Raring to go on the catwalk, contestants vying in this year's SAINT Fashion Face of the Caribbean competition were in exuberant spirits as they sharpened their model struts at the event's final training session last Sunday. Gathered inside the AC Hotel Kingston Blue Mountain conferencing space, the 80 head-turning model hopefuls did run-throughs of their expectant runway debuts and mock top-10 placements, led by SAINT CEO Deiwght Peters. "I have learnt how to properly posture my body and walk with confidence," said 21-year-old Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts student Lewis McKinson, who holds both Jamaican and British citizenships.
"Throughout these training classes, I also learnt how to hold eye contact and carry myself in a certain way that others would think highly of me." McKinson, currently in his second of a four-year bachelor of music degree programme with a major in drums, was scouted on Instagram by Peters. "I have been told often by people that I have the look, so I wanted to test my luck.
I am over the moon to be in this development phase, and I hope it goes well," he said. Clutching her stilettos after wrapping up a runway coaching session with SAINT supermodel Kai Newman, Shahine Parrish was aglow. "I was scouted twice by SAINT, first at Oberlin High when I was 17, and then COVID came and everything got mixed up.
I was scouted again at Jose Marti Technical High School when I was 19," she disclosed. Now 21 and in her first year at Shortwood T.
