Carol Mandela's shop has become a gathering place for customers and a place of community. And as Emancipation Day approaches, the owner of Prindela’s Fashions told WMN the shop is in high gear as people seek to fill their African clothing needs.

Prindela's sells a wide range of authentic African and African-inspired clothing, fashion jewellery and accessories and has been in operation out of Mandela’s home in Dinsley Gardens since 1999. The former BWIA employee said when she opened the store,

“In 2002, I took a VSEP package from BWIA, and I went into it full-time. From 1999 to 2015, I did an open-day every day, and I would have a wide array of items available. We would have entertainment and we would have a fashion show. It grew and grew until it just couldn’t accommodate the amount of people, and so we went onto social media and the rest is history.”

[caption id="attachment_1028015" align="alignnone" width="754"] Carol Mandela at her shop in Dinsley, Tacarigua. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]

Mandela said when she began, she would do a lot of free fashion shows with non-governmental organisations and churches, so that people would know the store existed.

“It gave me the opportunity to meet more people, and it was a fun thing to do. Another part of our strategy was simply a matter of each one, tell one. When they (customers)came to the store and were leaving, we would say 'next time please bring a family member or a friend,' and then it just evolved.”

She said the store has become a gathering place for the customers who also help out when she’s busy.

[caption id="attachment_1028016" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Carol Mandela says her store is a safe place, a therapeutic setting for some people. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]

“I tell them we have to add to Prindela’s Fashions hangout or retirement centre because a lot of us are now officially retirement age and we still want to look nice, we still want to be out there, so a lot of discussions take place here. On Fridays you pass and see a couple of women liming, exchanging ideas, all within the African fashion and that kind of thing.”

Mandela said her friends who have their own businesses will try to wrap up by midday so they can come and assist her, because they know she’s busy at this time.

[caption id="attachment_1028017" align="alignnone" width="777"] Carol Mandela outfits a customer. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]

“Prindela Fashions is a vibe, it’s not like the ordinary store where you come in, buy something, and you go. I mean you will have people who will be hustling and do that, but, for example, on Wednesday we had a recently retired woman come in who’s been a regular customer and I told her to sit down and relax, and there she was relaxing, and suddenly she was helping customers.

“Then we ask customers when they’re trying on to come out of the dressing room. We have a little runway, we will parade and people will say 'no I prefer this one, I prefer the other one.' It’s a vibe. People like that kind of thing. It’s not the normal stush store, we don’t