Kaj Designs Offers An Explosion Of Sensual Safari And Animal Prints At FWTT

Couture Fashion House Unleashes WILD THINGS On The Catwalk

Monday June 2, 2008 – Scarborough, Tobago… Kaj Designs, Trinidad and Tobago’s newest couture fashion house, offered the Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago (FWTT) audience a sensual take on jungle wild life when it unleashed WILD THINGS on Friday May 30, 2008.  Kaj’s newest collection awakened the feline senses with lavish infusions of safari and animal print in soft chiffons, silk chamois, crinkle cotton and lambs wool.  With only the fashion forward and confident woman in mind, WILD THINGS featured daring asymmetric cuts, plunging necklines, cold-shoulder blouses and draped layered skirts with bold slits.

Kevin Ayoung-Julien, the designer behind Kaj, has established a reputation for one-of-a-kind, custom-fitted, provocative creations with an unorthodox use of fabrics that reveal his natural affinity for colour and different fabric textures.  In the designer’s musings on his recent showing he said, “It gives me a great sense of fulfilment to be able to show my work in my homeland and to feel the appreciation of my peers and members of Trinidad and Tobago’s fashion industry.”  

For this collection, Kevin took his inspiration from the textures, tones and prints of the wild bringing an explosion of tiger, leopard and cheetah prints and the bold stripes of the zebra to the catwalk.  Against a backdrop of Michael K. and Gab Logan’s nature-inspired rhythms, Kaj’s opening piece caused a stir as sultry Kim Lee-Inniss crossed the runway near topless with decorated nipples and a low-seated safari print skirt with alligator-inspired detailing.  Angel Ross offered another highlight in a brown and black zebra print envelope blouse that was paired with ivory and black zebra print ultra hot shorts.  Following this, Kimi See Tai graced the runway in an elegant guipure lace bandeau top with tiger and snake print details and a black low-rise skirt that floated from the hips.  One of the closing pieces was a fresh take on the zebra featuring Shari Demas in a flowing mixed zebra print dress with a camouflage waistband and exquisite peacock fringe accents. 

WILD THINGS with its fifteen avant-garde pieces made its mark on the FWTT catwalk leaving the audience of fashionistas, fashion photographers and critics thirsting for more.  This has paved the way for Kevin’s latest work being captured by the lens of Trinidad and Tobago’s master fashion photographer, Calvin French for Caribbean Belle magazine.  To add to Kaj’s already extensive list of publicity which includes coverage in Britain’s daily newspaper, The Independent; the US magazine, Sister 2 Sister; New York’s West Indian newspaper, New York Carib News; Guadeloupe’s newspaper, La Gazette Des Caraïbes; Caribbean Airlines’s in-flight magazine, Caribbean Beat; Primaris Airlines’s in-flight magazine, Caribbean LIFE; the international lifestyle and fashion publication, Ocean Style and; Caribbean lifestyle and fashion publication, SHE Caribbean, the designer looks forward to an extensive summer fashion spread in New York’s exclusive Ins&Outs Magazine.

Kevin is looking ahead to the future as he embarks on establishing novel marketing strategies that will position his creations in exclusive boutiques regionally and internationally.