"I spent my youth surrounded by water and mythical stories, even if they weren't always told out loud. In Cayman, pirate history lingers quietly along the coastline, in the names of places, in the feeling that something unruly once passed through. And in Jamaica the land feels charged with mysticism, with a spirituality that seeps into everything. When I was 12 I started working in a bookstore - filling the shelves, sweeping and reading."
"The siren kept returning - seductive, dangerous, unknowable, but also powerful - a woman in control. That's the energy I now chase in my work. My garments are propositions - they wait for someone to inhabit them. I'm not telling her story, I'm offering space for it to unfold. My Aunt Nicola was my first siren - fierce, grounded. She was a paramedic."
Jawara Alleyne, born in Jamaica and raised in the Cayman Islands, draws on Caribbean mysticism, pirate history and local mythology to shape his design language. His garments feature slashes, piercings and bindings — pins, rings and ties — that articulate survival, seduction and resilience. Alleyne launched his eponymous label in 2020 after earning an MA at Central Saint Martins and gained early support from Fashion East. His pieces entered high-profile wardrobes including Shakira, Dua Lipa and Rihanna, and his work frames clothing as propositions that create space for powerful, self-directed female identities.
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