Ocean creates waves at CFW
IT is Caribbean FashionWeek (CFW), but on Sunday’s closing night it wasn’t the fashion which had a lasting impact, it was music.
The music came from hitmaker Billy Ocean who had the CFW audience rocking and singing along to the songs which made him famous in the 1980s and 1990s.
Love Zone, Colour of Love, Mystery Lady, There’ll Be Sad Songs, Suddenly, Lover Boy, Get out of My Dreams, Going gets Tough and his signature Caribbean Queen, rained on the audience.
Ocean, who was on stage for just over an hour, was performing in Jamaica for the third time, having made two appearances at the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival. He showed great professionalism amid technical glitches in the early part of his performance. This had the potential to mar the set but he maintained his composure and moved effortlessly through a number of changes to his microphone. He even continued singing while the sound was out.
The years have been good to his voice. As a result, his performance was reminiscent of how many remembered his recordings.
Clad in an off-white suit and blue shirt, Billy Ocean deviated from the script somewhat when he dropped three tracks from a recently released album. The tracks, all covers, were Change Gonna Come, No Woman No Cry and Cry Me A River, went over equally well.
The entertainment followed a fashion segment which saw four collections being displayed. They had to be re-scheduled from Saturday due to a late start and a lengthy programme.
First up was Claudia Pegus from Trinidad and Tobago. She was followed by compatriot Robert Young for The Cloth, who sent models down the runway bearing work tools. The showcase rounded out with two Jamaican designers — Attitude by Ashley Martin and Uzuri International, both of whom offered a glitzy collection featuring a colourful palatte. All four suites were well received.
The fashion segment concluded with a sample of the collections presented over the two previous nights.
Kingsley Cooper, CEO of Pulse, which organises CFW, said he was pleased with the 15th staging of the event, but lamented the fact that the business forum had to be cancelled due to a lack of uptake.
