Fourteen local designers showcased their creations for buyers from Martinique and Guadeloupe and all secured large orders for their fashion products to be sold in retail outlets in the French Caribbean market.

This support was provided by Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology and consultant, Vincent Quan over a one-year period who worked closely with these designers to harness their most significant value chain potentials.

Raymond Wong, Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, has been hired to develop the business model for this facility which is expected to open in the 2018/2019 fiscal year.

Participants were educated on: pricing, producing samples and tech packs, creating line sheets, production logistics/optimization, trade show requirements and starting website sales, negotiations and payments and trouble points in manufacturing.

[12] This third workshop on 30 September 2016 had several facilitators: Amar Ramdhanie, Chief Operations Officer of NEDCO Trinidad & Tobago; entertainment lawyer Akilah Phillip; Mario Whiteman, technical examiner at the local intellectual property office; Meghnath Gosein, Unit Leader of Business Services at Caribbean Industrial Research Institution (CARIRI); and representatives from e-commerce company, E-Line.

This heightened understanding of business processes and their effects on revenue and export ability, will contribute to the continued growth of the fashion industry and by extension, Trinidad and Tobago’s Gross Domestic Product.

On a macro level, the programme will enable the tailoring sector in Trinidad and Tobago to flourish through its association with such a well-respected brand as Savile Row Academy, thereby encouraging acceptance into global markets, the growth of the fashion industry and an increase in contribution to the Gross domestic product.