Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter IT IS Friday afternoon and you have nothing to wear on your date with Johnny tomorrow night. The stores are about to close and still no luck.
This is the final store and you pray for a miracle. Your eyes scan the racks, but there is nothing there that you would care to be seen in. Finally you see 'the one'. It is the only one left on the rack and, frankly, you don't know how anyone could have missed the beauty.
It deliciously hugs your hips in all the right places - Saturday night will be a blast, you smile to yourself. But as you undress, to your horror, your eyes lock on to the tag 'Made in Jamaica'.
You have to call and cancel.
This is the travesty that many local designers have long suffered at the hands of Jamaicans. They insist that their products are just as good and sometimes better than those made overseas, yet consumers and stores refuse to buy their creations.
Designer Yola Gray, who caters to the woman who wants that sexy, classic evening look, says much to her chagrin Jamaicans do not embrace their own designers.
FOREIGN DESIGN
"The most I can say is everyone here seems to think that if you are not wearing a foreign design it is not clothes and if it comes from foreign it is better... I get my clothes sold in the U.S., and these people know that it is made in Jamaica," said Gray.
She says the reaction is quite the opposite in Jamaica. "Some of my clothes are sold in a store in Negril and the lady who owns the store also carried other Jamaican designs but she couldn't get them sold. So one day she called one of the designers and said they would try cutting off the part that said 'Made in Jamaica' and, believe it or not, the clothes sold like hot bread."
However, not all stores care to go to this extreme. Sachel Carby,
manager of Carby's Discount and Souvenir Centre in Twin Gates Plaza, Constant Spring Road, proudly embraces Jamaican-made products that is, as long as they are well made.
"We have a store for Jamaican-made clothes and souvenirs and it is very well supported. The sales are good, especially now when there is a demand for a lot of the designer stuff like Cooyah, Dehya wear and Zion," he said.
To prove his point, Carby offered some insight into the sales of the products. "Right now Cooyah can't supply enough to the Jamaican
market. If you go to their store, half of their designs won't be there. You also have to bear in mind that they have stores in other Caribbean counties like Trinidad, and it has been good for them," he said.
MARKETING
Carby said the secret was marketing and keeping up with the fashion trends. "You have to be responsive to the changes that people want. Three to five years can't pass and you are still putting out the same thing, so you have to be constantly putting out fresh things and trying to market them," he said.
Still, established designer Les Brown has the same problem as Gray. He has earned the respect of those abroad with his trendy male and female wear, yet he feels
suffocated by the prejudices of local consumers.
"There are good designers in Jamaica, but everyone you see now is dressed up in clothes made overseas. Overseas, the people crave our clothes, so why is it that Jamaicans prefer to wear overseas garments?" he asked.
He says local designs are not expensive and, as such, that is not a
reason for the mediocre sales. "Our things are not overpriced. I have travelled a lot and I have seen prices of good garments sell for a lot overseas. For instance, overseas you will see linen pants for US$250, but no one will buy a linen pants for that price out here. So I know that price is not the issue," Brown said.
But designer Biggy says while some of what Gray and Campbell say is true, the secret to success is choosing your market carefully and marketing properly. "Local designers tend not to have the budget for marketing their products, so people won't know about them. Some of our designers only market and highlight themselves at fashion shows, so it is not a case where they say my product can be found at A,B,C ... people don't know where to find them sometimes," Biggy said.
Biggy, however, does agree that there is an obsession with 'foreign goods' among Jamaicans. "Sometimes I will sell my goods to a store and then the higglers will go and buy them and sell them downtown at their stalls. So sometimes when I'm walking I will see them selling my goods like it come from foreign and I just laugh," he said.
He says if local consumers got over their obsession and invested locally, the benefits would be tremendous.
COST TO IMPORT
"First of all, just consider how much it cost to import a trailer full of jeans. If people bought their own, it would be a big saving on foreign exchange and that money would go into a local business person's pocket. We should focus more on making good products and having them sold here and overseas. We are the most branded country in the world and we need to use that to our advantage," he said.
Campbell agrees, saying, "It would be so great, because we designers need a break ... we need to stop all the cheap things from coming into the island and really start supporting our own."
Consumers have mixed feelings about local designs. Tamara Annikie, a teacher in Clarendon, says she doesn't own any locally-made pieces, but "I intend to because I love the vibe and the patriotism ... because I want to support the local brand; even if it is more expensive, I am willing to spend the money."
LOVES LOCAL DESIGNS
Shaunette, a university student from Kingston, also loves local designs and has quite a few, including Cooyah, La Pluma Negra and Wayout. She explained that she isn't impressed with the quality of all, but still buys them. "I don't really like the Cooyah one (shirts). La Pluma Negra has high quality clothing. It does not wash out or burn out as quickly as other tops. Wayout is the same quality as Cooyah," Shaunette said.
She also says she would like to see the designs in more stores. "La Pluma Negra is only distributed at one particular branch. I think La Pluma Negra needs to open up more outlets in major towns like Portmore, and they need to distribute more in St. Andrew where the high society people live, who are willing to spend more to buy the designs," she said.
Shaunette, however, says there is a limit to the amount she is willing to spend on locally-designed clothes.
"I will not spend more than $1,500 on locally-made shirt, because they don't have that much variety. They only make tops, shorts and T-shirts. I kinda get tired of the merino and
T-shirt look. I want more than that, so they need to expand their line. That's why people are not really buying it now. The thing now in fashion is no one wants to look like everybody else, everybody wants to be
different," she said.
Georgianna Williams, a wedding coordinator from Montego Bay, St. James, says she has designs such as Wright Style and Cooyah "because it does not look New Yorkish or foreign. It looks local. It has a
distinct indigenous look ... most of it you can order. It's getting more popular, but there is still not a lot of it in stores."
She says the reason why people do not buy locally-designed clothes is because of the price. However, she says cost doesn't deter her from buying them. "It really
doesn't matter. Once it look good and authentic, I will buy it ... if we had our own designs we would own a larger market share," Williams said.
