The highly-anticipated Guyana Fashion Week (GFW), which was scheduled to be held as part of Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations, will now be held later in the year, November 3 to 13.
However, the launch of the GFW will be incorporated into the impressive schedule of jubilee activities of the Tourism Ministry, under the honourable Cathy Hughes between May 19 and 23.
One month after calling out the troops, the GFW organisers have seen over 300 hopefuls desirous of participating in the event. On Sunday last, a quarter-final round of selection was conducted under the watchful eyes of GFW’s creative director, Caribbean fashion guru Richard Young at the Pegasus Hotel.
Fashion 2The anxiety in the air was palpable and some even felt that the wait was long overdue, but it was well worth it.
The long-awaited model auditions for the GFW climaxed after much bated breath with the best composition of beautiful people in attendance in its history. The widest possible mix of ethnicities from Georgetown, Bartica, Linden, Berbice, the East Coast, the East Bank, and the West Coast were all out in their numbers, putting their best performance to catch the eye of Richard Young.
In 2011, the first phase of the GFW vision rolled out. The executive is proud of its accomplishments of instilling creative entrepreneurship drive, promoting sustainable development goals, fostering youth empowerment initiatives and invigorating a burgeoning fashion industry.
It was decided to enter phase two by producing biennial events so as to engender substantive industry-specific institutional strengthening through the Guyana Model Search and Designer Portfolio, as well as participation in other local, regional and international trade shows, symposia and workshops, so as to validate the relevant activity within the economic sector.
Fashion 3One of the dynamic and exciting parts of the fashion industry is the modelling component. The GFW has a remarkable history of harnessing some of the best creative talent for stage, through their model audition process, for the GFW believes that all the arts cohere for identity branding: the performing, visual, culinary, graphic and beauty arts integrate to signal the style of Guyana and above all, the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, the GFW will be hosting a Beauty and Fashion Expo on Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22 at the Pegasus Hotel from 10:00h to 19:00h. Applications to be part of this expo can be submitted on GFW’s Facebook page.