When you ask Sonia Noel about the long-term prospects for the local fashion industry her answer does not create the impression that she is looking around for a response that fits the bill. What she has to say may be a trifle long-winded but what it amounts to is that prospects for the local fashion industry are inextricably bound up with the wider Caribbean. She seems to be saying that whatever the local industry may think of itself, it is the manner in which it is perceived by the regional industry and the fact that the global market responds to Guyanese as part of “a Caribbean thing”.
It is – among other things – a matter of market. Noel is outspoken: “Fashion costs and there is no market to speak of, to go around.” Not that she’s pessimistic. She believes that potential for
