Guyanese designer Sonia Noel honoured in Moscow, Russia

Dec 17, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

Waterfalls Magazine – Guyanese Fashion designer Sonia Noel was among designers from around the world who were honoured at the inaugural BRICS+ Fashion Summit, which concluded earlier this month, in Moscow, Russia.

Guyanese designer Sonia Noel during a panel discussion at BRICS+ Fashion Summit in Moscow, Russia

Hailed as the ‘most representative fashion event of the year’, the BRICS+ Fashion Summit served not only as a showcase of international fashion diversity but also as a forum for impactful discussions on sustainability, cultural preservation, and the current and future trajectory of the fashion industry, the world over. The BRICS alliance includes a grouping of representatives from Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa capable of influencing global fashion trends.

The BRICS+ mandate goes beyond merely adopting trends from developed fashion markets; it aimed to establish trends that originate from within the BRICS nations – Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa, as well as countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

At the Summit, hosted from November 28-December 1, Sonia Noel was honoured to be the only Caribbean fashion designer and speaker at the event, celebrating Guyana’s mark on the regional fashion footprint and claiming a New World relevance and status in the international trade arena and style barometer.

She revelled in her African heritage, alongside the key African influencers at the forefront of the Summit. More than 30% of the nations at the summit came from Africa, highlighting the continent’s impressive presence in the modern global fashion industry. Notwithstanding, she parlayed her Amerindian identity to create the unique and indelible Guyanese stamp, so singular, within our Caribbean Aesthetic.

This distinctive character served her in good stead to salute one of the missions of the Summit, that of preserving cultural identity through fashion.

She was singled out as a global partner to engender global cooperation through fashion and was identified by Leadership News, a Nigerian Newspaper, as a significant player at the event.

Scenes from BRICS +Fashion event in Russia

The review read, “Sonia Noel, a designer from Guyana with African roots, anticipated that new collections from many designers would be inspired by Russian culture post-BRICS+ Fashion Summit. Sonia highlighted that fashion is a universal language, expressing freedom and transcending borders. She emphasized that fashion speaks to love, unity, and peace, always bringing people together.’ Our intrinsic Caribbean-style mosaic appealed to the global call for inclusivity and diversity directives, accessing and targeting selective niche markets beyond our traditional market borders

A substantive follow-through on this participation at the Summit, The Sonia Noel Designs brand will be featured in these filmic vignettes, circulating globally, not only distinguishing her brand but commemorating the Caribbean as a distinctive destination with its peculiar design template. Further, her collection was showcased at Manilla International Fashion Week in the Philippines last weekend, serving to propel our regional identity in the vanguard of world fashion and cementing a formidable place for Caribbean-styled products in non-traditional, progressive fashion foray.

Ms. Noel attends the dinner and gala for BRICS+Fashion Summit in Russia

Willy Batura, CEO and Founder of Fort Fashion Council, in Meydan, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, spoke highly of Ms. Noel, “it was a pleasure meeting Dr. Noel during the BRICS+ Fashion Summit. Her knowledge of the industry is beyond words and we look forward to exploring the Caribbean’s fashion, tourism and cultural industries and creating extended relationships in Dubai for the Caribbean, through their creative and travel industries.

Noel expressed sheer exhilaration seeing Guyana’s national flag fluttering among the other international flags at the Zaryadye Moscow Concert Hall and felt immensely proud to be holding the torch for the Caribbean region as well as being a stalwart among the representation from the Americas. It gave her a great sense of honour, filled with conviction, to participate in this trailblazing inaugural international breakthrough enterprise set to institutionally strengthen the infrastructure and integrity of the value chain of global fashion.

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BRICS+ Fashion Summit, designer, Guyanese, Sonia Noel

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