Long before Keisha Edwards became one of the people working to strengthen Guyana’s fashion industry, she was trying to figure out how to build a career in it herself. Fashion ran in her family through generations of tailors and dressmakers, so creating items for her closet came natural.
“I just used to make stuff for myself because I wanted to look stylish and funky. And I felt that clothes were either too expensive or not my style,” said Edwards.
She studied sociology at the University of Guyana but when a job did not follow, the craft she had been nurturing became another possibility.
“I said there’s a skill that I have that I’m really good at. Maybe I should nurture it and make a sustainable business out of it,” Edwards recalled. “And it’s been 20 years.”
Today, Edwards is using her knowledge of fashion to demonstrate just how important the industry can be to Guyana’s continued growth, serving as festival and designer director of ORIGINS: The Guyana Fashion Festival. The three-day event connects Guyanese and diaspora designers with opportunities tied to economic development and cultural tourism.
“While we have designers having their successes in silos, there’s a lot of designers that don’t have that visibility,” she said.
Now in its second year, ORIGINS is designed to give those individual efforts a larger foundation. This year’s festival in Georgetown celebrated Guyana’s 60 years of independence under the theme, “A Diamond Legacy: Fashioning 60 Years,” pairing runway presentations with workshops and industry discussions.
“The fashion industry isn’t only just about fashion and design. It’s about production. It’s about policy. It’s about…
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