Fash Art

Fash Art

“The new generation of fashion and art.” This is the slogan of the highly anticipated fashion event Fash Art, scheduled for November 2 &3^rd, 2012 in New Providence, Bahamas. The two-day event fuses fashion, art, and entertainment and will celebrate what is Bahamian.  Founder Kedar Klarke’s, vision to provide a platform for “new” talent to showcase their work locally came to life in 2009 when Fash Art was founded, along with Stylzine Magazine editors: ScharadLightbourne and Nikolas Barnes. Not only has this event provided a platform for local fashion designers and artists to showcase their work, but is now a platform for upcoming models and entertainers as well. With this objective Fash Art is keen on giving back to the community.

This year the event has taken a new approach and have partnered with R.E.A.C.H. (Research and education for autism and related challenges) to promote the awareness of children with autism. Klarke stated that, “ children with autism have the greatest challenge expressing themselves because of the disabling factors related to autism. Art and fashion is our form of expression and we wanted to share that with them.” As a result of this partnership hand bracelets representing the awareness of autism have been created. Proceeds of these bracelets will go to the R.E.A.C.H. foundation.

Another highlight of this year’s event is the 2012 Fash Art is the People’s Choice Awards. The categories for the awards include: Favorite Fashion Designer, Favorite Artist, and Favorite Entertainer. This shows that Fash Art is not only providing a platform for upcoming talent but is taking the time to recognize and reward outstanding talent within the Bahamas.

Fash Art will be by no argument a star studded event and a success, attracting thousands from all over the Bahamas and the world. One can look forward to seeing art and fashion designs of an international standard. 

Pageantry VS. Modeling

Pageantry Vs. Modeling

Over the past fifty years, pageantry has been mainstream in Bahamian society. It has been used as an avenue for careers in fashion, scholarship opportunities, and exposure to the world. Bahamians were blind to the fashion world and could only relate fashion to pageantry. There was very little interest and knowledge in modeling, runway, couture and the likes within the Bahamas. Due to the introductory of social media and digital photography editing, modeling and fashion have become popular within the Bahamas today.

The introductory of social media and also digital photography editing are two main areas that have transformed Bahamian society. When digital photography editing was introduced to the public, photographers used social media such as Facebook to showcase their work, which then became a popular trend and sparked interest for Bahamians to begin modeling. As a result, the trends of digital editing and models have increased tremendously over the past five years. Businesses have now adopted this trend and are using models, modeling competition, and modeling events to promote their business. For example, The Bahamas Telecommunications Company began an internship program called “Divas and Dudes” for male and female models, giving them the opportunity to be spokes-models for the company. The Divas and Dudes are used to host majority of the company’s events, for commercial ads, print ads, or any form of promotion for the company. In previous times B.T.C used pageants as a major tool for promotion. Therefore, the competitiveness of pageantry and modeling can therefore be seen.

Although this trend of modeling seems to be sweeping the country, will it turn into a fad and fade out or will it replace pageantry in mainstream society? Pageantry continues to be an avenue for Bahamians seeking opportunities. However, with the modernization of society and popular trend of modeling pageantry could begin to phase out.