Haitian-American stylist talks the Caribbean experience and moving back to her roots
THE intrigue of the Caribbean is such that, if we listen closely enough, it is as though it calls out to us. For Fashion Consultant and
Creative Director, Mystique Biovert, it was this call that led to her leaving her life in the United States and moving back to the place  from where her family hails.

This Haitian-American fashion professional wasn’t always into fashion, either, but she credits her time living and working in Haiti as  one of the main reasons she decided to follow her passion as well. Now, a career stylist who styles and advises several high-class  professionals in and out of the U.S., Mystique declares that the majesty of Haiti is responsible for helping her to find herself and is  testimony to how knowing about one’s roots is something that everyone should consider.

Apart from visiting the Caribbean nation as a child, Mystique’s first, up-close-and-personal encounter with Haiti came in 2004, when she  travelled there as part of a mission team for the Robert F. Kennedy Center on Human Rights. “As soon as I got to Haiti, I just felt
like this was home. This was where I wanted to be. I then made a couple more visits with the team, and by the third visit I felt like I  needed to be there… I felt like as a Haitian-American I had an obligation to come and try to give a hand to the struggles that were going on in Haiti. On that visit, I was offered a job after speaking with someone I had known,” she said. Leaving her high-rise New York  apartment and her first-world lifestyle behind, Mystique set off to Haiti. And while her family doubted that she would be able to stay  there long-term, Haiti provided 11 years’ long experience and memories to her life.

“Living in Haiti was definitely an experience. I had lived in different states, but never internationally and I was alone on my own and barely spoke the language. I spoke French, but did not speak creole and my first job in Haiti was as the Director of Literacy and
Education with the largest micro-finance institution there,” she said.
She soon settled in, however, to the life and the language and continued on her journey of learning about her Haitian roots.
But living  there came with its ups and downs, she admits, but the downs were particularly hard. “I was in Haiti at some of the worst of times, starting with 2004 when the then President was forced into exile; I was there during the 2010 earthquake. I had to live in my car for two months, because it was unsafe to go back to my house, so I have had some trying times,” she said.

But she maintains that it is an amazing country, and that, true to any Caribbean territory, the people are warm and friendly and blessed  with amazing talents. “That’s another reason that forced me to get into fashion, because seeing what the designers were doing there, the  artisans, the amazing work they do with the metal and painting. Haiti is just so colourful, literally and figuratively speaking. It is  just such a rich culture. Just to be immersed in that Caribbean setting really worked my creative juices and also helped me to move to  the fashion side of business,” she said.

Now, though back in the U.S., Mystique constantly visits Haiti, which remains like home to her. Today, she is a well-known fashion  consultant, though, she said, fashion has always been part of her life.

“Even when I was in a different career, friends would always come to me for fashion advice and I’d love going shopping with them and
picking out clothes for people. But it wasn’t until I was working in Haiti, whenever I would go back to New York … people started to ask  me to shop for them and for different bits of advice and I realised that there might be some money to this,’ she said.

She admits that fashion has always been a secret passion of hers, but it was Haitian inspiration and constant requests from friends and
acquaintances that made her finally make it into her career, and it has been that way for the last eight years.