"CHERRY ANN GAILLARD" - ST. LUCIA'S ASPIRING DESIGNER OF THE YEAR 2006

scruffyradio sat down for a chat with Miss Cherry Ann Gaillard, who had just  won the "Aspiring Designer Of The Year 2006 , Award at the Aspiring Designer of the year Competition which took place on December 02, at the Cultural Center, in St. Lucia.

The young Designer was all in smiles and very excited about her latest achievement, and had a lot to say to us..  We think she also deserves an award for the Aspiring Writer of the Year. Her description of  her road to victory is amazing.. But, enough said lets here from Miss Gaillard herself.

scruffyradio: Cherry Ann.. How did it feel, when you heard your name being announced as the winner?

Cherry Ann: I’m still dizzy from the shock of winning the 2006 aspiring designer of the year competition. After all the anticipation from waiting for the MC to announce the winner was absolutely nerve racking. Although it always takes just a few seconds...the wait seems to last forever when you’re standing on stage. And then he said it . . . the announce that I was eagerly waiting for. . . and the winner is Cherry Ann Gaillard. A feeling of elation took over me and all I heard was the eruption of cheers that came from the audience.

scruffyradio: What gave you the drive to push to win this competition?

Cherry Ann: I always knew I would end up in Paris one day. Sixteen competitors vying for the first prize - a scholarship to study fashion design

 in the fashion capital of the world - Paris, France; who wouldn’t want to go to Paris the birthplace of haut couture.   After all I had been pursuing the fashion design dream for as long as I can remember. Now it was finally here. The converted prize of a scholarship to study fashion design in Paris is all mine. Not only that, but the judges threw in another goodie on competition night—a chance to feature at Fashion block in Jamaica during Caribbean Fashion week next year.

scruffyradio: And your dress design for the competition?

Cherry Ann: My gown, Aurora Dusk outshined eleven other competitors                         

 vying for first place. Each designer had to come up with a piece around the theme Celebration. For me, that meant colour....and explosion of beautiful shades. It was during my research that I stumbled upon the Aurora Borales and fell in love with the curtain of colour in the polar sky. My work was now cut out for me, first sketching out the picture in my mind’s eye and then making up the dress that would wow the judges.

scruffyradio: Take us back to the past few weeks.. give us an idea of what is was like preparing for this.

Cherry Ann: It was a long hard road to the top, but it was worth it.  With all the excitement, anticipation and the prospect of winning that comes with a competition it has another side. Only one person can be awarded the envied prize no matter how many times you hear motivational speakers say “everyone’s a winner.” It is evident that the person who coined that phrase was not much of a competitor. I mean, who wants to be a winner in last place anyway.

Since signing up for the annual “Aspiring Designer of the Year” competition a few weeks ago, it feels like I’ve entered a war zone.

The gloves really came off when the full-fledged divas, diva wannabes and mini-divas showed up for a photo shoot at one of the local resorts. Just being in the company of so many competitors, made me really nervous. Some were participating for the first time, and then there were the regulars, who participated every year. That meant they were getting better with time and I needed to step up my game if I really wanted to win this – my second shot at it!

While I felt like I had an edge over some of the novice designers I was not about to underestimate anyone. So there we were sitting by the pool waiting for our short-lived fame, forget the fifteen minutes this was just five seconds of fame and we had to make it look good! Last year’s not-good-enough winners were all sharing their experiences from the previous show, critiquing everything like real experts shooting the breeze.

That gave me an opportunity to get a reading of everyone’s creative ability, but for some, the informal session seemed intimidating. While all seemed to be having fun and looking forward to a great round of tough competition, it was evident that we all brought our poker faces to the table. No one was about to let up on what was going on in their heads, least of all moi – Madame Inscrutable!

It wasn’t long after, that I zoned everyone out of my thoughts and centred on my creative core. After all, the more time spent on worrying about what the next person would bring to the stage, the less I focused on creating a design that would wow the audience. And so my creative juices began bubbling to the fore, like molten lava bursting to the surface!

At this stage all designers were assigned a model to carry their piece on the night and all went home seemingly on a mission--Project Runway. The dust from the first phase had cleared.

A training workshop that started last week had already begun tapping our creativity exposing us to new and elevated standards of fashion design. But during the first session an old habit mostly born of insecurity began to rear its ugly hideous head - I began to second guess myself. Maybe my sketch needs more work, or perhaps I needed to do something extra to make the piece more attractive! or maybe I just was not good enough for this kind of competition. What was I doing here?  I couldn’t wait to get home to start shading and colouring and...

My hunger for the prize grows stronger as my pencil meets the paper. I can almost see myself doing this as an assignment from fashion design school in Paris, or better yet as a junior designer for Chanel or Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent or even Christian Dior! . . .

My head begins to swim as my dreams and aspirations mix with inspiration and ambition! I feel like I am drowning, my funeral pyre a catwalk of designs! And then it hits me—I’m getting ahead of myself here, I haven’t won the competition ... not yet. A part of me thinks this is a long stretch, but the better part of me thinks, hey this is not entirely impossible! If I want to achieve great things, I have to dream big. What the mind can conceive and believe, I can achieve right?!

I was back at home again, watching all the reality shows. America’s Next Top Model, Ugly Betty, Fashion House, Dancing with the Stars. . . you name it and I was glued to the TV—pencil and sketch pad in hand trying to get ideas that I thought would be ideal for my design.

My regular job which involves designing everything from a theatrical set to carnival queen dresses also comes in handy in the run-up to this competition. And of course it doesn’t hurt at all to have a well-known designer for a boss. He has been very forthcoming with ideas on how to improve my idea. The rest is now up to me.