The Tribune

Fashion designers will no be the only ones in the spotlight at the upcoming Islands of the World Fashion Showcase (IWFS) this May.

Four artisans, each from different design fields, have accepted the challenge of taking material used traditionally to build and accessorize homes, offices and other buildings and make them fit on a new kind of canvas - the human body.

Val Pintard, Apryl Burrows and the team of Reuno Pratt and Elizabeth Clarke are the first contenders in the newly created category of IWFS, the Jackson L. Burnside Fashion and Design Presentation.

The division highlights one of the many passions of the late Jackson Burnside, which was his desire to find ways to take natural products and merge them with the built environment.

With a local fashion designer to guide them, these artisans have spent the past three months creating garments out of unconventional materials including fan decks, floor samples, palm berries, pebbles, sisal and tropical almond.

Not only do their pieces need to look good on a rack, they also need to be able to make it down the catwalk. The pieces were reviewed by Pam Burnside, wife of the late Jackson Burnside, Marcus Laing, CEO of InsituArch Caribbean Magazine and John Cox chief curator at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and founder of Popop Studios International Center for the Visual Arts on Friday, April 25, 2012.

Production manager for IWFS, Indira Moss, said that the design concepts are very intriguing and she is confident the general public will love them when they get a first look next week.

"This presentation literally brings to life the concept of wearable art, which is what fashion is at its core," said Moss.

"Fashion has influenced and been influenced by architecture and interior design for decades and we are excited to see how these participants have interpreted the relationship between these art forms," she said.

The designs will debut to the public on May 10 at the official opening reception for IWFS at Hillside House and will be later installed at Doongalik Studios for the rest of May.

Meet the Designers

'Valaria'

Born in Nassau, Bahamas, Val Pintard Flax developed her keen interest in art and design at Queens's College and then the College of The Bahamas.

She received her Master's in Architecture and Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design and has lived abroad for most of her life. She has worked as an architect and interior designer in Atlanta, GA and throughout the Caribbean and gains her inspiration from nature. She holds to the philosophy to "Live Simply, by design".

Apryl Jasmine

No stranger to the Bahamas' fashion arena, Apryl Burrows spent her early years understudying designers Sabrina Francis and the late Jeffrey Taylor. She majored in Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), in New York, where she later freelanced as an assistant designer, technical designer and illustrator. She was the first designer to have her fashion art installed in both the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and The Hub Contemporary Gallery in 2009. She helped found the Bahamas Designer's Association, and is a member of the advisory committee for the fashion department at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI).

EPC Designs

Elizabeth Clarke's desire to educate was obliterated after picking up her first issue of Architectural Digest. A Bahamian native, Clarke moved to Marbella, Spain in 2003 to study Interior Architecture. The avid traveler then moved to Vancouver, Canada and New York City before returning to the Bahamas in 2008. After a stint with Plan It Bahamas, she created her firm EPC Designs a year later. Her work is showcased in the HGTV, "Designer's Portfolio" on the cable network's web site. Her style can best be described as eclectic with an ethnic flavor.

Padishah

Freeport native Reuno Pratt has always had an intense passion for the visual arts, architecture, and design. Pratt graduated from the College of The Bahamas, and continued his endeavours as an employee of Monarch Architects in Nassau, Bahamas. In 2009, Freeport native Reuno Pratt formed Padishah, to create 3 - D model renderings, graphic designs, and architectural drawings for architects, interior designers, and construction companies with an artistic look and feel for enhanced graphic and visual appeal.