CARIBBEAN FASHION FOCUS “The REVOLUTION”

 VASHTIE KOLA

“Downtown’s Sweetheart:”

Vashtie Kola, often stylized as “Va$htie” is a New York based Director, Filmmaker, Artist, Designer, Creative Consultant and DJ. She’s cultivated the Downtown New York City scene for over a decade as a style icon. She moves easily among Fashion, Film and Music, she has emerged as “a role model for young tastemakers,” as the The New York Times titled her when they wrote about her in a Style section feature profile. Black Enterprise coined her “Vashtie Kola: Curator of Cool.

Kola was born and raised in Albany, New York and is of Indo and Afro-Trinidad & Tobago descent. Vashtie moved to New York City to attend film school at The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, where she studied directing/cinematography. At the same time, Kola interned at RSA/Black Dog Films and HSI while working part-time at Stussy in SoHo

2005: Vashtie was signed to Box Fresh Pictures as a Director alongside Anthony Mandler. Many of her first videos were done with this company, including videos for artists such as Beans, J-Status and Tony Hussle. At the same time she was also writing music video treatments for established directors such as Anthony Mandler, Lenny Bass and Dr. Teeth. She wrote the treatment for Common’s video “Testify” which starred Taraji P. Henson and Wood Harris. During the same time, Vashtie styled and modeled for the clothing line Billionaire Boys Club.

2006: She was asked to re-vamp the company of Island Def Jam as Director of Creative Services. Antonio “L.A” Reid, president of Def Jam, said she would be “the one to keep the building cool, someone in tune with downtown cool and pop mainstream.” That same year, Vashtie also started an iconic monthly 90ʼs party with her friend Oscar Sanchez called “1992”. Spinning only music from the late 80’s and early 90ʼs, the event brought out a mix of tastemakers and celebrities such as Dave Chappelle, Jay-Z, Ne-Yo, Jermaine Dupri, Patrick Ewing, Redman, DJ Premier, The Clipse, Maxwell, Chanel Iman, Zoe Kravitz, Grand Puba, Lord Finesse, and KiD CuDi among others. Although its residency is in New York City, the party has taken place in Miami, Paris and Amsterdam. In 2008, 1992 was nominated for Best Party at the Paper Magazine Nightlife Awards and also received a lot of press, like; The New York Post, i-D Magazine, Trace and Paper but most notably a feature in The New York Times

2008: Vashtie starts her own clothing line, VIOLETTE. With an official debut in Fall 2008, the clothing was said to be inspired by “a mix of opposite worlds: uptown and downtown, hip-hop and rock, feminine and masculine, casual and couture”.

2009: Vibe listed the “31 Most Stylish People Under 31” with Vashtie coming in at the 23rd spot among names like Kanye West, Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. She was also featured in Nylon Magazine as part of their lineup of “It Girls”. In this same year Vashtie interviewed Sean “Diddy” Combs for Supreme Magazine, which was photographed by Terry Richardson, and was included in the Nike Destroyer Campaign alongside notables like Dee & Ricky and Scott Campbell.

2010: Vashtie was featured in a Rachel Roy campaign. Later that year, she became the first female to collaborate with Brand Jordan on her own Air Jordan 2.

Her style influence has grown considerably in recent years, thanks to a number of high-profile gigs. She hosted a popular party at Santos Party House with the rapper Q-Tip. She started Violette, a T-shirt line sold at Colette, and she directed the video for Justin Bieber’s debut single, “One Time,” in which the young pop star has a party for his pre-pubescent friends at his mentor Usher’s house. It’s been viewed 240 million times on YouTube shoe was offered at select boutiques nationally, most of which sold out in the first few days.

It’s hard not to be enchanted. Ms. Kola is charming, smart and disarmingly low-key, able to hold her own whether she’s talking about her favorite artist, Egon Schiele; a cool new Supreme skateboard collaboration; or her fashion inspirations.

DAVID PAULUS

In the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast, David Paulus was born on the tropical island of Curacao. After finishing high school, he left Curacao for Amsterdam, Holland.  His love of fashion led him to a job with haute couture designer She Guang Hu. David then went to work for ecological clothing brand Van Markoviec.

After 5 years working and creating collections as an independent designer, David has finally find his way and vision in the fashion industry. The biggest satisfaction for David is seeing his vision come to life on the runway season after season. He calls his creations Art Couture; each collection is inspired by a certain theme, where his imagination just takes over.

David has shown some spectacular themes such as “Alice & the Dolls” in 2011 (one of his very first shows), “The Birth of the Psycho” in 2012 and “The Nutcracker” in the Talent Lab of the Amsterdam fashion Week in 2013.

David Paulus not only designs his own fabrics (as e.g. sketched portraits of Anna Wintour in his “No Name”-collection in 2013), but also produces all of his own shows; location, models, music and choreography!  David’s goal on the catwalk is always entertainment!

A beautiful example can be seen in a short video of his “Cirque de vogue” collection presentation in Amsterdam June 2014. Definitely a beautiful sample of one of the many aspects of David Paulus, the artist, the designer, the entertainer … (https://vimeo.com/99505503)

Being chosen to represent Curacao at this year’s (2014/2016) World Fashion Week in Paris is not only considered a huge honor by David, but has also inspired him not only to start creating more prêt a porter fashion (thus far David’s main goal has been creating fashion to entertain his followers), but also to give a follow-up on his wish to set up an education possibility in his homeland Curaçao (due to the shortage or lack thereof) where he would love to teach and assist young people wishing to work in the fashion industry!

 CLAUDIA PEGUS

Red-hot revolutionary fashion ripped the runway at The Collection MoDa show held at the Jamaica Pegasus on Friday, November 21/2014…Global Fashion icon, Trinidad & Tobago designer Claudia Pegus brought her sophisticated legacy of excellence edge to the TCM runway.