Fashion designer makes cut for Chevening

Donald Mirander is a cut above the rest.

The 2018 Miss Jamaica Golden Scissors Top Designer is among 14 Jamaicans named 2020-2021 Chevening scholars – the first Jamaican fashion designer to cop the award. Chevening is a United Kingdom-based awards programme offering fellowships and scholarships to students around the world. Recipients are selected by British high commissions throughout the world.

Mirander, 27, was also awarded the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for excellence in Arts and Culture in 2018 and is the owner of women’s wear fashion brand Rednarim – his surname spelt backwards.

The designer said he was extremely happy about the Chevening award.

“I feel overwhelmed ... in the best way possible. I realise that yes, I am the first fashion designer selected from Jamaica to represent Chevening, and this is just opening doors for others in the creative industry, and so I take it seriously,” he told The Gleaner.

Mirander, a past student of Glenmuir High School in Clarendon, said the award meant much to him, as scholarships were never readily accessible to persons in less-conventional fields.

“Growing up, scholarships in general, you see them being given to students pursuing a career in the sciences, medicine, or law ... . You don’t see them being awarded to arts. So when you see scholarships being given to fashion designers, it’s something unique.”

Started young

Mirander, the only male among five siblings, said he had a knack for fashion at an early age, having assigned himself duties as a personal designer for his sisters.

“Fashion has always been a part of me. I didn’t know where it was taking me in the beginning, but I was always styling my sisters, combing, and braiding their hair, and getting them ready so they influenced by character and styling.”

Mirander holds a bachelor’s degree in apparel design production and management from the University of Technology (UTech), where he currently lectures. He said that his aim is to tailor tertiary programmes to assist persons hoping to venture into the global US$2.3-trillion industry.

He believes that the lack of cohesive syllabi has contributed to the paucity of local fashion designers flying the flag overseas.

‘’UTech is the only accredited fashion university in the region, and with them only offering one programme for fashion designers, we don’t have a space for others such as fashion journalists or fashion photographers, so I had to market myself, learn to find clients, do consultations, and so on,” Mirander told The Gleaner.

Mirander has designed wardrobes for Miss Universe 2017 second runner-up Davina Bennett, Olympian Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Juliet Holness, member of parliament-elect and wife of Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

“I am humbled to be a part of this history-making movement,” he said.