THE story of how she came up in the fashion industry is a truly awe-inspiring one that transcends the test of time. Valerie Deans, a veteran Jamaican designer who made a career out of designing at the young age of 20, joined the Island Child Style team at their Designer Forum to share her journey through the Jamaican fashion industry.

At a very young age Deans recognised that she possessed an amazing gift in the form of designing. She recalled that growing up, her mom and other women in her family, due to financial constraints, had to make their own clothes as they couldn’t afford to purchase from stores.

“I was born into fashion. Growing up, all my female family members had those hand machines from Singer that they would use to make their outfits. Every Monday my mom would make an outfit for me, and all the adults would come on the verandah to see what I was wearing. By the time I was 10 I started doing nails around the area to get pocket money to buy my fabric so I could make my own designs. If I didn’t have fabric I would cut up my old dresses to make new ones, so essentially fashion designing was in my blood,” she shared.

Fuelling her drive to have her pieces sold, Deans would create samples of her clothing and take them into stores; but unfortunately, she would get no sales. That made her even more determined and so she took a leap of faith and opened a small store.

“I didn’t have the money to open a shop but I told myself that I was going to open a shop. I opened a little shop off Half-Way-Tree Road, and there was an interior designer next door to me. One day a woman (who became such an important person in my journey) came in to get some things for her house. She saw my little shop and started asking whose shop it was. I tried hiding her out but eventually I had to come out of my hiding place and speak to her because she wouldn’t leave. She said, “Valerie, is your clothes? But you can’t stay here, you have to get in the plaza,” she recollected.

She visited the plaza, saw a vacancy, and asked around for the owner. At this point, even though she couldn’t afford the rent, a lot of people were beginning to leave Jamaica so the owner agreed to rent Deans the space even though she did not have half the money for the first month. She turned to family members for help in coming up with the money, which she generously received. Deans learned early on that keeping one’s word is paramount.

“I’m not a big talker, and I had no fixtures for the place, but I wanted people to come in and talk and just chill — even if they couldn’t afford anything. I got bicycle wheels hung from the ceiling with rope, which I used as swings in the shop, and so we started off. Just as I wanted, people would come in and hang out in the shop and chit chat , and so people started hearing about us,” she continued.

By this time Deans opened a factory and started hosting some massive fashion shows in the plaza. She would use the cutting table from the factory to make the ramp for the fashion shows.

“The newspaper would come every weekend and we’d have a full spread in the paper every week,” Valerie stated.

Following this, Deans decided to open another shop called Climax. Climax really took off for her. But shortly after, things went left due to a Government-imposed ban on imports.

“Climax was massive. I started a little before Michael Manley got really popular and started cutting down on everybody importing stuff. We had to ‘band our bellies’ because now we couldn’t import any fabric and things were getting tough. I started questioning how I was gonna do this thing if I can’t import fabric. We only had access to cotton; we had to make buttons from coconut shells and bamboo. To make a difference in our designs we washed and bleached flour bags to make beautiful dresses, and we’d also use tie dyes to create unique patterns. You really had to ‘turn your hand mek fashion’,” she continued.

Notwithstanding the challenges she faced, Deans did not give up her passion because it was something she truly loved. She noted that fashion is something that you have to eat, sleep and dream and which you cannot go into half-heartedly. However, things did not get better.

“After a couple of years with the importation ban we started to feel the grit. During the height of the ban they came to search my place because they thought I was hoarding dollars, and that was my cue to migrate.”

Deans charged the designers present to revive Jamaica’s fashion industry. She advised them that the three most important aspects of designing are the finish, fit and quality of a garment.