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Victoria Rowell wears the dress designed by Rona Thomas during a scene from The Young and Restless



BY DONNA PIERRE

Rona Thomas says she has stuck “a feather in my cap” after having had one of her designs worn on the popular daytime soap The Young and the Restless by actress Victoria Rowell, better known as Drucilla.

Thomas has been around for more than 10 years, operating under the name Xantash, but may still be unknown to many.

“I have been trying definitely to open up and create a market for my clothing. It’s something you keep working at all the time,” she said.

So Thomas has been doing just that — working hard at her batiks and hand-painted designs.

Opportunity came over a year ago when Richard Young used her work at a fashion show and a buyer from St Thomas expressed interest. Since then, Thomas has maintained a healthy relationship with St Thomas.

Around Carnival this year, opportunity presented itself again. Thomas, who does the manufacturing of costumes for the Islandevents.com section in the band Poison had to do a fitting with Rowell.

She said Rowell came over to her Belmont shop and wanted to see her designs.

“I brought out my portfolio, and Victoria chose the off-white, three-layer dress. She knew exactly what she wanted and we gave her exactly that,” she said.

“I thought later on that this was excellent because I am not well-known. It was nice someone like her, an international celebrity, could show interest in a simple dressmaker/designer who is currently more into costumes.”

Thomas admitted she has been neglecting her designing to concentrate on making costumes.

Also occupying her time is costume-making for the bpTT Renegades junior and senior steel orchestras. As chairman of the events committee, Thomas has been devoting much of her time to working with the youth steel orchestra in preparing them for their upcoming concert on November 30.

But after receiving a call from Rowell’s publicist telling her that she does intend to include more of Thomas’ designs in her wardrobe, Thomas said she will have to redirect her energies back into designing.

She had never stopped; her workload had simply been reduced. But for Christmas she said she intends on putting out a few pieces to remind her customers that she still does her batiks and hand-painted garments.

Thomas does a lot of batiks in a range of fabrics, from cottons to voiles. Her designs range from beach wear to formal attire. “I make just about anything, but it’s batiks we do here,” she added.

While admitting that doing batiks is tedious, Thomas said: “I love colour. You could do so much with it and it tells a story of T&T, about its vibrancy.”

But before establishing herself as a designer, while attending college in California, Thomas thought she would one day be a legal secretary.

“I used to sew and I did art at school, but while at school one of my girlfriends was getting married and asked me to design her wedding dress,” she said.

Since then, Thomas said, she started to think about fashion designing as a career.

Together with her husband and daughter Thomas runs Xantash at O’Brian Place, Belmont.

__________________
"If u put a small price on ur value.. rest assure that the world wont raise ur price! Love U 2day!" ~ Rev. Run

"If you keep believing in yourself and seek enthusiasm inside your soul, things will get simpler, more spontaneous." ~Paulo Coelho

"Knowledge is like the wind, once you obtain it, you can go anywhere." ~Yellow Hare(Native-American Chief)

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the floor each morning the devil says:
"Oh Crap, She's up!"

I am going to visit this shop when I'm in Trini. :)

__________________
"If u put a small price on ur value.. rest assure that the world wont raise ur price! Love U 2day!" ~ Rev. Run

"If you keep believing in yourself and seek enthusiasm inside your soul, things will get simpler, more spontaneous." ~Paulo Coelho

"Knowledge is like the wind, once you obtain it, you can go anywhere." ~Yellow Hare(Native-American Chief)

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the floor each morning the devil says:
"Oh Crap, She's up!"

__________________
"If u put a small price on ur value.. rest assure that the world wont raise ur price! Love U 2day!" ~ Rev. Run

"If you keep believing in yourself and seek enthusiasm inside your soul, things will get simpler, more spontaneous." ~Paulo Coelho

"Knowledge is like the wind, once you obtain it, you can go anywhere." ~Yellow Hare(Native-American Chief)

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the floor each morning the devil says:
"Oh Crap, She's up!"

wHO DESIGNED THOSE CLOTHES??.......i LOVE THE DRESSES....DO YOU HAVE A WEBSITE i CAN VISIT?

well, I don't know about a website but I guess you can type up Xantash that's the name of thier company. Designed by Rona Thomas. It's located @ O'Brien Place, Belmont Trinidad.

__________________
"If u put a small price on ur value.. rest assure that the world wont raise ur price! Love U 2day!" ~ Rev. Run

"If you keep believing in yourself and seek enthusiasm inside your soul, things will get simpler, more spontaneous." ~Paulo Coelho

"Knowledge is like the wind, once you obtain it, you can go anywhere." ~Yellow Hare(Native-American Chief)

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the floor each morning the devil says:
"Oh Crap, She's up!"