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.

New islandistas @ New York Fashion Week

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 New York Fashion Week (Fall/Winter '10) started on Thursday and so far it's been pretty good, islandista-wise. 

For the last NYFW (SS '10) we counted 10 islandista models (and one islandisto in the form of yaadie Tyson Beckford) walking the runways for 22 different designers. 

Thus far, the count is at the same 11 (including those new faces we're going to tell you about) for 19 designers so far.  

The expected names have been out there - Jamaica Jeneil Williams walked for Costello Tagliapietra, Dominican Arlenis Sosa walked for Nicole Miller and fellow Dominican Rose Cordero walked for ... everyone - we've counted six shows so far, including Doo.Ri, Jason Wu and Ruffian. 

Alongside new Sudanese-Australian wunderkid Ajak Deng, Rose has been the busiest black or brown model out there. 

However, one islandista newcomer is matching Rose so far, show for show. Read on for more.

You better work! Shena Moulton comes good at NYFW

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So New York Fashion Week has just ended and we're already on to London Fashion Week but we here at Islandista just wanted to big up island girl Shena Moulton who was one of the hardest working Caribbean models on the runways of New York City over the last week and some.

It seemed like Shena was popping up everywhere. Besides the Ports 1961 show which we highlighted in another post, she walked for some big names during NYFW, including Calvin Klein and Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Check out more of her work after the jump.

Islandista designers at New York Fashion Week

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So besides all the islandista models that have been on the scene at New York Fashion Week, there are also a few islandista designers!

Former Jamaican top model Lois Samuels has turned her hand to designing and has brought out her first collection, The Vessel.

According to Samuels, her collection is inspired by both menswear and uniforms and the place they held in Jamaican society.

She told Fashion bombshell Adriana:

"I grew up in a society where having a uniform was so important. I think it gives calm to the chaos, and in a time like this you want to invest in something that’s multi-seasonal, comfortable, sexy, and not the fad–something that’s going to last."

You can definitely see the inspiration very directly in the looks -they are very structured and neat.

 



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We especially like the dresses she has done. You can see more photos from the show over at the Fashion Bomb.

Lois is not the only Jamaican designer at New York Fashion Week.

Islandistas working the runways at New York Fashion Week

Islandistas, do you know what's in style this season?

ISLANDISTAS!

That's what.

Maybe it's just us, but we are definitely seeing changes in the colour of the catwalks of New York Fashion Week. As you would know we have been tracking this for some time and the last season (Fall/Winter 09) definitely looked more colourful than it had in ... ever?

And it seems the trend is continuing. We have been poring through style.com to get an idea of how models of colour are being represented and thus far, we are pleased to report that out of the 32 collections we've reviewed thus far, all but four designers have included models of colour.

The four offenders so far are Preen, William Rast, Lyn Devon and Helmut Lang - though Lang might get a bligh since he only used two models and one was the Asiatic looking Russian Ranya Mordanova.

Anyway, these more colourful catwalks have been a boon to Caribbean models and there are islandistas all over New York Fashion Week. Honestly, we  have never seen so many.

And what is interesting is that it is not just the more familiar faces like Arlenis Sosa and Jeneil Williams that we are seeing popping up.

Check out more pics and the info on their island connections after the jump.

Jourdan Dunn 'in' and out of Fashion Week

For a brief moment, it looked like Jourdan Dunn, who is five months pregnant, would be walking the runway at the upcoming New York Fashion Week for the Spring/Summer '10 collections.

The news flew across the internet yesterday afternoon and this morning, when Models.com posted a picture of Jourdan's card, which was included among those for the season.

Fashionologie picked up on it and included the tidbit in a mixer post and then New York Magazine picked up on it from there and off it went, causing a temporary spike of excitement and speculation among fashionistas.

But ... it was all for nought.

Turns out Jourdan will not be walking this season. By 11 a.m. this morning, a rep from her agency Women agency, confirmed that Jourdan will not be appearing in any of the shows.

Move along folks! Nothing to see here...

Jeneil rocks NY Fashion week & Michelle's bare arms

Islandista Jeneil Williams has been making some serious moves in the world of fashion recently. Besides being in the now-legendary all-black edition of Italian Vogue last summer (along with fellow islandistas Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn and Arlenis Sosa) and being the face of the campaign for the Bluetooth 'Jawbone', she tore up New York Fashion Week, opening three shows and walking in several others.



[caption id="attachment_735" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Dark and lovely: Jamaican Jeneil Williams opened for the Zero + Maria Cornejo show at NYFW. (photo credit: style.com)"][/caption]



 She opened for Diesel, Zero + Maria Cornejo (a favourite of US First Lady Michelle Obama) and Richard Chai.

 She also walked for Elise Overland, Vena Cava, Ideen, Juan Carlos Obando, Don de Verb and the Project Runway finals, which is always a major NYFW event.

In other news (sorta) people are getting all hysterical because Michelle Obama has (gasp!) been wearing sleeveless dresses. She wore a gorgeous deep purple Narciso Rodriguez dress for her husband's first address to Congress which prompted several hissy fits among fashion arbiters who deemed it 'inappropriate' for the occasion. Huh?

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 They became even more hysterical when the First Lady followed that up with a series of other sleeveless looks in short order, including a White House concert for Stevie Wonder, a People Magazine cover and a White House dinner.

Then she really flipped them the bird when she wore a sleeveless black Michael Kors shift for her official White House portrait photo. Quelle horreur!

Her friend, White House social secretary Desiree Rogers even had to wade into the debate, telling the Washington Post that Mrs. Obama's feeling on it is:

 If I want to wear no sleeves to hear my husband speak, that's what I'm going to do."

Wha, alright then - damn right!

This debate is frankly ridiculous to me. None of the tut-tutters can pinpoint exactly what is so scandalous and inappropriate about Michelle's bare arms. Have arms become an erogenous zone? Not unless we are in Taliban-era Afghanistan. Some have muttered about it still being winter but she's been wearing the outfits INSIDE! It's not like she's out shovelling snow in a shift dress.

This is really pissing me off because I could easily see this being a debate in the Caribbean, where despite our penchant for Carnival and dancehall bashment outfits, we are also deeply conservative about dress. Workplaces in the Caribbean that allow people to wear sleeveless outfits are probably the exception, not the rule, despite the fact that we live in a TROPICAL CLIMATE all.year.round! When it's 32 degrees celcius outside in August, wearing a shift should not be a matter for HR to get their knickers in knot about - it's not even a damn fashion statement then, it's just practical!

Whew. Had to get that rant out there.

However, amidst the ridiculousness, she's also had her defenders, including Letitia Baldridge, social secretary to former First Lady Jackie Kennedy (who also had a thing for sleeveless dresses) and Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey who succintly pointed out that critics are no doubt somewhat envious that Michelle can pull off the bare arms look so elegantly. Shoot, I'm about half her age and I'm a bit envious - my arms don't look like the First Lady's. But I ent gine hate. In fact, I am rooting for Michelle's bare arms statement - if the First Lady of the United States can get people to get over their phobia of bare arms, maybe the time will come when I won't have to swelter in a jacket or long-sleeved shirt in August and September.

NY Fashion week gets it : black is the new black

Let's hope we're not putting our mouth on the fashion industry by speaking too quickly but it finally seems like the message of diversity is getting through to the fashion types. Maybe it's the Obama effect, as the NY Times put it, (or as Tracy Morgan  more succintly put it: "black is the new president, bitch!") but the recently concluded New York Fashion Week was far more colourful than any in recent times.

[caption id="attachment_704" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Islandista Jourdan Dunn was one of the big winners, walking in 20+ shows and opening for both old guard designers such as Oscar de la Renta (pictured) and new guard designer Jason Wu, who famously designed First Lady Michelle Obama's inauguration ball gown"][/caption]

Jezebel did an exhaustive (seriously, that must have been time consuming- really got to large them up for taking the time to go through all of the pics on style.com and break it down- whew!) study of the week and concluded that some 18% of the spots in fashion shows were given to models of colour. Their analysis:

There were 116 labels that held shows at the recently ended New York fashion week; that's 3,697 spots in runway and presentation lineups. Of those, 668 were given to models of color — which, at just over 18%, is 6% better than one year ago. (And certainly better than in the fall of 2007, when WWD reported that one-third of the New York shows used no models of color at all.)

They even did graphs breaking down the race of the models of colour used. Of that number, 41% were black, 36% were Asian and 22% Latina, with 1% being other ethnicities.

While this is no where close to being an accurate representation of the racial composition of the United States, which is 26% non-white, it is encouraging progress so let's give credit where credit is due.

Now, it's on to Milan Fashion Week, which, while known for being very vanilla, also produced the iconic all-black Italian Vogue. So here's hoping...

Rihanna's dad - "I didn't believe it" and Fashion Week stuff

Rihanna's father, Ronald Fenty has spoken of his shock on hearing of his daughter's alleged assault at the hands of her (now ex we presume?) boyfriend Chris Brown. Speaking to people.com, Mr. Fenty was remarkably restrained and diplomatic for someone whose only girl child has been battered (or maybe they just edited out the part where he said 'if I ever see Chris Brown again, I gine burst he rasshole head... who knows?).

"I know my daughter," said Fenty, 55. As for Brown, he said, "You think you know somebody, but you really don't."

Describing Rihanna's current condition after seeing her in Barbados on Friday, Fenty said, "There is some bruising. She will be alright. I think so."

He adds, "At some point, she will speak out. I hope she will stand up for women all over the world."

Fenty, a salesman and freelance clothing designer, said Rihanna is spending time with her girlfriends in Barbados while she heals. While Fenty said he wouldn't tell his daughter what to do, he did say, "If it were me, I'd move on."

Like we said... restrained. Kudos to Mr. Fenty for taking the high road. 

In other news... it's FASHION WEEK!

New York Fashion Week is having an existential crisis about whether it's appropriate to have the traditional lavish displays of luxury and wealth when the world is in a recession. Several designers, including Ms. Fabulosity herself Kimora Lee Simmons (soon to be Hounsou?) have scaled back their shows in deference to the recession.

But the clothes still cost an arm and a leg ok? And a few toes on the next foot... but at least dey trying.



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Islandista Nia Long looked cute as can be walking the cat walk for the Heart Truth's red dress collection in a dress by top black designer Tracy Reese and a new group called the African Fashion Collective had an all-star cast of black models for their show, including islandista Jaunel McKenzie and guest appearances by Tyson Beckford and the irrepressible Grace Jones.

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Fashion season analysis: more colourful?

(photo credit: The Shophound)

So New York and London's Fashion Weeks have whizzed by in the last fortnight or so and Milan and Paris are still to come.

The question, especially relevant to us islandistas is - has there been more colour on the runways? Have we been seeing women like ourselves (well, not really like ourselves because the average islandista is not 6 feet tall but you get our point) reflected?

The fashion industry has been taking some licks over the last year or so over its lack of diversity with women such as Naomi Campbell (one of our favourite islandistas, even though she's crazy scary), Bethann Hardison and Iman speaking out. The industry responded, tetchily and defensively at first but then with a few efforts, most notably the Italian Vogue all-black special which set the fashion industry alight.

So, has this all had any impact at all where it matters - on the runways and in the magazine pages? For New York's Fashion Week, blog Shophound maintained a Diversity Quotient which they included at the end of every review. They also did a full report, listing the DQ for all of the shows  they attended.

So what did it show? Well, things have gotten marginally better at least. Instead of just the token one black model (or none at all) designers have been making the effort to include two or three per show. Prominent black designer Tracy Reese led their stats, with 36% of her models being non-white. John Bartlett was close behind with 30% diversity. Brian Reyes followed with 27% and Ports 1961 and Ruben Singer both had 25%. At the other end of the scale, Jil Stuart had a measly 6.4% diversity quotient.

According to Reuters, Diane von Furstenburg, who as head of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) had urged designers to consider more diversity for their shows this season, also featured a number of black models as did DKNY. There was even a  young black albino model, 17 year old Shaun Ross, who was featured in the Patrick Ervell show.

Still many shows only featured one or no models of colour. And things were even more woeful for Asian and sub-continental Asian models. In fact, Shophound reported that Lakshmi Menon was the only South Asian model featured. And we know islandistas come in all colours so this still does not augur very well.

Designer Michael Angel claimed:

"I don't ever think about color, nor do I think of race. That is the most backward way to think."

Hmm. Funny. His DQ was a measly 6%. Which actually represented a whopping one black model out of 19- Anabela, who modeled 3 out of 44 looks. Hmm. I guess he's trying hard not to be too 'backward'.

Anyhow, things are changing slowly or rather we should say moving slowly because truthfully it is still too early in the game to know if this represents a real shift or if it is just a temporary response to the blacklash of the last year. They say black never goes out of style but in fashion that has just not been the case.

Islandista catwalker, the Dominican (Republic) model Arlenis Sosa, armed with her brand new Lancome contract, got quite a bit of attention, as did Sesilee Lopez. Both were featured in the all-black issue of Vogue. Sosa actually made her fashion week debut in NYC and walked for some pretty big names such as Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Proenza Schouler, Zac Posen, Narciso Rodriguez and Tommy Hilfiger. So that Italian Vogue issue is already starting to do its work.

Naomi sees a change. She says she is encouraged enough by the black representation on the catwalks that she is considering bowing out of the business. In an interview with the Times of London, she commented:

"This time they [designers and editors] have stepped it up. I feel positive. That means that I can go soon."

Really, it remains to be seen. I think we all  - bloggers, consumers, models, designers and so on, need to continue holding their feet to the fire.

So let's do that.