WHAT started off as assisting her parents in the family business making Kiddies Carnival costumes for the neighbourhood children in her hometown of Belmont, Port of Spain, would eventually take Apphia Pereira on a creative journey to places like Los Angeles, California, and most recently, Japan.
As the sole Trini designer on the Soca in Japan (SIJ) team for its Japan Caribbean Carnival (JCC) event, now in its second year, Pereira has created designs that reflect the cultures of these two seemingly contrasting countries.
Pereira spoke to Newsday about her inspiration for this year’s design and her road to realising her childhood dream of becoming a designer.
Despite being an integral part of Pereira and Pereira and Associates Kiddies Carnival band as a child, founded by her mother, the 33-year-old went on to study law and not art.
“I grew up doing everything for everybody,” she said.
“I became a lawyer (and did) everything I thought I had to to make sure my family was happy. For years I knew I wanted to get into the creative field, but I could not balance everything.” Pereira described her mother as a creative powerhouse who worked tirelessly to provide for her family and her community. Her mother, a former acting director in the Social Welfare Division (SWD) of the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, used the family’s Kiddies Carnival business to bring the community together.
[caption id="attachment_1100402" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Apphia Periera's designs for Soca In Japan. -[/caption]
“It was an attempt to make sure people in the community could learn. (The band) was about building the community through Carnival.” She said the family would even give away free costumes.
“It was not very profitable but that was what my mom wanted.
“I watched her work so hard and then in 2017, within two months of getting the promotion, she got sick. I watched her deteriorate for seven to eight months before she died of cancer and in that moment, I felt like I watched this woman, who worked so hard to get all the things she wanted to provide for her family, live her life for everybody else and I didn’t want that for myself.”
Pereira said after her mother died on October 16 of that year, she applied for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme in November and was accepted. Reflecting on that time, Pereira said it was a hard year for her as she also lost her grandmother on the first of the same month and her brother-in-law earlier that year in January. She said she had always been interested in moving to Japan at some point, and while studying law at the University of the West Indies she would see the programme being advertised around campus.
[caption id="attachment_1100398" align="alignnone" width="853"] TT Soca In Japan costume designer Apphia Pereira. -[/caption]
“(My mother) kind of knew I wouldn’t have left for Japan knowing she was sick, but she encouraged me anyway and after she died I decided to go through with it.”
Even as she dabbled in other careers, her passion for
