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!

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.

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!

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.

Islandistas in Russian Vogue, W and Elle magazines!

Photo credit: Sharif Hamza for Russian Vogue

It was so nice, Russian Vogue clearly had to do it twice!

Pulse Jamaica's top girls Jeneil Williams and Sedene Blake are back in the pages of Russian Vogue, two months after their July spread with fellow islandistas Shena Moulton and Reina Montero.

This time they are in the September issue of Russian Vogue for a dark and brooding spread alongside several other models, including Victoria's Secret angel Alessandra Ambrosio.

And all on her own is Trini-descended Lyndsey Scott in a nude spread for W magazine, while the baddest of them all, Naomi Campbell is on the cover of UK Elle for its 25th anniversary edition- 24 years after she first appeared on their cover! Fly and forty Ms. Campbell is.

Check out those pics and more from Jeneil and Sedene's shoot under the cut.

Shontelle gets patriotic ink

Bajan singer Shontelle went under the needle recently to get a patriotic tat done - of Barbados' broken trident. Check the vid below.

Islandista triple-whammy in September Vogue!

Photo credit: Steven Meisel for Vogue. (Source: models.com)

This month's September Vogue (the one featuring Halle on the cover) features an islandista triple-whammy - three islandistas across three different editorials.
Behind the scenes is mega makeup star Pat McGrath, who is the makeup artist on two editorials - We Are the World and On the Town.
In front of the camera, our favourite model, the Jamaican-Brit Jourdan Dunn and Puerto Rican Joan Smalls are featured in three editorials - We Are the World, On the Town and the 'Oh What A Night' spread promoting the upcoming Fashion's Night Out event.
Check out more of the pix under the cut.

Islandistas galore in July Russian Vogue!

Ohmigosh, it's a veritable flood of islandistas in Russian Vogue this month (do we see influential islandista Naomi's hand in this?) with four islandistas featured in a hot spread by Terry Tsiolis!

.And ... we ... LOVE IT!

Not just because it features four of the hottest islandistas in the game, including Jamaican superteens Shena and Sedene but the vibrancy and pure 'aaaattitude gal!' spirit of the spread just jumps out at you.

In the lead pic with Reina, Jeneil and Sedene in orange, I all but expect to hear Sedene hollering out 'raaaeeee! A wha do dem gyal deh!'

 

(Photo credits: Terry Tsiolis for Russian Vogue)

Islandistas in June Vogue & July Elle!

It's all islandista, all the time in fashion's biggest magazines this summer! The fashion folk can't get enough of island girls from all spheres, be they designers, models or singers.

In the June edition of Vogue is Jamaican designer Carly Cushnie of Cushnie et Ochs - along with her design partner, they are highlighted in a feature on New York fashion's New Guard. To paraphrase Daddy Screws, big t'ings a gwan fi yu Carly!Also in the same June edition is Puerto Rican/Virgin Islander (St. Thomas to be exact) Joan Smalls, who truly ripped the runway in the FW10/11 fashion season just gone- walking 40 catwalks.

How will Tivoli terror affect JA's entertainment scene?

That is the question entertainment and cultural promoters and performers must be asking themselves after a quiet week in Kingston, Jamaica entertainment-wise.

The 'terror in Tivoli' has inflicted wounds not just on the hundreds injured and scores killed, but on Jamaica's economy and Kingston's vibrant entertainment scene.

The Jamaica Observer reports that a host of entertainment events, from regularly scheduled parties like Uptown Mondays, Weddy Wednesdays and Dudus' own Passa Passa, have been cancelled.

Larger one-off or seasonal events like the scheduled WI v South Africa test cricket, the final staging of May Daze and the Jamaica Observer's Food Awards, have also been moved, cancelled and postponed.

Islandista-wise, Saint International's StyleWeek is a major casualty. StyleWeek was originally set for this weekend but the organisers called it off, issuing a statement:

Meiling buffing FWTT?

Amidst all the drama in the Caribbean recently, we are approaching our very own fashion season, starting with Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago, which kicks off tonight.

Interestingly enough, even though FWTT officially starts tonight in Tobago, Trinidad's fashion doyenne Meiling has decided to opt out of showing her collection at FWTT this year.

Instead, she will be showing her collection, Noir at a fashion showcase by hot Caribbean-American events company Antilia at the Carlton Savannah ... on the very same night that FWTT is starting.

Hmm... What's going on here?

Jeneil, Jaunel and Sasha-Gaye in Brit mags

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Jamaican supermodels continue to run tings in the fashion world.

This month brings a wave of top yaad talent to two British magazines - the quirky, fashion-favourite, I-d and British Grazia.

Jeneil, along with several others, is featured on the cover and on the inside of I-D in their Summer for Love editorial, which plays up her strong, lithe body with several leaping and nsfw topless shots.

Jaunel and Gaye are in the more mainstream Grazia in their editorial 'The Clash' which highlights the 'tribal' trend in fashion. Take a look at the pics from both shoots under the cut.

Islandista It Girl: Shala Monroque

Islandistas, you know what we love?

We love reading about islandista it girls - chicks who are just killing the scene in New York, London, wherever, with their style, flair and islandistas-ness. We love when something about their name or look gives us that little inkling... is she...an islandista?

And we've found another one - she's St. Lucian Shala Monroque, editor-at-large for Pop magazine, girlfriend of art dealer and gallerist Larry Gagosian  and the fashion set's darling.
Seriously, Monroque, who was born and raised in bel Sent Lisi, is everywhere that matters in style.

She makes regular appearances (like here and here) in Vogue.com's Ten Best Dressed of the Week and was profiled as an 'It Girl' in the Flash section of Vogue last month (April 2010). Essence.com also praised her style in a piece recently, noting how she sent the fashion blogosphere in a tizzy during the SS10 season last year.

Her style is distinctive - a variety of turbans and beanies so she doesn't have to fuss too much with her short, natural do, the sickest shoe game this side of the Atlantic and a love of bright colours and prints.
That same month she was also in Harper's Bazaar, in their 7-day Wardrobe feature, showing the range of fabulous style. In the feature, she attributes her love of big, bold colour to her Caribbean heritage.

She also attributes that heritage, specifically her looshan-ess to her fearless attitude. In her blog for Pop, she drops the stat that every St. Lucian must remind you of - their Nobel Laureate ratio,  while musing:

"Anyway these two events coming from an island with a population of 160.000 people has left me and many other St. Lucians with the idea that we can achieve anything..."

Yep, pretty much!

Islandistas @ Met Costume Institute Ball

We're baaa-aack! ... With more pics of our picks from the Met Costume Institute Ball last night in New York City.

The winner of the night in the islandistas style stakes - and possibly overall - was Jennifer Lopez.

She looked gorgeous in her irridescent, glimmering gown by Zuhair Murad. The sweetheart neckline, the leaf detail in the skirt... perfection.

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Do 'um Jenny!

JLo was right on target fashion wise as nude tones of greige (grey and beige) dominated the night - with Kate Hudson, Katy Perry, Jessica Alba, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwen Stefani and Anne Hathaway all sporting variations of beige, cream, coral etc.

Eva Mendes,  went very differently style-wise with colours and patterns as opposed to neutrals and texture  in a rose-patterned Dolce & Gabbana gown with a fish-tail skirt - perfect for the curvy Cubana.

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Check out more islandista style and some of our favourite non-islandista fashionistas (and some misses!) under the cut.

First look @ Met Costume Institute Gala!

Islandistas and fashionistas all! [picapp align="right" wrap="false" link="term=Met+Costume+institute+gala&iid=8691891" src="1/c/2/7/_American_Woman_ab15.jpg?adImageId=12736635&imageId=8691891" width="234" height="352" /]

Pay attention because coming hard on the heels of the White House Correspondents' Dinner in D.C., it is one of the biggest nights on the social calendars of those in NYC and in fashion - the Met Costume Institute Gala.

Co-hosted by Oprah, the event is kicking off at the Met all now ... and we have the first look at the islandistas making their entrance on the red carpet.

We start of course with Zoe Saldana, who is one of the early arrivals, in a cold-shouldered navy column dress. While the dress itself is right on-trend, we're actually a bit disappointed at this from Zoe. She's usually so fly and fearless on the red carpet that a simple navy column dress seems so tame for her for a fashion night as big as this.

Gorgeous but could be better - we know she could!

Keep checking islandista for all the fashion notes from tonight!

Island folk at White House Correspondents Dinner

The biggest night on the Washington D.C. social calendar (outside of the inaugurations of course!) came off on Saturday - the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner.

US First Lady Michelle Obama looked gorrrrrgeous in a fire-red Prabal Gurung dress! [picapp align="center" wrap="false" link="term=Michelle+Obama+2010&iid=8677340" src="9/0/e/7/US_President_Obama_303e.JPG?adImageId=12736560&imageId=8677340" width="380" height="251" /]

A few big up island folk were in attendance too, like former Secretary of State Colin Powell and D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty and his lovely Jamaican-Brit wife Michelle. Check out the pics of the political fabulousness below!

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Haitian designer Hassan Pierre in Vogue!

[caption id="attachment_2316" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Photo credit: Seth Browarnik/RED EYE PRODUCTIONS "][/caption]

We love to see island folk doing big things so we were very happy to read about Haitian-American designer Hassan Pierre...  in the May issue of US Vogue, no less! 

 While folks may not always associate Haiti with haute couture, Pierre, who is a 22 year old grad of Parson's School of Design, has fashion in his blood, as he told Boca News back in 07:

"My mother used to take me to the Paris shows from Haiti. She is what I like to call, a fashion junkie."

And it's worked for him -another of his lines, VIP Couture, was beloved by it girls such as Nicole Richie and the Olsen Twins and now his organic line, Way It Should Be* is getting shine.

 WISB* was featured in Vogue's Syle Ethics section, with actress Kerry Washington modelling a cool, crisp black and white WISB* dress with a tiered skirt. 

The name of the line aptly sums up its fashion ethos - that clothing should be from sustainable and organic sources. Hence why they use organic materials, non-synthetic dyes, recycled zippers and seeded paper for the hang tags (you can actually plant them and they will bloom). 

Also, the line itself is produced in Port-au-Prince and Pierre has promised it will continue to be, as the city recovers from the catastrophic January 12 earthquake. He told Vogue:

"It really has to be the entire process, beyond it just being organic. And that's more important now than ever."

 

Shena Moulton in Teen Vogue

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Saint's sweet sixteen supermodel (say that ten times fast!) Shena Moulton is continuing her winning form with a spread in this month's Teen Vogue magazine, entitled Sugar Rush.

The spread, shot by Jason Kibbler is featuring the bright and sweet colours that will run spring and summer 2010.

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Happy birthday Shena!

[caption id="attachment_2201" align="alignleft" width="171" caption="Shena shares a laugh with Saint International CEO, Deweight Peters"][/caption]

Jamaica's teenage model phenom, Shena Moulton celebrated her sweet sixteen last week.

I know, I know... all of sixteen! Can you believe it?

She celebrated at a birthday party in her hometown of Kingston, which was thrown for her by her agency, Saint International.

According to the Jamaica Gleaner's fashion blog, the do at Mingles was a surprise party, as she thought Saint CEO Deweight Peters was just taking her out to dinner.

Now that she's 16, Shena's opportunities will be even greater as designers who did not/could not work with her before because of her age.

Oh... and she got to pierce her ears - a birthday treat from mummy Jacqui, who clearly doesn't play.

Bless.

And happy birthday!