRATT I was deciding my next career move. The pull and tug between being in New York with its enticements and wanting to take my learning back to my homeland occupied my mind. A friend of mine, Mervyn De Goeas was also of like mind and was encouraging me to consider going back to Trinidad. He had procured funding to create his dream theatre and we had several conversations about his plans that factored into two to three years ahead. He had also secured permission for plays and had outlined who he would want on his team. He reasoned that I could do all the aspects of design from trademark to set design. So, convinced by this initiative I returned to Trinidad and Tobago. After even many more conversations on the viabilities, The MerMade Shop was created. The first play chosen was Rick Abbott’s PLAY ON, . a light hearted period comedy. WHo knew that this play would mirror what would happen elsewhere. We procured the then major space fo...
Read more

art4Dst33t The SAVANNA

Image
PROJECT: art4Dst33t : 1’ to 2’ hand cut stencils - theme : Traditional Carnival Characters of Trinidad and Tobago funding : The Ministry of Culture of Trinidad and Tobago locations : Port-of-Spain and San Fernando duration of project : Three days ———————— I learned so much from doing art4Dst33t . First of all, having an idea and then considering how to make it happen is a free flowing moment. Many thoughts about HOW to do it come up. But also WHY DO IT? How to do it…who can help, what it costs… all are factored into this idea. In Trinidad and Tobago we have the luxury and challenge of people in authority and the public blankly looking at you and listening to your exciting idea totally poker faced. Nobody cares ! One really has to believe in oneself and one's intentions. Always in the back of your mind you know that you can be completely dismissed by others. So you have to go for your dreams. The opportunity that I see in our Carnival season is its very contradiction. Traditionall...
Read more