Carnival Catwalk; Where carnival and fashion come together

BY SYDNEE WALCOTT

When most think about carnival, they think about the beautiful colourful costumes masqueraders wear as they jump up on the road to the sounds of Soca and calypso music. However, there’s more to carnival than the aforementioned, and a new reality competition series, Carnival Catwalk, highlights that.

Jerome “Rome” Precilla, one of the show’s hosts and producers, was on the VH1’s reality television show, Girls Cruise, with rapper Lil Kim, singers Maya and Chili, Vena E., and B. Simone. When the girls arrived in Trinidad and Tobago for carnival and enjoyed the experience, Precilla realized people outside of the Caribbean diaspora also enjoyed carnival. This led to Precilla coming up with the idea to create a show that connects with an international audience, and also teaches and exposes them to what carnival is truly like.

The thought of also adding fashion to the mix also came to Precilla’s mind when he thought about Anya Ayoung-Chee, a Trinidadian fashion designer, host and model who won the ninth season of Project Runway. Precilla noted that both carnival and fashion go hand in hand because of the type of clothes people wear to fetes and the costumes masqueraders wear on the road during the parade. This is how Precilla came up with the concept of Carnival Catwalk, where fashion meets carnival.

“Carnival is a lot more than that and there’s a great history behind the carnival itself.”

The main plot of the show involves 10 contestants from all over the world coming to Trinidad and Tobago to experience carnival and use the experience as inspiration to create fashion design wear. Every week, the contestants partake in challenges inspired by a different element of carnival, such as J’ouvert and the steel pan, and to understand there’s more to carnival than bikinis with beads and feathers, and dancing on the road.

“Carnival is a lot more than that and there’s a great history behind the carnival itself,” said Precilla.

Along with showcasing carnival, the contestants are also shown the rich culture of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. They were shown wedding attire for the different types of weddings held in Trinidad and Tobago, resort wear and frontline costumes as well to help inspire the contestants for their creations.

Six of the 10 contestants were from outside of the Caribbean. They came from countries like: England, Germany, the United States, Taiwan, Benin and India. As they progressed, they learned more about the culture and were able to create designs that were synonymous with Caribbean culture.

The show has given the contestants the opportunity to learn techniques they wouldn’t have learned elsewhere. Wire bending, which is typically not used in an average fashion piece but is something a lot of mass creators use to make the beautiful feather backpacks seen on the road. The contestants learned how to place the sequence and feathers on the costumes and how to blend certain colours to bring out the vibrancy in their high-fashion designs.

The show also provided a contestant with a new technique. One of the contestants was a designer who didn’t know how to sew. The show gave her the opportunity to learn how to sew by sending her to the MIC program, a government-funded program.

The winner of the competition will receive a $100,000 cash prize along with a showcase in Milan Fashion Week. For those who don’t win, they will receive exposure they did not get from before, especially in the carnival space, just like the winner.

Most of the mas bands from the Caribbean region and across the world have been reaching out to the contestants to start designing carnival costumes for their carnivals. So, expect to see their costumes in: London’s Notting Hill Carnival, Greneda’s Spicemas, Barbados’ Kadooment Day and Toronto’s Toronto Caribbean Carnival.