Something old, something new - Crop-Over costumes 2011

Crop-Over is coming islandistas and despite being in hibernation for the last few months (between my wedding late last year and now my first pregnancy happening back-to-back, I've been ex-hausted!), that is enough to bring the Islandista out of her cyber-cave!

So Power x Four is both the old and new of this post - pics of their 2011 costumes have popped up on Trinidad Carnival Diary but... it's a rehash of last year - Bajan Reef Pt II no less! Booo, hisss!

I guess you can say they prepped us by calling last year's presentation Bajan Reef Pt I but come onnn. It's not as if this is some great, conceptual costume story that needs to be told over the course of two years - it is pretty-colour FISH dammit!

It feels lazy from Power X Four and though they have been my preferred band for jumping for the vast majority of years I've jumped Crop-Over, I gotta call it as I see it. It smacks of what they did in their 10th anniversary year in 2004 when they recreated costumes from their previous years.

That said, the costumes are pretty  - Px4 is always consistent in its quality and beauty. We especially like Night Octopus and Queen Conch.

Now for the NEW new! A certain Crop-Over band is recreating its image and is coming out fresh in 2011 as Fantasy and the costumes we've seen thus far are gorgeous! They are really going to make a stir on the scene for this Crop-Over and give Baje, Px4 and Contact a run for their money. Check out some of our faves from Fantasy below.

So what do you think, islandistas? Getting excited yet?

Rihanna on April Vogue cover!!!

So this is the story that finally brought Islandista out of her hibernation (more on that anon) - uber-islandista Rihanna is on the cover of the April issue of Vogue magazine!!!

She's covering Vogue's annual Shape issue which is frequently a lightning rod for controversy and criticism.

We're loving how the shot is channeling cartoon vamp Jessica Rabbit, not to mention Ariel from Little Mermaid -a great pop culture reference for one of the world's biggest pop stars.

Ri-ri had accidentally leaked news of the cover shoot some months ago, excitedly tweeting (and promptly deleting):

"Just wrapped my first American Vogue cover shoot with Annie Leibovitz…Rah! #SEXY"

And we agree - Rahhhhhhh!

Rihanna killing it at the AMAs

Not much more we can add to our headline, which just about sums it all up. Ri-ri turned in possibly her best live performance (certainly her best awards performance) ever, opening the American Music Awards last night.

Killed. It. DEAD! She was on fire! Check out the vid and let us know if you agree.

Out of order, Kamla!

Well, well, well looka this though!

In the wake of the devastation left in Barbados, St. Vincent but especially St. Lucia by Hurricane Tomas, this was the first thingTrinidad's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had to say on Monday:

"We will have to look at ways in which we would be able to assist. But you would recall my comments earlier this year, when I said there must some way in which Trinidad and Tobago would also benefit. So if we are giving assistance with housing for example, and that is one of the areas that we (Prime Minister of St Vincent and myself ) spoke about, ... then we may be able to use Trinidad and Tobago builders and companies, so that whatever money or assistance is given, redounds back in some measure to the people of Trinidad and Tobago."

Naturally, her comments are causing outrage up and down the Caribbean.

Many are saying while they understand and don't even object to the sentiment behind it (aid with conditions is nothing new after all - look every stadium or office block the Chinese build in the region is done by Chinese companies and with Chinese workers to boot) but the way she said it and when she said were completely out of order.

And we here at Islandista agree, though we are not surprised, because Kamla has made her anti-CARICOM stance very clear in a set of mouthings for much of this year-  starting with infamous "ATM" comment earlier this year and continuing with her kvetching about the expense of the CCJ being based in Trinidad - after HER PARTY, the UNC lobbied for it to be there in the 90s.

Her comments are crass, short-sighted and disgracefully unCaribbean for a woman who lived in Jamaica for 14 years and drew a salary from the Jamaican people for at least 10 of those years.

Not only that, they are flat out stupid. "Some way in which Trinidad must benefit?" As the Express rightly pointed out in its editorial today, CARICOM countries "take about 10 per cent of Trinidad's exports." Trinidad, more than any other CARICOM country, has been benefiting for years from intra-regional trade.

What if the citizenry of these countries were so offended that they decided to take the aid but boycott Trinidad's goods?


Simply put, words mean something and Kamla should have chosen her words more carefully before biting one of the hands that feeds her people.

Nicki Minaj's Right Thru Me Video

As excitement builds for islandista Nicki Minaj's debut album Pink Friday, she's dropped a video for one of the tracks off the album - another relationship number that is almost the flipside to the 'so in love' vibe of Your Love Right Thru Me.

Check it.

Rihanna 'Only Girl in the World' video

So Rihanna's hotly-anticipated 'Only Girl in the World' video came out this week and can we say welcome back to happy Rihanna?

After the dark and depressing nature of many of the videos from the Rated R album, the rose-tinted Only Girl is a complete turnaround - it's a girly, euphoric fantasy, complete with balloons, flowers, fireworks, twinkly lights in trees, tutus and lots of spinning in said tutu and other frothy, girly outfits.

Check the vid below and tell us your thoughts.

Selita + Kanye =...?

Hmmm... sowhat'sgoingonHERE?

For the last few weeks, Kanye West has been seen all over the place with Cayman's own Selita Ebanks - one of our favourite islandistas from long time.

The two have been papped at the U.S. Open, the New Yorkers for Children Gala and across the Atlantic in Paris last week for the Grazia Masquerade Ball.

Each time, they have looked very coupley - in fact, we daresay this is the smiliest stretch for Kanye since his mother passed - even during his long on-off stint with Amber Rose, his favoured photo expression seemed to be a screw face.

But! Selita has laughed off the obvious and increasing questions, saying Kanye is just "a great friend". Which it also could be - these pix could be the smiles of besties enjoying each other's company, not love-struck folks...

However Chicago entertainment blogger/reporter LaShonda Matlock begs to differ on ChicagoNow's Pop Buzz blog, reporting the two have been coupled up for a while now:

"His ex-girlfriend Amber Rose was very aware of his budding new relationship with Selita towards the end of their relationship. Kanye has been with Selita for over eight-months now. And Kanye's time in Hawaii was not alone, Selita was there."


The source goes on to state that "Selita seems to be a good fit for Kanye" and that "Amber was leaking gossip and rumors about him to the media for a price."

Sidebar - Amber "she'll do anything for the limelight" Rose was leaking stories about Kanye for money? Yuh lie! Shocked we are...

Anyhow, it remains to be seen what will emerge about these two but take a look at the pix for yourselves, islandistas.

Islandistas on the front lines at Paris Fashion Week

Islandistas were all over the place for the recently-ended Paris Fashion Week.

From Guyana in the south to Bahamas in the north, from models to musicians, the region was well represented in the front rows at the shows. Check out the pix!

Bahamas' own hometown boy (via mother Roxie Roker) Lenny Kravitz was front row at Lanvin with Dita von Teese.

Bajan songbird Rihanna (above) was at the Miu Miu show, as was Lucian it-girl and Pop editor Shala Monroque (below).

British singer Leona Lewis, whose father is Guyanese, was dazzling in a peach ruffled confection on the red carpet of the Roberto Cavalli show.

 Our favourit-est, baddest, most yaadcore supermodel Naomi Campbell celebrated her 25 years in the industry with Dolce and Gabbana. Go deh Naomi!

 And Caymanian Selita Ebanks showed up looking all smiley with Kanye West again - this time at the Grazia Masquerade Ball.

Our favourite of the season - Duro Olowu

 The SS '11 fashion season has come and gone - filled with island folk on the catwalks, in the front rows and occasionally, making the final turn as the designer.

And we are ready to crown our favourite - because out of the many, many, many designs we saw this season, one small collection reached out to us and spoke to us - Jamaica/Nigerian designer Duro Olowu's eponymous line.

Originally drawn to it because it showcased the talents of Jamaica's newest model find, Orenthia, we were drawn in, nay captivated by Olowu's use of colour and vintage-y prints and the exquisite lines and tailoring - the voluminous sleeves on the 70s style maxi dress and the wide, well-cut lapels on the all-black skirt suit.

It is totally and completely wearable and gorgeous.

Small wonder then that London-based Olowu, who came by his love of colour from his Jamaican mother, Nigerian father and Lagos upbringing, has been making waves in the fashion scene for a while now. In 2005, he won the British Fashion Council's Best New Designer of the Year award and his signature 'Duro dress' was named dress of the year by both British and American Vogue.

The Duro dress is one of those dresses you've seen even if you didn't know you'd seen it - a cheerful multi-patterned kimono type dress with flowing sleeves that was everywhere in 05-06.

Originally a lawyer, he turned to fashion and teamed up with his shoe designer first wife on a label Olowu Golding, he created his own label after their split and struck gold with the Duro dress which was spotted first by British Vogue's Sally Singer. Since then Michelle Obama and Iman have been known to wear his designs.

His Spring/Summer 2011 collection looks set to be another hit, with a mix of his signature 70s-influenced cuts and groovy (yes, groovy) vintage prints. Check out some more of our faves from his collection!

REPOST: Mumma gone a foreign

As you know, sometimes we touch on some pretty serious topics here on Islandista and this one - a re-post of a piece which appeared on the very popular Clutch Magazine last week (www.clutchmag.com)  is definitely one that affects us as Caribbean mothers and daughters.  Read it and let me know your thoughts.

What do John Lee Malvo and Germaine Lindsay have in common?

The first and most obvious thing is that they were both teenaged mass murderers.
 Malvo was 17 years old when he joined John Allen Muhammad in the Beltway sniper attacks which terrorised the Washington D.C area back in 2002.

Lindsay was 19 years old when he blew himself up on a train travelling from King's Cross St. Pancras, killing 26 people, half the victims of the London 7/7 bombings in 2005.

A second, less obvious thing is that both Lindsay and Malvo are Jamaican-born – something that caused Jamaicans no end of shock and chagrin when those tragedies unfolded.

But perhaps the greatest similarity I see between these two is their mothers. By the time they committed their mass killings, both Malvo and Lindsay had been living away from their mothers for a number of years.
Malvo’s mother emigrated from Jamaica to Antigua and then on to the United States, leaving Malvo behind with Muhammad to take her chance in the USA.

Ri-Ri's Euro tour!

Uber-islandista Rihanna is over in Europe right now, promoting her new album Loud in London and taking in the finale of the fashion season in Paris for its Fashion Week.

And Ri-ri being Ri-ri, all eyes are on her outfits - some were misses (orange and purple with that hair? Too far!) while some were hits (the soft pink lady like look in Paris).

Check out the photos and our thoughts and tell us yours!

Heading from dinner with sweetie Matt Kemp, Ri-ri is such a *#%$ lady (as her infamous handbag proclaimed last year) in this flowered mini skirt suit.

Love the boyfriend blazer she's wearing as she heads back to her hotel from an all day shopping spree (Topshop to the world!) but not much liking it with the baggy pants - too 80s even for this 80s-inspired period in fashion.

No. Not even Rihanna has enough swag to pull of this combo she wore to her interview with Heart FM.

At the Miu Miu show in Paris - we like this one - a lot. The mix of the chunky, costume-y jewellery with the whimsical, fun print is hot.

UPDATED: And the winner is ....

Invitation number 97!

Whichever lucky lady is holding invitation number 97 is the winner of our Girlfriends Expo promotion this past weekend.



She will now be treated to a full, fabulous islandista-style makeover, with makeup compliments I Heart Makeup and a mani and pedi in the comfort of your own home (the way the stars do it - she comes to you!) by  Beauty by Lauren!


Contact us at islandista@gmail.com with your name and contact details and to claim your prize!

Read on for a sneak peak of the artistry of our partners and what our lucky winner can look forward to!

Islandista is on the move!

... is on the move!
We've moved from our Wordpress home over to fancier new digs (and our own custom domain name) over at www.islandistas.com!
The move - which we hinted at some months ago when we asked for your insight on templates (and as you will see, we took your advice!) will allow us to do some bigger, better things.

Obviously, since we have racked up hundreds of posts and comments in the last two and a half years, it takes a lot to move all our cyber-furniture into the new place so there is still some house-keeping to be done in some of the archived content. Be patient with us - all will be sorted and we think you will agree that the the day to day look  feel of the new home is a definite upgrade!


The move has been a few months' in planning - in fact, when you check it out you will see that we've been keeping it updated  along with this blog for the past few months.

So come on through and have a party at our new place!

Shontelle new vid - Perfect Nightmare!

Bajan songstresses Shontelle and Rihanna have been hard at work promo-ing their respective singles - Perfect Nightmare and the already-a-smash Only Girl in the World which is at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Shontelle dropped the full video for Perfect Nightmare last week, while Rihanna has been dropping teaser vids for Only Girl as well teaser pics like this one on Twitter for her #RihannaNavy.

Check out Shontelle's vid below!

Martinique's Melodie rules the (fashion) world!

On the catwalk for Bottega Veneta (all photos: style.com)

Martinique's Melodie Monrose has emerged as the breakout star of the fashion season thus far -but didn't we tell you so?
Islandistas, in the fortnight since we highlighted her as the one to watch this fashion season, Melodie pretty much decimated New York Fashion week.

Bagging 19 shows, she was far and away the top black model of NYFW and all of a sudden, it's a lot easier to find information on her, as the fashion press have rushed to highlight her.

Courtesy of Vogue.com, we now know that the 18 year old was discovered a mere two months ago through a school friend’s model scout.

Essence.com included her in a list of NYFW 'Catwalk Queens and it girl Shala Monroque (from neighboring St. Lucia) pronounced herself 'In Love with the Melodie' on her The Pop blog.

And all of a sudden, she has gone from lit student to fashion darling. She skipped the just-ended London Fashion Week to head to Milan and the Milanese have taken to her just as the New Yorkers did. We've counted her in six shows already including Gucci and Prada! Check out the rest of the pics below!

Martiniquan model Melodie is continuing her march of dominance

Martiniquan model Melodie is continuing her march of dominance through the catwalks of New York City.

The newbie from Wilhelmina, who was tipped as one of the models to watch this season, has lived up to the expectations - thus far, we have counted at least seven shows that she has walked in and we expect more before the end of NYFW.

Check out her reign thus far.

 

New girls Melodie, Ornelia & Alyssah @ NYFW!

Islandistas, it's that kinda time again - Fashion Season!

New York Fashion Week kicked off yesterday at a brand new location - Lincoln Center.

And with the new location and new season, comes a host of new runway talent and as per usual, we are back to poring through the web pages of style.com to scout out the hot new islandista talent working the runways.

After the first day, one new model has pulled ahead of the pack of both old and new Caribbean models, snagging three shows on day one - Martiniquan model Melodie.

She got a shout-out last week from the New York Times' in a piece by fashion critic Cathryn Horyn looking at casting directors' (of course!) new favourites and has followed up on that, walking forVena Cava, Rachel Comey and Nicholas K.

Truth be told, lots of models of colour and of island walked for Rachel Comey - sent us scrambling to the Fashion Spot's Jamaican models thread to i.d. some of the new faces.

Another newbie is Jamaican Ornelia Edwards who walked for Rachel Comey, as did Trini-descended Canadian Alyssah Ali.

By the way, Alyssah wants you to know that she Trini and proud eh? In an interview earlier this year with the Trinidad Guardian, the Canada-born model explained that there is still some confusion about her heritage, with many presuming she is from India.

"It was because someone wrote an article about me being Indian. Ever since, I have been trying to prove to people that my background is Trinidad. Even then, some do not know where it is and assume it is somewhere in Asia. I am very proud of where my family is from. I would love to celebrate my Trinbagonian heritage if given the chance,"

she told the Guardian.

Islandista on the rise: Haitian-American jewellery designer Monique Pean

Islandista-descended jewellery designer Monique Pean has been getting plenty of buzz in 2010.

From Michelle Obama wearing her designs to being featured in O Magazine as one of ten women on the rise to profiles in Essence, New York Magazine and Businessweek, Monique's star is on the rise.

A former Wall Street banker, Pean, whose Haitian father is a former UN diplomat , turned to jewellery making in 2005 after her little sister Vanessa, was killed in a car accident at just 16.

Out of the tragedy came the Vanessa Pean Foundation, which provides scholarships to students at the Centre D’Etudes Secondaires in Haiti and recently completed a spring-fed well in Cabestor which is now providing clean water for over 6800 people.

The tragedy also led directly to what is now Monique Pean Fine Jewellery as her creative form of therapy eventually became a business when a boutique store manager asked about a one-of-a-kind necklace she was wearing which was made from - get this - fossilised wooly mammoth tusk from the Artic Circle.

When Monique said she'd made it herself, the manager asked to see her line sheet.

"I had no idea what a line sheet was," Pean told Businessweek in a profile on her that is out this week.

However, the interest led her to approach more boutiques and within six months, she had left her position at Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs to start doing jewellery full-time.

And from there, she has progressed by leaps and bounds. She received the CFDA/ VOGUE Fashion Fund prize in 2009, and is the recipient of the 2009 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award for Accessories.

She has also expanded her production staff so they are up to producing 1000 pieces a year - doesn't sound like much unless you consider that their prices go as high as USD$203,840 for a recycled rose gold, 33.4 carat diamond bracelet.

Photo credit: Reuters/Eliana Aponte

Still, between Mrs. Obama's frequent appearances in Pean's designs - at a state dinner and on an April visit to Mexico, business is booming. Business has grown 136% in the past year and high-end retailer Barney's carries her line in eight of its national stores.

A good look indeed!

Islandistas at WEEN awards!

Islandistas of all stripes were out in force this weekend Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network's Awards Gala in New York City.

Check out the pics of actress Nia Long, singers Shontelle and Estelle and CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien.

Caribbean models in Benetton FW 10 campaign!

Benetton went up and down the island chain for their latest ad campaign for the FW 10 season.

They snagged no less than three Caribbean models from three different island nations for the campaign, featuring Jamaica's Shena Moulton, Turks and Caicos' Chrishell Stubbs and Martiniquan male model Carl Agapit.

Check out the flicks and look for them in a magazine or on a mall store front near you!