By Chester Francis-Jackson, Contributor 
Kimberly Mais-Issa (left), shares a warm hug with Nadine Willis at the Caribbean premiere of Fashion TV features on Caribbean Fashion Week 2004 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel last Thursday. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
MY DEARS, come next year, the Kingsley Cooper-founded Pulse Modelling and Talent Agency, will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. Now, there are few who at the time of its launching thought that the agency would be around some quarter of a century later. Fewer even, who thought that the agency would be reaping the international successes and credits it has over the years. And make no bones about it, Pulse has been an incredibly successful agency, its models ranking among the élite models of the world, as they continue to break the molds as they chart new career paths and create waves in the international fashion industry!
Now, for those in the know, it is an accepted fact that breaking in unto the international modelling scene is no easy feat, as each year there are literally millions of modelling hopefuls from the globe all over who flock to the international fashion capitals of the world, in their bid to make it as a successful ramp and or print model! And then there are those who do up their calling cards and or portfolios and attempt to break unto the scene via an agent or an agency.
BORN TO SUCCEED
Now, there is a young girl who, by using the middle class Jamaican yard stick, was born to fail, but by international standards, was born to succeed! Born to unwed parents from the bowels of the inner city, she was abandoned shortly after her birth. Undereducated, but with a comely figure and a very warm personality, no wonder that the said young girl took to go-go dancing, as a means of providing for herself.
And so, she danced and gyrated in and out of skimpy costumes for quite a number of years, enduring the advances of lecherous patrons, who more often than not, not only attempted to paw her, but also to maul her. She however, was undaunted, as her goal was survival.
She always thought though, that there was a better life somewhere if she could just break the cycle she was in. And so one day she took the very brave step of walking into the offices of Kingsley Cooper, told him her story and then expressed her desire to become a model.
Cooper not only recognised the raw talent, energy and potential of the girl in front of him, but took the strategic decision that it would be nigh to impossible to break in a known and celebrated go-go dancer on the Jamaican modelling and fashion industry, so he decided on testing her in Europe.
Well, like they say in the movies: 'The rest is her-story'
Doves, the young lady in question is the now hot international modelling sensation Nadine Willis hot to trot and burning up miles of runways and starring in every major fashion magazine across the world, as she racks up fashion first after fashion first, as she jets around the world from one fashion assignment to another.
With a résumé like hers, and with her meteoric rise in the world of fashion, as part of its world coverage of Pulse's Caribbean Fashion Week, Fashion TV commissioned a mini-documentary on the life and background of Nadine Willis, to be aired in over 150 countries.
CHARMING LITTLE PREMIERE
On Thursday night, Cooper hosted a charming little premiere in the Port Antonio Suite of the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, to showcase the mini-documentary of Nadine Willis to be aired by Fashion TV, as well as the fabulous coverage that Caribbean Fashion Week 2004, garnered. And dears, the stuff is hot, and then some!
Dears, both Pulse and Ms. Willis are in, just like Flynn, and how! And indeed, the footage and mini-documentary to be aired by Fashion TV establishes Jamaica and the Caribbean Fashion Week as the undisputed fashion capital of the Caribbean.
And dears, the only way to go is up, so congrats all around! Among those out were, naturally, the guest of honour Nadine Willis, working the room like the vamp she is; MP Mike Henry; MP Babsy Grange and her sibling Noel Grange; Lois lake-Sherwood and her daughter Ann Ventura; Jeff Cobham; Pulse Founding Director, Hilary Phillips QC; James Samuels; Siona Schecter; Carlyle and Diane Hudson; Dr. Marion Bullock-Ducasse; Don Anderson; Nicole Samuels; Laurie Broderick and Mitzie Pratt; Carmen Patterson; Kimberly Mais-Issa; Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Mitchell; Lily Scherer; Ken Lewis; Michelle Giester; Clovis Metcalf; Sheila Heaven; Rastafarian godling Evah Gordon and Bridgett Brown; Pat Daley-Smith; Jason Brown; Safia Cooper; Mike and Angela Roundtree; Denise Kitson; Arlene Martin; Debbie Stewart; Phylicia Haywood; Cindy Bruff; Ghenelle Germain Miss Caribbean Fashion Model 2004 and Andrea Mills Miss Jamaica Petite Model 2004;
and Rachel Chin-Yee; plus a
number of others!
Our deepest and heartfelt
condolences to the families and friends of Dr. Percy Broderick, Alva Ross, Mrs. Marjorie Beaubrun and Julius Nelson, and Mary Blackwell at this your hour of grief.
