Normally I don't release the new collection until early September at Surf Expo.
This year however we were accepted into Miami Swim Show (the worlds biggest Swimwear show), and as that is on next week (JULY !!!!) its been a mad scramble to get everything ready. Luckily I work with GREAT factories who have proven themselves capable of pulling miracles out of nowhere, and I have had to work late to get everything ready to roll, however there is no time to send all the sample off to my sister Amy for a tropical island photo shoot. This year we will have to wait until after the summer shows to get our photos taken. Here is a photo of our island friends in some of our pure cotton sarongs taken by our photographer @ShawnJackson at Mayoka Lodge in Roatan last season.
Photo shoot time always takes me back to the early days when we started West Indies Wear 10 years ago. A photo shoot was a family affair, where we took the boat (our home) to a glamorous Caribbean beach, and then went ashore to take photos. My husband with the camera, me in the samples and my daughter with a back-pack full of food to try to keep her quiet while we worked. Inevitably she just wanted to get in on the action.
Now I have 3 kids and haven't appeared in a photo shoot for MANY years. Many of you possibly have no idea what this designer named Kim who shares her stories with you, even looks like! These days it is my much younger sister Amy and her island friends who wear the samples and look so amazing. This is Amy in our cotton Hibiscus sarong.
Yesterday as I was packing for Miami, I put one of our new dresses on (over my jeans because its mid-winter here in Australia and too cold to take those off). I wanted to send a sneak peek of it to our awesome sales team in USA, so my baby girl who is now 12 became the photographer. What is about kids these days, you hand over your iPhone and the next thing they have switched it to some mode you have never heard of before ! So I ended up with a photo "burst" of 54 photos of me being somewhat silly ! Well we had some good giggles and my sales team all said the photos were cute, so perhaps I will be brave enough to share them with you guys too!
I hope I get to meet you guys in person at one of our summer shows...