#Womantrepreneurs
Kimya Glasgow – Founder, Creative Director, and Head Designer of the Kimya Glasgow Brand, a true Caribbean native, she was born in St Vincent and the Grenadines, grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, and lived in both the British Virgin Islands and Barbados. She holds an Associate Degree in Fashion Design from the Barbados Community College. Kimya has shown collections in Miami Fashion Week, Dominican Moda, Caribbean Fashion Week in Jamaica, Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago, Tobago Fashion Week, Barbados Fashion Week, St Kitts Fashion Weekend and has shown in St Lucia, Martinique, Toronto, Canada and New York to name a few. She is a 2009 Caribbean Fashion Awards winner, with awards for achievement in Design from Karib Nation Inc of Washington DC and Shabeau Magazine, and received a 2014 Influential Woman Award. In September 2019 she did a solo show at the prestigious Trois Ilets Casino in Martinique.
She has been Creative Director of Image Modelling Agency and Show Producer responsible for the creative vision behind SVG’s premier Fashion event – “Fashion Caribbean” since 2000. She has previously sat on the Board of the SVG Chamber of Industry and Commerce and currently serves on the Board of the National Cultural Foundation. She has also spearheaded the formation of recently-formed Fashion Association of St Vincent & the Grenadines. 2020 is the 20th anniversary for Kimya Glasgow as a fashion brand She is a Mentee Alumni of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women Business Mentorship Program, having completed a year of mentorship in the highly-respected global program that offers a year of professional mentorship to women entrepreneurs around the world.
She has also completed WE-Xport (Empowering Women through Export) – a 1-year program through the Caribbean Export Development Agency. During this program participants received business coaching, participated in workshops on access to Finance, Angel Investment pitch training, access to technical assistance grants, and support in attending trade events. She is currently a participant in the TEECA program (Trade Enhancement in the Eastern Caribbean Region) a 2-year program funded by the French government through the Martinique Chamber of Industry & Commerce, in conjunction with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and Caribbean Export, to promote trade between Martinique and the Eastern Caribbean. She is one of 3 participating designers in the program of 20 SMEs in the areas of Fashion, Music, Green Technology and Manufacturing. It is significant that it is through this program that Kimya has been able to launch this fragrance – Kimya Glasgow Vanilla Orchid in collaboration with Martiniquan perfumier Parfums des Iles. The Kimya Glasgow brand is the first fashion house in the Caribbean to launch its own signature fragrance.
TAMMY PROVIDENCE
Tammy Providence – the Founder of N’Dambi Cards. N’dambi means “most beautiful” and if you have ever been a lucky recipient of one of her gorgeous, bespoke cards, as I have, you will know what that truly means!
The brand originated in 2013, when Tammy hosted a baby shower for a friend. An avid scrapbooker, she designed the invitations and one of the guests encouraged her to start her business. Tammy’s act of kindness for her friend, inspired so many more.
Another friend saw those invitations and sent her materials, which were used to make the first N’Dambi Cards; her co-workers encouraged her to design Mother’s Day cards – which were a hit! Then Father’s Day cards, which manifested into brides seeking her out for hand-made wedding invitations, and her first corporate order for custom Christmas cards, all within her first year of business. Her extensive and growing list of corporate clients include FLOW, Sigma and CWSA.
She has an immense passion for writing and English literature, another outlet for her creative spirit, which is reflected in the sentiments she creates for her cards. Her private customers come from every walk of life and she is always excited to create custom cards for them, with unique elements that reveal something about the recipient.
Each N’dambi Card creation is a reflection of its founder’s philosophy love of beauty. At N’dambi, the aim is to always deliver a product that is “artistically appealing, creatively superb and uniquely yours”.
CARIBBEAN STYLE & CULTURE 