FASHION
FE NOEL BRINGS CARIBBEAN INSPIRATION TO NEW YORK
FEBRUARY 18, 2020
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WORDS
by KRISTOPHER FRASER
PHOTOS
COURTESY of GETTY
Brookyln-based fashion designer Fe Noel broke ground at New York Fashion Week this season. The designer, who made her debut on the closing day, February 12, helped send off the annual fashion festival with a Caribbean flared bang. The Grenadian-American designer has developed quite the following and was excited to finally bring her collection to a wider audience.
“It feels amazing to be showing on this stage, in front of all these eyes, especially with how dear this collection is to me,” Noel said prior to her runway show. “It’s a representation of my heritage that’s going to be on a world stage.”
Her colorful, resort collection designs are all inspired by her Grenadian heritage. “I know there is a lot of other Caribbeans in the industry, but we don’t speak about it enough,” she said. “I wanted to speak about being from Grenada, and how that created the person I am today. I felt New York fashion week was the best stage to do that, because fashion is my language. What better way to say it loud and say it proud.”
Fe Noel 2020
Noel is part of a growing crop of black luxury designers who are taking New York’s fashion scene by storm. In addition to her collection, this season’s fashion calendar also saw Romeo Hunte, LaQuan Smith, and last year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Christopher John Rogers. Noel wants to help promote Caribbean representation in the fashion industry and says she hoped, “Her show brought the entire Caribbean energy to the stage, and I hope people start travelling to the Caribbean and understanding the culture more. I want people to experience the vibrancy, the rich culture, and the spirit of Caribbean people.”
Noel is all about giving back and uplifting her Caribbean community abroad and her work family in Brooklyn too. All of her production, including for her recent show, is all done locally. When she started her line, she looked at what her options were around her for who and what to work with, and she continues to do that to support the people who helped build her brand from inception. “There’s been people who have been on this journey with me for a long time, and we’re feeding each other families, we are all growing our businesses,” she said. “It’s important for me to still have a hand in that. It feels more special for me, and I want to continue building up local production. There’s other inspiring designers I can help mentor and show the ropes as well. Basing production is the best way to help people along that journey.”
One of her next short-term goals for the brand is to build production in Grenada. She hopes to bring jobs to the country and help uplift Grenada’s economy. With the increased globalization of the fashion industry, this type of international production is not only practical, but a cornerstone of her brand DNA. “Fashion is the way we all communicate with the world, it’s the way people feel,” Noel said. “Once we start tapping into people’s emotions, that’s what makes fashion important. It can give people the tools to do what they need to do. For someone like me, it’s been able to open doors and create a path for me to feed my family and build a business. People should see fashion as a powerful language we can use to accomplish something.”
Fe Noel 2020
