BB Fashion Week to host International Fashion Festival

Barbados is set to become the glamorous epicentre of international fashion in the Caribbean when BB Fashion Week  hosts the first ever International Fashion Festival, slated for April 27th – 28th at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

As an extravaganza of international fashion, the inaugural International Fashion Festival will feature celebrity designers Oliver Tolentino from the Philippines whose designer stores are located in Hollywood, California and Romero Bryan from the UK with designer stores in the USA and Europe. They will set the stage for the sensational event with their fabulous presentations of high fashion couture on the runway. Special guests include Marielle Bobo, Style Director at Ebony magazine.

In addition to the seamless runway shows the two-day festival will also feature exciting local entertainment led by Barbados’ fashion celebrity DJ, Kirk Brown, a unique fashion marketplace showcasing the work of local designers of clothing, apparel and lifestyle products, and the Fashion Is Our Passion workshops facilitated by Romero Bryan with free registration for persons attending the runway  shows.

“The International Fashion Festival is the first of its kind to be launched in the Caribbean. It serves as the official launch of BB Fashion Week 2012 which comes off in October and is a major initiative in our arsenal as we continue to showcase Barbados to the world as a destination that offers a top quality shopping experience and promoting the island as the fashion capital of the Caribbean, says Rodney Powers, Executive Director of Unique Productions Worldwide Ltd. (UPW) owners and originators of BB Fashion Week and the International Fashion Festival.

Powers says UPW is partnering with the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries (BCSI) and the Small Business Association (SBA) to pilot the Fashion Industry Development – Barbados project which would see young and up-coming designers benefiting from input into the development of their brands through the project’s Adopt-a-Designer programme. The International Fashion Festival is to assist in providing some funding for the Adopt-a-Designer programme as UPW has partnered with international design houses to provide three-month internships for the designers, and with Ebony magazine to provide an internship for a fashion writer in the area of fashion and style.