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.