Just weeks ago, Joshua Kent had resigned himself to missing his school’s graduation dinner. With his mother’s pending surgery and the family already stretched financially, the 18-year-old had pushed the event off the priority list.
That all changed on May 7 when he became the latest recipient of Ecliff Elie’s Spotlight on Youth Potential Programme. This means the Pentecostal Light and Life Foundation High School student will now attend his graduation dinner in style, wearing a full bespoke Ecliff Elie suit. “I thought the money would be too much of a strain on mommy, and she is not too well, so I wasn’t even thinking of going,” Joshua told REC last Saturday, minutes after his mother, Nickie-Ann Ince-Kent, told him the good news.
The announcement took everyone by surprise. Joshua had been sceptical about his chances when Ecliff took the programme to his school two weeks earlier. Nickie-Ann recalls asking him that day what he would do if he were selected. “He told me he would not be chosen because the person had to be ‘needy,’” she said. When Nickie-Ann found out he had topped the list, she kept it a secret for three days, waiting for the right moment to break the news.
“My mom was like, ‘I have a surprise to tell you.’ I said, ‘What surprise is that?’” Joshua recalled.
“Then she said, ‘Remember we had a conversation that if you win, what you would do?’ and you said you would be happy because you didn’t think you were going. Then she told me I won and I was like, ‘Serious?’”
This is only the second time a Tobago student has been chosen for the initiative Ecliff launched 15 years ago. The designer said he has always admired “the pride, warmth, and sense of style” in Tobago. And since taking the venture to the sister isle, interest has surged across institutions including Roxborough Secondary, Harmon School, Pentecostal Light and Life, and Bishop’s High.
The programme operates on the ground. Ecliff talks to principals and deans to find those exemplary students who simply show up and put in the work. “I always left the selection entirely in the hands of the school because they know them best.”
He understood Joshua’s plight because he never got the chance to attend his own graduation. “Growing up, I would have loved for someone to see potential in me and believe enough in me to give me an opportunity like this,” Ecliff shared, noting that he will soon visit Tobago to meet Joshua to begin preparations. Every student, he said, is treated with the same care and attention as any high-profile client.
Joshua is in for the full nine yards: jacket, pants, shirt, waistcoat, tie, pocket square, belt, socks, cufflinks, and tie pins. He told us he had not yet decided what look he would choose but “would give it some thought.” Ecliff assured the teen would be guided through a full consultation where he would have a voice in the process.
Besides the suits, what truly sets the programme apart is the change it brings out in the pupils. During school visits, Ecliff said he watches how the boys reset right before his eyes when he speaks life into them. “At first, they may be slouching and laughing casually, but when we begin talking about discipline, perseverance, and purpose, you see them sit up straighter. They begin to see themselves differently.”
With 37 years in fashion under his belt, Ecliff’s initiative began by making school pants for Form One boys. He soon realised that by the time they reached Form Five, many could not afford proper attire to attend their graduations. The Spotlight on Youth Potential Programme was born — designed to help young men experience the kind of milestone moment he himself had missed.
“Fashion changed my life,” he asserted. “It gave me direction and opportunity.”
Come July 4, Joshua will walk into his school’s final goodbye looking brand new. As he counts down to his big night, he is simply grateful for this unexpected blessing. “To Ecliff Elie, I want to say thanks,” he said earnestly, “I really appreciate it.”
Nickie-Ann described her son as “loving, headstrong, and particular”—traits he is already directing toward his long-term goals of becoming a fire officer and the owner of a landscaping business.
Stories like Joshua’s show how one well-timed act of belief—delivered through a tailored suit—can affirm a young man’s worth and change how he carries himself into the future.
