National wear competition still on hold

The unveiling of a national wear for Grenada will not be a feature in this year’s national Independence rally on Sunday, as previously announced.
Chairman of the National Celebrations Committee, John Williams, confirmed to this newspaper on Wednesday, that the Grenada Cultural Foundation (GCF), which was spearheading the initiative is not in a position at this time to finalise the initiative. Therefore, the national wear competition is on hold until the GCF, the Minister and Culture and other stakeholders can meet to decide on the next move.
The five selected designs and designers (Talisha Alexander, Vanel Cuffie, Tamara Prosper, Jamila Douglas and Jerel Langaigne Sampson & Mary Joseph) were made public on Independence Day 2020 when electronic copies of the designs were shown on a screen at the rally, at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium, Saint George’s.
Two months ago, the semi-final of the competition was held on Saturday November 29 at the National Stadium where the five designers modelled both their formal and casual, male and female designs before a panel of judges.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GCF, Shirma Wells, who was not in office this week to give a comment, said in a local newscast last year that following the semi-final there will be a rush to finalise the national wear for Independence 2021.
The designs were expected to be printed on posters and showcased at strategic locations within each parish, for public viewing so the public can vote on their favourite design.
A decision was to be made on the medium to be used for the public voting, as consideration was to be given to the media, a texting platform using the telecommunication service providers or social media, notably Facebook.
Speaking to the importance of having a national wear for Grenada, the then Minister of Culture, Senator Norland Cox, during a post cabinet briefing in January 2020 said, “There has been a lot of calls that when persons go out in the Diaspora to represent Grenada we do not have a national wear and so the Ministry of Culture and the Cultural foundation have been working on this to have a national wear for the state of Grenada.”
The five designs (formal and casual wear) were selected from a total of 14 submissions made to the Foundation over the period February to September 2019.