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Carnival
Costume Designers |
Copyright 2004-2006 Zina Saunders All rights reserved |
Antoine,
age 37, feels his job is to design costumes that are not only
a treat to look at, but give you something to think about, too.I'm the leader of a band, Antoine International. There's two parts for the Carnival: one is the steel bands. The other part of it is the costume bands, the Mas bands. And I went into the costume area. I don't only design the costumes; it's the whole conception, the idea. Every year a band portrays something different: something that's a fantasy, something that's historic, something that's real life. This year my theme is Tribal Unity. In other words, I'm visiting Africa, and the Caribbean area, and places like Hawaii, and Samoa. I'm picking from early, early tribes' history, how the people used to live, and stuff like that. Some people think that our carnival is just to put on a costume and jump. Well, sure, there's fun and merriment! But there is history, there is knowledge, there is a lot of different things! The first time I saw snow was when I was very young, in my country, in Trinidad. Maybe you aren't familiar with the Caribbean, but the Caribbean don't have snow, so one of the designers, a guy named Joe Humphrey, he made a presentation called Snow Kingdom. Now, I had never seen snow, and it was sort of like educational, also. He showed what a snow flake looks like, all the different shapes they come in: nearly every flake is a different shape. He showed what a city would look like, with a blanket of white, and what the trees look like, some of the clothes that the people would wear in the winter time. So it was kind of like educational. My wife and I design the costumes, and then we have friends come in and help make all the costumes, because our band has about 250 people in it. We work for about 4 months on making the costumes. You don't let nobody see your big pieces, though, because the big pieces goes in the competition. Some of the pieces are 15, 20 feet in the air, and just as wide! I am one of the Masters of the big pieces—I am one of the guys who can construct them. I am a Bender: I can bend the wire and fiberglass, to make the big pieces. Guys like me, I can go to any of the Mas camps and work on the big pieces, 'cause I'm a Bender. Sometimes, when other bands are doing the big pieces, they call 'cause they need my help, or an idea of something. The other band leaders, they can't go, 'cause they're not Benders. |