Carnival is more than ‘chippin’ down the road, it is the embodiment of what it means to celebrate oneself and others. With Carnival being one of Jamaica’s most anticipated seasons, multiple aspects go into creating what can be easily considered one of the top attractions of Carnival Sunday’s road march – the costumes.

GenXS costume designer, Andrew Chuck, the talent behind DesignsbyDru took the time out to share his experiences and creative process behind creating Ragnar, one of the 2024 GenXS costume designs.

Designing for over a decade, the inventive designer joined the GenXS team this year and was ecstatic to see the reactions to his costume at the band launch held late last year. He shared, “I was the only Jamaican designer on the team so I felt as if I needed to serve as a form of representation that Jamaicans can design great costumes. I wanted to create something powerful so that anyone who wears it would feel like royalty on carnival day and I am grateful to see that it has been sold out.”

Carnival costume designer, Andrew Chuck

Priding themselves on inclusivity and inventiveness, GenXS made its debut at Carnival in Jamaica in 2023 and has quickly grown to become one of the top bands. With a theme of Unleashing the Dragon, Chuck detailed how he was able to create Ragnar solely based on an image.

He recalled, “We get an image and the image of the dragon had colours on it, and based on the colours, we design around it. They told me to make something that was powerful. They wanted the dragon to represent power. When I started to think about power, I started thinking about the women in the industry. I felt connected to the theme because I felt as if it was different and embodied what I feel like carnival was about, which is bringing everyone together.”

The Ragnar designer shared how the process of creating a costume requires adequate time to perfect the design.

This model rocked the Ragnar costume at the 2023 GenXS Band Launch sponsored by Red Stripe.

“Ragnar took me about six weeks to create. It’s not just about designing the costume, it’s about sourcing the right materials from the gemstones to the feathers. Designing for me comes from the heart, I am often up until 3 am figuring it all out,” he expressed.

“All the scales and everything that you see there, it was all hand-cut by myself. I didn’t have a machine to do it, I just had to draw my patterns and cut each scale. I have about four different size scales on there, you can’t really tell but it makes a difference and it’s about how it shapes going around the elbows and going down the arms and the shoulders,” Chuck continued.

Speaking to the colours of the costume, Chuck recounted how choosing the colours was reflective of what he wanted the costume to represent.

He explained, “Ragnar is about being bold and benevolent. Purple represents royalty. It’s a very fierce colour in a sense and when I was given words like bold and fierce, those of the colours that came up. It so happens that the vinyl I chose gives a reflectiveness of purple. When you look at it differently, sometimes it looks blue, when you look at it another way, sometimes it looks red. It’s this ever-changing powerful force so that was the vibe I was getting when I picked up the material when I was getting started.”

With sponsors on board such as Rum Stripe, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker, Chuck hopes to continue to see more collaborations like this for future stagings.

He expressed, “Carnival is more than just the costume, it’s the coming together of many and I think brands like Rum Stripe do a great job at ensuring this for masqueraders. I want to keep seeing collaborations like this, maybe even one day costumes can be designed based on the flavours of these brands, a coconut pine costume would be interesting to create and I am up for the challenge.”

With Rum Stripe at the helm as the title sponsor along with support from brands like Rum Stripe, Smirnoff, and Johnnie Walker, these symbiotic relationship fuels the festivities as brand sponsorships inject much-needed capital into Jamaica Carnival’s operations that help influence the creativity of costume designs. Facilitating the organisation of elaborate parades, vibrant performances, and immersive cultural experiences, these types of partnerships elevate the event’s overall quality and attractiveness.

Beaming with pride and accomplishment for what he has created, Chuck expressed his gratitude for being a part of a great team.

“Jamaica has one of the best carnivals in the world and GenXS has done a good job at having fairly priced costumes for each person from students to mothers. I am very happy to have been a part of this and I cannot wait to see how many people get the opportunity to immerse themselves in our diverse culture.”