Jawara Alleyne: Coming from those two places, they are both so different in the way in which colours play out in each society. Both the Caymans and Jamaica have a strong resonance with colour. In the Cayman Islands, everything is very clean and sharp and to the tee. People from there like to wear a lot of pastel colours. Whereas, in Jamaica, it’s a lot more deep and dusty and gritty. Jamaicans don’t like clean colours. Everything feels almost sunburned. Growing up between those two places and living somewhere completely different like London has given me my own point of view in terms of my personal style. Whilst I do appreciate the clean, tailored looks I grew up with in the Caymans, I know I’m just not that way inclined! London has brought out that tendency I have to construct something really off-kilter and hone a signature aesthetic.

Jawara Alleyne: Whilst I’ve always been interested in vintage, it really comes from the fact that in the islands, we have a culture of hand-me-downs. My relationship with old clothes exists because they were always around me. Then moving to London and seeing how vintage was a way of relating clothing to exist in a fashion space, or collection space brought out that culture more creatively.

Being able to have an honest relationship with the past, through history has allowed me to understand clothing as cultural artefacts, all of which represent different stylistic eras. Currently where we are in the industry, designers can’t ignore items that have existed in the past through the history of fashion. Even if you’re not a designer who upcycles and reworks deadstock, or vintage clothing, you really have to be cognizant of the histories and nuances of garments that existed beforehand. If we were to sit down and consider what the future holds for emerging designers, we’d immediately look at the past to consider that future.

Jawara Alleyne: Aah, you’ve seen it! My gateway into subculture coming from an island was virtually non-existent as it didn’t really exist over there. We just didn’t really have subcultures. We barely even had culture in the Cayman Islands! It’s such a small place. We didn’t have these places where we could just go and hang out, or experience any form of youth culture. My calling towards subculture came from being on the internet, where you still had MSN. That’s where subculture lived for me. I’d be on these group chats talking about a particular film or record. The only thing we had that you can see in my work is the Hard Rock Cafe. It was the only place where you could buy iconic merchandise at the time. Their commercial, or ‘iconography-esque’ status really drew me towards memorabilia and streetwear points of view. Items that can have a permanent belonging through iconography have always been important to me. My interest in London style comes from my underlying interest in subculture.

Jawara Alleyne: For the New World collection, I wrote this story of a pirate ship crashing into a yacht. It’s a metaphor of my origins. On one hand the pirate signifies the setting of the story which I set the collection in. All of the characters I presented through the clothing were part of this scene. The metaphor comes in because the idea of a pirate ship crashing into a yacht considers my culture for setting a tone in communicating what is actually going on in the Cayman Islands. It’s an area that is quickly developing, but not for the people who actually live there and who are from there. More so for tourism. The crash symbolises a meeting, or culture-clash of these two worlds. Punk and Reggae culture, Carnival culture and the Pirate culture in the Islands all collide to create this multifaceted point of view. As a creative who has grown up in both worlds and then coming to Lonon has brought this notion of combining all of these elements together, with their own grunge and punk intellect. New World is a collision of all the cultural components I find interesting and have naturally gravitated towards.

Jawara Alleyne: I think it came to me subconsciously. I’ve always worked in this way, where I’ve kept everything I’ve collected, such as safety pins, since I was a kid. It goes back to what I was saying earlier about the hand-me-down culture I grew up with. I then transitioned from the ability to use a safety pin just to make something work into an item of embellishment and creativity, instead of its inherent functionality. I never liked safety pins for their traditional purposes. I don’t think things should always be seen as exactly what they need to be in order to serve a function. I never trusted that point of view. It’s not challenging. I learned how to sew and make clothes but I don’t use conventional methods of construction just because that’s how you make clothes. I want to challenge convention and creation through conception.

Jawara Alleyne: It’s exactly that. I think things that are flawed and imperfect are so beautiful. I think I’ve developed this coming from Jamaica. It’s innate for me. Everything over there is so aged, but rich and you can see that life has been lived to its fullest. A lot of the references and resources that I look into are these things that have transformed and transcended through time. You know these items have been lived in because of beauty through ageing. In many ways, I reject things that feel too fresh. I think most of us do - we gravitate towards things that feel like they’ve lived a life because there’s an element of its materialism we are interested in. I always strive to show that effect through my clothes.

Jawara Alleyne: Definitely. We were talking about this in the studio the other day in that fashion is one of the only points of view that asks human beings to reveal something about themselves through their work. It has been an outlet for me to question who I am and how I want to operate in this industry. As I develop, I want to present a balanced axis between the fantasy and reality of who I think I am. Fashion allows you to have conversations that you can’t necessarily have in other aspects of society. It forces you to think about yourself and to place yourself in a different context. Fashion allows me to challenge those stereotypes around my culture, because they really exist and they aren’t just exclusive to my own experiences and background. It’s a way of seeing the world through a more optimistic and hopeful lens, yet still being aware of the challenges surrounding this. I want my designs to tell my story but not because it’s about me. I’m telling the story of a bigger body of people who struggle with identity and stereotyping.

Jawara Alleyne: Extremely important. I owe it to my community to support their dreams as much as I can because I came from that same place. It’s even harder to pursue the arts in the Caymans nowadays compared to when I grew up there. It should technically be easier. There were a lot more programmes that valued art and creativity when I was growing up and there were key people on the island who really fought for the importance of that. I don’t think it’s a small island problem however. Generally, creativity has suffered all over the world and it’s taken a backseat in terms of gaining financial support compared to the more ‘conventional’ industries. Fewer people fight for creativity and a decent arts programme in schools and education. As I come from a place where I was fortunate enough to have good access to these programs, it created a value system in me, where I want to give back to the kids who don’t have that same opportunity.

Jawara Alleyne: It’s imperative if you want to be the change you seek to inspire. I can do it in my hometown because it’s on a much smaller scale, but we should be doing the same thing in London and all those other cultural capitals. Access to everything is currently more difficult post both Brexit and Covid so we need to communicate in ways that make the industry an actual industry and not just a competition. I think the industry forgets that sometimes you live on the same street as other people you could be working with, or you speak the same language, so we need to be encouraging the notions of community and collaboration. It all starts from building that around your own space before expanding. If everyone in the industry shared the same opinion, then real change becomes a probability, instead of a possibility.

Jawara Alleyne: For me, masculinity is not something we hold just as men. The same could be said about femininity. The way I see it is that masculinity is not something that’s defined by your gender at all. It’s not something you can impose on anyone. It’s really just about how you feel. Within my work, it’s a reflection of the men I experienced growing up in the islands. The men over there wear a lot of colour and that is considered extremely masculine. I come from a place that’s very homophobic and that has weaved these false ideologies of masculinity throughout the islands. However, at the same time, I grew up around figures that were so feminine, and soft, and jovial, and humorous, and expressed themselves in such an honest way that we discarded masculinity all together. That’s what I’m trying to present in my work. It’s an honest view of how masculinity isn’t defined by how you look.