For the love of Carnival
The long awaited Notting Hill Carnival returned in August 2022, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. I write this blog remembering the recent celebrations of Carnival; when Notting Hill came alive with the sound of music, amazing street food, and masqueraders dancing in their beautiful costumes.
Many aspects of my family’s involvement with carnival culture have had a profound effect on who I am today. Being immersed in the richness of Trinidadian culture, the music, the carnival, the steel pan and the whole spectacle. A melting pot of diversity. Being born in London has added to the privilege of knowing two different worlds that I could get lost in creatively. Growing up, my sister Debbie and I always looked forward to travelling to Trinidad for holidays. We would always visit around carnival time. My parents would take us to see all the amazing events at the Savannah, the centre stage of Trinidad Carnival in Queens Park. Here they would host a variety of events featuring some of the most amazing costumes I had ever seen.
My parents would tell me and my sister stories of growing up in Trinidad and my father’s involvement in music, playing steel pan and percussion in calypso bands. My great uncle Sterling Betancourt was one of the first pioneers, arrangers, and steel pan musicians in Europe. He went on to receive an MBE and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was commended for his outstanding contribution and involvement in the origins of Notting Hill Carnival. In fact, he was one of the three men who began Notting Hill Carnival, by starting an impromptu road march, which continued every year after that. So carnival is definitely in my genes.
My business minded mother started a hairdressing business, but the irresistible pull of Notting Hill Carnival was inevitable, so she started Burrokeets UK, a family-run carnival group. This was a very exciting time, and where my design journey officially began. Another important part of carnival for me was helping in the mas camp, a workshop used by bands to design and produce their costumes in house. This was not just a place where we would get together and make costumes, but also a place where we would share stories, laugh, dance, and get excited about carnival. Mas camp is a community and a family; we would share ideas, make mistakes, and recreate designs. This is where creativity could thrive and where I learnt the skills to make costumes. Costume design was different at the beginning; the designs were made with heavy fabrics, trimming and wire. A common feature was belts, arm cuffs and collars.
As the years went by, the Burrokeets UK was becoming more popular with hundreds of masqueraders. Influenced by Trinidad carnival, costumes were becoming lighter and more revealing giving a more liberated energy. I was really excited about where I could go creatively and asked if I could design the costumes for a section within a band. This meant taking on the responsibility for the design, overseeing the production, and choosing fabrics. I also had to assess whether the design was comfortable, practical, durable and visually attractive. This was when ‘Shari House of Designs’ was started.
In 2018 and 2019, I completed a course in stitching, pattern cutting and textiles. This gave me the knowledge and understanding of design and construction techniques in fashion garments. This was a very different skill to carnival costume design, but with some related elements such as pattern cutting. Most of my knowledge and practical skills were organically grown over the years, which has allowed me to develop an uninhibited sense of creativity.
Sketching and drawing is something that comes naturally to me, and mood boards of my ideas are influenced by everyday objects and tasks. My ideas could spark from looking at nature during a walk in the park, by the colour of a nail polish in a magazine, or by the shape of a piece of jewellery. Some of my designs have been based on themes that the carnival band has set whereas others are individual, one-off designs.
One of my headpiece designs called Fuscian Angel was first displayed at London Transport Museum for Black History Month in 2016. My work has more recently been featured in the Museum’s latest exhibition Legacies: London Transport’s Caribbean Workforce which opened in February 2022 and will be up until summer 2024. I hosted a very successful tiara making workshop at the Museum for one of their Friday Lates in March 2022, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Recently I was awarded a bursary through Elimu Mas Academy and Arts Council England to mentor a young woman in costume design. This involved teaching a range of different skills including wire bending, drawing and mood boarding. I also taught her how to choose fabrics for the costume and how to construct a tiara and backpack with wings. Mentoring was a very rewarding experience for me, as I feel passionate about sharing my skills, knowledge and experience in costume designing. Evolution is inevitable and I am always searching for new and exciting ways to create unique designs. Plans for future projects will involve a more abstract and contemporary side to my design journey, to engage a wider artistic audience.
See Shari’s headpiece on display in our Legacies: London Transport’s Caribbean Workforce exhibition, and follow her on Instagram @sharihouseofdesign to see more of her fabulous designs.