Cultural Dress And Costume History Of The Caribbean
Cultural Dress and Costume Historyof the CaribbeanTeleica KirklandChurchill Fellow 2012Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
ContentsAcknowledgements3Introduction and Background5Itinerary7Trinidad and Tobago8Grenada11St Vincent and the Grenadines13Tortola, BVI17St Thomas, USVI19Turks and Caicos21The Bahamas24Conclusion282
AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank and acknowledge everyone at WCMT and Katie at Diversity Travel for providingme with the opportunity to do this research and helping me organise a mammoth amount oftravelling around the Caribbean. I’d also like to thank everyone who helped me along my journeythrough the Caribbean, from the ministers and directors of culture and their PA’s to the culturalcustodians and grandmothers who allowed me to speak with them on their front porches.Acknowledgements and thanks will be listed by CountryTrinidad & TobagoFirst of all I would like to thank my interviewees; fashion designer Meiling Esau for speaking with meand allowing me to look around her studio and speak with her interns and staff, Christopher Nathanformer lecturer at the university of Trinidad and Tobago and government advisor on the fashionmanufacturing industry in Trinidad and Ronald Joseph Press Officer for the Carnival Institute ofTrinidad and Tobago.I would also like to thank the staff at the Tobago Heritage festival Office for all their help in findingthe village for the proceeding part of the heritage festival and my friend and fellow teacher LorraineNeil for accompanying me to the first island of my journey around the CaribbeanGrenadaMrs Gloria Payne Banfield and Mrs Beverly Steele are the Doyennes of culture and cultural dress inGrenada and they were a great help and wonderful source of information for me. They advise thegovernment on cultural practice and I was very grateful to them for meeting with me and sharingtheir time and knowledge.I’d like to thanks to Philip at Mitchells Guest house for making my stay as comfortable as possible.St Vincent and the GrenadinesSpecial thanks go out to Duel, Lonye and BVI for allowing me to stay in their home and to Crook fordriving me in and out of town.I would also like to thank Dr Edgar Adams, Dr Adrian Frazer, for the time they spent speaking withme about the history of dress in St Vincent and the attire of the enslaved Africans in these islands.Mr Hugh “Blonde” Raguette and Mr Julian Pollard from the CCD for spending hours speaking withme and giving me copies of their local magazine to read about the carnival costume culture.British Virgin IslandsI would like to acknowledge the efforts of Brenda Lettsome-Tye Director of culture for the BVI whodespite unexpected personal tragedy did all she could to assist me with people to speak to.Couch Surfers Karon “Mona” Brown and Chrystall Kanuck for allowing me to stay at their homes. Aspecial thank to Chrystall for helping me with my work and doing some investigative journalism forme and to her colleagues at the Bugle Newspaper for allowing me to use their office.3
U.S. Virgin IslandsI’d like to thank Joe Breen for letting me stay at his home and giving me a brief history of the islands.Thank you to Caswil Callender, Alrid Lockhart and Denise Henley-Smith for speaking with me aboutthe costume and dress history on the islands and for providing me with many books and localpublications.Finally a huge thank you to Nicole Petersen at St Thomas Tourism board who really did do herutmost to help me as much as possible.Turks and CaicosThank you to Frank and Pru Watts for renting me their eco cabin and making my stay onProvidenciales so pleasant and relaxing.A very special thanks goes out to Mr David Bowen Director of Culture for TCI who was not only anabsolute mine of information but took me around a few of the family islands in the archipelago andintroduced me to the local residents.BahamasA very special thanks to Arlene Ferguson director of Educaulture and co host of Junkanoo 242 radioshow and her husband Silburt chair of the Junkanoo committee, Pamela Burnside former fashiondesigner and director of Doongalik Art Gallery and Studios, John Cox associate professor at theCollege of the Bahamas, chief curator at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and host of theBlank Canvas radio show , Jyohann a maintenance man from Colombian Emerald for introducing meto his grandmother and telling about Bahamian life and to his grandmother Pearl who spoke with meabout what clothing used to be made out of in times past, artist Antonius Roberts who offered hisstudios as exhibition space for the project outcomes and all the staff at the Towne Hotel.Finally my special gratitude go to LIAT Airways who despite being the worst airline I’ve ever travelledon in my entire life didn’t lose or damage my luggage or send it to an island I wasn’t going to!4
Introduction and BackgroundThe research and information collected on this trip is going towards the development of a dress andadornment institute called the Costume Institute of the African Diaspora (CIAD). The idea for thedevelopment of this institute came some 5 years ago whilst setting up my first solo costumeexhibition and teaching fashion workshops for children in Southwark.My first exhibition was about the Orisha’s, West African deities who are believed to control personalbehaviours, earth elements, occurrences or life events. Very much like the Greek and Roman Godseach Orisha has a different story which includes colours that are indicative to them and the waysthey dress.Through enslavement of West Africans the traditions of the Orisha’s has spread andmetamorphosised throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. However trying to find accurateinformation on them was very difficult as the information I did find was often conflicting orincomplete. This caused me to search for a central location where information on costume and dressfrom Africa or the African Diaspora could be found, I quickly realised no such place existed eitherphysically or online. Cue the start of a lifelong project to discover all the information I could on dressand body adornment from the African Diaspora.Having worked with young people for over 10 years I really wanted to provide a platform whereinformation about dress, textiles and adornment from Africa and the African Diaspora would beeasily accessible and available to be used for classes or workshops. A survey I conducted two yearsago amongst 100 ethnically diverse students in inner city London found that the information theyreceived about their own cultural dress was nonexistent and many of them didn’t know thecorrelation between the dress history of their original cultures and the modern fashions many ofthem were wearing. CIAD is being developed to partly address this issue. The aim of CIAD is toprovide a growing resource hub for students, teachers and researchers and to advance the study ofcostume, clothing and textiles from the African Diaspora.Throughout this journey I took photographs wrote notes and conducted interviews with over 30people in 7 different countries. The common history of the islands meant that there were manysimilarities but there were also stark differences which in the spirit of equality and diversity deserveto be acknowledgedThe focus and aim of this fellowship has been to discover as much as I could about the history andinnovation of dress, costume, body adornment and fashion development in the islands I visited. Iwould then use this information to develop focus groups workshops, exhibitions and teachingresources here in the UK as well as provide links to various establishments in the Caribbean. There isa wealth of information In the Caribbean about this subject and it is important that this informationis given a suitable and celebrated platform.Not wanting to fall into the trap of ideas that could have been I finally sought avenues and advice toget the project underway. I am incredibly grateful to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for giftingme with the opportunity to start this project/ journey and bring to fruition a heartfelt dream. It iswith the guidance and structure of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust team that I have been able5
to organise a rather complicated and exhaustive trip and get the most out of the people I havespoken to.6
From/to UKItinerary29/08/12Nassau, Bahamas to London, UK23/08/12Providenciales, TCI to Nassau, Bahamas16/08/12Miami USA to Providenciales, TCI12/08/12Tortola, BVI to St Thomas. USVI16/08/12St Thomas, USVI to Miami USA18/07/1208/08/12St Vincent to Tortola BVILondon,UK to Trinidad01/08/12Grenada to St Vincent26/07/12Trinidad to Grenada7
Trinidad and TobagoAfter tearing around Gatwick airport trying to get a broken padlock off my hand luggage; having toendure overzealous airport security and just making it to the plane with 10 minutes to spare untiltake off; I finally found myself in Trinidad.It had been sometime since I’d visited family in Jamaica and what with being wrapped up in the daily‘fast spin’ cycle of London life I’d almost forgotten how the Caribbean heat hugs your face once youleave the pressurised cabin of an aeroplane.Having communicated with Elize Rostant from the Ministry and Arts and Multiculturalism at lengthabout the dress history and traditional clothing in Trinidad I came to realise that there was no actualnational dress and really the practice ofcarnival and the costume development ofcarnival had become their national dresssymbol and pride. Not wanting to base mywhole experience on carnival costumes Ipressed further and got sent a whole list offashion and jewellery designers to meet andspeak with.However in Trinidad there is no escapingcarnival as on arrival to our fairly basic butrelatively nice guesthouse a troupe of 20 young Colombian carnival artists had also justarrived looking for somewhere to stay. Theycame complete with huge brightly colouredcostumes large hats and big drums this put thereceptionist into a complete fluster and minipanic which thankfully we managed to sort outMe with Mr Ronnie Joseph at the CITTwithout too much inconvenience or distress.The Colombian troupe had come to perform at the Colombian embassy and their costumes wereutterly amazing however any conversation I wanted to have with them about the artistry anddevelopment of them was thwarted by my utter lack of Spanish and their complete lack of English. Icould only look and smile broadly and make favourable noises whenever they passed all dressed upfor a performance.As this was Trinidad and carnival was all around my first stop was with Ronnie Joseph the pressofficer for the Carnival Institute of Trinidad and Tobago. Mr Joseph had just been declared a tribalelder by the native peoples of the Orinoco and he was in a very good mood and had prepared muchinformation for my arrival. He told me all about the history of Trinidad carnival and why it was inFebruary as appose to around summer or Christmas like many of the other islands. It turns out thatwhen the French controlled the island they had allowed the enslaved Africans to celebrate andindulge themselves before Lent under the strict understanding that when Lent came they wouldrepent beg for mercy and seek absolution of all their sins. As Lent was always at this time of year thecarnival tradition grew out of this to the mammoth celebration it is today.8
Mr Joseph told me about the different characters in the carnival: La Diablesse; a character that isbased on a folkloric myth of a beautiful female with a cloven foot in place of one of her feet.Apparently she is said to lure men off the road at night and take them into the depths of the forestnever to be seen again, the Sailor bands and the black Indian bands amongst others. Mr Joseph toldme about how the various colonial powers that ruled over the island had all influenced the look andfeel of the carnival costumes.I interviewed Mr Joseph at length about theproduction and expertise of costumes and how theartistry was being taught and preserved. Hementioned that a carnival costume museum wasdesperately needed in Trinidad but thegovernment were not at all concerned withproviding one and despite the fact that carnivalbought an influx of revenue and tourists to theisland that the institution of carnival was still notreally respected or supported to any great degree.He also mentioned that the artistry was in dangerof dying out because the young people (especiallythe young women) were more concerned withshowing their bare bodies and less concerned withwearing beautifully made costumes which had ameaning. It seemed to be up to individual carnivalleaders and families to educate their children andyoung people about carnival and thereby sow theseeds of interest within them.With Christopher Nathan at 6 Carlos LaunchA few days after visiting at the Carnival Institute ofTrinidad and Tobago I met with Christopher Nathan who developed and ran the Fashion Designprogramme at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. He has set up Trinidad’s Fashion Institute andis the government advisor on all matters to do with Fashion and trade development. The meetingwith Mr Nathan also went very well, he had great insights and ideas and was very passionate aboutthe development of Fashion in Trinidad and the rest of theCaribbean. He spoke about the development of manufacturingin Trinidad and how it wasn’t making sense for the localeconomy to ship things over to China to be made when therewere people in Trinidad willing to work. He said he was in theprocess of suggesting garment manufacturing reform to thegovernment and how this would boost the economy and theworld view of Trinidad. When I enquired about the lack ofnational dress in Trinidad he had some really interesting thingsto say about the development of national dress in the Caribbeansuggesting that the national dress is really resort wear as theislands are obvious holiday destinations. Mr Nathan remarkedon my research and said that the work I was doing was reallyWith Meilng Esau at 6 Carlos Launch9
important and that I must do it small chunks so as not to overwhelm myself. I really appreciated thatadvice.At London Fashion week in February I met acclaimed Trinidadian fashion designer Meiling Esau I hademailed her and mentioned I would be in Trinidad in July and requested and audience. As wasexpected she was incredibly busy but was happy to speak with me. She told me about her fashionpractice and development and the influences she had. Meiling really is the Doyenne of Trinidadianfashion and is very well respected. She had just started a new fashion lifestyle magazine called 6Carlos and invited me to the magazine launch. She told me she regularly takes on Fashion studentsfrom London College of Fashion as interns and I met her latest intern who was there for the summer.A couple of days later I went to Tobago. After spending a couple of days there I realised that the vibeand energy was completely different to Trinidad. I had gone there to see the Heritage Festival (amonth and a half long celebration from the 23rd June to the 1st August) and watch the costumedperformances. Tobago had a much more traditional aesthetic and was much more Africanist in itsfeel, interestingly this also meant that the retention of influences from colonial forces was also moreprominent as was shown in the costumes at the festival.Were as Trinidad carnival seemed as if it was trying to be a rival to the style and artistry of Riocarnival in Brazil the Heritage Festival in Tobago seemed to be displaying the true heart of thecountry which I felt was being ignored to some extent. All the traditional practices and folkloricdancing I didn’t find in Trinidad I found in Tobago. The locals are very proud of their HeritageFestival and this year was its 25th Year so they went all out with the celebrations.I found that British style dress from the 19th and early 20th century had been enveloped into thetraditional costumes of the Tobago heritage festival and become creolised. Influences of Scottishtartan were evident in the madrasmaterial which made up many costumesand had been mixed with various stylesof West African gele head wrapping.Something I noticed was that most of theperformers were young people and theHeritage Festival didn’t seem to have aproblem with getting their young peopleinterested in wearing traditionalcostumes. I think this is because theimportance of heritage and traditions hadbeen taught and instilled within thechildren from a young age. In this respectI think Trinidad could learn somethingfrom Tobago.Performers at the Heritage Festival in Tobago10
GrenadaOn arriving to my guest house in Grenada I learnt that two people had been found dead in fairlyhorrific circumstances. I only mention it because everywhere I went people were talking about it. Itseems that both people were found on the day I arrived; one in the morning and one in the evening.Although they were found in different parts of the island there was a theory amongst the locals thatone had something to do with the other. The details were pretty horrific and far from the story ofGrenada the taxi driver from the airport had given me of a sleepy little island with not much goingon!My taxi driver told me that the tourism boom hadn’t really taken off in Grenada and that the bigthing for them was carnival which pulled in a crowd and bought much needed revenue to the island.He told me that Grenada was stilla fairly quiet place with very littlecrime. He assured me that mostpeople would be nice andfriendly towards me and myBritishness shouldn’t be ahindrance or cause forunfavourable treatment.Grenada is a beautiful place thatseemed like a large sleepyseaside village but my goodnessMrs Beverly Steele and Mrs Gloria Payne Banfieldthe hills! They have hills inGrenada that could kill amountain goat and my leg muscles were certainly unaccustomed to the exercise.Thankfully my guest house was central and close to everything and I had made an arrangement tomeet with Beverly Steele and Gloria Payne Banfield; Grenada’s Grande Dames of cultural heritage atthe UWI campus which was across the street.Mrs Steele and Mrs Payne Banfield were utterly fabulous they spoke nonstop for two and a halfhours. When one paused for breath the other would jump in with something else interesting. Theyare in the process of developing a Grenadian national costume which I understood to be both funand a headache at the same time. They told me all about the traditional dress and the skirts used fordancing the folkloric dances. They told me about the costumes that are worn at carnival and whatthe different types of costumes mean. As with Trinidad each costume character had a differentmeaning which usually related to a local myth or one carried over from West Africa or somethingrelating to the practices of the colonial forces.They were very pleased to meet me and happy that something like CIAD was being developed. I lovegetting endorsement and encouragement from the elders it puts wind in my sails. They asked if Iwould help them with the development of their own madras fabric which would start them on theroad to developing their own national costume. I said I would keep in touch and give them any help Icould with development of their own madras pattern. I have since connected them with David Mcgillfrom the Tartans for Africa organisation and asked if he might advise them on pattern development.11
Mrs Payne Banfield said Carriacou had a stronger African retention than Grenada and told me Ishould go there and speak to a man named Winston Fleary who everybody knows and apparentlywould be easy to find because he had lost a leg in an accident.So the following Monday I went to Carriacou to find with Mr Fleary. Like Tobago Carriacou is a muchsmaller place with a strong traditional element. They have a Maroon festival every April weretraditional costumes and dances can be seen. Unfortunately I was unable to find Mr Fleary but againI did note that the reten
costume, clothing and textiles from the African Diaspora. Throughout this journey I took photographs wrote notes and conducted interviews with over 30 people in 7 different countries. The common history of the islands meant that there were many similarities but there were also stark differen
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