The Align Private Fashion Showcase
12-09-2012
The Align Private Fashion Showcase
Venue: The May Fair Hotel, Amarillo Suite, 70 Stratton Street, London W1J 8LT
Date: Wednesday 12th September 6.30-11pm Viewing & Reception
Thursday 13th September 11am-8pm Viewing by appointment.
UK Press/Sales: louiselaurentpr@me.com m+44 7855 597 494
Invitation:
Please join Project Runway Season 9 winner, Anya Ayoung-Chee, Iconic Caribbean Designer Meiling & Rachel Ross their Catwalk Jewellery designer of choice as they present their Spring/Summer 2013 Collections at The May Fair Hotel, a premier entrée to London Fashion Week.
Experience an oasis of cool Trinidadian Design in a luxurious contemporary urban setting.
This event, presented in collaboration with TTCSI , will mark the trio of designers first formal showing in London and Anya’s first collection since her win. A stylish blend of press, buyers, and fashion, music and creative industry professionals will congregate to witness Anya, Meiling & Rachel Ross’s collaborative London debut at The Amarillo Suite, Mayfair Hotel, at a viewing reception beginning promptly at 6.30pm.
ABOUT:
Align is an initiative funded by TTCSI; The Trinidad & Tobago Coalition of Services Industries in association with UK Consultants David Jones & Louise Laurent, we are introducing a range of ESTABLISHED ICONIC TRINIDADIAN FASHION BRANDS to the UK/ Global market coinciding with LFW S/S 2013.
The Collections of our featured Brands
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Align with Global Trends for SS/13
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Align with SS/13 UK High End Fashion Retail Trends
Anya Ayoung-Chee: www.anyaayoungchee.com
Anya will showcase her signature blend of laid-back, easy Caribbean style and modern elegance that won her the votes of judges, Heidi Klum, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia.
Cast as the underdog in Project Runway Season 9, Anya Ayoung-Chee emerged the victor, winning the entire competition as well as the ‘Fan Favorite’ prize, HP/Intel and L’Oreal prizes, after showing her Spring/Summer 2012 Collection at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York. Following two successful presentations at Trinidad & Tobago Fashion Week in 2009 and 2010 Anya applied for the reality competition on a whim, and became quickly known for her use of print and easy Caribbean-inspired pieces. Since her win Anya and her line were featured at the HP Global Influencers Summit in Shanghai China, and at HP’s Alt Design Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah. Anya has also been keynote speaker at Cornell University’s “Celebration of Asian and Asian American Women” and panelist Harvard Business School’s Retail and Luxury Goods Conference.
She has been featured in a variety of print and online media including January 2011’s Marie Claire magazine, July 2012’s issue of Coastal Living and the cover feature of the March/April issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.
Meiling: www.meilinginc.com
With over 30 years as a leader in the Trinidad and regional fashion industry, MEILING’s globally inspired designs and stylish runway shows have set her apart as the Caribbean’s premier fashion designer.
In 1982, Meiling Limited Editions Ltd was founded—a successful corporate uniform division that outfitted employees in several companies locally and throughout the Caribbean. In 1996, Meiling began a resort line for export and, later that same year, she launched Z Meiling, a clothing line named after her son Zakri, which she tailored for her clientele aged 15-30.
Since 1983, Meiling has worked closely with Emmy Award-winning costume designer, Peter Minshall on his Carnival productions and other artistic presentations. This collaboration has won her accolades, notably for her involvement in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, and for her work with the Miss Universe Pageant, which was held in Trinidad in 1999.
In 2005, Absolut of Sweden commissioned Meiling to design uniforms for the Absolut bar at 51 Degrees, a local nightspot. This collaboration proved so successful that the company concocted an “Absolut Meiling” martini.
Meiling is also known for her work with and support of local musical talents, including calypsonian David Rudder and acclaimed Rapso artists, 3Canal, with whom she has an extended working relationship. For the trio’s Bacchanal show, Meiling reinvented ole-time Carnival characters in a stark palette of black and white, an effort that brought her the 2006 Cacique Award for Most Outstanding Costume Design. That same year, she designed Opening Ceremony uniforms for the Trinidad and Tobago team at the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne, Australia.
In November 2007, Robert & Christopher Publishers launched Meiling: Fashion Designer, the second book in a series on local, female artists. Recognition continued in 2008 as Meiling received a “Grand Master of Fashion Design” award at Caribbean Fashion Week in Jamaica.
In September of the same year, she was presented with the Chaconia Silver Medal—a National award given for the designer’s long and meritorious service to Trinidad and Tobago’s business sector.
In 2008, alongside local retailer, Micles, Meiling launched MSQUARED, a second line with a lower price point that makes the designer’s signature style affordable for all..
In 2010, Meiling was one of only two designers in the English speaking Caribbean to be invited to show at Plataforma K in Colombia. This is the most prestigious fashion trade show in the South American region and in 2011, she was the only one invited back to represent the English Speaking Caribbean at large.
Meiling also launched the MEILING COMPLETE line of lifestyle products which includes room scent diffusers and candles. Last year, Meiling was honoured with the 2011 Women of Influence Award from the Association of Female Executives of Trinidad & Tobago for her innovation and business acumen.
In 2012, for the 50th anniversary of independence, Meiling is most nominated as one of the top 50 most influential people in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Meiling line is presently available in Trinidad and Jamaica.
Rachel Ross: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-Ross-Jewellery/249838071732641
It is serendipitous that Ross, once an aspiring geologist, now a fervent nature conservationist, has embarked on a creative journey where her inspiration and even resources have come from what was available in her immediate environment. And that through that journey she has refined beauty and value out of the most domestic flotsam.
“And it’s wonderful what you learn along the way, many times I’ve actually tried to recreate a piece — but you can’t go back the same way. You learn from it and then you apply it. But don’t go and try to do the same thing again.
This was evidenced recently whilst making work for Anya Ayoung-Chee’s runway show. Ross, recognising the futility in attempting to reproduce older work, developed a line of bamboo and brass bracelets instead.
It is on this same tangent of evolution that Ross, a largely self-taught practitioner, finds pleasure in the discovery of new applications, materials and techniques. She has discovered quite by accident ways for treating metals that are not typically used in traditional jewellery crafting but which have become a part of her signature style.
In 1997, Ross partnered with fine jeweler Barbara Jardine to form Alchemy, 11 years after the two first worked together at the widely successful and internationally recognised Nous Çavantes, which brought together top designers and artists for a runway show in Trinidad in 1986.
In the very near future, Ross intends to facilitate the introduction of the Same Sky initiative to the Trinidadian market. Same Sky is a “trade-not-aid” company whose aim is to empower women by giving them the tools to become entrepreneurs and lead self-sustaining lives, as is the case with survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide who learned the art of crafting hand-blown glass-bead bracelets. Ross is also looking forward to creating new work in the indigenous found-material vein, where the beauty will be in the very fact that the objects are not perfect and have preserved much of their elemental beauty. Ross seems poised for another incarnation, the next unearthing of refined rustics—bejeweled and mined to perfection.
