NOVEMBER, 2021 For your next designer ‘It’ bag, passionately handcrafted with top grain, Italian leather and adorned with brass and gold plated hardware, look no further than Vavvoune. The brand was founded in 2015 by Valerie Blaise, a self-taught, Haitian-born, Brooklyn-based artisan and designer who happened upon her love for leather by chance. Each wearable […]
April 02, 2018 The homes of artists are always so inspiring. So much to look at: paintings on the walls, drawings stuck in corners, intriguing books, movies and conversations all around you. Now imagine being the child that lives here. Filmmaker Maya Cozier is the daughter of Trinidadian contemporary visual artist Christopher Cozierand painter Irénée […]
February 23, 2018 Have you noticed the little changes in the architecture in St. James? A few new gems here and there. Some subtle beautifications in Woodbrook. And the constant, albeit quiet, plea to stop tearing down our monuments. It’s against this backdrop that we first encountered a rising, young architect with a passion for […]
July 29, 2017 There are many skincare brands, department stores, and drug stores a drive or a click away. But in-between the immense forest of well-known names, grow some much smaller independent labels. —New buds of skincare brands that spring perhaps surprisingly from the Caribbean. Beauty entrepreneur Nydia Norville is the owner and maker of […]
May 27, 2017 There’s a new trend in T&T and, hopefully, across the Caribbean: green markets! Not the cliché tourist-inspired space, but burgeoning, blossoming gardens of Caribbean creativity. They’re the home of picture perfect, home grown fruits and veggies, steaming cups of old fashioned cocoa tea and breakfast delights, all made from local produce. Which […]
February 04, 2017 “This is how you know the culture isn’t dead.” That was the comment I overheard as I listened to Bishop’s Girls’ perform Parang songs at a Christmas event back in November (mental note taken and tucked into a pocket of my mind). Fast-forward to January 2017, the beginning of Carnival Season in […]
January 14, 2017 “My competition, or your competition, is not a designer who stands next to you in Trinidad. My competition is not Claudia, or Heather, or Robert or an emerging designer. My competition is the world, the whole world.” I first met Meiling in 2009, while creating her folkloric wonderland of a website. It […]
October 21, 2016 Five years ago, I met my family in Trinidad and Tobago for the first time. Rounding the final curve of my 20’s, I arrived on one of the most festive days of the year, Carnival Monday. On display was the grandest and wildest show in the country, perhaps the entire Caribbean. After […]
October 01, 2016 “Hand-painted signs are such a unique and beautiful aspect of our culture. A culture I would like to see continue and thrive. But I also understand some of the challenges that the regional corporations face that may lead them to remove signs before their date has passed, as fallen, outdated signs lead […]
September 14, 2016 “I wanted to see if an architectural way of making could be developed that reflects the nature of Trinidad Carnival.” The culture, the rhythm, the people, the accents and even the language… Across the Caribbean, no two are the same. And how we experience these unique variables differs even more as a […]
