After one month of calling out the troops, as it were, Guyana Fashion Week (GFW) wooed over 300 hopefuls desirous of participating in the return of Guyana Fashion Week, November 3 to November 13, 2016. Last Sunday at the Pegasus Hotel, a quarter-final round of selection was conducted under the watchful eye of GFW’s creative director, the Caribbean fashion guru, Richard Young. The anxiety in the air was palpable and some even felt that the wait was long overdue but was well worth it. All in all, the mandate of GFW has been tweaked, geared primarily to broaden horizons and foster maximum branding potential.
As of 2011, the first phase of the GFW vision had rolled out. The executive was proud of their accomplishments, that of instilling creative entrepreneurship, promoting sustainable development goals, fostering youth empowerment initiatives and invigorating a burgeoning fashion industry. It was decided to enter phase two by producing biennial events so as to engender substantive industry-specific institution strengthening, through Guyana Model Search, Designer Portfolio and participation in other local, regional and international trade shows, symposia and workshops, so as to validate the relevant activity within an economic sector.
Due to the upcoming agenda of celebratory observances of the golden jubilee anniversary of Independence, the executive agreed to postpone the 2015 edition of GFW to November 2016, so as to be included in the celebration within the nation-building aura and national pride consciousness of 2016. So much so, that the launch of GFW will be incorporated into the impressive schedule of activities of the Ministry of Tourism, under the honourable Katherine Hughes, May 19 to May 23, 2016.
One of the dynamic and exciting parts of the fashion industry is the modelling component. GFW has a remarkable history of harnessing some of the best creative talent for stage, through their model audition process, for GFW believes that all the arts cohere for identity branding so that performing, visual, culinary, graphic and beauty arts integrate to signal the style of Guyana and above all the Caribbean.
The long awaited model auditions for GFW climaxed after much bated breath with the best composition of beautiful people candidates, in attendance, in the history of model auditions. The widest possible mix of ethnicities from Georgetown, Bartica, Linden, Berbice, East Coast, East Bank, West Coast were all out in their number putting their best performance to catch the eye of Richard Young. Mr Young sat with his pre-selection panel – Shiv Dindyal, Meleesa Payne, Nelsion Nurse, Keron Noble and Shonta Noel – deliberating on who would move forward in the process.
Mr Young took them through some non-traditional stage dynamic exercises to determine competency levels. GFW’s intention is not to reject persons, but to accommodate those who were not immediately eligible by utilizing them in other capacities, turning their interests into purposeful commitments.
The idea is to mobilize this wave of youth empowering energy to direct novel career paths and innovative revenue generating potential. GFW will facilitate the passion through engaging voluntarism to render the seventh edition of GFW as an incomparable synergy of talent, entrepreneurship, identity branding, fashion management and creative industry development.
GFW will also be hosting a Beauty and Fashion Expo on Saturday, May 21, 2016 and Sunday, May 22, 2016 at the Pegasus Hotel from 10 am to 7 pm. At this expo, we will give a platform to various persons within the beauty and fashion sector to showcase their products for sale. We hope that this expo will give our exhibitors a chance to advertise their business, as well as create new and impactful business relations. Please note that one does not need to be a part of Guyana fashion Week to be a part of the Beauty and Fashion Expo. Applications to be a part of this expo can be made on GFW’s Facebook page.
Sonia Noel has proven that her resilience and steadfastness to the development of the fashion industry is tenable and sustainable. “Look at how fashion has attracted all walks of life, all races, all ages from far and wide, into a creative melting pot that is GFW.”