On The Honour Roll
On The Honour Roll
When one is a constant standby for Donna Karan behind the scenes at her New York Fashion Week collections, is the preferred stylist for Elizabeth Hurley who also calls you a lifelong friend, and has Janet Jackson telephoning with best wishes, it’s not quite a stretch to affix the labels “well-connected” and “accomplished”.
The Trinidad-born, Gotham-resident stylist par excellence Freddie Leiba was a most deserving recipient of the OCEAN Style Icon Award. Leiba was feted at a celebratory dinner last weekend at the Iberostar Rose Hall Resort and Spa’s surf and turf-themed Galleon Restaurant.
Humble, soft-spoken, and engaging in a Caribbean-meets-metropolitan sophisticated manner, Leiba was joined by friends, celebrity fashion designer Angel Sanchez and former ESSENCE editor-in-chief and fashion journalist Constance White, Hollywood actors Mekhi Phifer and Flex Alexander, former NBA stars John Salley and Julius Erving, for an all-white dress code dinner that featured a seafood-centric menu of crab nippers and mussel entrées, lobster bisque and classic surf and turf — buttered lobster tail and tender grilled filet mignon.
For Leiba, who shaped an enviable career as an in-demand stylist working with Beyoncé, Diana Ross, Johnny Depp, Naomi Campbell, Gwen Stefani and Madonna, and the go-to man for respected publications Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and In Style, being acknowledged by his Caribbean people, and Trinidadian countryman and OCEAN Style editor-in-chief Douglas Gordon meant the world to him.
“This is truly an honour,” a visibly touched Leiba remarked after being presented with the award by Gordon.
The dinner party then watched, alongside the honoree, a montage of video-recorded congratulatory messages from American fashion designing icon Donna Karan, actress Elizabeth Hurley, opera singer Renée Fleming, boutique hotelier Ian Schrager, and pop superstar Janet Jackson, who all paid tribute to Leiba’s artistic brilliance, on-point work ethic, and gentle spirit.
— Omar Tomlinson
(PHOTOS: ACEION CUNNINGHAM)
