Ahhhh….the warm, translucent, aquamarine waters of the Caribbean Sea gently swirling around your ankles as you walk along the pristine, golden sands of the beach. Light sea breezes ever so gently kiss your lips leaving behind its salty trail. There is no other place like this and I speak lovingly of our sister isle, Tobago. She has brought calm and serenity to many tired, aching bodies and souls and many have indeed left feeling calm and rejuvenated after much needed rest at any one of her seashores. While Tobago is in fact known for its many relaxing beaches, forests and excellent dive sites, I want to share with you another buzz worthy event that takes place each and every year, Tobago’s Heritage Festival.

In ‘ode’ to our very own Fashion Week ’10 held here just a few weeks ago I’ve decided to share with you some of our country’s own upcoming, fresh and exceptionally talented youth in the featured areas of the Fashion industry. There will be a three part interview segment with each of these talented young people being featured.

  We kick off with an exclusive interview with Ms. Darcel De Vlugt, a multi-talented, smart, confident and outspoken young designer: a ‘newbie’ in the fashion industry. Ms. De Vlgut walked into our office dressed casually in a blue ‘off the shoulder’ blouse, slim fitting jeans, her hair swept back neatly from her face, and the warmest smile.

We move into an exciting Question and Answer interview with one of Trinidad’s most talented make up artist, Ms. Renee Milford. She has worked on numerous faces, using them as canvases, as her artful techniques are translated into breathtaking work. Though due to time constraints she wasn’t able to make it to our office, she humbly accepted to do this interview via email. Thank you so much Ms. Milford for your contribution!

Well the many fashionistas out there are in for a treat yet again this year with our very own Fashion Week line- up. The highly anticipated and much talked about event has created quite a stir in the local fashion industry  since it’s induction in 2007. And rightfully so, here at home we have many dedicated, creative and technical designers  and FWTT gives them the much deserved forum to display their eclectic Caribbean styles. I, myself am looking forward to the wide spectrum of colour, various swaths of gorgeous fabric and artful design that would be on show during the running of the event.

 Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago is in its third year and there has been much success with each show. This year, FWTT has also included Tobago as a fashion destination point to also showcase featured designers and models from our sister isle. Some of the past featured designers at FWTT have included, Meiling, Claudia Pegus, Peter  Elias, Pilar, Chiz*L ,Menswear, Kimya Glasgow, Christian Boucaud Design, Zadd & Eastman, DAV Originals ,Radical Designs ,The Cloth, Eclife Elie Designs, Calvin Southwell and Saleem just to name a few.

So I have addressed our current ‘entertainment industry’ in sweet Trinidad and Tobago but I think that I should stress...if want for a better word... just a bit on our ‘local’ television and radio broadcast content. We possess five major TV networks; CNMG (Caribbean News Media Group), Gayelle, SyneryTv and WinTv. There are also several radio stations, from the five ‘local’ TV channels carried here at home, there are probably two/three stations more geared toward carrying strictly  work done by ‘ we own’ artistes, dancers, playwrights etc. Why is this so? Why carry 25% local content with 75% being split between American and Jamaican culture? Is it that we don’t have “enough” talent here to showcase or use?

In a society where our youth are at very impressionable ages shouldn’t we try to draw their attention to seeing what they posses creatively and developing it? They should be able to look at ‘we own ‘on TV and draw some sort of inspiration from it. And what’s really the social responsibility of these media houses? Being a 'Soca Star' or an emerging 'Rising Star' is not the be all and end all our thriving, talented nation. While I salute those efforts there is so much more. Where have the local dramas from television gone? Why can’t we see more of ourselves on TV rather than Vybez Cartel's latest music video or perhaps broadcasting Music Festival or Sanfest Competitions live? What are we feeding to the minds of our nation youths?