Joint Statement by The National Cultural Foundation and Caribbean Export Agency

The National Cultural Foundation and the Caribbean Export Development Agency partnered to provide funding for the development of a fashion cluster owned and produced by the Caribbean Market Center.

Both agencies viewed the project as worthy of support, as it provided training of the designers in the cluster, as well as the production and promotion of their fashion collections. Caribbean Export’s specific support included the experts commissioned to execute capacity building for a total of 45 regional designers, including those from Barbados. The NCF had oversight of the project including the disbursement of funds as each stage was successfully completed. Both funding agencies monitored the stages of the programme up to the launch of the collections on May 21st, 2021.

The National Cultural Foundation and the Caribbean Export Development Agency have since been made aware of the existence of a website with a domain name similar to that of the title of the fashion cluster’s collection. We sincerely regret the unsavoury content to which persons were exposed when they attempted to access the sales sites of the fashion cluster. The correct locations where the collection can be viewed are shopedge.co on Facebook and Instagram and via contact by email at shopedgecobb@gmail.com.

We congratulate the members of the cluster on successfully completing the project, which is a commendable initiative in the development of the sector.