Saint male models star in fashion films for British-Jamaican designer

British-Jamaican designer Grace Wales Bonner has partnered with Saint International for two locally shot digital short films. Seven Saint male models will feature in the productions for the European label’s spring/summer and autumn/winter 2021 collections.

Directed by Brooklyn-based, Jamaica-born photographer Jeano Edwards, Wales Bonner’s fashion films, titled Thinkin’ Home and Black Sunlight, were shot in multiple locations across the island and star Saint models Aaskesh Henderson, Val Haughton, Winston Lawrence, Romaine Dixon, Jonny Brown, Selah McHail and Ronaldo James.

For Aakesh Henderson, who made his international début as part of Saint’s ‘Balenciaga 8’ for the luxury brand’s fall/winter 2018 runway collection two years ago in Paris, working on the recent Wales Bonner project on home turf was an absolute delight.

“The experience shooting the video was mind-blowing for me, being that it was my first international advertising campaign, so that itself was an amazing feeling,” the Old Harbour Bay resident and model shared with The Gleaner. Filmed skilfully navigating a motorcycle around corners in the hills of Gordon Town while suited in Wales Bonner’s latest menswear selections, Henderson, a recent Cumberland High graduate who when not modelling is also a fisherman, is pleased with the final results on the video. “I am very proud of it, the quality of the video, the look of the Bonner clothes, and how Jamaica is represented,” he added.

Meanwhile, Saint star Romaine Dixon, no stranger to major campaigns, having co-fronted global menswear advertising for Dior, Fendi and Hugo Boss shot in Europe and North America, found The Rock-based fashion shoot for Wales Bonner resonated in a meaningful way.

“It was my first time doing something at this level in Jamaica, the experience was very different and I left more connected to the essence of the story,” he explained. “What I enjoyed the most was the fact that it was shot here in Jamaica and that I had the opportunity to work with my brothers from Saint International.”

That sense of brotherly camaraderie on set is concurred by Saint’s Val Haughton, a third-year marketing and business management student at The University of the West Indies, Mona, who made his international model début in Paris for Balenciaga’s fall/winter collection last year. “Shooting the Wales Bonner campaign here with my fellow Saints was phenomenal and one I’ll always cherish. We shot in numerous locations, St Andrew, Trench Town, downtown Kingston, Fort Clarence … it was fun and eventful and I enjoyed every single second of the shoot,” Haughton remarked.

SYMBOLIC PARTNERSHIP

Since launching her label in June 2016, which featured Saint Jermaine Downer in both the show’s model line-up and a subsequent editorial shot by the late Karl Lagerfeld for V Magazine, Wales Bonner, daughter to a Jamaican father and English mother, has forged an ongoing, symbiotic partnership with Saint International. A growing list of Saint models have consistently walked in her runway shows, and been featured in fashion films and editorials she has direct input in.

“Being asked by Wales to partner with to present her newest collection to the world was an honour and immense pleasure,” Saint CEO Deiwght Peters said. “Grace and I both trace our roots to Clarendon and from her very first runway show at London Fashion Week back in 2016, she has called on me numerous times to assist in casting our Jamaican models on projects she works on, and it’s always great to collaborate with her,” he shared with The Gleaner in-between takes filming his weekly Television Jamaica show, Rolling with Deiwght Peters.

Wales Bonner’s 2021 spring/summer menswear collection is inspired by a 1980s dancehall culture exhibition that she viewed at the National Gallery on her visit to Jamaica, before the COVID outbreak, and is a continuation of her narrative of Caribbean masculine identity and the traditional codes of British tailoring.