The 2009 Absolute Caribbean Fashion Weekend was held at the Fairmont Royal Pavillion, St. James, BARBADOS. There were three nights for different showings. The designers were categorized by region; Barbados Night, International Couture & Caribbean Catwalk. Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Designers featured on the Caribbean Catwalk night were as follows; Shawn Griffith Perez, Kimya Glasgow, Kimon Baptiste, Queen Esther- Kummba Designs, Heather Jones and Claudia Pegus. Special runway appearances were made by America’s Next Top Model winner McKey Sullivan and international Canadian top model Simone Small.
Absolute Caribbean Fashion Weekend, Caribbean night, showcased talented designers from across the region, whose works consisted of some FABULOUS designs, coupled with a few near misses as well as a few total disasters……
Claudia wowed the audience with her ‘Tribute to Michelle Obama’ line. Inspired by the fashion stylings of Michelle Obama herself. It was a definite hit amongst the audience and fashion media.
model Imogen, wearing a fabulous fuschia dress from Claudia Pegus’ line
model Shani, wearing the Claudia Pegus ‘show-stopper’ of the line, ‘Tribute to Michelle Obama’.
winner of America’s Next Top Model cycle 11, McKey Sullivan, rocking it in a Claudia Pegus piece
Queen Esther, from St. Lucia, was another crowd pleaser with her Kuumba Designs. Showing many fresh, innovative ways to design, wear or create clothing strictly from white cloth. Which, in my opinion, is VERY hard to pull off, as the preceding designer hailing from Trinidad &Tobago, Shawn Griffith Perez, failed at his attempt to TRY to achieve the same effect. Don’t get me wrong! Some of his white pieces were beautiful, just very few! And his tie-dye pieces were HORRENDOUS!
international Canadian top model Simone Small, donning a fabuluos piece by Queen Esther
model Kenyah, wearing Kummba Designs by Queen Esther
model Nia, wearing a questionable dress by Shawn Griffith Perez
model Sedia, donning a fab dress by Shawn Griffith Perez
Ms. Heather Jones… hmm.. colorful, VERY colorful, very caribbean-inspired. Liked it for the most part but some of her pieces were just WAY over the top, and not in a good way (as pictured below) !
Heather Jones’ ‘show-stopper’, worn by McKey Sullivan
model Orchid, wearing a beautiful Heather Jones piece
Heather Jones’ piece…
Heather Jones’ piece- hott!!
Favorites of the weekend were Claudia Pegus, Pat Blackman, Kuumba Designs, Jewel Shannon & Kimya Glasgow. Other participating designers were either disappointing or fell short of average, or just plain old boring, has-been stuff. Sorry, I like to be honest 
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-Dre DeCarlo for KuramaMagazine.com
