00:00The following is brought to you by Plumps and Brightened Skin, New Lifter Plump and Glow Foundation, Maybelline, New York.
00:13Fashion, soaker, dance hall, carnival, all aspects of our culture that have one thing in common, woman front and center.
00:23Joining me today is Mr. Kambi Loveless, the editor and founder of the new local fashion magazine, The Zine.
00:31Mr. Loveless, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:35No problem, it's my pleasure.
00:36So, The Zine, tell me about the concept behind it, how did it come into being?
00:41Okay, well this is our first edition and it focuses on fashion culture and our Caribbean women.
00:48One day I said, I wonder how the world sees our women, because I grew up seeing a woman in
00:54their most diverse forms.
00:56So I said, let me just Google the Caribbean woman, right?
01:00And what I saw, it wasn't representative of what I know a Caribbean woman to be.
01:06The thing that stood out to me was that in the search, the AI images were the dark skinned images.
01:13What the images that had the dark skinned woman in it, but the real images of real women were brown
01:20skin or lighter skin.
01:22And, you know, like we, our dark skinned women, their daddies have to be seen to, you know,
01:30and in a way that is respected just as much as women who have different skin tones are respected.
01:39So I really wanted to portray that, and you'll see that in the zine in the models that are used,
01:46but also how they are posed.
01:48I looked at Soka and Dancehall, let's start there.
01:51Because I was like, okay, like in modern times, yes, they are derivative from other musical genres that have started
01:58in the Caribbean,
01:58but they have been possibly the most impactful, let's say, in the past 40 years, right?
02:02So, specifically for Dancehall, right, the images of the women there are often always bold and expressive and colorful.
02:13They might be in a short pants or tight-fitting pants, right?
02:16But to me, what I see is women that are comfortable in their body and their sexuality and their sensuality
02:24and are comfortable in moving and presenting themselves that way, right?
02:29And I don't necessarily think that that's a bad thing.
02:32In terms of displaying that as an art or as an image of the Caribbean,
02:38it shouldn't just be, okay, this person is in this short thing, now go and shake your butt and turn
02:47to the side,
02:47wind to the side, stuff like that, right?
02:49There is an art to that, right?
02:51We could take, for example, let's say, Afrobeats, you know, which is the women there in Afrobeats are also unafraid
03:00to shake and show some skin.
03:02Look at Tyler, Aria Star, you know, but there is an intentionality there to the culture,
03:08and I feel like if, like, we as creatives here employ some more intentionality in the way that the women
03:16are displayed
03:17and how they are showing their skin and that it is something that we are proud that a woman can
03:23do,
03:23I think it would change the narrative a bit.
03:27Because you can also argue that sensuality is not necessarily lewdness and that it should be separated,
03:35should not be viewed as such, right?
03:37Yes, 100%.
03:37Now, you are yourself a designer, and you have designed, and are actually in the process of designing for one
03:44of our Soka artists.
03:45Tell me, how do you go about getting that TNT essence into the designs?
03:51Well, I'm working with Mila Karibé currently.
03:54Love her.
03:54I think she has a lot of potential, and she's still emerging,
03:57but what I liked about her was that she's not just making a song and trying to be a hot
04:03girl or a hot girl, right?
04:05She has an intention with her music, and her and her team has an intention with her image as well.
04:13Let's customize some fringe.
04:14Let's add some tinsel.
04:15Let's make it really colorful and an amalgamation of all the things that we know, right,
04:22into one outfit so that when people see you, they see you as an artist,
04:28but they understand where you're coming from, which is Trinidad and Tobago.
04:32Talk to me about some of your pieces and, you know, the concept behind the pieces.
04:37I'm seeing a lot of bandanas.
04:38Bandanas are a staple in our culture.
04:41People tie their heads still.
04:42They have it in their back pocket.
04:43I have one in my pocket right now, right?
04:46But my thought was, okay, bandanas are an accessory, right?
04:50What if we make them the clothing piece?
04:54Like, how would that look?
04:56So the pieces are actually made out.
04:57I went right there on Frederick Street and bought some bandanas,
05:01hundreds and hundreds of bandanas, and sewed them together to make clothing items.
05:05If you had to just, off the top of your head,
05:07maybe list just five adjectives that you feel really summarize or cultured or fashion,
05:14what would they be?
05:15Okay, so I would say bold.
05:17Bold, I would say sexy, I would say experimental, I would say fluid, and I would also say colorful.
05:26Bold, sexy, experimental, colorful, and fluid.
05:32And I think that that very, very well summarizes who we are as a people,
05:37not only here in TNT, but also in the Caribbean.
05:43As usual, my name is Ronasa Cutting, and this was Street Style.
05:47I'll see you all again next week, Thursday.
05:56The preceding was brought to you by Plumps and Brighten Skin,
06:00New Lifter Plump and Glow Foundation, Maybelline, New York.
06:04The preceding was brought to you by Plumps and Brighten Skin.
06:04The preceding was brought to you by Plumps and Brighten Skin.
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