By Vanessa Cort
ONE of this country’s most creative fashion designers is back on these shores and making her presence felt once more.
Never one for overly elaborate or ‘fussy’ designs, Dawn Van Rossum has added another element to her winning blend of cut and style and that is simplicity.

Many of her current creations are practically minimalist, depending on quality fabric, superior cut and the sparing use of edging to make their statement.
Uncommon and exotic, ethnic patterns are allowed to ‘speak for themselves’ without unnecessary embellishment.
Back in the 80s and 90s, this innovative woman with the strident voice, dominated the local fashion scene, sewing for the nation’s elite and mounting fashion shows at venues around the city.

From D’Aguiar’s Thirst Park to the lawns of the American Ambassador’s residence, her name resounded as her fabulous designs became a talking point among the followers of fashion.
It was then that I met Dawn, when I went to cover one of her shows for this very newspaper.
I was fascinated by her ability to turn her favoured fabrics- linen, rayon and cotton- into garments of style and beauty.

I visited her at her then home – a large colonial-style house on Main Street – and watched the creative process unfold. Often I remained just to see an idea she expressed come to ‘life’. She would seize scissors and fabric, cutting as she spoke and then head to the sewing machine or hand the cut fabric to a machinist with explicit instructions on what she wanted done. The result would be yet another elegantly stylish garment, or a casual outfit with just the right look.

“I find it very satisfying”, she told me. And I was so impressed that I bought several pieces along with a friend, who marveled at the perfect fit of black, cotton, pencil skirt, which had only one seam down the back.
Indeed, what this fashionista did with the much-maligned, locally produced cotton from the Sanata Textiles Mills, was nothing short of inspiring.

One oversized, candy-striped, cotton shirt that I wore while on a visit to the US, caught the eye of a wealthy belt-manufacturer’s wife for whom I worked.
She was the owner of a boutique in the very centre of the Manhattan, New York fashion district and loved the shirt, asking me if it was ‘off the rack’. I told her it was made by a designer in Guyana.

She subsequently requested a closer look, immediately turning the garment on the underside and exclaiming at its neatness.
Such is the high standard of the work produced by Dawn, who after a prolonged stay in Antigua, is back in Guyana taking up where she left off.
“My thing is that fashion means different things to different people…some people wear clothes while others just put them on”, she declares.

Clearly designing clothing that is to be ‘worn’, Dawn speaks of the challenges in creating styles to fit, not only the fabric, but the personality and even the mood of particular clients. And at the same time she aims to attract new buyers.
At her home in Queenstown. Georgetown, Dawn Van Rossum continues to meet those challenges while doing what she does best – make uncommonly fabulous clothing.