Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 04/Mar 03:47

The Carnival costume designers will decide

THE EDITOR: Less is more when coming to profiting from Carnival costuming. Gone are the days when fabric covered your entire body. Only the children are parading in full costumes. Masqueraders over age 18 are content/willing/desirous of baring all to the proverbial winds – beads, feathers and rear ends. Only the king and queen costumes have large amounts of fabric. Every other mas player is wearing beads, feathers and bikini bathing suits. Can it be argued that the more skin on show for costumed participants the higher the charge for the bits that will be covered? It has been quite a few years since sequins and feathers have taken over from true fabric. So, who to blame? The costume designers? Climate change? The willing masqueraders? And never forget that the cost for the "best" naked costumes begins at least $5,000. So, is the weather now too hot and getting hotter every year and necessitating even more skin exposure? Too much fabric making masqueraders feel uncomfortable? Will participants eventually end up crossing the stage wearing only a headdress and holding something in their hand to wave? Putting all jokes aside, all masqueraders appear quite willing to, as we say, let it all hang out. Nobody is blushing. Some women wear stockings under the little piece of costume as if you still cannot see their bottoms. Who cares? Everybody almost naked and loving it, regardless of the prices of the beads, feathers and dainty, teeny weeny little strips of fabric? The Carnival costumes for children all cover everything and can be stunningly beautiful. Cross over to 18 years and near nakedness is par for the course. As I said, only the kings and queens of the adult bands wear proper and fantastic costuming. Really and truly beautiful, inspirational adult costuming. Breathtakingly fantastic costumes. The various mas designers will have to agree on the way going forward. Can we turn back the Carnival clock to the days of George Bailey and Peter Minshall among the several leading designers. This letter is not about who is comfortable with paying for eye-candy costuming. This has to be about the willingness to upgrade costume designs that will not founder under the description "stink and dutty." Our Carnival costume designers must work out how best to retain profit margins. Nothing is for free. It is going to take some years to facilitate real changes in costume designs. The letter and word of the day is "p" for profit. So, you do not have to participate. You either want to play mas or you do not want to play mas. If you do not like how the costumes are looking, just shut your eyes and go by the beach or have a river lime. And, as we say in local parlance, "You not bong to be there." And anyway, is people own money willingly being paid for their beads, feathers and tiny piece of shiny fabric. And sometimes you even get something to wave. Is mas in de place. LYNETTE JOSEPH Diego Martin The post The Carnival costume designers will decide appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.