“If ever I had an opportunity to work with Machel I would want it to be this…”

One year later and the feelings and adrenaline of working on one of my biggest and most memorable projects to date still lingers. February 2020 was the year, my career had some monumental highs in the local Trinbagonian landscape where I am from. The buzz of the Carnival season was in full swing, radio stations and our local airwaves was possessed with what we call here in Trinidad & Tobago “The Carnival Spirit”. Soca was all you heard and was what every radio host spoke about. But, there was one event that screamed through the speakers louder than ever.

The King of Soca, Machel Montano announced that Carnival 2020 would bear witness to his last self titled premiere Carnival event ‘Machel Monday’ , the most anticipated Carnival event in the Caribbean next to Carnival Monday and Tuesday. The theme of the show was, “The Wedding”, it was carded to be an exclusive all white affair. When the buzz started, one day while having my morning coffee, I heard the event advertise on radio for the millionth time and I began thinking to myself, “If ever I had an opportunity to work with Machel I would want it to be this.”

It wasn’t a day later by clearly what felt like some divine order, that Lorraine O’Connor a mega manager in the entertainment industry contacted me to inform me that she had referred me for the project to Machel Montano’s manager Che Kothari.

I got the job a day later, I was officially the Costume Designer and Stylist for Machel Monday (Both Machel and his dancers) and secretly I had landed the job as his Wedding Stylist without even knowing.

My team was incredible. I thought hard about who I would have work with me on this project and tapped into some young amazing designers to assist with executing the custom looks I came up with. Kaleen Sanois and Daniel Clarke were my main assisting designers. The work was challenging, we created 38 custom looks in only 5 days. That’s remarkable to say the least. There were a lot of compromises especially for the designers. This project was inspired by our culture and the looks I came up with and the designs I created were based on the moodboards I did and presented to Machel Montano.

To some degree I believe my work as a stylist was presented with an opportunity to become a bigger art form, it’s been a part of my goal to elevate to costume design. Fashion allows for that to take place when wardrobe stylists graduate to large scale productions of this nature and also for film. I definitely believe working on this project was a beautiful highlight of my career and a move in the direction of even more amazing things.

CREDITS
Machel Montano’s Wedding Styling: Kez Styles
Photography: Yaisa Tangwell
Machel’s Custom Suit: Kaleen Sanois for Kez Styles
Renee’s Look: Claudia Pegus Designs