To­ba­go Fash­ion Co­da is back with a bang. Af­ter a hia­tus, the Run­way Meets Rhythm spec­tac­u­lar promis­es to be un­for­get­table.

Set smack in the mid­dle of the newest event on T&T’s na­tion­al cal­en­dar, the To­ba­go Rhythm and Soul Fes­ti­val, pro­duc­er Don Grant of DG Events said Good Fri­day will be­come Fash­ion Fri­day at the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort.

He boasts of an in­ter­na­tion­al run­way show­case fea­tur­ing sev­en of the na­tion’s lead­ing de­sign­ers–Clau­dia Pe­gus, Charu Lochan Dass, Ecliff Elie, Zadd and East­man, Ne­ha Ka­ri­na, Flu­o­res­cent Black, and Eu­phor­ic De­signs.

This year’s ex­trav­a­gan­za is un­der the cre­ative di­rec­tion of renowned pro­duc­tion de­sign­er Richard Young.

As the cre­ative di­rec­tor of this event for the first time, Young said he an­chors his vi­sion in the foun­da­tion­al prin­ci­ples of Caribbean aes­thet­ic, “a phi­los­o­phy that cham­pi­ons our in­dige­nous style, rhythms, and sto­ries as a dy­nam­ic force for iden­ti­ty as­ser­tion and eco­nom­ic ad­vance­ment.”

Young said he has al­ways seen To­ba­go as the quin­tes­sen­tial back­drop for ide­al is­land trop­i­cal event tourism, “us­ing fash­ion events as por­tals to unique des­ti­na­tion mar­ket­ing. I have done sev­er­al To­ba­go fash­ion projects, and they stand out as dis­tinc­tive and sin­gu­lar in the Caribbean land­scape of fash­ion show pro­duc­tions. We can po­si­tion To­ba­go as a pre­mier fash­ion and lifestyle des­ti­na­tion.”

Ac­cord­ing to Young, “This in­stal­ment of To­ba­go Fash­ion Co­da can serve as more than a show; it is a strate­gic busi­ness ini­tia­tive. Our unique sell­ing propo­si­tion lies in our abil­i­ty to of­fer a sen­so­r­i­al ex­pe­ri­ence—where the en­er­gy of the Caribbean is trans­lat­ed in­to wear­able art that res­onates with both lo­cal and glob­al au­di­ences.”

This event, Young said, tar­gets a so­phis­ti­cat­ed niche mar­ket—”con­nois­seurs of re­sort wear, lux­u­ry fash­ion en­thu­si­asts, and di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ties yearn­ing for au­then­tic rep­re­sen­ta­tions of their her­itage.”

Grant is de­light­ed to re­gale the ball­room at the Mag­dale­na Grand with a one-hun­dred-foot red car­pet gala.

Un­der Young’s “mas­ter­ful di­rec­tion,” he said, “The pro­duc­tion will flaunt world-class the­atri­cal pro­por­tions with a slew of the best mod­els from Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Grant, who is com­mit­ted to pro­duc­ing ex­cep­tion­al events in the sis­ter isle, said, “I love To­ba­go; it’s my heart!”

The pre­sen­ta­tion will al­so in­clude the make-up artistry of in­ter­na­tion­al make-up de­sign­er Kirk Cam­bridge-Delpesche, who has over 30 Broad­way pro­duc­tions un­der his belt with­in the post-COVID re­turn of Broad­way.

“This Caribbean mas­ter­mind make-up de­sign­er has a fan­tas­tic track record of stel­lar work, hav­ing de­signed for pro­duc­tions on tour­ing shows like Fela, The Wiz and High School Mu­si­cal, to name a few. Soon he will work on the West End pro­duc­tion of Her­cules, a new mu­si­cal for which he de­signed its in­au­gur­al run in Ger­many.”

Cam­bridge-Delpesche will al­so host make-up work­shops as a give-back mis­sion to young cre­atives in To­ba­go, card­ed for April 14 at the Mag­dale­na Grand.

Grant added, “Co­da is where art meets en­ter­tain­ment and fash­ion, and not to for­get the ex­tra­or­di­nary culi­nary de­lights in store for you at Mag­dale­na. Look out for the ex­clu­sive Co­da Cock­tail ex­pe­ri­ence as we ex­plore a cu­rat­ed ex­hi­bi­tion ho­n­our­ing three decades of artis­tic ex­cel­lence fea­tur­ing ac­claimed artist Mar­tin Su­perville cel­e­brat­ing his 30th an­niver­sary on Thurs­day 10th April at 6 pm.”