Mother-son designing duo aim to help artistic youth

Susie Pinnock Davis and her son Dejaun Anyanwu are hoping to turn heads with their recently launched Cru Costumes and Designs.

The Port Morant, St Thomas, designers journeyed to Kingston yesterday along with their models Tiara Lynch, Wendy James, Nasheika Rose, Kenaja Robinson and Alexandra Brown to show off their eye-catching bathing suits and skimpy dresses, which attracted many cat calls from admiring men at Heroes' Park.

"We are trying to target the wearers of swimwear and partygoers. We want to be able to cater to people who are going to various functions. We want [that] whenever someone wants something exotic and really nice, then they will come to us. We want Christians, partygoers and everyone to just tap in," said Davis.

She said she has been a seamstress for more than three decades but the thought of going mainstream did not manifest itself until about a month ago.

"I started sewing from I was six years old but recently when the carnival season was approaching, my son Dejaun told me to use my skill sets and put my designs out there. I was hesitant and he started designing the costumes, so I had no other choice except to go ahead and help and he did a good job at it," she said.

Davis said they are looking towards their designs making it on the major local and international runways, but the duo is also anticipating adding fresh minds to their fleets.

"Fashion is indeed a competitive market but we plan to maintain ourselves by employing creative minds. We want Cru to be the gateway for art students leaving high schools who are interested in learning to sew. We want people who have design eyes as they will bring something fresh and we will make it work for them," Davis said.

Davis is a second-year guidance counselling student at the Jamaica Theology Seminary.

"I am very big on education so I want Cru to be a place for young people who have eyes for fashion and the art. A lot of youngsters are not able to fund their way to college, so we are inviting them to be a part of Cru. We are fairly new but what we envision for this company is to help especially the young people," she said.