January 25, 2018 3canal, they are the kings of the j’ouvert and while they don’t mean to sound haughty, they are damn right. Oh you didn’t know? Well now you know. I don’t regret a lot in my life but if I do regret one thing, it would be the year that I played j’ouvert […]
September 23, 2017 Not long ago I attended a design colloquium at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, that gave me an extra shot of hope for the future of Caribbean design. The Colloquium featured presenters from across the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and beyond. We were all sharing research, ideas, theories and […]
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 […]
July 04, 2017 To us, it might sound like a movie: a German artist and maker heads to rural Trinidad and finds family, chocolate and an unimagined dream… For Ben Louison, however, this fantasy is actually his reality. On his latest visit to Trinidad, Ben carried Designer Island on a mini roadtrip to Moruga and […]
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 […]
March 20, 2017 “I believe that food is powerful – spiritually, culturally, economically and physically.” Caribbean cuisine is unique. The way that all the cultural influences of the region come together to create food that is similar in so man ways yet so unique is something on which we thrive. Our coasts share the waters […]
February 15, 2017 “This creativity is not ours it comes from somewhere else. There is a creative being, a creative universe and creative consciousness.” The Tribe Carnival brand has been a dominant force in all aspects of Trinidad carnival since 2006. In 2015 after identifying a new customer base, the band launched its third concept, […]
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 […]
