Meet a Trini
By Gail Massy
You know you have achieved fame in the Caribbean, and the world, when people know you by a single name. Meiling – Trinidad and Tobago’s foremost fashion designer and chairman of the Fashion Association of Trinidad and Tobago – has achieved such a distinction and is known as an icon in her own lifetime. Born to parents Evelyn and Herman Achong, Meiling spent her early years at her seamstress mother’s dress hem, fashioning clothes for her dolls from leftover trimmings and bits of cloth. At age 11 she envisioned a future as a designer, sewing her name into labels of high-fashion clothing. A pioneer in the industry in the 1970s, she attended the Lucie Clayton School of Design in England, and on her return to T&T set up her first studio and retail outlet. As an enterprising entrepreneur over the past decades, Meiling Esau has been phenomenally successful. Her website meilinginc.com states that she is “known for designing and dressing celebrities in the region – from Miss Universe 1998 Wendy Fitzwilliam and rapso artistes 3Canal, to soca artistes Machel Montano and David Rudder,” and among international celebrities “Chef Wolfgang Puck wears her classic white shirts on a regular basis.” She also mentored Season 9 Project Runway winner Anya AyoungChee from T&T, who calls Meiling her “second mom”. Meiling has received many accolades over the decades. She worked with Emmy Award-winning costume designer Peter Minshall on his Carnival productions and other artistic presentations, and was involved with him in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. She also worked with the Miss Universe Pageant held in T&T in 1999. In 2007, Robert & Christopher Publishers launched Meiling: Fashion Designer, the second book in a series on local female artists. In 2008 the government awarded her the Chaconia Silver Medal for long and meritorious service to Trinidad and Tobago’s business sector. Among her many other honours are the Grand Master of Fashion Design award at Caribbean Fashion Week in Jamaica and the Women of Influence Award from the Association of Female Executives of Trinidad and Tobago. Meiling is also a recipient of the several Cacique awards, her latest in 2010 was for costume design. Most recently, in 2012 she was honoured with an OCEAN Style Foundation Award for being a force in the fashion industry. Meiling’s fashion designs are legendary and her website features some of her classic collections, with names such as 24 Hours, Kites, Resort, Macafouchette, Grande Riviere, Wedding, Last Train to San Fernando, and Noir. But for all of her varied styles, which feature fine linens and natural fabrics noted for their wearability, Meiling prefers to clothe herself in black. “I feel more confident in black,” she said in a previous interview. “If I am fitting a client, I want to almost disappear so just my hands are seen and I don’t compete with the image I am looking at in the mirror. I also feel that when I am in black I blend.” The Meiling fashion house is located at Carlos Street in Woodbrook. Meiling says she still has the same exuberance she had when she entered the industry decades ago. “Fashion is the passion of my life,” said the iconic designer. “I don’t think I can do anything else.”
Photo courtesy: www.meilinginc.com
MEILING
Ins & Outs of Trinidad and Tobago
• 51