October 26, 2018
Putting work out into the world to be judged is no easy task, but that’s the life we sign up for as artists and creatives. We think, we design, we make, we create, and then we publish, we exhibit. We have our creations walk the runways of life, all the while bracing for criticism from the world.
Risanne Martin is a creator with many incarnations – fashion designer, stylist, entrepreneur and teacher. Like many great designers, her creativity goes hand in hand with her rigorous discipline. An important skill she practised from childhood. Waking up at 5:30 a.m. to open the family shop in Diego Martin, to sell newspapers, unpack goods and water down the fresh produce before heading to school. A childhood that directly influenced not only her work ethic but much of her ‘Caribbean girl aesthetic’ – the colour, the vibrancy, the constant movement and sound. But this barely scratches the surface of describing this ‘designer girl boss’. Risanne’s accomplishments thus far range from opening her own boutique to designing for ‘The Lost Tribe’, being the stylist of Nailah Blackman’s “O’Lawd Oye”, ” Iron Love” and Patrice Roberts’ “I Like it Hot” music videos as well as being the creative mastermind behind various advertising campaigns.
Enjoy our chat with the bold and beautiful, Risanne Martin of ‘Brown Cotton Caribbean’.
All right. So the first time we discovered you it was at the second ‘Styles Spirit’ fashion show event at the old Piarco airport back in 2014. Was that your first line?
RISANNE: Yes, that was my first line. I launched it by closing the final night of Tobago Fashion Week that year. Then I showed it in the second Style Spirit event.
Coming off the high of Tobago Fashion Week, people were interested in the line, so that was great.
You went to school in Jamaica right? What did you study and what was the experience like?
RISANNE: I studied Cultural Studies, Theatre and Performance.
I began my bachelor’s degree here at UWI St. Augustine Trinidad and in my second year transferred to UWI Mona in Jamaica. Jamaica was a whole new fashion scene. I took risks freely every day with my wardrobe. The events, party scene and the entire culture of boldness truly inspired me.
I volunteered at Saint International’s Annual fashion event where I worked as part of the production team. That same year I worked as a stylist for Pulse Caribbean’s, Caribbean Fashion Week. Working with International and Regional designers, getting the opportunity to style their pieces, it blew my mind. I lived in Jamaica for four years, stayed on at UWI to do a Cultural Studies Masters Programme while working as a stylist part time.
My foundation has been in styling mainly, and only recently design. I completed a Fashion Design Intensive at London College of Fashion in 2016.
How was the transition from stylist to designer?
RISANNE: I’ve been a stalker of design for years. I loved Tumblr and Pinterest, anything that was visually stimulating. I was obsessed and reading a lot. For years and years, I was doing this and not knowing it was groundwork.
In October of 2013, I decided to take a Euro-style trip. I had saved some money, and I yearned to open my mind to something else other than Jamaica and Trinidad.
My mother came along with me. She was sick at the time, and it was somewhat ill-advised, but she came anyway.
I’m sure neither of you regretted that?
RISANNE: Neither of us regretted it, but she was in a lot of pain when we got to Milan, so a lot of the things we had booked and planned, we couldn’t do..
But while I was there, I decided “Mommy I want to do this, I want to get into fashion.”
And she said, “Yes, let’s do a partnership, I’ll back you. Don’t worry. What’s the main plan? What are we doing first? Ya buying fabric?”
She was excited, like, “Okay, let’s sit down and plan out the whole thing.”
Part of me thought this probably isn’t going to happen because reality is going to hit us when we go home and all this magic is going to die.
That December I launched a mini capsule collection because I was scared, doubtful and very unsure.
Putting things out into the world is not the easiest thing.
When my mom died in 2014, I was lost. Plus I didn’t have the capital. So it was just a lot to take in, but I used plenty of the pain and suffering, plenty of it, and dived into the fashion, and that is what I think made things happen for me. I was coming from a dark place where I couldn’t force or pretend. Just create.
It is interesting that you say that work comes from a dark place but then your creations are so colourful, exciting and bright.
RISANNE: When I say a dark place, I’m talking more about my emotional and mental state. When I began my design label, my mom was very ill and subsequently passed the very same year.
Much of the inspiration comes from my parents. Stories from my mom’s childhood, my childhood, the way my parents brought my siblings and me up. When I was in Form One, I was responsible for opening the shop, because I went to a Junior Secondary School, which at the time had morning shifts and evening shifts. I tasked with the evening shift; I would wake up at 5:30 a.m., go and open the shop, sell newspapers, unpack goods and water down the fresh produce like cresses and lettuce. Like clockwork.
Mom would come from the market probably at around 8:00 a.m. She would leave for work late on most days, because she was managing a family, working full time as a teacher at Belmont Boy’s Secondary and trying to make the shop work, you know. My brother would come and relieve me around eleven when I had to get ready to go to school. That taught me responsibility in business at 12 years old. It was not an easy lesson.
So that whole fruit and vegetable life, going to the market at the crack of dawn helped me when I was younger to overcome “shame”. They teased me at school for being the “vegetable girl”. “False pride”, my mom said it was, and that “there is never any shame in working hard and managing your own business.”
The POS market was a circus to me, full of colour, vibrancy and constant movement and sounds. So a lot of my choice of fabrics and prints reflect that. I am obsessed with the kitchen section in every fabric store I visit. It’s one of the first areas I explore because there are all these vibrant cottons with fruit and veggies, all kinds of different prints and patterns and they are just beautiful and colourful. It is just something that always made me feel at home. Very playful and fun, yet it can be structured and disciplined.
That’s something that will never go away. It is not a mood; it is not a phase, you know.
You have a store now in Tobago. Why Tobago?
RISANNE: Tobago has always been a place of clarity for me. I wanted a fresh space in the middle of paradise where I can focus in on my art. Get more into my design process, improve my technical skills and live in a less crazy and noisy environment.
And most of your sales, where is your clientele are from?
RISANNE: Our clients are local and regional mainly. Our International clientele is expanding rapidly, as we ship worldwide. Social Media is a massive outlet for sales as well.
Your work is fun and playful but also sexy.
RISANNE: Yes the aim is to be attractive. I am very in tune with my sexual self, and my designs reflect that. I think a lot of women shy away from “sexy” because they assume its super revealing or vulgar and that’s not true.
“Sexy is supposed to be fun, supposed to make you feel powerful, beautiful and free.”
As far as describing your brand, who is the ‘Brown Cotton Girl’ – the wearer of your clothes?
RISANNE: The wearer of Brown Cotton Caribbean are young and upcoming professionals.
And then, there is the Nailah Blackman type, I think, who is the epitome of my work. Everything I’ve ever created looks fantastic on her. She is definitely cut out for my kind of style. That star energy and hyper-confidence.
How do I describe BCC?
BCC is freedom fashion, wearable art with a solid Caribbean foundation. Caribbean Fashion that is Caribbean lifestyle focused.
The Brown Cotton woman is confident, bold and sexy for sure.
Can we talk a bit about, your work with Nailah Blackman, that is something you started in 2017?
RISANNE: Yes. Probably a few months after Carnival, or a month or two after Carnival. Nailah’s team contacted me, and it was like, “Hey. We’re working with Nailah Blackman; she just did a song with Kes.” And I said, “Well, yes. I love that song!”
They wanted to revamp her look, to channel a little more of her superstar side. At the time she was shy but confident, the girl with the guitar. You know, the Ras Shorty I vibe. And they wanted to do more of an ‘out there’ kinda thing. So I said, “Send her to me, and we’ll do a consultation.” I always do consultations; you have to see who she is, what she wants to look like and what is the story that we are trying to sell. Build a story. It’s where your personality meets what you want the world to see when they look at you.
And she has an amazing body that was easy to style.
I decided to use Brown Cotton Caribbean pieces because I felt like this is a great branding opportunity and an opportunity to put out some breathtaking work.
So I used pieces from my collection – the ‘Empire Caríbe Collection’ from 2015. I did a lot of embellished pants and embellished tops using handmade flower pieces. The pieces looked good on her. They fitted her well. She was very confident on set. She is a star. On one of the sets, I saw a prominent International star in front of me. It was very inspirational and motivational.
She is amazing, and I just felt like all the magic was happening. It was magical!
At that time I was also managing the launch of my boutique in Tobago, so could not give of my time and services as openly as I would have liked. I felt, wait a minute, let’s not get carried away here. I have my own line, my own store opening soon and with that plenty of issues to resolve– I’m on my own journey.
I did work with the team again before Carnival the following year to do styling for her music videos. I thought that sounds like my thing and when I saw the team, I was like, nah, this team is going to produce something out of this world, it could be beautiful!
So your new collection, did I see something called “wearable art”?
RISANNE: Yes. There is a lot of hand-painted stuff, using print in exciting ways. I just had a whole wearable art journey, where I wanted to create some more urban couture pieces. I am very much into hand painting and embellishing so I decided to infuse more of that into my work.
I design from my imagination. It is like a bank I have in my head – I have ideas and drawings and illustrations everywhere.
I feel much more confident putting work out into the world now in 2018 than when I started. Having the store did that too – seeing people’s reaction. To see it sold out the first week. The great feedback about the quality of my products, it’s an incredible feeling.
Let’s talk a bit about designing for The Lost Tribe, with your costume design. Let’s dig into that. Tell me, how did that come to be?
RISANNE: Well I was in London at school when I first fell in love with The Lost Tribe. I did a fashion design intensive in 2016 at London College of Fashion. It was challenging as everyone in my class was super skilled in different disciplines within the fashion industry.
Anyway, while I was there, Lost Tribe launched images on social media of ‘Rhythm’, and I was shook. My whole life was shook. I was in class sitting next to a classmate from Japan and showed her the images. She said “Oh my God, where is this? Where was this from?”
One by one they were coming up to look at my laptop, and I said, “Oh my God, what is this? It’s so cool!” You know, they were obsessed with the images. I was obsessed! And I was like, “Yeah when I go home I am gonna design for them.” (Laughs) But that wasn’t real, at the time it was only an intention. I was just jokingly talking.
When I returned to Trinidad a few months later, I met with Val (Lost Tribe’s Creative Director) and had a long chat about the possibility of me joining the team.
It was a rough experience the first time around. I learned so much, met so many new suppliers and worked closely with other very talented costume designers and experienced the mas making process from a designers perspective. Invaluable experience.
I had many battles with deadlines as I was brought onto the team somewhat late and that was stressful. It was crazy. Panic and anxiety were my best friends for the entire process. But I was the one who said yes, so the work had to be done. It was a season of sleepless nights, crying spells and poor eating habits.
Well with all of that you must have learnt a lot from the experience.
RISANNE: The whole process taught me to compromise, which I needed to learn because I was accustomed to doing my own thing.
I was reminded that the process is never limited to one person; it is always a team. There is no ‘I’ in team. I am very used to ‘I’, so it was a lesson.
I learnt that the ideas I was conceptualising were valid. I guess the same validation that I said that I didn’t need or want, still moved me in this process.
The biggest lesson was – it is not about the design alone; it is about production. If production says no, then whatever you do, it could be how magical, the whole world could love it and it would never see the light of day if production is not feasible.
So that is the heart-breaking part of costume design, production capacity.
And you’re designing again for 2019…
RISANNE: Yes! And when I was confirmed as a designer, I was excited again because I felt like this time, I have more time to develop my ideas and a design that reflects my flavour a bit more.
Everything I decide to do on the journey that I’m on has to be a part of the story that I’m creating.
I’m continually building my story and curating my life like how I would a design collection.
It might be long, and it can be very lonely, but the journey has the potential for growth, something that could only take me higher.
So what is the goal. What is the Brown Cotton Caribbean story that you’re trying to create?
RISANNE: I think the goal is to celebrate the Caribbean lifestyle and tell the Caribbean story using bodies as a mode of storytelling. So that is why I love doing different sizes. Like when a plus-size woman wears my clothes, her curves are just beautiful; absolutely beautiful.
… celebrate the Caribbean lifestyle and tell the Caribbean story using bodies as a mode of storytelling
My aim is for Brown Cotton Caribbean to be appealing to consumers by continually growing and changing. I push that “grass rootsy” energy because that’s where I’m from. My silhouettes come from many different sources. I have friends from all different walks of life, but it is what I am – the way I am, the way I speak, the things I like. It’s like a ghetto sophistication, you know. (Laughs)
Generally, I want to tell my true Caribbean story.
“I want you to feel the Caribbean atmosphere when you are wearing ‘Brown Cotton Caribbean’.”
INTERVIEWER: TANYA MARIE PHOTOGRAPHER: MARLON JAMES
