My first endeavour as a stylist came through the kind confidence of my friend Zindzi Morris-Alleyne (an established and amazing stylist) and Trinidad Lookbook, a local fashion publication, or should I say THE local fashion publication. I posted about Trinidad Lookbook ::before:: and since that first issue I’ve gone on to do more work with Mel Gabriel (editor in chief) for Lookbook.
Trinidad Lookbook is a free publication. It doesn’t look or feel free, mind you, and it’s certainly not cheap for Mel to produce, but it is rendered at no cost at all to those persons who seek to survive on a steady diet of local fashion. Anyone who has read Trinidad Lookbook will be also aware that it’s not a publication that is inundated by advertisements. The focus is local fashion, local style, local writers, local artists. ‘Local’ is essential here. Local is, to me, to main reason why Lookbook should be given the support it deserves. Very often Trinidadians fall into the mindset that ‘local’ has less to offer. Our not-so-mainstream boutiques, designers, artisans, etc are brushed aside as not being good enough for consumption, but we flock to Forever 21 and Go Jane as ‘fashion’ destinations. I said it before in my ::inaugural post:: on this blog: anything they can do, we can do better, or at least just as well.
And Trinidad Lookbook does better. It does the best in our Trinbagonian circuit of fashion magazines. I’d rather not see it fade from existence because of lack of support. Please see the message from Mel below:
‘Hey guys,
How you doin’?
As you all know, I’ve been doing Trinidad Lookbook (http://facebook.com/trinidadlookbook) for a minute now and it’s gotten to the very exciting point where expansion is necessary. Expansion, of course, requires a considerable amount of capital investment. Since the fashion industry – and more so, fashion publishing – is still a bit new for some folks, it’s safe to say the buy-in hasn’t been phenomenal.
It’s one of those “can’t get a job without experience vs. can’t get experience without a job” type of situations.
I know Trinidad Lookbook could do so much more for fashion in the Caribbean; but I need your help to get there. Cue crowd funding… This is a concept that allows several, small contributions to be made by a large group instead of me pinning my hope on a large investment from one individual. Kind of like how the Obama campaign worked.
Click here http://bit.ly/PUHVkI and please contribute to my cause.
It doesn’t have to be $100,000 (but hey… lol), or even $100! It could be whatever amount you want it to be – it could be $0. I won’t love you any less. I mean, I hope it’s not $0, but… you get the point.
If you’re not into the credit card/Paypal vibes, but still want to support, you can deposit your contribution at any branch of Scotia Bank: a/c # 4021700, Middle Face Marketing.
Also, feel free to ask me anything you want… I look forward to your feedback 🙂
xx
Mel’
I will be contributing and I hope anyone who reads my blog, checks my Twitter account or my Facebook page, anyone who cares anything for local fashion or local publications or just looking to support something homegrown and GOOD will contribute as well. It doesn’t have to be a lot, just what you can afford. Every little bit goes a long way. I don’t think there is any limit on how far Trinidad Lookbook could go if given the opportunity. Thanks for reading and thanks even more if you decide to chip in 🙂
2 responses to “Chip In and Chip Up!”
I’ve seen this magazine online and ive always thought the quality and content looks really good.
I had no idea it was free. Where can I find it?
I’ve been living abroad for the past ten years and its so amazing to see our fashion industry on the up and up!
The physical copies were available in Superpharm and other places but you probably won’t find them now if you go looking. Check out the website trinidadlookbook.com. Mel updates regularly.