As Caribbean fashion continues to make its mark on the world, the time is ripe for the development of fresh young design talent. Trinidad has long led the charge in regional fashion, producing style heavyweights such as Meiling, Heather Jones, and Claudia Pegus. Barbados too is home to some of the Caribbean’s finest in Pauline Bellamy, Simon Foster, Nefertari and company, as is Jamaica with Moncrieffe, Bill Edwards, Biggy, Uzuri among others.

However, as the landscape of fashion evolves, new stars emerge, hungry to make a name for themselves and announce their country’s arrival on the global fashion scene. Enter Phylicia Ellis of the Bahamas.

A fashion student at Allbright College in Pennsylvania, she spent her high school years working in her parent’s retail fabric store in The Bahamas. With such a background, a career in fashion design seemed inevitable. In 2009 Ellis won a scholarship at the Fashion Group International Red Carpet Show held at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia as well as unveiled her feature collection during the Bahamas fashion collections.

In 2010 she hopes to move into top gear by presenting her first collection at Caribbean Fashionweek (CFW). “As a designer, one of the most fulfilling moments is seeing your collection brought to life when it hits the runway for the first time and it certainly will be a thrill for me to show at Fashion Week,” says the youthful Ellis.

Ellis’ collection, aptly titled Remembrance, is an aviation inspired ode to a dear and recently deceased friend who served as a pilot. “The colour palette is white (symbolic of life), black and grey (symbolic of death) and yellow which represents creative energy,” says the designer.

She joins what will be the largest line-up of young design talent to appear at the Pulse-produced Caribbean Fashionweek. A new wave of designers, including some based in the United States and Europe will converge on Kingston, Jamaica June 8-14 for the 10th staging of the event. In addition to designer collections, CFW features an exhibition, business development forum, celebrity performances from international recording artistes and after-parties.

The Pulse Foundation’s Haiti Art & Fashion Project will be highlighted with a benefit night for the rehabilitation of that island’s creative arts and fashion industries.