Wed | Nov 12, 2025

What’s in a dress?

Tami Williams makes a case for spring in ‘Marie Claire’ fashion story

Published:Friday | November 7, 2025 | 12:06 AMOmar Tomlinson/Contributor
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Back home on The Rock this past August, Williams celebrated her birthday with a cellphone snapshot alongside her boss, SAINT International chief executive officer Deiwght Peters, at the 2025 Female and Male Fashion Face of the Caribbean competition.
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Back home on The Rock this past August, Williams celebrated her birthday with a cellphone snapshot alongside her boss, SAINT International chief executive officer Deiwght Peters, at the 2025 Female and Male Fashion Face of the Caribbean competition.
SAINT model Tami Williams slips into a Camilla and Marc dress, a Bianca shirt, Dinosaur Design earrings and rings, and a Temple of the Sun ring for ‘Marie Claire Australia’.
Oliver Begg
SAINT model Tami Williams slips into a Camilla and Marc dress, a Bianca shirt, Dinosaur Design earrings and rings, and a Temple of the Sun ring for ‘Marie Claire Australia’.
The just-out November issue of ‘Marie Claire Australia’ features Williams in a Foemina dress, Longchamp scarf, Studio Amelia shoes, Oroton bag, Dinosaur Designs earrings and rings.
Oliver Begg
The just-out November issue of ‘Marie Claire Australia’ features Williams in a Foemina dress, Longchamp scarf, Studio Amelia shoes, Oroton bag, Dinosaur Designs earrings and rings.
SAINT’s Tami Williams in a Beare Park shirt dress, Hermes scarf, Jeffrey Campbell shoes, Max Mara bag (under arm), Acne Studios bag, and Temple of the Sun rings.
Oliver Begg
SAINT’s Tami Williams in a Beare Park shirt dress, Hermes scarf, Jeffrey Campbell shoes, Max Mara bag (under arm), Acne Studios bag, and Temple of the Sun rings.
Polka dots are in for spring. Williams makes the case in a Bianca Spender dress teamed with Studio Amelia shoes, Aje earrings, Temple of the Sun and Dinosaur Designs rings, and Alemias bracelet.
Oliver Begg
Polka dots are in for spring. Williams makes the case in a Bianca Spender dress teamed with Studio Amelia shoes, Aje earrings, Temple of the Sun and Dinosaur Designs rings, and Alemias bracelet.
Stylist Rachel Wayman curated this ensemble of a Courtney Zheng dress, Kate Spade shoes, Ganni bag, Alemais scarf, Dinosaur Designs bangles and bracelets, and Temple of the Sun rings.
Oliver Begg
Stylist Rachel Wayman curated this ensemble of a Courtney Zheng dress, Kate Spade shoes, Ganni bag, Alemais scarf, Dinosaur Designs bangles and bracelets, and Temple of the Sun rings.
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SAINT International top model Tami Williams has snagged the perfect dresses for the spring season. Belted maxis, slip and shirtwaist dresses, and polka-dot frocks are but a taste of the trending womenswear looks the Jamaican star rocks in the November issue of Marie Claire Australia.

The beauty is outfitted in a veritable mix of styles for the fashion spread titled ‘For the Frill of It’ in the glossy’s Shopping section.

Naturally, homegrown designs take pride of place for stylist Rachel Wayman’s wardrobe shortlist in this hot-off-the-press editorial.

Oz labels and designers Courtney Zheng, Beare Park, Bianca Spender, Aje, Foemina, Scanlan Theodore, and Camilla and Marc comprise the visually sumptuous storyboard that runs across eight pages and is photographed by Oliver Begg.

“The team on the shoot in Sydney was an absolute joy to work with,” Williams told Living yesterday on a call from New York. She returned to Gotham last month, following her three-month assignment Down Under with Chadwick Models, which happens to be the mother agency for Sudanese-Australian supermodel Adut Akech.

“I loved the freshness and colour palette of the pieces Rachel chose for the Marie Claire Australia story, and I really admired how she wanted to emphasise showcasing locally designed and made fashion.”

As to her creative collaboration in front of the camera with lensman Begg, Williams was laudatory. “Photoshoots are like making mini-movies,” she explained. “Models play characters for a day, and I had good chemistry with Oliver in capturing a story he wanted to tell in pictures. It was a relaxing environment, and we all made it work beautifully.”

Besides the just-out editorial, Williams had a slate of projects, occupying a busy-bee schedule for the duration of her stay on the commonwealth continent. Among them were spring/summer campaigns for luxury brand Oroton, contemporary womenswear line Witchery, and a Yuletide holiday campaign for make-up, fragrance and skincare brand Mecca that dropped just two weeks ago.

HURRICANE MELISSA’S IMPACT

Shifting attention to the widespread devastation upon the island caused by Hurricane Melissa’s cataclysmic passage last Tuesday, the St Elizabeth-born SAINT model said she still struggles to fully process the gravity of what has transpired.

“It’s been beyond heartbreaking to see the human impact of the hurricane and how families have been displaced, and lost so much of the lives they once had,” she told Living. “It’s rough to see what’s happening, and I have been very emotional about it all, but we are a strong people and we are going to make it through.”

Williams is intent on giving back to affected Jamaicans as best she can, and has already made substantial donations in cash and kind.

She is also mobilising her network in New York and actively working towards prepping care packages and shipping essentials to the island.

“We have to help those in urgent need right now. So many of our fellow Jamaican brothers and sisters are not in the position to help themselves,” shared Williams. “We have to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers now more than ever.”

Also onboard in giving a helping hand is her boss, SAINT’s chief executive officer, Deiwght Peters. “The magnitude of this disaster is unparalleled, and has touched all of us whether or not we have immediate damage to our property or lives,” Peters said.

The proud Clarendon-born-and-raised model impresario said a week later, he feels gutted by the “sheer loss that people experienced”, but he is confident that “our beloved nation and indomitable spirit will be rebuilt stronger”.

Much like Williams, Peters has sought to give back by way of making financial donations and creating charitable packages for those in need.

A quarter-century since SAINT was established, the now 27-year-old Williams remains one of Jamaica’s definitive model stars, who still actively works in an industry known for its fickle nature and short shelf life of model careers.

A runway fixture across the world’s fashion capitals since she was 15, Tami has appeared in a multitude of global advertising campaigns for luxury fashion houses and influential brands, including Balmain, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Express, Maybelline, and Ralph Lauren.

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com