Govt looks to garment industry

This was one of three initiatives announced by Tunapuna MP Esmond Forde on behalf of Prime Minister (PM) Dr Keith Rowley; who at the time was attending a Caricom meeting in Grenada, at the launch on Thursday of the Foundation for Fashion, Art, Manufacturing, Entrepreneurship and Export (FAME-Caribbean).

“FAME-Caribbean’s effort dovetails with the Government’s focus to commercialise the fashion industry and to strengthen its export capacity, under the umbrella of the Trinidad and Tobago Creative Industries Company, also known as CreativeTT.” Forde also said that another State agency, FashionTT, “has capacity- building programmes to assist local design firms to improve their value chain by refining their in-house performance or to outsource some of their operations.

The Government is also in the process of establishing a garment production facility to boost the production capacity of local fashion designers. This facility will better enable local designers to fulfil large orders from international buyers without having to rely on outsourcing production outside of TT.” Also under active consideration by the Rowley administration is a programme for bespoke tailoring.

Forde, reading the PM’s remarks, said such a programme not only has “the potential for employment creation and revenue generation,” it would also likely bring in much-needed foreign exchange while helping to provide “a better socio-economic landscape, utilising the inherent creativity of our people”.

The July 6 launch was held at the Chancellor Hill, St Clair, home of the FAME-Caribbean’s brand ambassador, Brian Lara, who is also a client of FAME-Caribbean’s founder, Trinidad- born Savile Row Master tailor, Andrew Ramroop. The foundation’s aim is to build a sustainable creative industry in the Caribbean by providing entrepreneurial support with philanthropic values to students and designers alike as they seek to make careers in the world of fashion and art.

Speaking with the media prior to a nighttime fashion show which featured the work of designers such as Meiling and Marlon George, Ramroop said he created the foundation “to build something that is meaningful, that is sustainable, that will last for a long time and create employment.” Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia and TT are the six Caribbean countries Ramroop has selected to be part of FAME-Caribbean; he did not rule out adding other countries in the region at a future date.

The aim is to “create training opportunities for young people that could give them meaningful careers because so much of government funds are actually poured into academic attainment...then you go on to have a so-called professional career but I think you can have a meaningful career in the arts, in the creative field, in the trades (such as) plumbing, carpentry.

They should all be trained and qualified and they should all have opportunities to be just as lucrative as those in the (traditional) professions are,” Ramroop said.

FAME-Car ibbean is based on Italy’s Pitti Immagine in Florence, which Ramroop explained is an annual marketplace during which, thousands of buyers place orders for items on display by hundreds of fashion and accessory designers.

Now that the foundation has been launched, Ramroop and his team are preparing for a three-day fashion event here in Trinidad this November, “FAME-Caribbean 2K17”, which is set to bring together designers from the six aforementioned countries, along with music and entertainment.