-designer with the Midas touch
ARE you a lady with a passion for fashion and aiming to be amongst the best dressed women in town?   Then an appointment with our fashion expert Rhonda Jackson should be next on your list of priorities. With a wealth of experience in fashion designing, the 40-year-old Jackson has recently returned from the United Kingdom, where she’s lived for some time, honing her skills in the fashion biz. She is physically, materially and psychologically ready to move fashion-conscious Guyanese women to another level.
And just what’s different about Jackson? She’s very much hyped, is wardrobe savvy, and has designed clothing for and outfitted women of varying social and economic backgrounds – from the rich and famous to the mundane, but gets her satisfaction from being able to transform her client into a figure of elegance.
Combining fashion with studied pampering, she is able to bring out that mystical charm of traditional elegance and modern sophistication that is guaranteed to take her subject places.

The edge
According to Jackson, her experience has taught her there are persons who feel that for a woman to step out in fashion and make a really great impression in a social, formal or semi-formal gathering, it is necessary to spend a lot of money on clothing.  However, for Rhonda, it’s a relative thing. Dressing for the occasion and coming out a winner, she feels, depends not exclusively on a woman’s ability to buy the most expensive dress or outfit, but on other variables.
For her, the way that finished product takes the individual; the way an individual matches her clothing with her accessories; her choice of colour, choice of style, all count in determining the impression she makes. 
“One may well be able to afford the most expensive dress, the most trendy jeans and matching top; but, invariably, your built, skin tone, or even age, may not work just right for your choice of design or outfit,” she advises.

Scenarios
Immediately coming to her mind is the scenario of a full-sized, busty woman who has evidently ‘squeezed’ herself into an expensive and fashionable but restrictive outfit, provokingly revealing her biceps and all other contours. For her, access to wealth certainly did not help such a person, and that could turn out to be a disaster, depending on how the person is presented to the public.
Of course there are persons who look perfectly sexy in an outfit which has a descending neckline and ascending hemline, if that was the intention. But one should bear in mind that not just any fashion or design suits anybody, and so professional advice could go a long way in making appropriate choices. The bottom line, Jackson says, it that a well dressed woman does not have to look sexy, ‘fiesty’ or succulent in order to make a good impression. 
Very often, she cautions, women wear such clothing with the intent of making one type of impression; but this can turn out to be wrongly defined, and can sometimes end up being seen in a derogatory light.  
“My advice is that women are beautiful, special, and specially crafted by God’s hands. So, as you cover yourselves, there is a danger in being seen as sex symbols, that could be pretty unfortunate,” Jackson affirms.

Economics
“I’ve often been asked, “How much should a person spend on an outfit to be well dressed?” Jackson recalls, adding, “Much depends of what you know, and what one needs to know is how to select an outfit that suits you. If you know how to select a dress or outfit that is well made, wearable and fits with comfort, that’s half the job done. It does not necessarily have to be very expensive,” she asserts.
On the other hand, Jackson says, one may spend as much as one can afford, if one has access to the money; but lavish spending is not an absolute necessity if the person can’t afford it.
On this note, she introduces her clients to a wide range of options, and a concept she refers to as the economics of fashion designing. These include choosing a simple dress with which you can wear a fashionable broad belt, to which you can add attractive accessories. But it’s okay to go for sophisticated looks and come up with something uniformly rich in colour, pattern and detail. 
A lover of clothes that speak elegance, Jackson would like to see a big hit being made on clothes that cover a woman’s body gracefully, some of which will be highlighted in the ensuing weeks.
Jackson is a seamstress and fashion-designer with a vision for making a great contribution to the world of fashion in Guyana. She is currently attached to the tailoring establishment of Mr. Herman Bholaisingh, J.P., C.O.A, at Lombard Street, Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown.